Working as a sales professional is not for the feint of heart. There are some things you need to know before you embark on your sales career and if you’ve worked in sales before you will know you need to follow the following ten topics to give yourself the best chance of success.
- Being more Professional
In everything you do you need to do it better than your competitor and better than your colleagues. From time keeping, to your appearance, your product knowledge, your sales pitch or sales presentation and just about anything and everything you can think of that you do…you need to be better. Until you are, you need to believe that you are. Your positive mindset is your greatest asset. There’s a saying I was taught early on in my sales career ‘fake it until you make it’.
- I’m not buying today – no problem
Sometimes when you go into a sales call, you will be met by people who are a bit wary of you as a salesman. They may be defensive with their body language and they may even come right out and tell you that ‘I’m NOT buying from you today’ – to which you always reply ‘no problem’.
When you first start out you may believe what they tell you to be true, but after a while you will come to realise that ‘I’m not buying today’ actually means ‘please be gentle with me’. You’ll go through your sales process and you will breakdown their barriers and by the end of it they will buy from you and they will probably be thankful too.
- Two ears and one mouth
The best way to get on the right side of your prospect is to get them to do most of the talking. You have two ears and one mouth and you should use them in that ratio. Asking open ended questions is the way to get people to open up to you, they’ll feel like your are interested in them, which you are, and they will forget that you are a salesperson and there to close a sales deal.
- Let people buy from you
Selling is all about buying! What does that mean?
Selling is giving people one option. Buying is letting people choose which of your products they want. Giving people options makes them forget you are selling, for instance let’s say we were selling kitchen door handles, we could say:
“We can supply you with the standard handles from our standard range or for a few pounds more, you could have our premier handles which as you can see look much nicer and are more durable, which ones would you prefer?”
By giving options, the prospect feels like they are making the decision themselves, even though you can steer them in the direction you want them to go.
- Do what works and not what you are good at
A Lot of Salesmen I have worked with over the years have been very busy doing the same thing over and over and in turn achieving the same results over and over. There is a saying ‘if you keep doing what you have always done – you will keep getting what you have always got’.
- People Buy People
Let’s just think about that for a second, people buy people, what does that mean?
Well let’s assume you need to buy a new appliance. There are two stores that sell the exact same product you are looking for, the same model, the same colour and it’s exactly the same price, do you think you would be more likely to buy from:
A) The happy, helpful Salesman who goes out of his way to make sure you buy exactly what you need?
B) The less than happy, unhelpful Salesman who is not bothered about why you need the product, or whether it meets your needs, as long as you buy it and ultimately he gets his commission cheque?
I think you’ll agree it’s no contest. We bought the person! If you take nothing else from this guide this one rule will help you increase your sales and in turn your commission.
- ABC – always be closing
When you are conducting your sales call, you should always be closing off any possible objections that your prospect may have. When you have finished making you point, or talking about a benefit of your product, ask you prospect ‘are you happy with that’ or ‘does that make sense to you’. By doing this all the time you will be dealing with any objections during the presentation, which will make it much easier to close the sale at the end of your presentation.
- It’s all about getting the deal
From your company’s point of view, they’re not going to be interested in why your prospect didn’t go ahead with you. There will be no interest in the reasons or the excuses that were given. It’s all about getting the sale. The sooner you realise this the easier your job as a salesperson will become.
- Knowing your Numbers
When you work in sales it is vitally important for you to know what your sales metrics are. By this I mean, knowing how many telesales calls you need to make to get an appointment. How many appointments you need to attend before you make a sale. Knowing what your average order value is. Knowing how many sales do you need to make to hit your company set sales target and how many sales do you need to make to hit you own sales target, which is always higher than the one the company sets you. Knowing your numbers is vital so that you know where you need to concentrate your efforts.
- It’s never enough
What ever level of sales success you have had previously, no matter what, it will not be enough for your company. You are target driven and your targets will always go up. You are only as good as your last sale and there will always be a need for you to get your next sale.
It can be a relentless cycle but when you have a proven successful sales process to follow it becomes much, much easier. I wish you every success in your sales profession.
Happy Selling – Steve
