The art of selling is a complex and challenging process. With a framework in place you can ensure that you are positioned to achieve sales success with confidence and realise your goals.
Set Objectives
The best way to motivate your sales performance is to have clear and defined objectives. Assess your market, market conditions and how your product or service is positioned. What support tools are in place to help you achieve sales? Are you supplied with qualified leads, or do you have to find them yourself? Does your product have a strong branding presence that will help you leverage your sales activity?
Define the prospecting activity you need to undertake and have a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system in place to track it all the way through from initial contact to sale, follow up and beyond.
Set some targets that are achievable – and then stretch them a bit. You must believe that your targets are achievable otherwise you will spend too much time worrying about how you can’t achieve them rather than how you can. However at the same time you should aim to stretch yourself to avoid complacency.
Do Research
Ensure that you know everything there is to know about your target customer, your product or service and the products and services offered by your competition.
Be Prepared
Be prepared to offer alternatives to a customer – don’t assume that because a customer enquires in regard to a specific product or service that the specific product or service is actually what they are looking for. For all you know they may actually require something quite different which you won’t know until you have the conversation.
Build Rapport
Do everything you can to build a connection with your customer. Watch for cues in the body language and facial expressions displayed and mirror these. Look for opportunities during your conversation to establish common ground. It is all about building trust. The more that the customer feels like you understand them and the more they feel you have in common, the more trust they will have in you, and the chances of making a sale will increase proportionately.
Being empathetic is one of the strongest sales skills you can have. If you have the ability to see from the customer’s perspective you will be better able to understand their needs and respond appropriately.
Ask Effective Questions
Ask the right kind of questions, and you will gain the information you need to help you make the sale. Start with broad, open ended questions that will generally provide you with a number of avenues you can pursue to hone in on what the customer really wants. Stay on track and keep control of the conversation.
Listen
If you don’t listen effectively, then it is highly likely you may miss many valuable cues that the customer provides. Don’t listen with half an ear and be trying to formulate your next question or response. Listen first – then respond. Don’t rush the process and don’t be aggressive.
Explain the benefits
When speaking with a customer, you should talk about the benefits of the product or service. Customers want to know what advantages they will gain from your product or service and how it will fulfill their needs. The features of the product or service are a support mechanism for the benefits.
Meet objections
Listen carefully to objections. They may well present you with opportunities to showcase the benefits of your product or service and how it can satisfy the customer’s needs. Often customers present objections because they are uncertain of their own needs or want more information. Other times objections are made because the customer has decided they actually don’t want what you are offering.
Sometimes you have to make a judgment call to stop wasting your time and the customer’s time if they have objections you just can’t counter. Don’t take it personally. Move on to the next customer and invest your time more productively.
Close the sale
Watch for buying signals and simply ask for the order! And a word of advice for the over exuberant sales person – quit while you are ahead – if you have the order – thank the customer for the sale and leave them to get on with their business. And you can take some time out to celebrate your sale before you move on to your next customer!
Follow Up
After you have made the sale it is important to follow up with your customer to make sure they are satisfied with their purchase. This will help to build the possibility of future sales. You should also ask for referrals to new customers. Be mindful to take your cue from the customer as to how often you contact them. Some people will be happy with one follow up and then never to hear from you again until they call you when they are next ready to buy. Other customers will be happy to talk with you as often as you like. It is a delicate tightrope to walk and important that you are tuned in the subtle nuances of their responses to your follow up communications.
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