Approach is one of the important steps in the selling process. It has been rightly said that a sale is won or lost during the interview. In fact, approach influences the prospects to keep their door either open or close.
During the first few minutes of the approach, the prospect decides whether he will purchase or not.
On the other hand, the salesman is also able to know whether the prospect is really interested in the product or not. Of course, the importance of the approach varies with the type of selling. For example, while selling cheap and necessary articles, the importance of the approach is comparatively less, whereas for selling costly and luxurious goods and services, the importance of the approach is quite high. The importance can be described as follows:
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1. Approach is most vital for the success or failure of the business because it directly contributes to increase sales.
2. In the competitive business world, approach is very important, because, if one approach fails, other competitors make successful approaches and win customers.
3. The approach increases the prospect’s knowledge about the product or service like quantum of his benefits and utilities.
4. Modern day people are so busy that they get little time to know about the products, new innovations, new features, new developments, in detail. As prospects they are able to get all such information from the salesman during the approach stage itself.
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Approach can be broadly divided into:
(i) Approach by travelling salesman to those selling to middlemen and
(ii) Approach by the retail salesman.
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The division is necessary owing to the different procedures adopted by the travelling salesman and counter salesman in approaching the prospects. In fact, the approach of the travelling and the retail salesman differ widely from each other.