subject: Want To Improve Your Sales? 10 Top Tips You Must Know! [print this page] Want To Improve Your Sales? 10 Top Tips You Must Know!
I have been selling literally all my life. I started out by selling fresh mushrooms at the garden gate, picked in the meadows around my childhood home. Then I cut and sold firewood in my cousins store. At sixteen I sold fresh fruit, vegetables and groceries from a van to all the remote villages around my home town. I was too young to drive at the time so I hired my elder brother to do that for me. At sixteen I ran a Newsagents shop, became a relief Manager to cover other shops while the Managers were on vacation, in charge of uncovering frauds and fiddles. By nineteen I was selling vacuum cleaners and training my own sales staff and others for the group as the sales training manager. I've worked in real estate, menswear (retail and wholesale), cosmetic accessories, crafts, fine art you name it, I've sold it. I've run market stalls and still have a retail hobby and craft outlet in my home town that has been doing well for the last 15 years. So the advice I am about to give you is based on a wide diversity of training, firsthand experience and common business sense. My latest project is Global Ambassador which has been set up to sell nations, and all they have to offer, to the rest of the World. You can check that out at www.global-ambassador.org It has only just been launched so you will be able to judge my ability and success for yourself as that project grows.
Now for the tips.
If you think you know it all already stop reading right now. I won't be able to teach you anything but rest assured, from my experience, know-alls know least of all. We all learn something every day and anyone who believes he has learned everything has most certainly learned nothing at all.
The most important and fundamental commodity you will ever sell is yourself. Every product you ever market or represent will always be secondary to selling yourself. If people don't like and trust you your job will always be twice as hard to do.
Customers are not stupid. Never patronise them or treat them as fools. Always treat them with respect and listen to what they have to say. You are not a preacher, you are a communicator and if you fail to do that by "connecting" with your customer you will always struggle.
Selling is all about integrity. If you don't believe 100% in your product yourself, you have no right to be selling it to anyone in the first place. Believe what you say and say what you believe.
Selling is "Asking" not "Telling". Learn right now to shut up and listen to your customer. They will tell you what they want and that will enable you to sell them what they want. Why swim upstream when you can go with the flow?
Relax your customer by relaxing yourself. People are like dogs, they can smell fear. You are not in a competition with your customer, making a sale is not like boxing, you are not challenging the customer to see who wins. You are servicing their needs with the products you believe in and that they need. So enjoy the experience and they will enjoy it too.
Selling is not about "convincing" people to buy, it is about giving them "permission" to buy. People need to feel reassured that their purchase is justified and permitted. Whether they are buying cosmetics or jet engines you need to help them justify the purchase to themselves by accepting that what you have to say, makes it ok to do so.
Sell "Benefits" and list "Features". People may want features but they buy benefits. Tell them how and why what you have to offer will benefit them. Either it will save them money or it will help them feel better about themselves. These are simple benefits. Multi function buttons and designer labels are features; durability and value for money are benefits.
Never give your customer the hard sell, unless you only want to sell to them once. Your approach should be to allow them to buy from you because they want to, that way they will come back to you time and again. If you twist their arms to get a sale they will avoid you like the plague in future and the secret to success in sales is repeat business.
No initial sale is ever too small. It is the key that opens the door to a long term trading relationship. If the account is of value to you accept any first order to begin with. Remember; sell yourself and your integrity with a soft sales approach. The rewards will be much greater in the end I promise you.
Never believe you are the best salesman in the world and certainly never say as much to anyone else. It will only confirm you to be a fool.
There is of course much more to selling than these ten points, but you will learn other skills with the passage of time. The above advice is representative of the fundamental attitude you should adopt to be a good salesperson, a career salesperson. Treat your customers as you would expect to treat your friends. After all, their loyalty pays your wages. Why would you not want to treat them with the greatest respect?
People buy from people they like and trust it's as simple as that. Build your approach on this attitude and you will always do well.
You can contact Trevor Krueger by Email: trevor@global-ambassador.org
And you can follow his personal blog at: www.trevorkrueger.com
