Selling is a way of life. Every time you get your way, you’re receiving a commission. The more you practice selling, the more you get rewarded in life. The ability to communicate and convince others is an indispensable asset, no matter what your ambitions are.
The more you practice, the more you can predict.
Studying and reflecting on yourself can help you find out how to do better next time and better predict responses.
First be sold. Then you sell.
He who can sell doesn’t need to get enthusiastic. He is enthusiastic. Commit to your offer first before you commit to selling others.
To ‘know’ means you end up with fewer ‘no’s.
Learn from the experts, read books, listen to podcasts, attend seminars, do whatever it takes to know. And be willing to do it repeatedly.
Second money is easier than first money.
Closing the deal is always easier when the buyer has already made prior purchases. This is because people buy more to justify their decision and that they made a right call. All a sales person needs to do to unlock second money is to ask for it.
Buy the product yourself.
If you are not even willing to buy your own products, you can’t, in good conscience, expect others to do so. The same applies when you’re hiring salespeople. Never hire a salesperson if he is not willing to buy your product and use it for himself..
Price isn’t as much of a concern as you think it is.
It’s the buyer confidence that speaks the loudest. If he’s confident that he gets what he wants, he’ll buy it regardless of the cost. Part of your job as a salesperson is to instill that confidence into him.
Move him ‘up’ in inventory.
People spend 10% on necessities and 90% on entertainment. Because they want to feel good. You can sell almost anything by making people feel good.
When he says too expensive, move him ‘up’ rather than down in inventory. Expensive is subjective. May be he’s are looking for ‘prestige’ rather than ‘price’. Or, may be he thinks that what he’s getting in return is less than what he pays for.
No buyer wants to make a mistake.
Yet every buyer has made a mistake before. Again, part of your job as a salesperson is to make sure he doesn’t repeat the mistake by communicating the rewards as well as the risks for not buying.
Money is abundant. Time isn’t.
There’s plenty of money to go around but you can’t get your time back. Make the best use of your time and that of your buyers, even if it’s as little as 10 minutes.
People before products & processes.
You need people skills more than you need product knowledge. Be ready to go off book to serve people. Processes are put in place to make your work easier, not to make your customers frustrated.
Customers think, feel and act. Products do not. See the world through your customers’ eyes. Learn how they feel and react. Never consider you’re selling a product, but consider you’re helping a person solve his problems.
Trust before technique.
You can use all the closing techniques in history only to see them fall on deaf ears, if you don’t establish trust first.
Agree, agree, agree.
Customers are more interested in you agreeing with them than you being right. Just because you agree with him doesn’t mean you’re sharing his world-view. You’re simply acknowledging what he believes is true. So right or wrong agree with the customer. Say “You’re right” more.
Let’s say your husband wants to go to new action movie but you’re sick of action movies. Here’s how you might respond: “Hey, great idea, let’s go to the action movie. I know how much you love them. I love holding your hand while people are getting shot at. I love it!.” Agree first then “Hey why don’t we go to the café first.” Now that you’re in a café you can either buy time or learn to sell him on something else or you can go to an action movie.
Price objections are everywhere.
Here’s one way you could respond: “Everyone that invests in the product agrees its too much money. The system is a big investment when you’re buying it. That’s why you should invest in it right now and start reaping the benefits.” Say a client tells you “the roof is a lot of money”, you can respond by saying, “But your new roof is gonna last for 30 years. No more leaks. No more costly repairs. No worries. No problems. And look you’re gonna need it sooner and later. So let’s get it sooner.”
Be visual.
People place huge significance on written words and you want to capitalize on it. Everyday people quote things they read on newspaper. They don’t even know if it’s true. They just regurgitate what they read and assume it had to be true.
Sell with emotion & logic.
It’s true people purchase based on emotions and justify the decision using logic. But it’s much easier to sell an informed customer because un-informed customers usually avoid making a decision at all.
It’s okay to sell with emotion but you want to wrap it up with the logic, data and facts.
Give before you get. Serve before you sell.
Don’t wait for the client to ask. Predict what he needs and offer it.
For a business to survive, you need to serve people. For it to thrive, you need to serve even before they realize it.
Start soft. Close hard.
Be armed with ways to handle stalls, emotional reactions and objections, and be willing to use call to actions to close the deal. This is becasue most people will never take action unless you explicitly tell them to do so.
Go massive or go passive.
People underestimate the amount of time they need to put in to become good at something.
Anyone tells you you’re working too hard, isn’t working hard enough.
Don’t forget your powerbase.
Salespeople wait for people they don’t know, call people they don’t know while ignoring their circle of influence. Connect your friends, families, past co-workers, alumni, neighbours etc.
See and be seen.
Sit at different tables. Double your exposure. Meet with new people. Mix it up and put yourself in the game.
Keep your pipeline filled, always.
Salesperson often make the mistake of celebrating sales and then forget about the pipeline. If you’ve just lost a prospect, the best you can do is to learn from it and replace him in the pipeline. If you’ve just won a customer, do the same – learn from it and replace him in the pipeline.
5 Simple Steps to Selling
#1 Greet
“Welcome. Thanks for coming here. What can I get you information on?”
#2 Determine wants and needs
Fastest way to do this is to fact find on previous purchases. All purchases are trying to solve a problem of some sort.
#3 Select product and present value
Based on what your client told you was important, show something he wants than what’s in his budget.
#4 Make proposal
Do so within first 40 minutes after greeting.
#5 Close the deal or buyer exits
Call to action.
Train your sales team.
- Train daily, focus on sales situations.
- Deliver in short segments of 2-5 minutes.
- Measure the results of your training.
- Focus on top people.
Treat negative feedbacks on the Internet.
Appreciate the feedback and stay on the positive. Say “Wow, I saw what you posted online, and I wanted to call you right away and see what I could do to handle it. I had no idea. Tell me about what happened. What can I do to resolve it?”
Great men of ability started out as idiots before they learned, practiced and became great. You’ll do something idiotic. The best thing you can do is quickly admit it and learn from it.