Before we start, just remember that there is no such thing as a born salesperson. Just by learning and implementing a few key points you can increase your sales exponentially. This article will start you on a journey to becoming the sales person you need to be to get the sales you require.
In selling, we all begin at the same starting line, and we all have the same finish line as the goal – a successful sale.
In our last article we went through goals. Being able to effectively create goals will help you be successful in sales. Setting goals helps you to know and understand yourself and where you want to be. By setting effective goals you learn to recognize and accept your shortfalls as well as your special talents.
Knowing how to relax your customer is likely the most important key to effective sales. Learning how to relax your customer can aid in any type of sales situation and lead to more sales. It is a good idea to think of your customer as a guest in your home; you are the host, so you want to make them as comfortable as possible. The more comfortable they are the easier it will be for them to talk to you.
If you have been in sales for any length of time I’m sure you are well aware that trying to persuade someone you have never met before to buy your product or service can be extremely challenging. While there are many challenges in sales, the main reason people block sales is because consumers are afraid of being convinced to buy something they do not need at a price they can’t afford. In order to make a sale, you need to break through this barrier. In this article, we will show you how to do just that.
Use an Icebreaker.
When it comes to acquiring a new customer and closing the sale using an off topic conversation is a great icebreaker. While we all want to make that initial sale the ultimate goal should be to obtain a lifetime customer and achieve repeat sales. So never be afraid to take a little time to get to know your customer better. Try to find something in common with your customer, something that you can both relate to, something unrelated to the product or service you are trying to sell them.
This is easier than you might be thinking right now; people love to talk, especially about themselves. Ask questions about their families, their pets, and their hobbies. Think about how you generally meet people outside of your work environment. How do you normally strike up a conversation with these strangers when you are not thinking of them as a potential customer? Use these same tactics when you meet your customers.
Always Be Prepared.
When it comes to attracting new customers it is important to always be prepared. You never know where you might obtain a new customer. Did you know that statistics show that most customer acquisition happens outside of the workplace? It makes sense then to always be prepared to meet a customer; not just at business and networking functions, but also at your local grocery store, sporting events and restaurants.
Here is a quick example; if you are in the pet food aisle at your local grocery store (by the way this is a good place to talk to people, because people love to talk about their pets!) A simple question might be; “What kind of dog do you have?”, this simple question will often get people talking and if you are selling a product related to dogs, you might have just found a great new customer.
The junk food aisle is also a good place to talk to people. It might sound strange, but just the presence of candy and junk food seems to put people in a good mood, and the spin off is that they are more likely to talk with a stranger. This can open the door to further communication and may eventually lead to signing them up as a customer.
I am not saying that you should start stalking the isles of your favourite supermarket. I am just saying that you should always be prepared because you never know where an opportunity might present itself to talk to new people. The simple fact is that most people love to talk, as long as they can relate to the topic of the conversation, so do not be afraid to ask questions; get to know your customer beyond the products they might need from you.
A side result of knowing your customer more personally is that you build friendship and loyalty; these customers are less likely to be stolen from you by other sales people or cheaper product alternatives.
Be confident.
To make your customer feel relaxed and comfortable, you must have confidence; and confidence comes, first and foremost, from knowledge in your subject. Know and understand exactly what you are offering. By doing this not only can you make a clear presentation to qualified prospects and instantly adjust for different audiences, you can turn almost any conversation related to your topic into a sales pitch in such a way as to not seem salesly. Being able to do this will allow you to present your pitch to more people and in consequence, close more deals.
Never be Impatient.
One of the most common faults of sales people is impatience when the prospective customer asks many similar questions or takes a long time to make a decision. Successful sales people handle these situations with patience and understanding. In fact, someone who asks many questions is likely interested in your offering and might just want extra clarity on certain points. Take your time to answer any and all questions a customer might have enthusiastically. This will help them feel more relaxed and understood.
The How To of Face to Face Meetings.
You might have noticed that most of the suggestions in this article relate to meeting people face to face. Most people are afraid to do this, but I must stress, that the customers you deal with on this level are more likely to stay with you for the long haul. They are also a lot more forgiving with presentation mess ups, which is why this is a great place to practice your pitch.
Here are some guidelines that will help you make the most of your face to face dealings. I like to call them the Strategic Salesman Guidelines. Look them over; give some thought to each of them; and adapt those that you can to your own selling efforts.
- If the product/service you are selling is something your prospect can hold in their hands, get it into their hands as quickly as possible. In other words, get the prospect “into the act”. Let them feel it, weigh it, admire it.
- Don’t stand or sit alongside your prospect. Instead, face them while you are pointing out the important advantages of your service or product. This will enable you to watch their facial expressions and determine whether and when you should go for the close.
- When handling sales literature, hold it by the top of the page, at the proper angle, so that your prospect can read it as you highlight important points. Don’t release your hold on your sales literature, because you want to control the specific parts you want your prospect to read. In other words, you want the prospect to read or see only the parts of the sales material you are telling them about at a given time.
- With prospects who will not talk with you: When you notice you are getting no interest in your sales presentation, start to dramatize your presentation to get the prospect involved. Stop and ask questions such as, “Now, don’t you agree that this product/service can help you or would be of benefit to you?” After you have asked a question such as this, stop and wait for your prospect to answer. It is a proven fact that following such a question, the one who talks first will lose, so do not say anything until your prospect has given you some kind of answer. Wait them out!
- Prospects who are themselves sales people, and prospects who imagine they know a lot about selling sometimes present difficult selling obstacles, especially for the novice. But these prospects can actually be the easiest of all to sell to. Give your sales presentation, and instead of trying for a close, toss out a challenge such as, “I don’t know, Mr. Prospect – after watching your reactions to what I’ve been showing and telling you about my product/service, I’m very doubtful as to how this product can truthfully be of benefit to you”.
Then wait a few seconds, just look at your prospect and wait for them to say something. Then, start packing up your sales materials as if you are about to leave. In almost every instance, your “tough nut” will quickly ask you, “Why?” These people are generally so filled with their own importance, that they just have to prove you wrong. When they start on this tangent, they will sell themselves. The more skeptical you are relative to their ability to make your product work to their benefit, the more they will demand that you sell it to them.
If you find that this prospect will not rise to your challenge, then go ahead with packing up your sales materials and leave quickly. These people will not buy your product and it is poor use of your valuable time to attempt to convince them. - Remember that in selling, time is money! Therefore, you must allocate only so much time to each prospect. The prospect who asks you to call back next week, or wants to ramble on about similar products, prices or previous experiences, is costing you money. Learn to quickly get your prospect interested in, and wanting your product, and then systematically present your sales pitch through to the close.
After the introductory call on your prospect, you should be selling products/services and collecting money. Any callbacks should be only for reorders, or to sell them related products from your line. In other words, you can waste an introductory call on a prospect to qualify them, but you are going to be wasting money if you continue calling on them to try and sell the first unit of your product/service. When faced with a reply such as, “Your product looks pretty good, but I’ll have to give some thought”, you should quickly jump in and ask what specifically about your product do they feel they need to give more thought to. Let them explain, and then go back into your sales presentation and make everything crystal clear for them on that point. If they still do not take the plunge, get them on a mailing list by offering them a related opt-in offer. - You must spend as much time as possible calling on new prospects. Determine a set time to spend on your initial presentation and determine a way to end the conversation amicably if you have not closed the sale by this time. A great way to do that is to offer them a free opt-in offer that is related to your product so you still get these people on your mailing list.
- Review your sales presentation, your sales materials, and your prospecting efforts. Make sure you have a door-opener that arouses interest and ‘forces’ a purchase the first time around. This can be a special marked-down price on an item for a limited time only; and if that does not work, a free opt-in offer. The important thing is to get the prospect on your list, and then follow up via mail or telephone with related, but more profitable products you have to offer.
Study these guidelines and put them into practice. When you realize your first successes, you will truly know that:
Salesmen are made – not born.
Going to put some serious thought into how I meet people generally to be more natural when selling.