Let's get one thing straight to start off with, if you have started or are starting a business and exchange products or services for money, by doing this you are selling and if you are running a business, when you sell something is when you make money, it surely makes sense to get good at selling?
The problem is for most small business owners is that little word 'selling', too many people (In the UK) associate selling with car salesmen, double glazing salesmen and estate agents, well at least this is the stereotype model of selling people have in their heads. Selling something to someone that they don't really want at an inflated price or pressurizing a sale this may be the model that some people have in their heads anyway. When they think of selling they get in this image in their mind and they want to be as far away from that model as possible, which to be honest so would I.
But I don't think like this, the problem is, this may have been the stereotype model from years ago and the 'evil salesman' type portrayed by the media, but this is not what REAL sales is about at least not today.
Today sales is about building a relationship, listening to what the prospect needs and seeing if what you have (product or service) will fit that need, It's about building rapport so that the prospect likes you and you get on well, It's also about having integrity and if you think that what you have isn't right for the prospect then being able to stand up and walk away.
Here's the thing though, we are all salespeople whether you believe it or not we are and we've been selling all of our lives, right from when we were babies and wanted something from our parents, or started to make friends and wanted them to like us we were selling ourselves, then when we went for our first job interview even more so we were selling ourselves, what about when we have an idea and we want someone to buy into it, that's selling too or when we're with a group of people and choosing a restaurant and we want to go to a particular place and they have other ideas, this is selling too. We sell all the time almost on a daily basis.
So if you're running a business you're a salesperson and if you're not used to that idea you'd better get used to it or you're going to struggle in business, you're either going to have to pay someone else to do the sales or get out of business!
So now you recognise you're a sales person, here are some tips;
- Listen to your prospective customer or client, there is an old saying of 'you have 2 ears and 1 mouth, use them in that proportion'.
- Find some common ground and build rapport.
- Sell with integrity and be prepared to walk away.
- Use a CRM (Customer Relationship Manager which I wrote about in this post) system to keep track of leads and conversations you've had and when you've spoken to them and when you need to follow up.
- Some will, some won't so what..next. I think this line is self explanatory, don't beat yourself up when someone says no.
- Be persistent, never give up, they may say yes later.
- Don't insult your prospect if they say no, even if the product or service is brilliant for them, if you do you'll never get to do point 6.
- Don't give them the features of your product or service, or the benefits, give them the FEELINGS they'll get when they use your product or service.
- Get good at sales.
To your sales success.
Paul
Here are some great sales books you can get through my Amazon affiliate links, as ever if you buy through theses links I'll get paid a bit of money for the referral enough for about half a pint I think maybe a whole one, not going to be able to buy the pub though.
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