Selling is not a skill. It’s an umbrella of skills that allow you to be adaptive and effective in finding leads, turning them into prospects and seeing them through to conversion. While you do not have to have mastery over every selling skill, you stand a better chance of making it in today’s marketplace the more of them you can add to your toolbox. That said, here are 10 of the most effective.
1. Prospect everywhere
Think both internally and externally. Where can you find prospects connected to your own organization, in your own communities, versus your social networks and other external forces? Cast as wide of a net as possible, and realize that you know or have good connections to more prospects than you think.
2. Product knowledge and sincerity
It is incredibly difficult to sell something you don’t believe in whether you have the rest of these skills or not. Believing in a product naturally means you need to know something about it, so study up!
3. Keep them talking (about themselves)
The more you can get a prospect talking and engaged, the more open they will become to what you have to sell. Don’t allow yourself to hijack the conversation. Make it a goal to get your prospects talking because when they are talking, they are revealing information that can prove helpful as you nurture that relationship.
4. Listen and respond
Becoming an active listener is about more than just hearing the words that are coming out of a prospect’s mouth. In other words, getting the prospect talking and keeping them talking are two different things, and the latter requires that you truly listen to what they have to say and respond naturally and sincerely.
5. Learn to manage your time
Let’s say that each sale earns you $50 per month in revenue, and you convert roughly 5 percent of the leads that you get. That means to make $100,000 per year, you will need around 167 paying customers, which translates to over 3,300 leads per year. Unpack that for a sec. That many leads would require you to make around nine contacts per day. How are you going to do that if you’re a terrible time manager? Easy answer: you’re not. To improve your time management, consider starting each week with an overview plan and each day by brainstorming the individual actions you’ll need to take in order to get there.
6. Focus on presentation
A good message presented badly will seldom lead to a sale, but we’ve seen a lot of terrible ideas make money because they were packaged and sold well. Bottom line: yes, you need a great product, but you also can’t afford — especially in our industry — to assume any product will sell itself. Customers need to get a good vibe. They need you to earn their confidence and trust. Your presentation can take care of that. But to get it where it needs to be, you’ll need to know what you sound and look like to the customer. How confident are you? How good are you at answering their questions and communicating benefits? Invest in a recorder and listen to all of your presentations until your confidence is where it needs to be.
7. Fluidity with phone, email, and video conferencing
Yes, tech is important to the modern salesperson. You have to use it to reach potential clients wherever they may be. Becoming comfortable making your pitch and answering questions on the phone or through written communication or on Skype are all ways to tear down barriers between you and your customers.
8. Always be nurturing
Most sales happen seven touches into the lead nurturing process. Patience is a necessity for a good salesperson because buying decisions are annoyingly not immediate. Just make sure you know how to strike that balance between staying in your prospect’s mind and not becoming an obnoxious person.
9. Thinking in goals, not dreams
Dreams are intangible and useless. Goals are concrete and actionable. Don’t be a dreamer. Be a goaler. Ask yourself each day, what action can I take to move this further, and you’ll get to either success or failure. Either way you’ll be better for it.
10. Learning from defeat
Yes, you are going to lose in the sales game. A LOT. The good salespeople understand this, but they react much differently in how they handle it. Rather than retreat or give up, they think each new prospect could be “the one.” And they are right enough to make a career of it.
In closing
Becoming a great salesperson is all about amassing and connecting as many of the above skills as possible. But which ones are you good at, which ones could use improvement, and what are some of the most valuable selling skills in your experience that were not included here?
Now that you’re a selling expert, apply your new found knowledge on our productive leads! Contact us at 800-820-2981 or click here to learn how we can help you grow your business.
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