Selling is about the right ideas communicated in an effective way. The lucrative position of a marketing team is the salesperson, simply because he/she is the one who produces the actual sale. It is important, therefore, that as a salesperson, you know the essentials of being successful in your trade.

1) Focus on the Customer
Whether you are a door-to-door, over the phone, or in-store salesperson, the focal aspect of your sales pitch should be to connect with the customer. It is all about them; their problems, needs, company and situation. Truth be told, they don’t care about you and whatever issues you may have with rejection. They usually won’t be afraid to tell you no. So, focus on making your customer’s life better, and you’ve got your foot in the door.

2) Be Unique
Share a unique characteristic about yourself, which could be anything from where you grew up to the fact that you are on a champion bowling league. Communicate it to your customer through a fun button on your jacket or with a small gift, such as a pen. In other words, make yourself stand out and different from the status-quo, without wearing clown shoes.

Also, listen to the customer and discover something that you have in common. Use that commonality to connect with the customer on a more personal level. Don’t share an elaborate story about how your dog knows every trick in the book, but acknowledge the fact that you too are a dog lover.

3) Be Positive
Your attitude will inevitably come in full view when you are attempting to sell a product. If you are just plain tired of coming to work every day, your enthusiasm will be low and so will your sales. But if you strive to always have a positive attitude, regardless of circumstances, your success rate will likely be much higher.

And do not let the fear of failure stop you. If you’re afraid that you may not succeed in a particular sale, then you won’t. Fear prevents you from accomplishing goals and achieving your full potential, so don’t let it win. In the famous words of Mark Twain, “Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not the absence of fear.” Fear is part of life, so wake up swinging.

4) Pitch it Well
Know the business and the product like the back of your hand. It is important to be able to answer every question the customer may throw your way, and you can’t do that if you don’t know the information. Questions are important on your end as well. Ask questions that really make the customer think and that provide you with crucial information for the sales process. If you don’t know what the customer is looking for, then you can’t sell it to them.

A great exercise that will help you in developing a stronger sales pitch is the “ad reversal” process. Write an ad for the product you are trying to sell that would appear in a newspaper or magazine, and just start with the basics. Then, record yourself reading the ad out loud. Listen to the recording and make adjustments to make the “sound” of it more appealing. Repeat this process until you develop a verbal script for selling your product that you are pleased with.

5) Create a Means for Follow-up
Provide your customer with information they can look at later, whether it be a business card, a website or a brochure. It needs to be well designed and appealing. The better the design, the better impression you give the customer.

This is especially crucial if you were unable to produce a sale. If you give the customer further information to look over, you have opened an opportunity to follow-up. Ask them if they had a chance to review the material and if they thought of any questions you could answer or further information you could provide.

6) Utilize a Mentor
No one is the perfect salesperson, but everyone has quality traits in their salesmanship that you can learn from. Find someone, or even a number of people, that you respect, both in their personal and business ethics, and ask them to give you some pointers. The more you are able to learn from other people and implement, the more effective you will be as a salesperson.

Sources/Related Readings:
• Business Week: You’re Never Too Young to Sell
• EffectiveMeeting.com: Delivering an Effective Sales Pitch
• Entrepreneur.com: Ad Writing Made Easy
• Entrepreneur.com: Unlock Your Selling Potential

Tags: Selling, marketing, sales pitch, positive attitude, Courage, sales process, business ethics

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