Page 32 - GBC Spring 2022 ENG

Gary Ford
Gary is the author of “Life is Sales” (www.lifeissales.ca) and is a sales trainer for Integram, a solutions-based training and coaching firm committed to building your business. They can be reached at www.integram.net.
5 Effective
Strategies
To Close
The Sale
32 Golf Business Canada
In my book, “Life is Sales,” I suggest that everyone is in the sales business. We all want to be more persuasive and influential with those people in our lives. In sales, no matter the industry, getting customers to say YES is the secret to increased revenue and profit. In fact, there has been more than 80 years of psychological research into why people say YES. But is there a technique that works best for your business?
The principle of concessions can help golf course owners and operators not only increase sales but also the sales of higher- priced items which, in turn, increase profitability. Here, we’ll focus on a few strategies based on the psychological principle of concessions.
1. MAKE CONCESSIONS
Here’s an interesting question to ask your staff: When there are two options to sell something to a client, which option do you present first? Assume both options meet the customer’s needs to a certain degree but they are not the same.
I have found that many staff offer the lower-priced option first because they are afraid the customer will say no. This fear of rejection is a normal response salespeople have because they take this rejection personally. Therefore, to avoid this rejection, they offer the lower priced item first in the hopes the customer will say YES.