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Selling Secrets You Need to Know
Selling is not just for salespeople. The most successful financial people, engineers, managers, leaders, and people in general are good salespeople as well. Your boss, peers, and subordinates are customers for everything you have to say. That great idea you have is going to get lost and you are going to be frustrated if you are unable to sell them on your ideas. Every time you promote an idea to someone else, you are selling. It's a jungle out there. Competition is extreme and even if you have the best idea or product in the world you may have a difficult time even getting people's attention much less making the sale. Here are nine winning sales secrets you need to know: 1. Understand and try to meet the customer's needs. His or her needs are more important than yours in making a sale. The better you understand them, the more effectively you can target your sales approach. Make sure your concept or product can be acceptable before your first meeting. It will help if you put yourself in their shoes and consider what is important to them. You'll receive a warmer reception when you let them know that you've tried to meet their needs. Once the dialogue is opened, you can get to the details that will help make the final sale. 2. Establish a relationship. Take a sincere interest in them and understand their style. They are a person first and then a potential client. Take a lead from your customer. Mirror their pace and body language to establish rapport before you direct the conversation. Once you are in tune and they are listening, you can lead them where you want to go in the rest of your discussion or presentation. 3. Focus on WIFM. Every potential customer needs to know WIFM - What's in it For Me? And don't lose sight of the fact that they are the "Me" not you. Since you've already done some work to understand their needs, you can package and sell the benefits to the customer. Benefits are what people want. Especially if you're trying to sell to a busy or stubborn person, anticipate their questions and give them most of the answers before they have to ask. They'll appreciate your approach. Sometimes, you'll want to save some information to respond to their questions. Some people want to be involved. Those back-up slides in your presentation that anticipate deeper questions or provide extra detail are often worth more than you know. 4. Be efficient. Get to the point. Don't waste their time but don't be curt. Know your product or idea inside. It really helps if you can summarize your concept in an elevator speech. An elevator speech is a presentation that takes 30 to 60 seconds or the time it takes for an elevator ride. If you can distill the benefits and features of your product or idea into this concise statement, you have a better chance of getting their attention and understanding. Then match your presentation style they prefer with the level of detail they need. 5. Know your competition. And your competition is not just another salesman with another product or another person with a different idea. Your competition includes distractions, time pressures, prejudice, opinion, narrow-mindedness, fatigue, stress, financial constraints, policies, procedures, and a host of other factors that influence what you want to pitch. Be careful to pick the right circumstances as well as the right message to have a chance of being heard. Winners understand their audience and the competition. 6. Listen more than you talk. Ask questions and listen. You may like your sales presentation but if it doesn't match their immediate interest, you probably lost them back at "paragraph 2." Ask them to comment on a specific aspect of what they need. Open-ended questions that suggest the benefits of your idea or product are more likely to open the door and keep it open. You can lead the conversation toward specific features of your idea or product that can satisfy the need. 7. Accept feedback. Acknowledge what they have to say whether you agree with it or not. This is a key element of good listening. If you are open to feedback, your audience is more likely to be open as well. People appreciate it when you acknowledge their ideas. Let them know that you will take them into consideration even if you don't adopt them right away. 8. Try the middle road on persuasion. Don't use all of your selling points or put on the pressure right away. Many people will respond to pressure with resistance. They would rather be led than pushed. Present what you think will be of interest to your audience and help them understand what you have said. If you meet objections, ask them if the idea would be more acceptable with an additional point or two. If they still resist, ask them how to make the idea acceptable to them. Enlist them as an ally in solving the remaining problems. Ask, "What can we do to address this problem? I am willing to… 9. Ask for the order. Ask for what you want. You've presented your product or ideas in a concise and considerate way, you've listened, related and understood so now it's time to ask for what you want. If the answer is not what you want, leave the door open and reevaluate the product or your approach for another try. Summary: When you combine these secrets with the professional skills and knowledge that you have, you should be able to win people over to your products and ideas. Keep on learning. and improving. Skilled salespeople are in training every time they make a sales call. Even obviously great ideas sometimes meet resistance because the recipients are just not open to change at the moment. Change represents its own set of issues and if you can't overcome them at the moment, you may have to wait for a better time to try again. A great sales approach will help but winning salespeople also remember that timing and persistence pay. Sales training is important. See our resources on business body language - the often silent part of communication that can say more than words.
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Cost Reduction & Profit Improvement
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