Want to supercharge your sales figures? Need to break free from a slump? There are numerous ways that you can improve your selling skills to meet your goals. Remember, this is an ever-changing business and even if you’ve been selling for years, it’s vital to keep yourself fresh, learn new skills and adapt to our changing marketplace.

If you are completely new to selling, relax. It’s going to take a little time to build yourself up to the star level. By focusing on some key selling skills, you can work towards perfecting your own unique way of selling.

1. Increase your confidence levels.

If you are not confident, this gives your prospects subtle signals that they may not want to trust what you have to say. In addition to being confident in yourself, you’ll also need to be able to feel and display confidence in what you are selling.

Go through a couple of self-affirmation techniques every day. Sure, you might feel a little stupid, but these things actually do work. Next, develop confidence and passion about your product by learning everything you can about it and finding out what makes it better or different from your competitors. Set up a few exercises to see how many benefits you can list about your product and then a similar exercise that shows the differences with your competitor’s products.

2. Get into your customer’s minds.

Want to know what your customers want and need? You’ve got to get into their brains. Learning about the psychology of sales is the key to improving your selling skills. Empathy is an incredibly powerful trait for a salesperson and hopefully, you’ve already got this ingrained. If not, that’s ok, you can learn how to be more empathetic.

Discover the problem your target market is facing and then develop a pitch that sells your product as the solution.

3. Develop your sales process.

Do you have a clear point A to point B sales process? If you don’t, now is the time to create one. Not only will having a process help you gain more confidence, but it will definitely improve your selling skills. Map out every single phase of what you do when you try to make a sale. Ideally, your sales process should include initial contact, determining the decision maker, developing the relationship, solving their problem and delivering the solution.

Most companies have their own sales process that they want you to follow, but that doesn’t keep you from creating your own and improving what they have. When things don’t go your way, or if you get flustered, you’ll be able to fall back on your process.

4. Go outside your comfort zone.

One common mistake a lot of sales people make is getting too comfortable and failing to reach outside of that zone. You’re missing out on a lot of opportunity by making this mistake. If you have techniques that use to work for you and have since stopped, it’s definitely time to try something new. Stay informed on new books about selling and attend local seminars.

Developing your selling skills is a lifelong journey and there is always something new to learn. Never make the mistake of thinking you know it all.

5. Motivate your prospects.

One of the talents that top sales people share is the ability to motivate their prospects to take action. You can look at the above steps as a sort of mind map that will lead you in this direction. If you’re confident about your abilities and your product, if you have determined the customer’s problem and are ready to offer them the solution, even if it means changing your game up a little, you’re ready to get them motivated.

Show some passion and excitement about your product and help them solve their problems now, not later. Developing a sense of urgency is one of the vital selling skills.