These ideas are meant for the salesman who calls on his clients in person. All of them may not be helpful for telephone sales.
Rules:
A rule is of no value to a salesman unless he uses it in the right way at the right time. You are not a professional salesman until you can use the right rules at the right time without thinking. This ability will be worth a fortune to you regardless of how much you are selling now. When the few important rules of selling become a habit with you, your sales are going to increase.
The only way a salesman can learn to use a rule is through participation-by doing it himself.
Will Power:
Will power is one characteristic that makes for success. You are at your best when your will power and imagination are working together. Once your imagination and will power conflict with each other, it is a cosmic law that imagination will always win out. You must develop the ability to control and use your imagination to tap in on and start the flow of your secret powers of selling. A professional salesman must have a good imagination and must know how to use it.
Enthusiasm:
When you learn to harness your butterflies of fear, they will grow into eagles of courage through enthusiasm. You will have the key characteristic of successful selling. Enthusiasm is as important to a salesman as water is to a fish. An enthusiastic person is one who has a deep inner excitement, one who glows with an intensity of feeling from within.
Enthusiasm is something within the hearts and minds and souls of men that enable them to move mountains. It cannot be turned on and off at will.
Animation is an entirely different characteristic. You can become animated over nothing. Animation may be cut on and off like a water faucet. To become animated, you pep yourself up and get the red corpuscles flowing through your veins with some vocal or physical action. To become enthusiastic, you pull on that inner power. By doing so, you develop faith. “Pep is to animation what faith is to enthusiasm.”
Your big success is going to depend on your little successes. Don't expect to walk through life from mountain peak to mountain peak. From time to time you are going to get down into the valleys of despair. When you are deep in these valleys, train yourself to look for the golden nuggets of knowledge and experience that have been washed down by the tears of disappointment from the high peaks of life. Your big success is going to be the accumulation of all your little successes.
If you want to fire up your enthusiasm in order to do a better job, find out all you can about your product, service, cause, or company. Find out all the details you can in regard to maintenance, operations, equipment, and history. The more you know about your product, the more enthusiastic you will become.
The best time for you to make a sale is right after you've made one.
Review:
- You cannot get enthusiastic over nothing. You must have something to get enthusiastic about, and that is your product or service.
- Find out all you can about your company, product, or service. The more you know, the more enthusiastic you will be.
- Know all the wonders your product or service performs for humanity.
- Ten times a day “shake yourself loose.” Criticize yourself in a positive way for not doing what you know you can do.
Knowing all you can about anything is the first rule that generates enthusiasm in you.
Know Your Client:
You must get all the information about the client-his wants and needs-before you attempt to sell him.
Don't Try Too Hard:
- The client must be listening to you and hearing what you say
- Develop a service attitude. Forget the commission and think of the client and the wonderful things he will gain from your product.
- If the client wants to shake hands, give him a warm, friendly handshake. If he doesn't - don't!
- Don't smoke
- Don't touch the client. Don't be a back slapper.
- Do call him by name. Learn to pronounce his name correctly.
- Be pleasant.
Take the time to develop a sincere compliment attitude. The power of the compliment depends upon its sincerity. Flattery will not work.
Tell your client how your product will benefit him.
In order to sell professionally, you must listen to every word your client says, and you must analyze as well as listen.
Client's Questions:
- What is it?
- How will it benefit me?
- Can you prove it?
- What does it cost?
A professional salesman uses three types of language in his selling: general, specific, and concrete. General means vague, not definite. Specific means exact, precisely formulated, explicit. Concrete means naming something perceived by the senses.
Close The Sale
The time to close the sale is when the client is ready. The real secret to good closing is good selling.
Ask for the sale. Many salesmen loose the sale simply because they didn't ask for it. When you pass the pen to the client to sign, don't look at him. Look at the place he is to sign. Keep a calm, confident expression on your face.
Do not talk yourself out of the sale. The congratulations and reassurance should only take a few moments-then leave!
Objections
Regardless of what you sell, someone will think up a reason for not buying it. You must learn how to use empathy in handling objections. This shows respect for the client's point of view and makes it easier for you to overcome objections. Don't argue with the client. Show respect for his objections. Clients don't buy because the salesman overcomes an objection. They buy because they are convinced and want the product.
The line is thin between success and failure. So many have stood on the verge of success, but because the going was difficult, they have given up. To become a star salesman, you must be willing to pay the price. You must make yourself go when the going looks impossible. You must develop a spirit that keeps on keeping on. It is the law of nature that we never stand still, never run on a level plain.
Your success in selling depends on you. You set the pace. Decide right now that you are going to increase your sales. Your goal must be clear in your mind. Don't listen to negative thinkers.
Good luck and happy selling!
