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At its most basic, selling is about grabbing the customer's attention, holding their interest while creating a desire to buy, and then confirming the sale.
In other words, selling is all about good communication and learning to read your buyer's responses. But there's more to it than that, as you may expect.
Do your homework
One main way to ensure that your customer doesn't ignore your attention-grabbing pitch is to make sure you've done your homework.
You can significantly boost your sales by carrying out some research beforehand on what your customers are looking for, and ensuring you are selling to the right people, at the right price and in the right manner.
Preparing the Pitch
Once you have researched your sales opportunities, it's worth putting time into developing your pitch.
Consider explaining the benefits to be gained by buying the product or service, what customers will get from it, rather than just talking about individual features. This will help to create the desire to buy.
The sales pitch can be delivered face to face, or by phone, but might also be in the form of a mail shot or magazine advertisement.
In this case, pay particular attention to the words you use. Go for punchy prose and a thought-provoking statement - and consider an eye-catching design for brochures or flyers to ensure they get read. Also, using some sort of 'call to action', a time-limited offer, for example, can help to prompt a potential customer to buy or seek more information.
Objection handling
Handling common objections can make the difference between making a sale and losing it.
You can anticipate most of the main objectives beforehand, and these generally centre on the price. But if you're willing to be flexible on payments, timing or even the price itself, you're more likely to close the deal.
But if the customer has more concerns, why not try these objection-handling techniques:
- Conditional close: 'If we can deliver it tomorrow, will you buy it?'
- Curiosity: 'I understand your objection, but am curious why you might pass up this opportunity?'
- Justification: 'That is a very reasonable concern. However, have you considered...?'
- Feel, felt, found: 'I understand how you feel about that. Many others have felt the same way. And what they have found is...'
- Humour: 'I must be losing my touch - let me try again?'
The elevator pitch
One effective selling tool is the 'elevator pitch' - a simple, conversational way to soft-sell your products or services when out and about.
The idea is that you should be able to deliver some key information in a few sentences, in a short period of time, for example, while waiting in a lift.
It will start with a brief but interesting summary description of your product or service that you have committed to memory, which will whet people's appetites.
Subsequent sections of the elevator pitch will give additional information plus details of how to get hold of the product or service. You can bring these into play as you gauge the listener's level of interest.
Stay in touch
Finally, remember to communicate your contact details - telephone number, address, email and website - and give potential customers an order form if required. If you put your key contact details on each piece of literature, you're more likely to net those stray sales.
Related information:
Getting your name out there - tips on getting your business noticed, even if you don't have a big marketing budget.
Business structure - advice on how to structure your business, whether you're self-employed or have a small team working for you.
Dealing with staff - you might have got your client-customer relations down to a fine art, but what about the way you look after your staff?
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