Did you know that simply answering a question from an eBayer could make or break a sale?

Yes, fellow eBayers, you can bring in a sale (or even worse - loose a sale) just by how you handle a question you receive from an fellow eBayer about an item you have for sale.

You try your best to write a description for your listing that covers every single fact about the item you are selling.   However, no matter how much time and effort your put into writing a great description of your item someone will sooner or later ask you a question about the item up for sale that you had not anticipated.

I like to classify questions from eBayers into three catagories:

Questions from eBayers who just do not want to read!  These types of questions are the most frustrating because most of the time if the eBayer would just take the time to read your listing he or she would find the answer to their question.  You can help these reading challenged eBayers by making sure you have a well written description and did not write a novel when you wrote your listing.  I will cover more tips on writing a good description in a future guide.

Questions that you would assume that people would know the answer to themselves: An example of this kind of question would be for a listing that is selling a DVD movie and the possible buyer writes you asking if a DVD player comes with the movie.  (I would not be surprised if this has not happened to somebody on eBay.).  Sure, these types of questions are annoying but you must deal with them.  Remember, when someone makes something idiot proof someone will come along with a better idiot.

Questions that you never even thought of:  of all three types of questions, I like these questions the best.  They are they type of questions that you read and say to yourself "I never thought about adding that information to the listing".  These type of questions, if used properly, can help you write better descriptions in the future that can only help sales.

The Do's and Dont's of handling else questions:

When you receive a question from an eBayer who just does not want to read fight the natural instinct to tell the person to re-read the listing and find the answer themselves (or my favorite response is "If you would have just read my description of the item you would know the answer to your question").  I know the temptation is hard - I myself have been tempted to tell a few people to go back to Kindergarten and learn how to read.  Just take a deep breath and then copy and paste the information into your response.  If you feel re-wording the information may be helpful, then take the time to do that.

When you receive a question that you would assume people would know the answer to themselves do not reply with "You know what happens when you assume..." Take a deep breath and answer the question in a calm and professional manner.

When a question arrives that falls under the heading of a question you never even thought of you should not only answer the eBayers questions but if you can revise your listing, take a moment and add the newly found tidbit of information to your listing for others to benefit.

When you do reply to the question from the eBayer do not just state the cold hard facts that is the answer to their question, add a personal touch.  (Everyone hates to receive what they feel is a canned response or an impersonal response - you know you hate it.)  I always like to start off each reply to a question with "Thank you for your question".  This little greetings sets a better tone with the potential buyer than a one word answer, for example "No".  Next restate the question the possible buyer had asked you.  For example if the possible buyer asked you if the mouse pad you are selling would work well with their optical mouse you might want to write you response as "Yes, the mousepad is suitable for your optical mouse".  If you want to go for bonus points you can add a little more to the sentence, for example: "Yes, the mouse pad is suitable for your optical mouse.  In fact I have used one of these mouse pads myself with my optical mouse for the past year and never encountered any problems."  Note: NEVER add information to your answer that is not true just to make a sale.

But Wait - there's more! 

You are not done with the eBayers questions.  You may want to make sure you leave open a line of communications with your possible buyer.  For example, I usually close my responses with "If you hae any further questions, please feel free to contact me again."  For another round of bonus points I often thank the eBayers for looking at my listings.

Now you have a better idea on how to respond to a question, you are probably thinking this is all well and good but this effort is only for one person.  This is not true if you choose to post the eBayers question with your answer to your listing on eBay.  When you choose to to do this all of your helpfulness you extended to one eBayer can be viewed by other potential buyers allowing your efforts to make a positive impression on others - which could lead to more sales - and I know that is what you really want, right?

Be careful when you do decide to post the question with your answer.  Some questions, in my opinion, should NOT be posted.  For example, if a potential buyer ask you what the shipping charge would be for you to ship your item to his address (and he gives you his complete mailing address) you should not post that question!  NEVER, I repeat NEVER post a members question that would give out any contact information as to where they live, their phone number, e-mail address, etc.  The potential buyer may be new to eBay and he or she may not be thinking of keeping his or her contact information private.  He ir she may not even know the question could be posted publicly.  Look out for your potential buyers - besides the fact that it is against eBay policy to post other members contact information, you should be considerate of your buyers and look out for them, if you do not this could have a negative effect on the publics impression of you and/or your business.

Final thought and words of wisdom:  always answer questions from other eBay members through the eBay message center.  Do not rely to the copy you received via your e-mail account.  When you do reply to a copy of the message eBay sent to your registered e-mail address at least 2 things can happen: 1) The other persons e-mail spam.filtering/protection settings may block your message from getting to them - leaving them an impression that you did not care to answer their question and/or 2) if the member did not uncheck the box to hide their e-mail adress from...(when they completed the ask the buyer a question page on eBay) then your reply will go to the dead letter pile on eBay's mail server.

Chri is a registered eBay Education Specialist since 2004