How do you develop your sales skills and become a professional in this field? You need knowledge and a specific vocation to succeed as a salesperson. But even a vocation without the proper skills won’t produce good results.
Today there are many different techniques for sharpening your sales skills.
Skills needed to build a career in sales
A good sales manager is a superhero who can connect with potential customers and close deals in a week or even faster. But for this, he or she must have skills. In a professional environment, all skills are divided into two types:
- Hard skills. They include specific, professional skills that can be acquired through training. These include knowledge of foreign languages, writing and delivering compelling commercial offers, sales prospecting, qualifying prospects quickly, and sales closing techniques.
- Soft skills. This is a set of essential career skills which are not directly related to a specific subject area but affects efficiency and high performance. Such skills are difficult to measure and demonstrate. Soft skills include working in a team, establishing a dialogue, building long-term relationships with customers, adapting to change, and solving several tasks simultaneously.
Of course, no one canceled professional skills, but with the development of soft skills – your work and career advancement will go better and faster. In addition, if you decide to change the vector of activity, these skills will be helpful in any direction. So don’t forget to invest in yourself and improve your sales skills.
6 tips to quickly and effectively improve sales skills
Selling is not so difficult because it can be learned. Of course, some people have shown an aptitude for commerce since childhood. But the majority learn sales skills. And we should also not forget to improve them. We’ve gathered some tips on how to improve your sales skills quickly and effectively.
- Write plans
It is worth writing about planning separately because this tool helps solve any problems and speed up achieving your professional goals. Its use allows you to do business much more effectively in comparison with the practice of those firms whose owners prefer to let their dream come true and just watch how things develop. Everyone who works in sales should have weekly, monthly or annual plans.
The more clearly you write out the future sales, the better the chance of achieving the expected result and even over-fulfilling your plan. You should check the document regularly and coordinate your work with what is planned for the planning period. This is very important for the salesperson who is not reaching the expected ratios and is thinking about how to develop his sales skills.
- Maintain reports
A CRM system will allow you to manage communication with customers. It perfectly structures the work of salespeople and helps to navigate the situation. It helps find answers to the questions:
- How many calls are received?
- When and from whom?
- Which customers are waiting for additional data?
- When does buyer X give a deposit?
- Who do I call back?
- How many purchases have there been this month?
- What’s the visitor traffic?
- Has the number of applications gone up?
Your efforts can create a CRM system. For example, in an Excel spreadsheet, a B2B social media platform, Google Docs, or buy a commercial version, many of which are on the web.
- Sell, not consult
You can spend three hours explaining why this building is better than the others. Why a “two-bedroom” is better than a “one-bedroom,” and how thick the bedroom walls will be after the acceptance of the house. You can send the customer all the room plans, calculate the benefits of investment and develop an investment plan for the next 3 years, taking into account fluctuations in the dollar. And so you run out of arguments and dry your throat, and the interlocutor says: “Fine, I’ll think about it.” And never calls again.
And that means that at the beginning of the conversation, you need to determine:
- What is the purpose of the incoming call is
- When the customer is planning the deal
If you understand that the person is calling for advice, he will not buy. Of course, you can improve your karma and allocate a few minutes for good deeds. But it’s better to clarify right away: “I’ll be happy to introduce you to the product when you decide to buy and are ready to choose a model. Since our assortment and prices are unstable and this offer may become irrelevant in a month, it’s too early to talk about it. Here are my contacts. Call me when you’re ready to order and make an advance payment.”
Thus you will save time and psychological resources, and the curious buyer will find everything they need on the web.
If you get the answer to the second question: “In six months,” follow the same rules. You can enter the potential client in the CRM database and make a note to contact him later or add him to the list of current offers recipients of mailings. And the person will be pleased, and you will have a prospect.
- Resolve the customer’s pains
Those who understand and know how to resolve the customers’ pains get loyal customers who will bring in dozens of new customers.
A person doesn’t buy a thing because he has to have many (a third coffee maker, a fourth car, etc.). Usually, he has pain, and that problem needs to be fixed. The third car doesn’t start well in the winter, and the second coffee maker makes weak and tasteless coffee.
A cramped apartment with shabby wallpaper, parents in the next room, a house in the middle of nowhere, where the only highway leads with constant traffic jams. The client is looking for a new home. If he was satisfied with the old one, he would not have made repairs, not run on construction websites, and not mess with the realtor.
If you have identified this pain and set out to solve it, the buyer will be yours. If it works out, the client will come to you again and possibly refer new customers.
- Work with objections
Fortunately, some customers do not need convincing. They booked the product, a quarter of an hour later confirmed, and 30 minutes later paid. This is ideal, but there are few such clients. Usually, a person needs to be convinced and close all objections. Such people love persuasion and want attention to themselves.
This can last for several hours or even days. But with the right approach, the deal will take place in the end, and the buyer will go to the one who was more patient and calmed all his doubts.
You need to prepare (and ideally write down) the main objections of the customers with the answers to them. Usually, they are prices, risks, transparency of the deal, safety, and guaranteed service. If the interlocutor asks such a question, you read your answer. This way, you can save time and not go into unnecessary details, where you can quickly get lost and mislead the interlocutor.
- Don’t pause after voicing the price
Do you want to lose a customer quickly? Make a pause after announcing the price ($3000) to create a website.
Here you need to show not the cost but the value of your product. After announcing the price, do not stop talking. Explain that this amount includes the firm’s design and specialists – the best in the matter. Or explain that it includes payment for alterations, which are not excluded in 99 cases out of 100. And very often, their price is much higher than the amount of development. You can say that your SEO-promotion specialists guarantee the client gets to the top of the search, which is also included in the check. List popular websites that have ordered your services and quickly recouped their costs.
For those who sell other products, you can tell them that the price includes shipping, assembly, packaging, or installation.
Your customer should realize all the benefits they will get for that money. Let your product be so valuable to the consumer that they will not google for alternatives but will reserve the product immediately.
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Conclusion
Good sales skills are essential for all professionals involved in the trade sphere, from the usual managers to the head of the department. A lack of relevant skills is a significant loss for the company, and business owners are well aware of that. Big data companies always need awesome salespeople.
Another thing is to clearly understand what these sales skills should be. And also, understand that any skills need constant improvement. Only by improving professionalism can the sales manager benefit the organization and himself.