Vladimir Dementyev, Head of Sales at Overgear — a global gaming marketplace that allows users to buy and sell in-game valuables and services — shares the five most detrimental mistakes to avoid when closing a sale.
Over the last three years, our sales team has grown four times. Going at such a pace is important to maintain the highest levels of customer service, net promoter score (NPS), and repeat customer rate.
Since people from 104 countries use Overgear services every day, the sales team has to constantly adapt their customer communication strategy and find new approaches to sell successfully across different cultures. There is no cure-all scheme, only hard work.
We've been sharing our general insights on working with different types of audience for a while now, and will never get tired of saying how important it is to pay attention to cultural factors. And, yes, there's a lot to share on the topic from the sales side — enough for a separate publication — and we will definitely prepare one soon.
However, this one will focus on the essential basics, the 5 commandments of sales — the rules that are universal for communicating with any client from any culture. At first glance, these may look like simple truths — but they often become deadly traps salespeople step into if not careful.
So, based on the Overgear sales team collective experience, here are our five do's and don'ts of customer communication:
Don't leave your customers on "I'll send you the link"
You don’t have to alienate the customer with pushy closing tactics; that probably should be mentioned as another big no-no. Just don’t leave them to their own devices — you need to encourage your customer to make a purchase decision. Be sure to discuss all critical points such as ETA, price, start date, and customer requirements.
Don't make assumptions
If something often hits the bull's eye, it doesn't mean it will always hit the bull's eye — 99% is not 100%. You still need to clarify and confirm the details, even the most obvious ones, since professional deformation can play a cruel trick on you.
Discuss all the details
If you agreed on the price and the ETA but didn't discuss the start date, your customer may become dissatisfied, which can result in them asking for a refund.
Don't leave your customer's questions unanswered
Even if there is a big bunch of questions, you need to keep them all in mind — we never know which one is more important for the customer. Structure your answers so that it is clear which question each of them relates to.
Stop offering free advice — make the sale
Taking care of your customer and being eager to help them is great, but getting actually paid for it would be even better. There are many nuances in that, but the key points are as follows:
- Finding a solution that best suits your customer.
- Trying to take as much money as your customer is ready to pay right now.
- Closing the sale. If you negotiated and agreed on the details but didn't convince the customer to make an order — congratulations, you've failed.
Why are we so sure it works?
Because this approach works even with such a specific niche as ours.
The market for the services we provide is highly competitive, so customer response time is critical — as our users show the fastest decision-making process. A customer can communicate with 3 or 4 competitors at the same time. You do not have the time to write a detailed answer; your customer would just leave for another provider. In comparison to our competitors, we offer better service in terms of the start date, ETA, and communication. Besides, we offer guaranteed results. But the pace of communication makes it really difficult to describe all our advantages to the customer.
Our strategy is to be expert at predicting what the customer is interested in, give them as much information as they need to make a decision — so that even if they have additional questions, those would only be on specific points. At the same time, it is crucial not to overwhelm customers with unnecessary information. The rules are plenty, but all the same, you start with the basics.
We hope these five simple rules will help you to be more attentive to your customers because, well, they actually bring you money. Besides, isn't it great, knowing that the closed sale is your achievement rather than a pure coincidence?