Selling is what makes the world of commerce work. Without sales, businesses cannot grow and people with needs cannot get what they want. Salespeople connect people with products and services which meet their needs.
Now selling is a science as much as it is an art. To become master salesman, you need to adopt an attitude that transcends failure and builds enthusiasm everywhere you go. To achieve this, I need to let you in on some of the deep help secrets that salespeople use to create high paying funnels of income for themselves and their companies.
Here are some guidelines that will definitely improve your gross sales, and quite naturally, your gross income. Here are the Strategic Salesmanship Commandments. Look them over; give some thought to each of them; and adapt those that you can to your own selling efforts.
- Get them to use the product immediately
If the product you’re selling is something your prospect can hold in his hands, get it into his hands as quickly as possible. In other words, get the prospect “into the act”. Let him feel it, weigh it, admire it.
- Don’t stand or sit alongside your prospect
Instead, face him while you’re pointing out the important advantages of your product. This will enable you to watch his facial expressions and determine whether and when you should go for the close. In handling sales literature, hold it by the top of the page, at the proper angle, so that your prospect can read it as you’re highlighting the important points.
Regarding your sales literature, don’t release your hold on it, because you want to control the specific parts you want the prospect to read. In other words, you want the prospect to read or see only the parts of the sales material you’re telling him about at a given time.
- With prospects who won’t talk with you
When you can get no feedback to your sales presentation, you must dramatize your presentation to get him involved. Stop and ask questions such as, “Now, don’t you agree that this product can help you or would be of benefit to you?” After you’ve asked a question such as this, stop talking and wait for the prospect to answer. It’s a proven fact that following such a question, the one who talks first will lose, so don’t say anything until after the prospect has given you some kind of answer. Wait him out!
- Know how to handle the devil’s advocate
Prospects who are themselves sales people, and prospects who imagine they know a lot about selling sometimes present difficult selling obstacles, especially for the novice. But believe me, these prospects can be the easiest of all to sell. Simply give your sales presentation, and instead of trying for a close, toss out a challenge such as, “I don’t know, Mr. Prospect – after watching your reactions to what I’ve been showing and telling you about my product, I’m very doubtful as to how this product can truthfully be of benefit to you”.
Then wait a few seconds, just looking at him and waiting for him to say something. Then, start packing up your sales materials as if you are about to leave. In almost every instance, your “tough nut” will quickly ask you, why? These people are generally so filled with their own importance that they just have to prove you wrong. When they start on this tangent, they will sell themselves. The more skeptical you are relative to their ability to make your product work to their benefit, the more they’ll demand that you sell it to them.
If you find that this prospect will not rise to your challenge, then go ahead with the packing of your sales materials and leave quickly. Some people are so convinced of their own importance that it is a poor use of your valuable time to attempt to convince them.
- Remember that in selling, time is money!
Therefore, you must allocate only so much time to each prospect. The prospect who asks you to call back next week, or wants to ramble on about similar products, prices or previous experiences, is costing you money. Learn to quickly get your prospect interested in, and wanting your product, and then systematically present your sales pitch through to the close, when he signs on the dotted line, and reaches for his checkbook.
After the introductory call on your prospect, you should be selling products and collecting money. Any callbacks should be only for reorders, or to sell him related products from your line. In other words, you can waste an introductory call on a prospect to qualify him, but you’re going to be wasting money if you continue calling on him to sell him the first unit of your product.
When faced with a reply such as, “Your product looks pretty good, but I’ll have to give some thought”, you should quickly jump in and ask him what specifically about your product does he feel he needs to give more thought. Let him explain, and that’s when you go back into your sales presentation and make everything crystal clear for him. If he still balks, then you can either tell him that you think his product will really benefit him, or its purchase be to his benefit.
You must spend as much time as possible calling on new prospects. Therefore, your first call should be a selling call with follow-up calls by mail or telephone (once every month or so in person) to sign him for re-orders and other items from your product line.
- Review your sales presentation, your sales materials, and your prospecting efforts
Make sure you have a “door-opener” that arouses interest and “forces” a purchase the first time around. This can be a $2 interest stimulator so that you can show him your full line, or a special marked-down price on an item that everybody wants; but the important thing is to get the prospect on your “buying customer” list, and then follow up via mail or telephone with related, but more profitable products you have to offer.
If you accept our statement that there are no born salesmen, you can readily absorb these “commandments”. Study them, as well as all the material in this report. When you realize your first successes, you will truly know that “salesmen are MADE – not born”.
This article originally appeared on Daniel Sarpong Jnr’s Blog with the same title
About the author
Daniel Sarpong, MBA, Global Sales Coach popularly known as Africa’s Greatest Sales Coach. He is a Pan-Africanist and global business development consultant, author and trainer, equipped with wisdom and pragmatic training skills which make his sessions efficient for achieving effective results.
Daniel has organized and also partnered with many businesses, incubators and accelerators to train thousands of business executives, entrepreneurs, managers and students from over 26 different countries. He specializes in Sales, Client Management, Customer Experience and Sales Leadership. Daniel is currently the Head of Marketing and Digital Media Strategy and the Executive Director of Impact Network Global. Reach him on 0203809248 and [email protected]
