Enterprise Nation

When you hear the word ‘sales’ do you cringe at the thought of having to make them? Does the idea of ‘selling’ to someone induce fear and panic? If so, Johnathan Briggs wants to help (and set the record straight.) Being good at sales, he says, is easy. And it's a skill that can be acquired in just four steps.

First things first

The first thing to realise is "selling" should be a pleasurable activity for both parties. It happens all too infrequently these days, but try to recall a time where someone talked to you about your requirement, understood it, then offered you a solution. You most likely bought that product and left with a lot of loyalty to the seller.

Selling, like most other things, is a skill that needs to be practiced, but it's actually quite easy if you follow these steps when talking to someone on the phone or in person.

1. Build rapport

Open the conversation with something you might both be able to talk about; their location, their business, the weather.  Next time you get your hair done, listen to your hairdresser's small talk, they are normally masters at this. This soft start to your conversation will build a rapport which in turn starts to create trust.

2. Ask questions to identify need and buying criteria

Next, ask the prospect a series of questions to discover what they are looking for. Taking a silly example, if you were selling  washing machines, "What size is your family?", "How often do you use it?", "Is it located in a kitchen or utility room?".  It's best to prepare some of these questions and ask follow up questions to the prospect's answer. Using these questions you should be able to identify what "buying criteria" is important to the prospect, and this is where we need to concentrate. It's very important not to mention your product at this stage.

3. Sell your unique solution to their problem

Your secret weapon is step 2, most people miss this stage out and as a result launch into selling their product or service. If you've asked some good questions in step 2 then the prospect will have told you what's important to them, so you should accentuate this area of your feature set. Back to our example, it might be the prospect has a shiny new kitchen and wants a washer that looks great and is less bothered about the fastest spin cycle you have. Sell your solution matching the needs, don’t feel obligated to discuss every feature.

4. Confirm it meets requirements

I like to a have a little stock of phrases such as "Does that sound interesting?", "What's your preferred colour?", "When would you need it by?". Then you watch the reaction, if it’s positive you ask for the business, if it's less positive you need to identify and then handle the objections (which is the subject for another post!).

Selling is a skill. It's easy to learn and can be very satisfying financially as well as the good feeling that comes when providing customers with what they want.

Johnathan Briggs, Growtheprofits.com