One of the most valuable skills that a salesperson can have is knowing how to sell virtually anything. Being a great salesperson opens up many opportunities, especially for entrepreneurs and business owners. The good news is that it’s relatively easy to learn a few simple techniques that can be applied to any sales situation – whether you’re selling a product like print online, over the phone, face-to-face or even in an interview. Here are five proven tips to sell anything to anyone in 2019 and beyond!
- Fully understand your customer’s needs. No matter what you’re selling, the most important part of salesmanship is understanding the needs of your customer and then figuring out how to meet them. In almost every case, a salesperson who focuses on customer service and how a product is able to meet their customers’ needs and wants, will be much more successful than a salesperson who focuses on the features and specifications of the product itself. Perhaps your customer has pain points that your product is able to alleviate, or perhaps they have desires that your product is able to fulfill. Once you determine the needs of your target customer and how your product is able to meet them, crafting your sales pitch around meeting those needs is the best way by far to close a sale.
- Learn how to sell yourself. Whether you’re cold calling or have spoken to a client previously, it’s important to keep this in mind – before someone is willing to hand over their hard-earned money to you, they’ve got to like you just as much as they like the product that you’re selling. When you’re making a sales pitch, please take a little time to get to know your customer. And, let him or her get to know you. Tell them a quick story, make them laugh, and overall, simply let your personality shine through. If you can make your customer see you as a real, caring person and perhaps even a friend (rather than just someone who’s trying to sell something), they’ll be far more inclined to buy.
- Research who you’re selling to. Before you’re able to meet the needs of your customer and craft your sales pitch to target them as effectively as possible, you first need to know as much as you can about the person you’re selling to. Sometimes increasing sales entails researching a specific client in advance – especially if you’re making a major sales pitch to a high-profile figure within a large company. At other times, when you’re selling directly to consumers, researching who you’re selling to means figuring out the target customer for your product, then carefully analyzing their needs and desires. Either way, knowing as much as possible about who you’re selling to before you ever begin your sales pitch, is essential if you want that sales pitch to result in an actual sale.
- Don’t be afraid to ask questions. Making sales centres around having a conversation with the person that you’re selling to. And, one of the most important parts of that conversation will be the specific questions that you ask. Asking your customer questions (and actually listening to their answers) is extremely valuable in a couple different ways. For one, it allows you to figure out more about the person you’re selling to, including their needs and desires, and specifically what they’re looking for in a product. Just as important, however, asking questions is an effective sales technique because people enjoy talking about themselves. This bascially goes back to making the person like you. When you show genuine interest in them and give them the opportunity to talk about their favourite topic (i.e. themselves), they’ll be much more likely to enjoy the conversation and therefore much more likely to buy from you in the end.
- Don’t sell. Help. People you’re selling to need to see you as someone who’s helping them solve a problem through the product that you’re offering. Keep in mind that one of the main things that lead people to buy a new product is that they’re struggling with an issue that they hope that product will address. It’s your job, therefore, to make sure that you’re as helpful as possible. When you’re genuinely trying to be helpful when it comes to addressing your customer’s needs, your sales pitches will be much more successful.
