If you want to move up in a company, you have to have good selling skills, no matter what you do. Whether you sell a product, the work you do or yourself, you need to have a great sales mentality. Some people say you cannot learn to sell, I am inclined to disagree (mostly). Selling is not that hard when you know what to look out for.
1. Mindset
Your mindset is the first thing you have to work on. You can sell anything to anybody. Whether you are selling cars, insurances or anything at all, you have to believe that anybody can be closed. You might not have to sell actual products, but at some point you will have to sell yourself, and it helps to believe that anything is possible. Set a high goal, and work on achieving it. Always keep your mind focussed on that goal. Bad days happen, just continue, grind your way through. Keep at it!
2. How to start selling
Sales techniques vary depending on what you are selling. You might be more pushy selling insurances than you would be when selling cars. In order to find out what approach suits you and the product you are selling best, try to learn from the best sales person in your company. Ask your supervisors too. Not only will you learn the most from peers, it will make a good impression to see that you are trying to better yourself by asking your co-workers.
3. Sales techniques
Generally speaking, you can be pushy or restrained when trying to sell. There is no way to tell which approach is the best, it depends on the product and your counterpart. Selling expensive items you should be careful in being pushy. However, if you are too coy, you won't close your customer. Try to be well prepared, ask a lot of questions and try to figure out what your counterpart wants to hear. Let me stress this, questions are what make the sale. Whether he is actively looking for something, or just gazing at the products, deep inside him there might be this thought, that he needs this certain product. The only chance of figuring out what that thing might be, is by asking your customer. "Have you ever though about owning..." put the though back in his head. Marketing does not make someone wish to buy something, but it reminds that person that he wanted that. Remind your customer that he thought about this for a long time... but first, find out that he did.
4. Sales are emotional
You have to trigger emotions when trying to persuade someone. What is your customer looking for? What convinced him on his last purchase? Ask questions! And again: be prepared! If your customer is looking for a feature, reveal to him why your product (or yourself) are the answer! Use all your knowledge about the product to conjure a smile on your customers face.
5. Product knowledge
Last but not least: Know your product! Know every feature, every USP (unique selling proposition), anything that sets your product apart from the others. Write down any question you might not be able to answer right away, you might use this to have a good reason to follow-up on a customer.
Check out my other How-Tos and let me know what you think in the comments. If you'd like to hear more about what I learned and what specific sales techniques companies are using, let me know in the comments. Thanks for reading!
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