One of the biggest barriers to
achieving a successful sale, and getting the potential customer to say "yes" is
the sales person or even business owner, who doesn't actually consider
themselves to be 'in sales'. This is particularly prevalent in the professions,
with companies such as dentists, accountants and lawyers.
If you are not selling. how do you
expect your business to make money? If you don't make a sale, you aren't making
money and if you aren't making money then unfortunately, eventually, your
business will fail!
'Selling' seems to get a bad rap, and
is sometimes viewed as a not altogether 'honourable' thing to do, with
salespeople viewed as being pretty close to con artists! The image of a salesman
trying to bully a potential customer into buying something he/she doesn't really
want is a familiar one.
But this isn't selling!
Selling is about solutions
Selling isn't about conning people,
it's about helping them. And it shouldn't be about ticks in a box, numbers on a
chart or counting items sold; it's about finding out what your customer wants,
then developing your product and/or service to meet that need or solve their
problems.
The better you are at doing that, the
more successful you will be at selling.
It's also worth noting that any
marketing you are doing, whether its email newsletters, expos, tweeting or
updating your Facebook status to name but a few, isn't actually selling. These
are marketing tactics to help you achieve the sale; they bring potential
customers to you - then it's your job to convert that interest into a sale.
Do you know if your tactics are
working for you? Does the marketing you do actually increase your bottom line?
If your marketing doesn't ultimately result in increased sales, then consider
reviewing what you're doing and trying something else.
Ask yourself just how much focus your
business puts into sales. Who is selling and what are you doing to encourage and
make it easy for people to buy from you? Don't keep yourself busy with witty
tweets or chirpy, chatty newsletters if they don't ultimately help to solve your
customers' problems or result in a sale.
Selling is just one half of a critical business equation
A successful sale is a 'win-win'
exchange. You feel good because you've made a sale, and the customer feels good
because you've solved his/her problem. They will leave your business satisfied,
will tell their friends and are likely to come back again.
Selling is actually one half of a
2-way exchange process - you are selling, and the customer is buying. Your
potential customer wants what you can offer them - and it's worth more to them
than the money in their pocket.
Issue Twenty-Six (April 2011) of
Mymarketingexpert showed you how to create and follow a clearly
defined, step-by-step sales process. This issue will take a closer look at the
other side of the exchange - the buying process. This shows you how to identify
and understand your customer, and the steps they go through before, during and
after they make a purchase. By doing this, you can tailor your sales process to
match your customer's buying process - and increase the chances of them saying
"yes" to what you are offering.
Remember selling isn't about forcing
a product or service on a potential customer that they don't particularly want.
It's about best meeting their needs and solving their problems - and the better
you understand these needs and provide solutions to the problems, the more
likely it is that the customer will say "yes" and you will complete the
sale.
Article Source: Mymarketingexpert
Greg Longstaff
Business Development Consultant
Franchise Network Specialist
greg@salesmarket.co.nz
+64 9.307.7860
