Selling. Nick Constable

Manage yourself

       7.4 Develop your creativity, enthusiasm and drive

       Jargon buster

       Further reading

       Useful websites

       About the author

       Copyright

       About the Publisher

       The secrets of successful selling

      A few years ago, when the world of business was gripped by the Internet boom, it was fashionable to predict an end to traditional selling done by humans. Michael Dell, to name but one, was showing the world how to sell complex technology on a website. The tantalizing prospect of doing away with expensive salespeople was seriously entertained.

      But 10 years on, professional selling is just as vital to the conduct of good business as it ever was. And over the 25 years that I have been selling, the skills and techniques have evolved with the development of technology and markets. It’s a highly sophisticated profession.

      I’ve been a successful salesperson, a sales manager and a sales director for companies large and small, and I’ve been able to observe the very best and the worst in sales practices. Selling isn’t, as some will tell you, all about instinct. As I’ve seen when running my training courses, if you learn the techniques and skills that have been proven to work, and then develop the right attitude, you too can be one of the best.

      This book will share 50 of the fundamental secrets of how to excel in this exciting profession, whilst, I hope, having some fun and building some great relationships with those you meet, along the way. The 50 secrets are divided into seven chapters:

       How and why people buy. If you understand the real motivations people have for buying, you’re half-way to becoming a smarter salesperson.

       Selling to the right people. Don’t waste your valuable time with the wrong people. Learn how to identify the ones who will buy.

       Generating new business. No business can grow without finding and winning new clients. Learning to do this for yourself will make you a ‘self-sufficient’ salesperson.

       Meeting the customer. Selling is about human interaction and behaviours. The precious time you spend with customers is when those things matter most.

       Making your pitch. Whether you’re writing a proposal or delivering your presentation, there’s a lot to think about to make your offer compelling.

       Gaining commitment. Reaching a satisfactory agreement, whilst negotiating the obstacles, takes patience and planning.

       The right attitude. Your success will depend on your willingness to develop the personal motivation and desire to win.

      You might be completely new to sales, or an old-timer like me, but I am certain that if you follow the tips and techniques in this book you will see the positive effect on your own achievements!

       Selling relies on a set of professional skills that will improve with practice and persistence.

       How and why people buy

      In this first chapter we are going to explore how and why people buy. Even the smallest transactions rely to some extent on the trust and respect between the seller and the buyer. Understanding the motivations people have for investing their money with you is the first step on the road to learning the behaviours and skills that create great business relationships.

       1.1 Sell positive change

      Let’s start not by considering what you need to do to become a great salesperson, or how good your products or services need to be; let’s start by thinking about customers, and the real reasons why they might spend their money with you: it’s often little to do with the technical excellence of your product, but because they want to change something.

      It has always surprised and amused me that there are so many business people out there who think selling is a science, and want to find (or be sold) a mechanical formula which will always work. Actually, although there are indeed proven techniques and methods that you can learn, selling is much more of an art – it’s about behaviours, emotions, communication and people.

      Buyers are just people like you and me, and if they are to be persuaded or helped to make a purchase from you, they have to feel that the result for them will be some kind of positive change – in their lives, or in their company’s life.

      one minute wonder Remember that in a business context, nearly all positive change will ultimately boil down to some kind of improvement in working practice. Spend a minute to think about how you can help your customers save money or earn more money. How can you save them time, effort or resources with what you’re offering?

      Let’s look at a simple example, and imagine that you are thinking about buying a new mobile phone. You’ve seen lots of the latest models in adverts, but they’re expensive, and up until now you haven’t been in any rush. Your current phone still works OK, so why spend money on a new one? That new phone will have to offer something which will improve your life in some way.

      For example, you might want to pick up email on the move and you can’t do that today. You’re not buying a phone, but the positive change in the way you can communicate. Later, we’ll look at how a great salesperson might have helped you to see how important that positive change is to you.

       Every successful sale happens because the buyer comes to believe the product or service will make a positive impact.

       1.2 Understand value

      It’s amazing how many people think that selling is just about the product and its price. Offer something with a fancy new feature at an attractive price and it will sell itself. But that’s just marketing, not selling. Value is the most important concept in selling.

      Let’s consider some of the aspects of value in a business context:

       Needs. We can define Needs as being those drivers of positive change that will deliver the most value to the customer, because these are things the customer must have in order to achieve the improvement they seek. If we can understand how much the customer needs that improvement, we can work out the true value of helping them achieve it.

       Wants. Some drivers of positive change will be ‘nice to have’ but not completely necessary for the customer to achieve the improvement they seek. We can call these things Wants. The customer will attach less value to these things. Make sure you are not selling to Wants alone.

      “The wheel that squeaks the loudest is the one that gets the grease.”

       Josh Billings, American humourist

      one minute wonder If you’re having difficulty trying to work out what’s going to be valuable to your target customer,