Listening can be one of the harder things employees have to do in their job! If the customer feels comfortable, they will tell you the details you need so you can form a plan of action for the customer.

These questions will help build a relationship because it requires the employee to listen while the customer does all the talking. What was your biggest frustration with your lawn?.What would you like to plant there next time?.What did you think about that open space?.What happened when you removed the tree?.“What” questions to use in the garden center: How do you feel about growing edible plants?.How does working in your roses make you feel?.“How” questions to use in the garden center: Janine Driver in her book, “You Say More Than You Think,” said that “listening is a critical skill many of us overlook.” She also favors asking powerful questions that start with the words “how” or “what.” The difference in a good salesperson and a pester-er is that one listens carefully and develops an answer to the customer’s problem, while the person who pesters keeps bugging the customer with irrelevant questions hoping they will buy. I believe a good salesperson is a talented “pester-er.” They know which questions to ask and how to re-word the same question in order to get the sale. When did adults become afraid to pester? I think as grown-ups we remember how frustrated our parents got with us and we really didn’t want that same reaction from other adults.Ĭan pestering be useful in your garden center? It depends. Better yet, they learn how to ask the same question in different ways hoping for the “yes” response they are looking for. They never worry about pushing limits with their questioning. With children, pestering seems to come naturally. Pestering in my home was usually followed by the line, “If you ask me one more time…” and an unsavory consequence. If you are reading this and grinning I bet at one time you were the best at “pester power.” Though in some houses it may not work-and it just might have the adverse reaction. According to Urban Dictionary, the term “pester power” describes how young children between the ages of 5 and 10 years-old can make their parents do anything they want by bugging them until they give in.

Pester power