subject: 5 Steps to Making The Sale [print this page] 5 Steps to Making The Sale 5 Steps to Making The Sale
Marketing is all about getting your name, products and services known. Once known though they have to become of interest to potential buyers. This is the complicated part. It is possible for a marketing campaign to be so compelling that it makes buyers want the product without any real need for it. But generally speaking, when a person has to part with money to get the item in question, some work is involved. Selling is one of the oldest phenomena around. Now we buy things for money, whereas in prehistoric days items were traded for other items. I'll give you three sheep for one two gallons of oil etc. In times when life was much simpler, people only bought what they needed and what they could afford. They weren't usually sidetracked by luxuries and frivolities. But today, competition has reached an ultimate high. Competition between people and competition between businesses. This competition has led to a saturated marketplace, where everyone is trying to sell you a different version of the same thing. So what you have are salesmen trying to sell you something that you don't need and are in competition with tens to thousands of other salesmen doing the exact same thing.So how is it done?The first step to any sale is finding at least one reason why the person you're selling to, needs what you're selling. Is it to keep up with industry trends, to be considered a thought-leader in their field, to spread brand awareness, to be on the cutting edge of technology or innovation, to extend their brand and offering in a new direction? What the reason, there has to be at least one.The second step to selling, is putting together a list of prospective clients. How and why have you chosen these people? What do you know about them and what is your approach going to be? This is all part of the market research process. Determining who your target audience is, what they like, where they hang out, and what type of pitch they're likely to respond to. If you're cold calling a company you should know quite a lot about them before picking up the phone. At the very least you should have their website up on your computer screen while you're on the phone with them. There's nothing worse than being hustled for business by someone who clearly knows nothing about you.The third step is not so much a step as it is a general knowledge. You have to know your product inside and out. People will always be reluctant to buy something they hadn't budgeted for. They will always instinctively say no, or grill you so much they may as well have said no. If you know your product inside and out you will be able to adapt your offering to respond to every hesitation they have.The fourth thing is to be charming. Nobody and I mean nobody is going to buy from someone who has no personality or is being rude. You've got to make people like you. Even though you're cold calling them, make talking to you the best part of their day.Finally, you have to be persistent. Good salesmen will always know when to push and when to give up, but he's also not sensitive and not afraid of rejection. You're going to get a lot of it so prepare yourself, but remember, people who don't push a little bit, don't sell.
