A few thoughts about sales

Small business owners and self employed people often tell me that they believe they are rubbish at sales. That the idea of cold calling or walking up to someone that you don’t know, or worse yet, know a little, and getting them to buy from you is uncomfortable, frightening, or just ‘not something I’m good at’. Firstly, the tough love. If you own a business or are making your living as self-employed, the only way you will continue to stay in business is to sell. Whether you like it or not, what you are already doing is selling. The trouble is that you have an idea in your head of what a salesperson or selling is - the suited wonder that slimes you into signing on the dotted line, the estate agent, the street vendor, the telesalesperson, the furniture salesmen. Obviously, the idea of becoming that (even if it is seemingly successful) is a turn off to most people.

So, how do you sell?

I seems to me, that the most important ingredient is the fire in the belly. If you are really fired up and believe in what you are doing - your own business, or how you are making your living, then your passion will speak volumes for you. The trick is to know a little about how people buy. And to examine what happens when you have made a sale up to this point. Armed with the following simplistic technique, you’ll change how you see selling, and chances are, you’ll get more new customers, talk more about your business to existing customers and have a happier time of it. Know who your ideal customer is. An ideal customer actually has a need or desire for your product already, and has all the right qualities to be a good long term customer for you. WHY: Why would you sell what you do to someone that isn’t going to be an ideal customer? It is a waste of your time, resources and energy. Let the person talk. Asking questions will help you to spot whether the person is your ideal customer, and people generally like to talk about themselves. If you know that, you’ll be able to spot them easily with a few qualifying questions (like how are you? What do you do? How are things with... etc). This is a simple form of finding out what they need. When you get an answer that helps you to say ‘Yes! This is an ideal customer’, naturally it follows that you’d want to ask them what they need. And then you can talk about how what you can do can help them. WHY: Solving a problem, make something easier, more convenient, more fun, is a natural connection between you and your customer. Put yourself in touch with that fire in your belly: Enthusiasm is catchy, and if you love what you do, people will be drawn to you. Tell the story of your business. Have a good opening line that immediately tells the other person why you are interesting. And if you don't think you are interesting, well then you need to rethink how you could be. WHY: It’s easier to buy from someone who loves what they do. And everyone loves (and remembers) a good story. A pithy opening answer to 'what do you do' is a winning card. Know why you are different or better. You’ve made the business for a reason. Knowing why you are a good choice for the person is often the key to helping them to remember you, and choose you rather than someone else, or over doing nothing at all. Spend a little time to know what your competitors offer, rather than make assumptions. WHY: These days people often compare their choices and will know maybe even better than you if you are better or different. If you really understand why you are different or better, it means that you are meeting a real need, rather than producing a product or service and hoping to sell it. Don’t do the hard sell. Remember that you are actually selling the difference that your product or service will make for the person or business, not the actual product or service. If you’ve correctly spotted their need, you’ve talked about how you could help them, chances are they have already made up their minds that they would like to buy from you. Walk away (after leaving your card, and asking if you could keep in touch), or if the signs are really good, book the meeting. And leave it at that. WHY: The idea of closing the deal is a little outdated. People know whether they would buy from you pretty much instantly. The meeting is where you work out the specifics of what they want, need and would like to buy. Do the selling yourself. It is very tempting to hire a salesperson who may or may not like doing it, but will do it in exchange for money. And yes, that can give you some results. But, know this: you will always be the best person to sell your product as the original idea and love for it is in you, not in your hired hand. You can achieve far more by knowing how to sell. I'm familiar with the view that you should outsource where your strength is lacking, and that is true for almost everything except sales. WHY: You'll sell it better. Besides, if your salesperson isn't clear on the points above, they will also find it really hard to sell on your behalf. And, don't forget, talking to potential customers is a gift - feedback. A bit of marketing helps. Even if your ideal customer was really taken with you the first time, they are probably busy with their own lives and work, and may just need a well placed, relevant piece of marketing to help them to make that final call or email or click. In fact, plan on marketing to them multiple times as it can take up to 7 interactions with your brand and marketing for each customer to make the final step to buy. WHY: The selling, whilst the most direct and personable way of making sales, is often only the beginning or end. Happy (not) selling. Bronwyn Durand founded JupiterJasper, the Marketing Mentor for small businesses. Bronwyn is also The Brand Whisperer, with a special interest in building commercial identities for businesses. Do you get my free weekly email? Sign up to ’1 Thing to Improve Your Marketing this week’ here.