How to handle, I want to look around.

In retail selling, how would you handle the excuse, "I want to look around"? -Yankee Peddler

You mean after Huh? Why? ;bg I'm never prepared for that.

I guess the only thing left is to ask.. "Of course, you always want to make sure you're making the right decision but hey I'm curious about something, will you help me out here for a minute?" They'll probably say sure, and go back and re-examine your process, your discoveries, your agreements on need, and your solutions.

Hopefully we can get to the point where I can ask them what else is keeping them from moving forward, since up to this point, moving forward is the prudent thing to do. Hopefully it comes down to price and we can then look at what we can then do solve what is the most important for him that we can provide in his price range.

But bottom line..... other than dialing 911... Huh works for me.... :)

Aloha... Tom shds; -rattus58

Product, me, price example.

"Great idea Mr. Customer. Now just curious, is the reason you want to look around because you don't like the (product)? Ok, if not the (product), is it by chance something I did? So if it's not the product, and its not me, is the main reason you want to look around the price?"


Time is money close.

"Great Idea Mr. Customer! Now I know your a busy man, and the last thing you want to do is spend your time off talking to 5 different sales consultants. Now you say the product is what your looking for right, and I haven't done anything to upset you have I? Well Mr. Customer, you've already spent (X amount of time with me), so I'll make a deal with you. You give me a lil bit more of your time, and if we can't agree to agree on figures then we can leave each other as friends. But if we are able to agree to agree, and you do like the product and you say I haven't done anything to upset you, is there any reason we can't do business today?" -jrboyd

You would tell need to tell what you mean by "excuse" before a satifactory answer can be offered. Do you mean excuse for "not buying"? Also, why would the statement be automatically viewed as "an excuse"?

Another determinant for providing an answer would be to tell us at what point the statement is made.

The clarity of the question would be very important in these discussions. Otherwise you'll receive pat answers with very little insight. -Ace Coldiron

What are you looking for...I will help you look. -MPrince

I'm not sure about what sales scenario you're referring to, Yankee Peddler, but if your question is about a prospect who is shopping in a retail environment, here's my answer:

1. Work on avoiding this response in the first place (by using an appropriate greeting that will minimize this often-automated response by retail shoppers - "may I help you?" should almost never be used, just as closed questions should never be used).

2. "Fantastic! What will you be looking for today?"

Skip Anderson -Skip Anderson

Sort of along the lines of Skip's answer but taking it away from them by saying it first. Hey it works! :)

"Welcome to (Car Dealership name). Are you out beginning to look, just shopping around today?"

This has the distinction of being the very first script on Track #1 of my CD. -Tony_B

How can I help you look?
Can I help you look ? -rich34232

That's OK! I understand! I recommend you to look around, but are you looking around for a better company? better product? or better price? -Polysquared

Yankee Peddler never came back to clarify, but the thread can still be instructive without his/her input.

The reason I asked for clarification is that "I want to look around." is a statement that prospects would use in two distinctively different situations and with two distinctively different meanings.

In NEITHER case is it an OBJECTION. Because Yankee Peddler used the word "handle" some people that visit the site to learn could be thrown off, thinking that it fell into the category of objection.

ONE: When a prospect states UP FRONT that they want to look around, he/she is attempting to set the stage, just as salespeople will often set the stage. The message is intended to make clear one or two points OR BOTH. They are:

• • I want your services with the understanding that I will NOT make a commitment today.
  • You should put your best foot forward with the very best offer because you will be competing with others.

You don't handle this as an objection because it is not. You acknowledge the statement and proceed with your very best presentation with emphasis on building a relationship and creating a buying experience that will nullify the prospect's intent to continue the buying process elsewhere.

In short, you sell--and sell well. The fact that you are dealing with an up front individual actually makes your job easier. Put on your best effort and the wall will fall down. Your very achievable goal is for the prospect to reach a point where he/she now believes that a bettter offer or better person or better company is NOT going to be found elsewhere. In most cases, if that is achieved, the sale will be made.

TWO: The second scenario where a prospect says "I want to look around is at the end of your presentatation. This is NOT an objection. It's a REJECTION of your offer. It means you haven't sold the person, and it does not call for a rebuttal, it calls for an acknowledgement followed by a request for clarification as to "What's missing?" "What's not right?" "Where am I going wrong?" The real question in spite of "what" and "where" is "why?".

One of the first things I ever learned in selling was Second Effort. Second effort means you create a new game rather than continuing along the road that led you to "no". You have to be prepared to do that by addressing where you went wrong AND your best source of information is not in your head, it's from the prospect.

IF, you can get that information from the prospect, in MOST cases the prospect will now HELP you sell him. -Ace Coldiron

Ace, I agree that, at least the way I think Yankee Peddler was stating the issue, "I want to look around" is not an objection.

I'd also like to add the the number one and number two reasons retail shoppers say they want to look around ar:

1. It is a learned automatic response that customers blurt out without even thinking about it.

2. It is intended to keep salespeople at bay.

Let's say a woman comes into a furniture store and she is approached by a salesperson, but says "I'm just looking." In reality, this woman has been thinking about buying a new dining table. She's not ready to buy yet, but she's starting to think about it (she's interested enough to drive to a furniture store and look at dining tables). Now, would this prospect be better off having a salesperson at her side while she looks at dining tables. I say YES, definitely. It's just that she doesn't know that yet, so she uses the automated "I'm just looking response."

That's why it's so vitally important that retail salespeople learn how to quickly engage prospects - not through pressure, and not through intimidation, but through selling skill - so the prospect will feel comfortable to talk about why they're there in the furniture store (even if they aren't planning on buying today, even if they've just started looking, even if they don't have any money, even if their husband doesn't know they're shopping, even if their brother-in-law owns a furniture store, even if she intends to go online to buy a dining table, even if she won't qualify for the store credit account, even if she always buys from a competitor, etc.).

In my estimation, 50-60% of the customers who will buy from that furniture store today started out by telling the salesperson that they were just looking.

Salespeople need to hear the customer say "I'm just looking", but then it needs to leave their brain immediately...and they need to employ their sales skills to get the customer talking. Talking customers feel comfortable. Comfortable people talk more...it's a cycle.

Now I know what some of you are thinking..."If I'm a consumer and I just want to look, you'd better not hound me or I'll be really upset and leave your store."

Sure, I get that. But hounding isn't a sales skill I teach. In fact, it's not a sales skill at all. So let's not "hound" our shoppers. But let's do something other than "OK, please look around...here's my card...let me know if you have any questions," because that doesn't work very well.

B2B salespeople can always go find another prospect. Retail salespeople have to wait until someone else walks through the door. So every prospect coming through that front door is like gold...but only if the salesperson engages the prospect.

Skip Anderson -Skip Anderson

Skip, I agree as well as agreeing with your earlier post on this thread. Indeed, it was your post alone that prompted me to expand the discussion.

If I was assigned Yankee Peddler's task of posing these questions, I would have titled the topic "What does 'I want to look around mean and how should a salesperson respond?'"

You may or may not agree, but I can't help thinking that there is a valuable lesson in this thread that says we must never make the mistake of assuming we are better at selling than the prospect is at buying. -Ace Coldiron

I love this! Very simple and to the point! I think I'll probably use it, thanks thmbp2; -natalie_rene014

If "I just want to look around." is a common statement that you hear you need to be better prepared to for it.

Address it in your introduction.

Welcome to ____________, My name is ________.

Are you looking for something specific or just looking around?

You can only get one of two answers.

If they are looking for something specific you can help them.

If they are "just looking" give them a quick overview of where everything is.. and tell them that you will check with them after they had the opportunity to look around.

At this point you have to get into their space - not into their face.

Ask general questions.. get them into a dialogue.
Have you visited our store before?
How did you hear about us?

Unless you can get past their wall you will not sell them anything.

They will either start to open up to you or you should let them look around. Give them enough time to locate what they are interested in and go to them to determine if you can help.

When you approach them again ask some non threatening questions.

Did you have any questions?
Can I help you price anything?

If they are buying today they will respond.

Sometimes people are just looking. They are not buying today.

You have to be able to determine this so you are not wasting time trying to close someone who is really just killing (your) time. -neto-

There are lots of different ways of answering this question. Many of which have already been added to this discussion.

At my firm we will sometimes use a line that is pretty fun and always shocks the customer.

If the customer says; "We want to take a look around."

We answer; "Great, at the moment we have a campaign for customers who want to look around. It means you get 20% off and you don't have to look around, you get the product now!"

Amazingly enough this actually works. We have made a lot of sales off of it and it is as fun each time.

Good luck to you! -LookingDaniel