There are no short cuts when it comes to sales and selling but here are a few sales and selling techniques which you should find helpful, especially if you're new to the industry or even if you're just looking for a bit of business advice.
The definition of selling is hard to explain as we are all involved in selling in some way or other. A sales person is a mind maker upper. Their job is help people make up their mind to buy the service or product that's right for them. The job of the sales person is to guide that process through. We all buy things all the time, without the sales person, how would we know we're buying the right product? You can spend hours or days researching, but the whole point of the sales person is that they know their product better than anybody.
Anybody can be a sales person, we're all born with the ability to be a good sales person, and evidence of this can be seen in children as they're so good at selling. The difficulty is that not many people want to be in sales. People are terrified of word selling especially in the UK, selling has a stigma attached to it, it's not seen as a nice job. This needs to be dispelled as nothing happens anywhere in the world until a sale has been made. We are now starting to see the phrase 'business development' rather than 'sales'. The reality is business development is just a sexier way of saying sales. The only real difference is business development will draw in more aspects of marketing. We still need to get over the negative connotations of the word 'sales'. It's the sales person who brings in the money which everyone else eventually lives off. Anybody can sell, the question is, do they want to? If they do, they can learn the skills to be a good sales person. The child who throws the tantrum will often get their own way in the end through persistence (and the desire of the parent for peace and quiet), once they've got their own way through this technique they know they can use it again and again to achieve the same results. This does not mean that you need to throw yourself on the ground and start shouting and crying to win that sale, it means you work out what your strengths are and what your unique selling point is, and that is what you sell. Selling requires skill and talent (both of which you can learn), and it can be highly rewarding, so why is it no one wants to be a sales person? The word no is the main factor which determines why people are so apprehensive about selling, people get scared of it. Unfortunately it is a word which we must all deal with on a daily basis, so once this irrational fear is conquered, anyone can make a successful living out of sales. The fact of the matter is, with the growth of the internet and the rising costs of employees, good sales people are becoming more and more sought after as it's a profession which is becoming harder and harder.
So you've just presented an intelligent and organized pitch, you've spent a lot of time planning it and you're sure you've done everything you can. You are then told 'no'. It's at this point you start to think maybe that child's temper tantrum approach we looked at earlier may not be so unjustified after all. Before you get too disheartened, let's get past this silly fear of such a small word. When anybody says no, it is only for that moment in time. When they say no, what they mean is, 'no, not today'. Your product or service maybe perfect for them next month or next year but for whatever reason, it is just not practical at this moment in time. Circumstances change. For example, you were eyeing up that very good looking laptop in town last week but you already have a perfectly adequate computer, however, as the sales assistant saw you looking at it they came over and gave you their best pitch. You still said no, after all you were just looking, but when it comes time to replace your cold computer, or you've decided to treat yourself, you remember the helpful sales assistant. They weren't pushy, they gave you all the relevant information you needed and were genuinely very helpful. The chances are that's where you're going to go when it is time for a new computer. A sales person will come back from a sales meeting with either, a business order, a sale completed or they come back with a 'no, not today'. The biggest source of revenue comes from existing customers, the second biggest comes from the 'no, not today' people who didn't want that service at the time, but keeping in touch and letting them know what's going on with your business may mean they decide to invest in your service at some point, people shouldn't be so scared of the word 'no' as it can always be converted.
