If you're experiencing difficulty in opening the sale, you're well-advised to develop an inventory of opening lines that work for most customers or certain categories of customers. Perfect a line for businessmen over 50, women with children, men shopping a week before a gift-giving holiday, and so on. Here's a great example:

Customer Category: Couples Opening Line: "So, who drug who out to shop today?"

Once comfortable with what your opening line is going to be, you're free to concentrate on how to involve your customers in conversation regardless of their response.

If the man complains that it wasn't his idea to go shopping, you can always follow up with, "So it's safe to say that you'd rather be doing something else right now? Maybe golfing or watching a game on TV?" If the woman admits it was her idea, you might go in a different direction depending on the tone of her response. "Men are just not born to shop, are they?" or "My husband has to be coerced into shopping with me, too."

A modification of the same opening line can serve you for days, weeks or even months, as illustrated below.

Customer Category: Women shopping prior to the beginning of a major sporting event. Opening Line: "Are you out running errands early so you can get home for the game?"

Customer Category: Women shopping during the major sporting event Opening Line: "So you'd rather shop than be home glued to the TV watching the game?"

Customer Category: Women shopping after the end of a major sporting event. Opening Line: "Well, did you just finish watching the game or could you care less?

Whatever her response, a conversation can easily result. Most women are happy to admit if they have no desire to watch the event. If her response indicates interest in the game, your conversation will take quite a different tact, asking who she thinks will win, if she saw the down-to-the-wire game last week, etc. Of course, the burden is on you to know a little about the game and the teams playing.

You really don't have to work so hard at opening the sale effectively if you prepare in advance. And the more prepared you are, the easier it becomes to listen to your customers and be yourself, instead of thinking about what you should say next.