There are five basic stages involve in making a sale. These stages are the Preparatory Stage, the Approach Stage, the stage of Motivation, the Decision Stage and the stage of Closing the Sale.
First is the Preparatory Stage; this stage is the actual meeting of the prospective client. The preparation depends upon the type, the nature and the scope of the business.
Big business needs to research on their prospective clients. The client’s personality, likes and dislikes as well as interest needs to be considered. The salesman should also have full knowledge of the merchandise or service that is on sale.
Small business is not really difficult and complicated as the big business are in terms of selling. It is usually needed that the salesman must be always ready to meet the customer, have an adequate knowledge on the products or services being offered and knows how to open the sale and to carry out friendly conversation.
Second is the Approach Stage, this stage deals with the ways of attracting the attention of clients. It could be done in many ways such as through a way of Direct Sense Approach, in this process any of the senses is stimulated. One example is having a taste on a new product or having a buy-one-take-one promo.
The third stage is the Stage of Motivation. This is the stage where the client’s interest is being arouse. There are many means of arousing customers interest and it depend upon the product or service that is offered.
In general, there are strategies that are utilized in arousing customer’s interest such as the good display of merchandise, allowing the customers to handle the merchandise, demonstrating the merchandise and giving additional informations about the merchandise.
The fourth stage is the Decision Stage. When the arousal of the client’s interest is properly done, a desire to buy is being established. The salesman now should sustain the customers interest by providing added information. Comparing the item with other items could also be done to convinced the client. This time the customer might decide to buy or he/she may shop around and look for another.
The fifth stage is Closing the Sale; the stage of closing the sale might be possible if the client has no objection and accepts the merchandise to be a good one. Other signs is that the customer show his nod, showing the intention to buy the product or he/she inquires for the terms of payment and other terms related to transaction finale.
In closing the sale, it is advised for the salesman to say a greeting of appreciation to the customer.