7 Great Tips For Successful Selling

By Angus MacLennan

job, jobs, career

All Entrepreneurs and Small Business Owners are Sales People. If you want a successful business then you need to get good at selling you products or services.

Using the Presuppositions of NLP I have developed the following 7 Great Tips to Successful Selling that I share with my clients:

1. Put Yourself In Your Clients Place: It is critical to know what your client wants and needs. Be curious about their needs and wants and really get into their shoes. If you understand your clients you are better placed to help them.
2. Ask Open Questions: Ask the When, What, Who, How, Where and When questions and then sit back and listen to their replies. Make sure you think through some great questions as part of your call or meeting preparation - this should be a standard part of your sales process and preparation. You are responsible for your communication so be aware of what you ask and how you ask it.
3. Listen: When you have asked your questions Shut Up And Listen! You need to listen to the full answer - so when you ask a question really listen to the answer. When the other person has stopped speaking wait for 2-3 seconds - there could be more and it could be the information that makes the difference.
4. Have a Goal: Make sure you have a clear defined goal for the call or meeting. It needs to be the next step on your Sales Process. Unless the other person is asking to buy don't try skipping steps in your Sales Process. Focus on your goal and stick to it.
5. Adapt: Be flexible - know you business objectives, meeting objectives and call objectives but remain flexible. All your actions should be designed to increase choice and flexibility. People with the greatest flexibility have the most opportunities to succeed. Allow the person the space to buy by remaining flexible and adapting to their needs and wants.
6. State of Mind: The right State of Mind is critical to success. Use an anchor to get yourself into the prefect state for success. Use what works for you - physical, audio or visual. Personally I like loud music - it always gets me pumped up.
7. Learn and Develop: There is no failure only feedback. If you try something and it doesn't work then try something else. A good place to start is modelling successful sales people you know - analyse what works for them. Success is the goal so make sure you try new approaches until you find what works. When you find what works then learn from it and develop it. Make sure you look back at the end of the day and improve your process.

These steps all assume you have a Sales Process. If you do not have a clearly defined Sales Process with a linked Marketing Plan then you are failing to plan and planning to fail.

Take half a day to develop a solid Process and Plan and these steps will help you get the results you desire. Good luck and have fun!