Tips to Improve Your Salesmanship
72Salesmanship skills are essential in making your career in sales a success. Sales is one of the few careers that allow you to work independently. It pays you for what you accomplish not a fixed salary or per hour rate. This puts you far above the average worker. You are now in the position of getting paid what you are really worth. The following are tips to help you Improve your salesmanship skills.
Show Me The Money
Selling Tips
Study all available information about your product and be ready to answer any question your prospect may have on your product. This knowledge will make you an expert on your product in your prospect eyes. Additional knowledge that will be helpful to you is information on your competitors products. A common question prospects will have is, “How does your product compare to the XYZ brand,” or “Why is your product better than the XYZ Brand.”
Find a common interest with the prospect before you start your sales pitch. If your client has some kind of commercial or sports related apparel on, then start with comments about the product or sport. If the prospect has an accent, then ask where are they from. If your get no hints from the prospect, a simple, “How is your day going?” will always trigger some get acquainted chit chat. This will enable you to start building rapport with then prospect.
After brief rapport building ask your prospect what are the most important features they are looking for in your product. Make a mental note of their answer. They have just told you what features should be the emphasis of your sales presentation.
During your presentation you should be enthusiastic yet even tempered in your presentation. This is a business deal. Do not become emotionally involved.
At the end of your presentation, ask the prospect if they have any questions. Questions are usually a sign of additional interest in your product. If you find that your prospect is not showing any interest in your product, do not waste any more of your time. Do a follow-up call in a couple of days. Otherwise look for another prospect.
Do not take rejections personal. Look at “No” as a rest stop on the highway to “Yes.” The greatest salesperson in the world does not have a 100% closing ratio. You must use rejection as a learning tool to improve your selling skills.
Take stock of your work habits. If you find a weakness, work to improve your work habits.
Look at your weekly and daily work schedule. Try to meet at least 4 or more new people a day. Check out the local networking groups in your area. At networking meetings pitch your product but also find out what the people you are meeting need to improve their business. Take notes on the back of their business cards. If you can connect one person that offers a certain skill and someone else that needs that skill, you have just made 2 new friends that now owe you a favor. Turn this into more referrals and contacts.
When up meet with new prospects, ask for referrals. Everybody knows someone, maybe your prospect has friends that need your product. Don’t be afraid to ask. No one has ever died from the word “No.”
Follow-up and follow-up some more! Contact via email or snail mail the people who rejected you. Just because they didn’t buy today does NOT mean they won’t buy tomorrow.
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Read More Tips on Selling
- Guide to How to Sell Insurance
The main ingredient in successfully selling insurance is having confidence in yourself. You must have the belief that you and your products are helping people. People like to buy things but hate to be sold...
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@jkhale1 - Thanks for the comments.
Good stuff - many of these same tips can be applied during an interview to sell yourself to a potential employer.
Good advice there, hopefully I can apply some of it.
@ConradM - Thanks for the comment. I never thought about using this on a potential employer. Great suggestion!
@wirednomad - I'm glad you found this information useful. Thanks for the comment.
This is great stuff. I have really enjoyed your article. Thanks
Thanks a lot. I've never been very good at selling things, this will help.
Good advice. It got my mind working.
sales advice is awesome! If you can sell you will never be without a job.
@Brian Long & RobSampson - Guys, Thanks for the comments. I hope you found them useful.
@helpfulinfo - Thanks for the comment. I' glad it got your mind working. You're doing better than I!
@markcraw Thanks for the Comment! You're right about "if you can sell you will never be without a job."
I hate selling but these are some good tips, thanks. I guess if you know everything there is to know about your product you can't get flustered and that's a good start!
I'm a terrible salesman but its something I've always wanted to be good at, maybe I'll buy some relevant books and try to teach myself the tricks of the trade.
@ChloeAliceWilson - Thanks for the comment. You're right product knowledge will prevent becoming flustered. They say "Knowledge is Power!"
@James Naylor - Thanks for the comment. I hope you have success on your quest to become a better salesman.
hello,
a very interesting article,thank you for sharing.
@robert.lipscombe - Thanks for the comment. I'm glad to hear you enjoyed it.
Thanks for the tips! I'm always looking for new ways to sell my jewelry.
Great Tips!Im horrible at sales
@Runway & Claymerica - Thanks for the comments and Compliments! They are my favorite combination.
Great hub. Loved the point you made about referrals, I'm finding those are really important and they can get you new sales and earn you respect that would take a lot longer to earn on your own.
@Helen Straw - Thanks for the comment. You're right about referrals. My wife is a Realtor. I have met some long time Realtors who have made an entire business from referrals. They call it "Referral Heaven." Imagine being a salesperson that makes a good living from having the friends of former clients calling you to help them purchase or sell a home.
Thank you for this helpful information.
@Teresa Laurente - Thanks for the comment! I'm glad you found this information useful.
This is very good information for people coming into sales. During my 30 years of selling, I have learned that most sales people have a problem with really listening, getting organized and getting referrals. These are three topics I talk about on my hub pages..Keep promoting your sales ideas. Everyone needs a mentor...
@Insurance Menthor - Thanks for the comment. I agree with you completely. I have read several of your Hubs and I recommend them highly to anyone looking for a career in insurance sales.
I loved your comment in my fan mail "on second thought I AM rich!" I just may make a hub based on that. :O) What a great way of thinking. That is a comment I actually think my Dad had made in the past. I typed a hub about him yesterday but it was flagged as a duplicate the problem being he had many articles written about him so all of the "big" points I touched on are already all over the internet. i unpublished the article but it is showing people are viewing it, so you should take a read if you can see it or look up grandpatime on google, he has a website (he passed away almost 2 years ago now though) but he may have some hub ideas for you based on the hubs I see. he was an amazing salesman who went from the merchant marines at the age of 15 to selling fuller brushes door to door to becoming a multimillionaire.
@callmesplash7 Thanks for the comment! If you have never had to do without, then you don't always appreciate the things you have!
I personally think that selling is a skill that should be taught in school. It is as important as laerning to drive or use a computer. So many people (me included) never learned that skill and are at a loss to talk to people about goods and services we have to offer, even when the customer would benefit.
I'm glad you took the time to creat this hub.
@sleeperno - Thanks for the comment! I agree with you completely. Sales is the only career where you control your income. More sales and more commission equals more income and a better life for you and your family.
Sales isn't the only place where learning to sell works. Learning to sell is basically learning how to persuade other people. If you can learn how to do that, you can essentially convince anyone to do anything. Some examples are convincing your friends not to drive home drunk, convincing your family that you are not a bum, convincing your kids to do their homework, and convincing your boss that you deserve a raise.
Dublio, Thanks for the comment! Sales and negotiation skills are really good skills for everyone.
So few words yet so much wisdom....
I have seen so many people try to complicate the sales process and in these few paragraphs you have gotten to the essence of what salesmanship is all about.
I like that you have not glossed over the work that is involved and perhaps the most important sentence in the whole hub is this one:
No one has ever died from the word “No.”
Thanks for sharing
Regards
Michael
iMindMap, Thank you for the comment. You kind words are greatly appreciated.
jkhale1 2 years ago
Great Hub! Lots of useful information. I'm in sales and can always use a couple of tips to improve my skill set.