Editor’s note: This article was first published in October 2010, and its reference to “techniques that worked 20 years ago” means around 1990.
Sales are the Achilles’ heel of many business owners and, believe it or not, of many salespeople too.
Marketing has changed, so has the business owner’s mindset, and the techniques that worked 20 years ago are no longer as effective.
So I’m taking this opportunity to go over a few points about sales techniques that I had forgotten. These points won’t turn you into the salesperson of the century, but if you keep them in mind and don’t forget them in a meeting or negotiation, you’ll close a higher percentage of sales.
When you go into a meeting or negotiation, you should go in aware that you’re heading into a war, a fight. You’ll bring your attack strategy, and the client will receive you with a defensive technique. You’re playing on their home field, and that’s the field you need to know perfectly.
The advantage you have when you introduce yourself to a client is that they know nothing about you, but if you don’t play your cards right, that will also be your biggest disadvantage.
If you have an appointment, be punctual, but not too punctual. Personally, I don’t like people who arrive 15 minutes early. It’s as if they had nothing else to do or too much time on their hands.
If you don’t have an appointment, remember this: “Any time of day is good for making a sale, but not just any moment.” The first principle for making sure a sale succeeds is that the client can give you their full attention.
So if, from what you can see, you think they’re going to be interrupted, or they have to go to the bank, to an appointment or to pick up the kids in five minutes, abort the operation and put all your effort into getting an appointment for another time.
Nobody likes a salesperson at first sight, so never start talking nonstop about your products or your company. A sale isn’t forced; it flows out of a normal conversation, which you have to steer towards the sale. Don’t try to convince; give arguments until they convince themselves.
Remember one thing when you introduce yourself and present your product or service:
Business people don’t like to do business with people who are smarter than they are, because they see a chance of being cheated. At the same time, they don’t like doing business with a fool, because they’d get nothing out of it. Don’t be arrogant or a smart-aleck: you know your business and your product well, and they know theirs very well. All you can do is advise them on future improvements that come out of working with you.
All sales are the same but are carried out differently. There’s no one rule that works for every sector, but as a general rule, someone who learned how to sell insurance policies, books, dinner sets or steam cleaners will sell any product more easily than someone who has only ever sold cars.
If your thing is door-to-door selling, dress smartly, but not in a suit (ANTI-MARKETING). The suit stopped being elegant for this kind of selling; these days it’s more associated with people out to convert you to their religion.
If you sell to construction sites, avoid the suit too, unless you want to put the site manager in a bad mood because the undocumented workers walked off the job when they saw you.
If you sell to shops, offices, banks, consultancies and the like, it goes without saying: the better dressed you are, the more successful you’ll be.
Remember that you never get a second chance to make a first impression. Apply this to every area of life.
As you can see, these techniques are nothing out of this world, but they’re the small details that, if you don’t add them to the big sales techniques, will often cost you the sale.
Every business owner should learn to sell, because it’s a hugely important part of business.
Featured image: perzon seo, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
