The Art of Selling

Mastering these basics of selling – whether it is just you or your team – is the foundation for success.

• Prospecting

  Just hearing the word prospecting makes you a little nervous. Don’t think that way. If you don’t like to prospect, it’s because no one has taught you the professional way to do it. Also, if you believe your product or service has value, you are simply doing the work to let the world know about it.

• Making original contact the professional way

When we get in touch with potential customers, the key to success in selling is to refine your skills during these initial contacts to become memorable to them. Your goal here is simply to get another call or meeting which is where your selling process starts.

• Qualification

Many salespeople spend most of their time talking to the wrong people. If you do that, it doesn’t matter how eloquently you present your service or product. You have to spend time with the people that make buying decisions. Determining who these people are is important.

• Presentation

After you qualify and know that this person has a need for your product or service, it’s now time to move on to the presentation or demonstration. You must present your product in such a way that they see that it’s just what they had in mind all along.

• Handling objections

The fifth basic method of developing your competence is to learn how to handle objections effectively. Maybe you’ve had prospects who want to wait and think it over; prospects who already have one of whatever it is you’re selling; prospects who’ve been doing business with your competitor for years. You’ve got to learn the concept, adapt the idea to your offering, and learn the words that make it work.

• Closing the sale

Many average to good salespeople prospect, make contacts, qualify, present, and handle objections so well that they manage to get by without learning to close competently. And that, of course, is what keeps them from being great. Closing contains elements of both art and science, and those elements can be learned.

• Referrals

After you’ve satisfied the needs of your client and closed the sale, you have earned the right to your next prospect. By that I mean getting referral business from each and every client. That is the seventh and final basic. If they’re happy, they’ll want someone else to be happy, too. I’ll teach you simple steps to getting solid, qualified referrals every time, if you’re willing to learn.