The amount of literature on how to be a good salesperson is so voluminous you might think that it’s nearly impossible to compete with other salespeople who have read all the books and listened to all the tapes. However, being a good salesperson comes down to being an approachable person who knows their product. Here are five stellar sales tips to get you started on being such a successful salesperson.
1. Speak with Confidence: Starting right now, eliminate every wishy-washy word from your vocabulary. No more saying ‘might,’ ‘probably,’ ‘maybe,’ ‘seems,’ or any other word that sounds like you don’t know. If you don’t know, then say so. These words also soften the strength of your pitch without adding anything. Eliminate them immediately and you’ll see the difference.
2. Use the Customer’s Words: When you sit down with customers, they’re going to tell you what they want and what they are looking for. Instead of giving them your usual pitch, use their words within your pitch. This means listen to the terms they use and repeat them. You’ll be answering their needs specifically and it shows you’re attentive as well. Plus, you’ll be meeting customers on their terms, not yours, which makes them feel better about the sale.
3. Diversify Your Communications Portfolio: Most salespeople grew up making phone calls and doing in-person contacts. In this day, people use all sorts of different media platforms on the Web and through other means to reach and maintain contact with customers. Learn to use these low-cost tools as one of many ways to reach new customers and maintain contact with old ones.
4. Set Yourself Up as an Authority: You may already be working hard as a salesperson, but part of doing your job is positioning yourself to be a trustworthy resource for customers to come to. Write articles for websites and other sources to demonstrate your knowledge of business and to give to customers as an example of your acumen.
5. Stay Current: Of course, be aware of the changes in your business, but also stay conscious of the changes in your customers’ business as well. Remember to also keep up on the personal lives of your customers, sending them well wishes throughout the year and whenever they see big successes as well. It’ll show you’re not just about sales, but an interested person as well, who is well worth keeping in contact with.
Any questions of if you would like to chat contact me through Scapes at http://www.scapes.ca
As a lot of you know I run a small business marketing company – Scapes Consulting as well as writing for this blog. I have been focused on bringing internet marketing ideas to the local bricks and mortar type businesses that don’t normally know how to enter this strange new marketing world beyond just putting up a website.
I have noticed as business is picking up I have had less time to commit to producing new articles for all my Bootstrapping Friends. Well I decided that I will share the video’s that I have created for my local clients with you guys as well. A lot of the information in them is just as important for my readers that are here as well.
It also does not matter where in the world you are my company would be able to help you with any of the concepts that I talk about.
When we start off in business, we often do so because we have a great strength. Whether, you’re a terrific salesperson or an intrepid designer, your strength is the vehicle to make you money. Unfortunately, it only takes about a week into your business when you realize what you do poorly. This can be customer relations, accounting, or…well, practically anything and everything that can go wrong when it comes to running a bootstrapped business. So what do you do? You only have so much time and effort, so do you build on strengths or fix weaknesses?
A little perspective: Almost everybody will always focus on their weaknesses instead of their strengths. This is true on a large scale too. There are 40,000 clinical studies on depression, but less than 400 on joy. Think back to being a kid—did your parents give you as much praise for your A+ in school as they did scolding for your C-? Probably not. Overall, weaknesses are seen not as areas we are lacking, but as Achilles Heels that are bound to destroy us and our business in the future.
But this isn’t the case. In fact, our weaknesses are areas where we need to work with over time. Just because we don’t do something well at this very moment, doesn’t mean we can’t become very skilled at it in the future. Instead of looking at these spots as weaknesses, plan for more time or do a little more reading in these areas, but most importantly accept that you are going to need do some extra work as a matter of course. Many weak areas can also be aided by special learning software and assistance from others in order to bolster your business until you can get up to the appropriate standards. But remember—a weakness worked at doesn’t become a strength.
Moreover, your weaknesses don’t generate income, your strengths do. So accept your weaknesses—outsource the work, find tools to help you, or spend a little more time on these areas—but build on your strengths because they are what will make or break your business in the long run. As your business becomes more successful because of these strengths, you’ll be able to hand off more of your weaknesses to other people. Thus, the damages your weaknesses do may only be short term, but the benefits of your strengths will define your future success.
Whatever your job is, when you sit down to do it, often the task at hand can distract you from the importance of the way you do it. If you’re a small business owner or otherwise, you’ll want to save yourself small bits of time that can otherwise add up to entire days of extra work performed. Here are 10 ways to improve workflow.
- Think mise en place, or everything in its place. This idea is popular among professional chefs. Basically put, make sure your work space is organized with everything in easy reach and nothing in the way.
- Your computer desktop is still a desktop. Clean your computer’s desktop of needless links and files. Put relevant files together in folders and create quick links for all regularly used applications and websites.
- Grabbing something? Grab something else. Every time you get up to get something, stop and ask yourself if you need anything else while you’re up.
- No more games. We all need a little release with games and other distractions at times, but if you eliminate these products from your computer, you’ll be surprised how little you miss them.
- Turn off chat. Many offices and Web applications have Web chat. Unless this is essential to your business, turn it off, or put your account on “busy.”
- Keep separate business and personal emails. Doing this will keep you from being distracted by personal activities that can probably wait till after work.
- Swallow the biggest frog first. When you organize your day, do the hardest and most painful task first. This will make everything else easier and prevent you from procrastinating.
- Keep work at work. Don’t allow yourself to carry work over into your personal time. Often, this is an excuse to be lazy at work to limit your work time. This will help you focus while at work and improve your personal life as well.
- How do you work when your boss is watching? Always work as if your boss is over your shoulder—especially if you are your own boss! With this mindset you’ll see greater productivity.
- Time to lean, time to clean. While you might not have anything to clean when you work, keep in mind that there is never down time. Many workers allow this little bit of wiggle room with their time, however it only pushes work off that needs to be done anyways.
In a general sense, your workflow will greatly improve when you make your work area as streamlined as possible for completing a task and creating attitudes that focus work time on work. Thinking in terms of tasks to be done instead of hours to work will also greatly improve your productivity. It may take time to completely adapt these ideas into your work area and attitude, but the extra effort required to do so will pay off large dividends.
You’ve heard the constant buzz surrounding this hot topic. Everybody is talking about it, or is a part of it, businesses want to use it, but you are just stuck with the same pressing question—what the hell is social networking? Well first, calm down. If you don’t know what it is, you may feel like you’re missing out on something big that you should be a part of. Yes, it is big. Yes, you should be a part of it. But you don’t have to miss out.
This phenomena is simply using the Web to connect with people, many of whom you meet exclusively through the Web by having shared interests or through others you already know. Many websites that you’ve heard of are social networking site—Facebook, MySpace, Blogger, and Twitter are probably the most popular. Each does something a little different, but basically each one allows people to share ideas and media with many people at once with little effort. Twitter, for example, allows you to send messages to everyone in your friends list, but only at 140 characters at a time. It’s a great way to let everyone know what you’re up to and for others to check up on you, but without a long phone call. Other sites like Blogger allow you to blog, put up posts of text as long as you want, so that you can expand upon ideas or comment on events and let anyone who’s interested join in on the conversation.
These activities may not seem like very much on the surface, but their power comes when many people are all communicating at once. You may only get 140 characters on Twitter, but you may get thirty messages a day. This makes you aware of what many people are doing very quickly. Furthermore, sites like Facebook and MySpace allow you to give and get a look out what other people are interested in and are up to any given day; very quickly. Your friends get to see what others are writing about you, and through this, new connections are made. When millions of people are doing this together, ideas and conversations spread out quickly.
The true strength of these technologies is the ability for users to pass along messages to others instantaneously. It’s like a game of telephone, expect there are thousands of people spread out all over the world and there’s no lag time between messages. These technologies are nothing to scoff at. Many recent news events have been reported first by people posting content to social networking websites and passing the word to others through these networks. Because they are so quick and don’t require much work to use, they are a great way to spread the word about anything, including historic moments.
So now you want to get on it? Great! It’s free to use any of these services. You don’t have to use them regularly, but when you do, you may find yourself connecting with distant relatives, old friends, and people you never met before, who have the same interests. Through this you can learn a lot, hopefully make a few business connections, and maybe even a few new friends as well. Tweet!
So follow me on twitter: @heckman