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Five tips to learn how to sell – anything!
One of the most valuable skills that a salesperson can
have is knowing how to sell virtually anything. Being
a great salesperson opens up many opportunities,
especially for entrepreneurs and business owners.
The good news is that it’s relatively easy to learn a
few simple techniques that can be applied to any
sales situation – whether you’re selling a product
like print online, over the phone, face-to-face or
even in an interview. Here are five proven tips to
sell anything to anyone in 2019 and beyond!
Fully understand your customer’s needs. No matter
what you’re selling, the most important part of
salesmanship is understanding the needs of your
customer and then figuring out how to meet them. In almost
every case, a salesperson who focuses on customer service
and how a product is able to meet their customers’ needs
and wants, will be much more successful than a salesperson
who focuses on the features and specifications of the product
itself. Perhaps your customer has pain points that your product
is able to alleviate, or perhaps they have desires that your
product is able to fulfill. Once you determine the needs of
your target customer and how your product is able to meet
them, crafting your sales pitch around meeting those needs
is the best way by far to close a sale.
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Learn how to sell yourself. Whether you’re cold calling
or have spoken to a client previously, it’s important
to keep this in mind. Before someone is willing to
hand over their hard-earned money to you, they’ve got to like
you just as much as they like the product that you’re selling.
When you’re making a sales pitch, please take a little time to
get to know your customer. And, let him or her get to know
you. Tell them a quick story, make them laugh, and overall,
simply let your personality shine through. If you can make
your customer see you as a real, caring person and perhaps
even a friend (rather than just someone who’s trying to sell
something), they’ll be far more inclined to buy.
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Research who you’re selling to. Before you’re able to
meet the needs of your customer and craft your sales
pitch to target them as effectively as possible, you
first need to know as much as you can about the person you’re
selling to. Sometimes increasing sales entails researching a
specific client in advance – especially if you’re making a major
sales pitch to a high-profile figure within a large company. At
other times, when you’re selling directly to consumers,
researching who you’re selling to means figuring out the target
customer for your product, then carefully analyzing their
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needs and desires. Either way, knowing as much as possible
about who you’re selling to before you ever begin your sales
pitch, is essential if you want that sales pitch to result in an
actual sale.
Don’t be afraid to ask questions. Making sales centers
around having a conversation with the person that
you’re selling to. And, one of the most important parts
of that conversation will be the specific questions that you
ask. Asking your customer questions (and actually listening
to their answers) is extremely valuable in a couple different
ways. For one, it allows you to figure out more about the
person you’re selling to, including their needs and desires,
and specifically what they’re looking for in a product. Just as
important, however, asking questions is an effective sales
technique because people enjoy talking about themselves.
This basically goes back to making the person like you.
When you show genuine interest in them and give them the
opportunity to talk about their favourite topic (i.e. themselves),
they’ll be much more likely to enjoy the conversation and
therefore much more likely to buy from you in the end.
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Don’t sell. Help. People you’re selling to need to see
you as someone who’s helping them solve a problem
through the product that you’re offering. Keep in mind
that one of the main things that lead people to buy a new
product is that they’re struggling with an issue that they hope
that product will address. It’s your job, therefore, to make sure
that you’re as helpful as possible. When you’re genuinely
trying to be helpful when it comes to addressing your customer’s
needs, your sales pitches will be much more successful.
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Brian Tracy is the most listened to audio author on personal and
business success in the world today. For more information, please
go to www.BrianTracy.com
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