Greetings!

Standard Greetings:

“Hi, is there anything I can help you with?”

“Hi, can I help you find your heart’s desire?”

“May I help you?”

“How are you on this fine day?

Standard Answers:

“Just looking”

“Just looking”

“Just looking”

“Fine, just looking.”

When greeting people, you’ve got to be a detective.  I think it was Jason Bourne of the famous Robert Ludlum novels who, having amnesia, was beginning to suspect that he had been some sort of spy.  He deduced this when he realized how keenly he noticed everything about everybody in the room.  After walking into the bar and sitting down, he could instantly recall faces, heights, approximate weights, eye color, distinguishing features and anything out of the ordinary for every single person in the room; along with who might be a threat and all of the possible egress routes.

You’ve got to be that attentive to details.  Detect something unique about the person and then open-up a conversation. 

Hobbies: “Hey, those look like Dayton boots.  Do you ride a motorcycle?”

Weather: “You appear to have been rained upon.  I’m hoping to do some gardening later, does it look like the rain is slowing down?”

Fashion: “Those are great glasses!  If you like modern colorful eye-wear, you’ll love our latest jewellery collection.  May I show you the latest design?”

Health: “I couldn’t help but notice you’ve been to the health food store, did you hear that latest study about Gingko Biloba?”

Engaging the customer is all about establishing a common ground so that they feel comfortable talking to you.  Once you’ve chit-chatted about whatever it is you’ve opened with, you can transition to the point of their visit by saying something like, “I’m sure you didn’t come here to talk about motorbikes, do you have a special occasion coming up?”  I love that question, because there’s always a birthday, anniversary, Valentines Day, graduation, Christmas or something coming up within the next few months.  Even if they didn’t have that in mind, it might come to the forefront once you mention it.

Detect, greet, transition and then once you’ve expertly made a fabulous sale, added-on and/or sold-up, you can send them off with a comment about motorcycling, gardening, Ginko, or whatever it is that you had discovered as common ground.