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The very first rule about selling anything is you have
to believe in what you are selling.
How many sales people do you meet and you know straight away that they
don't believe in what they are selling because you can feel it when people
are lying to you.
I have quite often got that feeling from used car sales people because
they often know they are selling you something that you will be having
trouble with later. Most of the time people sell cars because they are
having trouble with them or they think they will start to have trouble
with them soon.
People will know when you are genuine and will be able to feel your
enthusiasm for the product.
Personally I would never ever sell something that I did not believe
in.
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RESEARCH
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So you are going to sell a product that you believe in.
Next thing you need to do is your research. Do your "homework".
Find out as much as you can about the product and the sort of people
you will be selling the product to.
If you are selling to a select clientel then you will need to understand
them and be able to talk to them in their "language" using their
terminology.
If you are going to be selling to a wide range of people then you will
have to become adept in being able to pick people and then speak to them
in their language. Being able to communicate on all levels is the key....
When you communicate to a person at their level they feel comfortable
with you and will relaxe and lower their resistance to sales people.
If you talk to a person and use a lot of technical terms that are over
their heads they will think you are trying to make them feel stupid and
will resist what you are saying and think that you are lying to them.
Therefore its important to keep things simple...learn how to translate
anything complicated into more simple terms..if the situation lends itself
you can have paper and pen and you can draw things and write things down
to explain it to people using visuals will help someone understand something
a bit more complicated.
Research doesn't stop with just your product. You will need also to
research all of your competition. You will have to understand them and
their product so you can compare your product to theirs and explain to
a person why they should buy your product instead of the competitors.
If it was a retail situation, I would personally be a shopper in the
other stores and find out what their key selling points are and come up
with counter selling points.
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ENGAGING THE CUSTOMER
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You must first make your customer feel comfortable with you.
This takes quite a bit of skill.
For example if you were working in shop that sold beds and you had signs
saying not to lay on the bed and made the environment uncomfortable then
you would find it hard to make the customer feel comfortable. I would
find something about the person that I could relate to and talk to them
about it. It might be through observation, like noting a persons dress,
aftershave or something that you like, if they have children then you
should try to relate to the children as well as this will make a person
feel more relaxed if you are comfortable with their children. You might
be able to find something by asking questions about certain things. Once
you have found something in common and you have talked briefly about it
to the person/people you will find they will be more relaxed with you.
Understand that the more relaxed a person is the easier it will be to
sell them something.
Then you can talk more about the product that you are selling and you
will also have a better idea about the best level to communicate to the
person on.
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THE CLOSE
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I would have my invoice book handy and would be writing down the products
that the person is interested in and making suggestions of other products
that would compliment the ones that they are interested in.
Once you have a list you can add it up and give them a price (never
your best) watch their reaction. If they are happy with the price then
you would simply say "Do you want to pay for that with cash or credit
card". If you have followed the other steps
you will find it will all flow naturally and the customer will just go
along with you. If they insist on shopping around then you would naturally
understand that. You would give them a card with your name and number
on it and write the products that they have suggested on the card. (Don't
write the prices) Tell them to go and shop around but to come back to
you before they made the purchase. Say to them bring me back some quotes
and I will do my best to do better.
They naturally want to buy from you because they "like" you.
When they do come back with other quotes all you can do is your best to
better them. If there is no possible way that you can do better than another
company's price, just tell them. |