The Five Skills You Need to Sell Successfully

Every salesperson knows how hard it is to make a sale, especially when the financial and economic status of companies and industries are so erratic and hard to deal with. Companies are more scrutinizing and have become more careful with their purchases, sometimes to a fault which leaves them frozen when purchasing decisions are to be made. With this challenging scenario in our heads, every successful salesperson would tell you that it's just all in the way you handle the job and, in this post, you will find the five essential skills that any salesperson should learn to break away from the pack and start selling like nothing ever mattered.

Skill Number One: Know the Buyer Inside-Out

Knowing the customer is essential in creating a relationship that you would like to last. However, understanding your customer’s behavior is not so simple.. The foundation of effective selling is knowing your customer very well, not only to sell your product, but to create an experience that will leave a lasting and indelible impression. In that way, they will look for you when they need what you are selling.

When expectations are met and surpassed, it would be easy to create that special bond with the customer, and it is not going to happen without good knowledge of your customer’s persona. By doing this, you would be able to provide buyer-responsive selling which is basically being able to provide what the client needs when the client needs it. For example, instead of just giving a free product to the customer, walk the customer through the experience and make the trial as trouble-free as possible. This way, the only thing the client will remember is how valuable your product is and how wonderful it is to deal with you.

Skill Number Two: Make the Buyer Trust You

Trust is important in any relationship and this is also the case when selling your goods to your clients. It is very important for the client to feel that level of trust with you and it all begins with knowing exactly what you are doing. When you exude confidence in yourself and your product, the client will feel safe with you, knowing that you are able to provide what is needed when it is needed.

Once they get this from you, the next part is to use your knowledge of the customer and apply it to what your cause. By doing this, you show your capability to present the product in the best way possible and it shows how great you are in customizing the product to the needs of the customer.

The final step is to make them feel that you are there to help them. It means a lot for a customer to know that you sincerely want to help and it's not just to get the sale, but it’s just who you are. Such interactions make the biggest mark in the industry and allows you to deal with customers and peers alike in the most productive manner possible.

Skill Number 3: Sell the Product the Best Way You Can

With a lot of competitors actively trying to outsell you, your approach to selling should be the most efficient in terms of getting the attention of the customer. A lot of salespeople think that the more words they put in, the more the client knows about the product. There is some truth in that situation but nowadays, the customers in general appear to favor conciseness, preferring the short, meaningful, and engaging selling materials over the superfluous ones.

Always remember to avoid communicating more than three points in a conversation with the buyer, that would be just too much. Also remember to make your sales pitch compelling. Think of the big picture and how it weaves into what you are selling and what the client is looking for. Such an insight often gives a bigger reason for the customer to act on what you are selling.

Both rules apply to copywriting. Short and compelling material always beats the long and complicated ones. For you to really get your customer's attention, customize it to their needs and personality. Nothing beats customization if you aim to create that bond with your reader or customer.

Skill Number 4: Engage Your Customers in All Available Platforms

With the onset of technology, the face-to-face approach to selling has evolved into teleconferences. This recent development has underscored the need for salespeople to learn how to maximize the use of phones and other communication gadgets in effectively reaching the customers whenever and wherever they are. Some of the concerns would be the tone and the cadence of their voices. Communicating the words should always be done in a clear and exciting manner – and these factors are important in making your point come across clearly. Another medium that needs to be tamed is social media. The interactions and participation of individuals and companies on Facebook, Twitter, and Linkedln are completely mined and used as leverage for future deals with your clients. By engaging your them on social media, you make yourself more available by presenting to them everything they need before they even get the chance to call you.

Skill Number 5: Be the Wise Salesman

Aside from enabling you to engage your customers online, technology should be seen as an ally in getting that sale off the ground. With the increasing number of duties and responsibilities that salespeople need to face aside from selling to the customer, the need to learn new technology has become a prerequisite in achieving sales targets. There are now a lot of apps and programs that will help you do your job efficiently and you should really take advantage of that.

Focusing your time on creating opportunities for you to close in on is also a good strategy because it allows you to see things from a bigger perspective and helps you achieve your objectives by knowing where you are in terms of targets and where you should be to achieve them.

These five skills are but a stepping stone to unleash breakthroughs in closing a sales deal. But reach your full potential by complementing these skills with the use of Neuro-Linguistic Programming. Join us in one of Jacky Lim’s Sharing Sessions to learn about NLP and how it can be beneficial for you as a sales person. This two-hour session will give you a preview of many NLP techniques that you can use in performing sales calls.

Call us now or simply fill out our inquiry form to book the seat reserved just for you!