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The Art of Selling
Selling is a fundamental art form in place to drive business growth. It is one of the major value exchange points businesses need to be sustainable and to add value to society. An expert sales person is all rounded and proficient at networking, persuading and converting prospects into clients. It has become increasingly simpler to train a proficient, productive and prolific sales team on how to sell anything with Transquisite Consulting. We are of the perspective that sales needs not be a herculean task if it is viewed from the angle of value exchange. The perspective a client is not doing the salesperson a favor as both are ideally solving each other’s problems mutually. That is, as easy as it is, sales is really an exchange – an expert getting paid to or for solving a client’s problem.
We have trained highly productive sales units who are gunning nine figures for their firms. We have trained sales teams in Real Estate, Investing, Banking and Finance, Information Technology, Agriculture and the likes. The fantastic principle about sales is that once you know the steps and strategies to selling, you can apply the technique in selling just about anything . You can contact Transquisite Consulting to get a free appraisal of your sales team. We are interested in helping and guiding your company and indeed sales team to land bigger clientsÂ
To guide you in your quest for more sales knowledge, here are a few nuggets to help you land your first mega sale. If you require indepth practical, tested and proven steps to landing big clients, Click the contact us button above . Let us set you up to achieve mega and recurring sales.
How To Sell Anything
1. They Evaluate You First               Â
The first thing you are selling is yourself. Creating an irresistible and inviting impression has never been more fundamental to knocking off initial sales barriers and biases. Set aside the product or service for a second – If whoever you are selling to does not like you, they are not going to pay attention to you. Whether you have spoken before or not, it is important to keep in mind that before anybody will be willing to hand over their hard-earned money, they have got to like you the salesperson just as much as they like the product that you are selling. It goes a long way to take a little time to get to know your customer and let them get to know you before pitching. Make them laugh if you can by telling them a quick story; and overall simply let your personality shine. If you can make your customer see you as a person and perhaps even a friend rather than just someone who is trying to sell something to them, they will be far more inclined to buy something from you. Finally, be the salesperson you would buy something from and make sure you know the product and present yourself well.
2. Listen More, Talk Less.
One key attribute of a good salesperson is that they listen to their prospect. Nothing kills sales more than a salesperson who consistently out talks his/her prospect. Pay attention to the clients’ needs from the start and present accordingly. To recap, it is important to note that sales is more about listening to a potential client to understand their personalities, challenges and how your product can provide a possible solution. In fact, just 20 percent of the interaction should be you talking, and 80 percent reserved for listening.
3. Research Your Clients
Before you are able to meet the needs of your client and craft your sales pitch to target them as effectively as possible, you need to know as much as you can about the person you are selling to. A very common mistake some salespeople make is trying to sell anything to anyone. There is just one problem with this approach and that is the varying interests of clients. A lot must be considered beforehand. Specific details such as age, financial capability, public status, previous interests, marital status, number of kids, etc. must be researched and considered before time. Unsurprisingly, no amount of researched information is too much information about clients as they often come in handy in the course of engaging the client. Doing a background research also helps in prospecting as these details often suffice when developing an ideal customer avatar. You are much likely to get that sale if your client is able to place your product comfortably in their day to day lives and foresee the role of your product in bettering their life. Knowing as much as possible about who you are selling to before you ever begin your sales pitch is essential if you want that sales pitch to be as effective as possible.
4. Know Your Client’s Needs
Another core pre-requisite to selling is having a firm knowledge of your client’s needs and how to perfectly meet those needs as and when there is that need. It helps to pay attention to a client’s complaints or why they called. They would most often get in touch because of a specific pain or problem they need solved. It pays to listen attentively so as to pick up on those hints. Sales occurs at the point where a service provider is clear on the core needs of its niche audience and how the product or services provided meets with the needs of these clients. Building a sales pitch around this further helps the selling process. Please see recommended visual media to have a clearer insight as to the ideal selling principles
5. Keep It Short and Simple – KISS
Nobody loves long talk sessions let alone long sales pitches. Statistics have shown that a lot of people dislike being sold a product or service. Deductions from these statistics would further buttress the perspective that long sales pitches can spook a client and change a buyer to a no buyer. Try as much as possible to follow the KISS methodology – keep it short and simple. Be certain that you are pitching to the right prospect then go ahead and tell them what the product is, how they benefit from it, who it worked marvelously for, how just a copy is left and the client at that moment is fortunate to take advantage of the last offer left.
6. Focus the Conversation Solely Around Your Prospect.
Ideally you want to ensure you keep your prospect talking. In keeping your prospect talking, the focus should more than often be centered around the client’s major pain points, how debilitating it is to business or to whatever the subject of the conversation is. The conversation will ideally make more sense when you begin to introduce the product or service, the benefits as aligned with the needs and problems of the clients, how you were able to solve that problem for big client A, B and C and how competition Q and Y just called for the same service. In offering your client a platform to express, you are positioned to have a clearer and fuller picture of things and how best to address the problem in line with the needs of your prospect. Closely related to this issue is the pattern and manner of approach. Below, we address steps and how to approach sales
  I) Clearly Identify your Ideal Customer.
Selling anything to anybody is not the core objective of selling. Certainly not everyone will be your client and not everyone will be in need of your services. Irrespective of sector specificity, identifying the qualities that marks your ideal buyer is important because it narrows your focus and increases efficiency and effectiveness. The document that clearly states the qualities and needs of your ideal buyer is called the Customer Avatar Profile and is an invaluable sales document because it helps you find the right fit for your business and saves you wasted time you would have spent on trying to convince poor and wrong leads.
  II) Research A Prospect Before Reaching Out.
Nothing kills sales faster than being totally ignorant of who you are selling to. It ends the entire process before it even starts. Researching your prospect and what he/she and the company is into pays greatly in the course of the conversation as you begin well-grounded in the knowledge of who your prospect is and what that prospect might be in the market for. This day and age offers salespersons an opportunity to surreptitiously research and profile the prospect before pitching. Platforms such as company’s website, Facebook account, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, Google and a lot of other online platforms.
Once you have a firm grasp of the information needed to engage your prospect in a meaningful conversation, you can proceed to contacting the prospect.
  III) Rapport Building Comes First
Building rapport is the bedrock of selling. It is believed that a proper rapport sets you up for success at selling as it is primarily aimed at calming the nerves of your prospect and sterilizing the zone of discussion to evict tension, suspicion, ambiguity and other first time talking issues. A safe place to begin just after the exchange of greetings is a complement – hey, nice place you have here, that picture is beautiful, is that your daughter, etc. The prospect becomes relaxed and begins to talk about the story surrounding the picture and the daughter. You could play around the FORM factor areas where you ask about family, occupation, relationship – depending on the scheduled time available to you, you could talk deeper and further.
 IV) Help Before You Sell.
If you did a proper work finding your ideal client, a high quota of your time would be spent conversing with qualified leads. You must be aware that throughout this process, the qualified lead is evaluating you and comparing your offers with what your competition is offering. You want to ensure that you keep him/her interested in you by offering help along the way, offering a free audit, a free assessment, a free service – just about anything to sustain your client’s interest. In helping, you demonstrate value, you show that you are the expert and you can solve the problem and soothe the pain point. There is no better way to hook in a client other than to give the prospect a piece from the entire pie. If in doubt, ask for areas where they would love assistance. Also ask for areas of pain points. This may help you connect the dots and eventually fix the puzzle.
In addition to the nuggets listed above, Robertherjavec, Hubspot, Brain Tracy and Business Online have offered very valuable pieces of inform
7. Be Aware of Psychological Twists.
We have a certain way of reacting to situations, they are pretty structured ways of responding to issues and situations can be used for our benefits. According to
Our brains are wired to respond to certain situations in specific ways. Being aware of these psychological tricks can help you harness them to your benefit.
Here are just a few of the quirks relevant to salespeople:
Anchoring Effect: The information we receive first acts as an anchor against which we evaluate all further data.
Decoy Effect: A third option can sometimes help people choose between two possibilities.
Rhyme-as-reason Effect: Rhyming statements seem truer than non-rhyming ones.
Loss Aversion: We react more strongly to the possibility of losing something we currently have than the possibility of gaining something we don’t.
Peak-end Rule: People remember the end and a high point within a presentation more vividly than any other section.
Curse of Knowledge: When someone who knows a lot about a given subject is unable to relate to someone who is not as familiar.
Confirmation Bias: We are more likely to accept information that aligns with our beliefs than contradictory evidence — no matter how compelling.
8. Approach them on their level.
It’s great when a salesperson brings their unique personality to their selling process. But bear in mind you should also pay attention to your prospect’s personality and tailor your approach accordingly. Our personal attributes have an impact on how we like to be sold to and what information we prioritize.
Here’s a brief breakdown of the four main personality types, and their preferences:
Assertive: Interested in results and the bottom line.
Amiable: Interested in creative ideas and big-picture visions.
Expressive: Interested in people and how ideas affect others.
Analytics: Interested in facts, figures, and data.
Once you know which category your prospect fits into, play to their preferences and customize your messaging and presentation to nail what’s most important to them.
9. Hit an emotional high point.
There’s no such thing as a purely rational decision. Like it or not, our emotions color how we process information and make decisions. With this in mind, salespeople who appeal solely to their buyers’ logic are doing themselves a disservice.
Every sales message, presentation, and meeting should speak to the prospect’s emotions as well as their rational mind. According to sales expert Geoffrey James, the following six emotions impact decision making:
- Greed
- Fear
- Altruism
- Envy
- Pride
- Shame
Some of these are unpleasant feelings you don’t want buyers associating with you or your company. So, make sure to use a light touch when making emotional appeals. In addition, don’t try to bring forth all of these feelings — choose one or two that will resonate and subtly mix them in. (Read: Try not to put your buyer in a glass case of emotion.)
10. Remember, you are selling to a person.
When you’re sending countless outreach emails each and every day, it’s easy to forget that leads are people. But they are, and they want to be treated as such.
Use yourself as a litmus test — would you like getting this email? Would you appreciate this voicemail? If not, there’s a good chance your buyer won’t either.
It’s important to be professional in sales, but it’s also important to be personable. Buyers have lives outside of work, and things they’re passionate about that have nothing to do with their jobs. Build real rapport with your prospects by letting the conversation drift to the personal every once in a while. It doesn’t have to be — and shouldn’t be — all business all the time.
People Who Saw This Article – The Art of Selling also read Customer Care as the Sustainable Revenue Generator for Businesses
Conclusion
The key to selling is in appearing as a knowledgeable and trusted friend, an expert in your area of specialization, an adviser with a proven track record of proofs and testimonials on how you provided solutions to corporate or individual pain points. Mastering the art of selling takes commitment and a great deal of mastery of the intricacies of persuasion. In persuading, a lot of great sales personnel focus on appealing to emotions along their seven pathways. Emotions such as pride, lust, fear and other core emotional tenets in sales. The core of sales especially with pitches lies in emotional maneuvering and landing at high points where the prospect is already interested enough and agitated to purchase. Being able to conjour an array/mix of emotions in the prospect’s mind state overtime is a guaranteed lane to recurring sales. These and a few more guidelines already listed will get you started on the right path to being a consistent and productive sales person or grooming a prolific sales unit.Â
Transquisite Consulting is open to training some more corporations on the art of selling. Our proven track record of improved bottom line figures after training for our clients speak for us. To contact us, please Click here. The training is comprehensive as it details the intricacies of sales. To aid faster assimilation, the courses have been broken down into simple and easy practical and productive steps. Our objective is to ensure your sales team hits the ground running with recurring sales and observable improvement in productivity. This is why we are free with knowledge sharing and particularly interested in achieving practical results in sessions with you.Â