Woman in bakery

In a potential sales situation, which of these two approaches do you think will bring a more successful response from a customer:

May I help you?

or

How can I help you?

If you are the salesperson or the business owner who inquires, the first question most often results in only 1 of 2 one-word responses:

"Yes" or "No"

If you ask the "May I help you?" question as part of your good customer service policy chances are your sales won't be as high as the salesperson or business owner who asks "How can I help you?"

The "How" question requires the potential customer to respond with a sentence.  Even if the response is "I don't need any help," or "I'm just looking," it is far more engaging than a simple, often dismissive "No."  The hoped-for answer, "Yes," often invites an inquiry back that opens up a true conversation between sales person and potential customer such as "Do you have this item in blue?"

As simplistic as this seems, the way in which you open a sales/potential customer scenario can make or break a sale.  Have you ever been shopping and been approached by the sales person who asked "May I help you?" and you could swear you heard in his or her voice a tone that almost begs you to reply in the negative?  I have.  It's as though the sales person doesn't really want to be bothered and hopes you'll just go away.  A "yes" answer is good, it does open the conversation but it requires further questions by the salesperson such as "How can I help you?" Better to just start out with "How can I help you?"

I think the gist of what I'm saying is that if you have a business, whether you are a solopreneur or the CEO of a major corporation, you have products/services that you wish, hope that others will purchase.  If you are the solopreneur then it is you and the customer...this is the quintessential direct selling situation.  If you are the CEO then you have selling divisions and personnel responsible for the selling situations.  Whichever case, it is important that the sales person have their heart in their work:

  • a true belief that the products/services are worthy of sale, purchase and ownership
  • a true belief in the value of the products/services
  • a true desire to serve the interests of the potential customer

I follow the work of sales and positive attitude guru Jeffrey Gitomer.  He has an excellent article on his website, BuyGitomer, titled, "What's the best part of selling? Is it really just the sale?"  In this article he talks about getting your enthusiasm back for sales in what has been a down economy.  He lists thoughts to consider that remind a person of why they went into sales in the first place, such things as [from Mr. Gitomer's list] as:

  • The challenge of asking and engaging.
  • The great feeling of serving customers and helping them succeed.
  • The personal pride of making the sale, and knowing the customer made the right choice.

Mr. Gitomer lists 5 things to put your heart into as regards sales:

  1. Put your heart into your job.
  2. Put your heart into your desire to serve.
  3. Put your heart into your product belief.
  4. Put your heart into your presentation.
  5. Put your heart into delivering customer value.

So.   What better question to ask of a potential customer than, "How can I help you?"