Selling for a life!
WE ALL KNOW a sale is what converts an idea into a business. Efficient salesmen are greatly sought after in all industries. From entrepreneurs like Bill Gates to CEOs like Ritu Nanda (Escolife), many men and women have achieved great heights in the corporate world with their sales acumen.
To build your sales expertise, is it adequate to join a sales training institute or read a lot of sales books and business biographies?
In addition to formal training, your individual behaviour and emotional tendencies will distinguish you from other salespeople. Hence it is mandatory that one constantly builds one's personality to become an efficient salesperson. While a pleasant personality is essential to the livelihood of the salesman, to sustain and grow, a salesman should possess the following important traits:
An energetic personality to draw the attention of the listener (prospect)
Good listening skills to assimilate what the prospect says
Perseverance to pursue the sale despite hearing objections
Willingness to take responsibility for mistakes and learning from them
Adaptability to promptly make changes in the sales pitch whenever necessary
Strong and healthy self esteem to bounce back from rejections.
Sense of urgency to push sales toward completion quickly
Assertiveness to get the point across confidently
Ability to take risk in selling an innovative idea
Abstract reasoning ability to help sell intangibles
Creativity to sell new products and services
Empathy to sense someone else's need
When your self-analysis reveals that you possess most of the traits mentioned above, and you have the confidence to develop the rest, what should you do next?
Salesmanship like any other art relies on self-education. Learn and constantly practise the following sales skills:
1. Doing your homework: Study your company's products/services/competitors and choose the prospects to target. Then put yourself in the shoes of a buyer and come up with as many objections as possible.
2. Being proactive: Steven Covey, the author of "7 Habits of Highly Effective People", stresses the importance of being proactive. Equip yourself with answers for all the expected objections. Apart from saving a lot of time and energy, it sure will boost your confidence while meeting prospects.
3. Communicate effectively: Understand the prospect and communicate clearly in `their' language.
4. Ask questions: Resist the temptation to begin the conversation by quoting your product's benefits. Ask questions about the buyer's needs and concerns and listen to what he says. Asking the right question will provide a lot of insight about the market. Once you understand your market, you can position your product successfully and greatly minimise the prospects' anxiety.
5. Provide feedback: As a salesman you are the liaison between the company and the market. Consider it your responsibility to promptly offer feedback to the marketing and production departments about your experiences with prospects.
6. Build relationships: We live in the information age when customers have more choice than ever before and can demonstrate their choice with a click of a mouse. So be sensitive and flexible to your customer's spoken and unspoken needs to earn their trust and build a long lasting relationship.
In a nutshell the salesperson has to know how to balance "what's good for my company" with "what's good for my customer." Whether it is a growing economy or an economic downturn, being able to sell competently might just shield you from extinction.
MANJULA SUNDARAM
faqs@cnkonline.com
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