Fundamental Selling Skills Every Salesperson Must Have
The sales profession has changed dramatically over the last decade. Today, salespeople are expected to be much more than simply a conduit between a buyer and seller. They also need to develop strong communication skills and other soft selling abilities, points out Desmond Brifu.
A good salesperson should always think about the next step and never stop learning new things. This means they need to improve their fundamental selling skills constantly. To become a great sales professional, follow these five steps.
1. Understand the Value Proposition
The value proposition is the idea of offering something valuable to someone else. So if you’re selling anything, the value proposition is how much value does that thing bring to the customer? You should always consider what kind of value you bring to the customer. To sell something, you must understand what value you’re providing to the customer.
However, It’s not enough to know what value you’re providing; you need to know what value your customers are looking for. Additionally, Your value proposition should tell a story. Your story should explain what value you’re providing and why people should care. People buy things for reasons, and those reasons might change over time. But no matter what, you should always be telling a story.
2. Establish Trust by Being Honest
In today’s world, honesty is not always the best policy. Many salespeople have been trained to lie about their products or service. To establish trust with your customers, you need to be honest about what you’re selling. It would help if you never tried to hide anything about your product or service. Instead, it would help if you were upfront about everything.
Many salespeople try to hide their products or services. When they do this, they end up losing credibility with their clients, says Desmond. Your customers are smart enough to know if you’re trying to trick them. If you don’t want to lose their trust, then you need to make sure that you’re being completely transparent about what you’re offering.
3. Be Persistent and Stay Positive
Salespeople should be able to Be persistent and stay positive. If they have a good product, then they need to sell it. When selling something, you need to make sure that you are not only pushing your product but also yourself. It would help if you were confident in what you are saying and how you are presenting your product. If you are not confident, then you won’t be able to get someone to buy your product.
They should be willing to learn about their products. If you don’t know anything about your product, then you shouldn’t be trying to sell it. It would help if you researched before you started talking about your product. If you don’t understand your product, you won’t have any credibility when you try to talk about it.
4. Ask Questions to Build Rapport
Building rapport with your customer starts long before you ever meet them. Before you even start talking to them, you should be able to tell whether they are going to be receptive to your pitch or not. To determine if they will be open to hearing what you have to say, you should pay attention to their body language, says Desmond. Are they leaning forward? Is their head tilted back? Do they seem relaxed or tense?
All these clues will give you insight into whether they will respond positively or negatively to what you are saying. Once you are sure they will take the bait, you can start building rapport by asking open-ended questions. Try to keep your conversation moving along and avoid getting stuck on small details.
5. Close Deals with Confidence
Once you have built rapport with your customer, you should start focusing on closing the deal. You should never forget that it is your job to sell, so you should focus on ensuring you are giving your best effort. Don’t worry about being polite or friendly; concentrate on being genuine and sincere.
If unsure how to proceed, you can always ask your customer for feedback. Just remember that the goal is to ensure you leave the customer feeling good about themselves.
Conclusion
In short, it’s important to understand why you sell and who you’re trying to reach with your product or service. Then, it would help if you learned how to connect with them emotionally and build trust, so they buy from you. To build trust, you need to know what questions to ask, when, and how to answer them.
Desmond Brifu assures that learning fundamental selling skills will help you become a better salesperson, which means you’ll be able to sell more effectively, close more deals, and earn more money.
