Selling is a combination of art and science. It relies on various tested and proven rules—about consumer psychology, communication, and engagement. It is also an art, of capturing and holding attention, convincing a person to take action, and encouraging them to remain engaged. However, finding that perfect combination of art and science requires sales acumen.
The use of sales acumen is an important concept in selling. Acumen means a person’s ability to control the content available to them, in order to make it much more engaging and easier to use for the customers. This is only possible when the seller has done the research and learned everything they could about their target audience and what drives them to take action.
Selling doesn’t simply mean coming up with a strategy to sell products and services, it is much more complex than that. You need to know the important concepts and elements that are part of the decision-making process of your customers. We will, therefore, be taking a much more hands-on-approach towards explaining the art and science of selling.
How do we intend to do that? By, outlining the six guiding principles for smart selling via different moderating techniques. We will highlight the important principles that will guide your selling activities, and ensure that your customers are treated to the best possible service. So without further ado let’s delve into the wonders of selling:
1. Buyer Relationships
In order to tap into the enormous potential of the art of selling, businesses have to pay attention to the relationship with their customers. It is no secret that organizations that have good working relations with their clients will be able to make more sales. It will also translate into healthier brand management and will allow the organization to grow exponentially.
According to research, building long-term relationships with your clients always pays off extremely well for your business. Mature industrial markets are a multibillion-dollar industry in this regard and clearly, show that strong buyer-seller relationship will always reap benefits for both parties. In fact, organizational performance tends to increase significantly as the buyer relationship improves. This is a direct indication of increasing trust and credibility of the business.
A study found that the quality of buyer relationships has a significant impact on the actual performance of a business relationship. The study concluded that quality is vital for consumers when it comes to establishing a healthy relationship with a business. It stands to reason as well, because a business that is unable to provide quality products or services can’t expect to have strong buyer relationships.
2. Sales Call Planning
Woody Allen suggests that you achieve eighty percent success just by showing up to an opportunity. That also applies to sales call planning, because how can you expect to have a successful sales call without proper planning? Businesses nowadays have to become smarter when it comes to selling on the phone.
We have already established that a sale is an art. And how do you get better at art? You don’t just magically come across a formula for success. You need to keep working on improving your methods and operations, and this calls for sales call planning. Businesses have to implement sales call planning and put in the work because on a call body language and facial expressions can’t be seen.
Therefore, a business has to plan their sales call and customize it according to the customers they are targeting for any chance of success. This will mean conducting research, auditing the competition, planning the questions, establishing the goal for the call, and keeping things casual. Don’t micro-manage your calls or over plan it, because it can easily have the opposite effect.
There is no secret about the fact that businesses that implement a planning process for their sales call gain improved results in terms of sales. They also have a better response in their initial contact with consumers. This, in turn, establishes a regime where business units are able to standardize their sales practices and ensure that they are able to target the customers according to the available information.
3. Questioning Skills
Another important aspect of sales is having adaptive questioning skills. We don’t mean asking questions just for the sake of it; rather, you need to ask the right questions at the right times. You should be able to adapt your conversation to the responses a prospect/lead is giving.
When it comes to sales, you will find trainers laying greater emphasis on developing questioning skills. Why is that? Because if you’re the one asking the questions, you’re the one in charge of the conversation, since the person answering the questions is following your lead.
It sounds simple in theory, but it isn’t simple at all. Studies estimate that around, 86% of salespeople fail to ask the best questions, and often don’t time them correctly. The right questions allow sales people to identify the needs of the customer, and can even steer a conversation in their favor. Most people are skeptical over the phone, and if you push too hard to sell, they will start having reservations. By asking questions you will be able to clear their reservations and will be able to gain the trust of the customer.
The importance of timing can’t be understated when it comes to asking questions. You need to time your question perfectly and put the customer at ease. Open-ended questions are excellent in this regard, as they allow clients to feel confident and speak their minds. Salespeople should allow their clients to view them as consultants, or their friends, rather than product sellers.
4. Presentation Skills
Of course, what salesperson worth their salt isn’t good at presentation skills? But you don’t just become good at it; you need to work on the presentation skills in order to develop yourself as a salesman. So how does one improve their presentation skills?
It’s not that difficult if you’re committed to putting in the work. A salesperson has to figure out the real objective of a particular presentation opportunity. This means setting up goals that allow people to better use available tools and create a medium which ensures interaction, yet control over the selling intent.
Business experts agree that people prefer shorter presentations. This is because customers want information that is precise, to the point and isn’t filled with needless figures. By showing your customers fancy graphs and filler information, you are only going to confuse them. When making a sales presentation make sure that the information is presented in a manner that can be easily absorbed and digested by the customers or clients.
Posture is also important when making presentations and the body language that you portray to connect with your audience is essential in winning the trust of your clients. The best way to go about a presentation is to employ humor or personal experience along with hard facts. This ends up creating a relaxed environment and allows you to establish common grounds with your audience.
5. Gaining Commitment
A common mistake committed during sales is not following through with their sales pitch or presentation. Results are important obviously but don’t be impatient about them. You need to allow your efforts to mature in order to get the right results. It has been found in a study that around, 62% of salesmen failed to ask for a commitment from their prospective clients.
Why did this happen? Because they didn’t create any real objective or aim for their customers, and which means they wasted their time. You need to adopt the method of active selling, which is based on the salesmen actively creating the opportunity to directly ask for commitments from interested clients by establishing clear objectives.
6. Communicating Value
Value creation is essential when it comes to sales because if you’re unable to prove to your customers that what you’re selling is valuable, then how do you possibly intend to make the sale happen? All businesses need to communicate the value of a product or service that they are selling since that is their Ace card. If customers don’t see the brand of the company as valuable they wouldn’t want to be associated with it, and demand for their products and services will be average.
A good salesman knows and understands the importance of communicating value to the customer since, without that, the sale is incomplete. The science of sales is based on understanding the products or services that you’re selling, and then marrying it with the art of convincing the client that it will bring great value to their lives!
That is the key to selling and ensuring that the client feels comfortable in doing more business with the company in the future.
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