7 years ago
February 21, 2017

Learning to Sell in 2015

Much of what comes with being a successful sales person can be learned. You can learn to sell anything when you apply these basic principles.

Rhys Metler

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The greatest sales people can sell anything. They’ve learned to master the basic principles of good sales and apply them to any sales situation. This is what is meant by the saying that a great sales person “can sell ice to an Eskimo.”

Great sales professionals have learned to sell through trial and error. They’ve refined their strategies until they were perfect. They’ve worked hard to be the best.

If you want to learn to sell in order to excel in the sales game, read on. Here’s everything you need to know to become a stellar sales professional. You’ll understand what makes a good sales experience so you can sell more efficiently.

Know Your Customer

The best sales people are great at selling because they understand their customers. They do their research. They go a step above and delve deeper with their customers to understand their needs, wants, motivations, and problems before they ever communicate with them. So once they do get in contact, they’re prepared with all of the necessary information to make the sale. Your job as a sales person is to guide the customer along a path to find a solution for his basic needs. You’re working together toward a common goal—making the right sale that meets the customer’s needs.

Know Your Product

You should know the ins and outs of the products you’re trying to sell. You need to be an expert that the client can rely on. You want to make your client feel confident in you as a sales professional, and that comes with product knowledge. You don’t have to provide all of the technical details, but you should know them in case the client asks for more information.

Remember, you’re guiding them in their purchasing decision, so you need to be knowledgeable in order to gain trust. Read the product literature, use the product yourself to better understand its features and benefits, and consider what type of information your client will be interested in hearing about. You can’t sell something you don’t understand. 

Asking Questions

To make sure the information you have on your client is correct, start your sales presentation by asking questions—and lots of them. You don’t want to spend half an hour on a presentation before realizing that you misunderstood the customer’s needs entirely and none of what you’re saying relates to what he’s looking for.

Listen

No sales rep should take up most of the sales call. Stop talking and start listening to your clients. They’re going to reveal vital information about their wants and needs and their current buying position and mindset. Listen to their words and their body language.

Make a Connection

No clients will buy from you if they don’t like you on a personal level. They’re being sold to left, right, and center. They can find what they’re looking to buy from someone else if they don’t feel a genuine connection with you. It’s 2015, so ditch the sleazy sales rep attitude and aggressive behaviour and instead work on building trust with your clients through honesty and empathy.

Ask for the Sale

Many not-so-confident sales people don’t sell their products because they’re too scared to ask for the sale. But this is the easiest way to close the deal. The client is in that meeting with you to purchase something—so sell your product right then and there! Don’t let him go home to think about it, or he might walk right into your competitor’s store instead. Many customers will give you the sale if you simply ask for it. So get the commitment. And if the answer is no, you know that you don’t need to waste any more of your time on that client, so you can move on to other prospects.

When you apply these basic principles to a sales situation, you can sell anything.

Rhys Metler

Rhys is a tenacious, top performing Senior Sales Recruiter with 15+ years of focused experience in the Digital Media, Mobile, Software, Technology and B2B verticals. He has a successful track record of headhunting top performing sales candidates for some of the most exciting brands in North America. He is a Certified Recruitment Specialist (CRS) and has expert experience in prospecting new business, client retention/renewals and managing top performing sales and recruitment teams. Rhys enjoys spending quality time with his wife, son, and daughters, BBQing on a hot summer day and tropical vacations.

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