Sales has become complicated. A simple search in the books section on Amazon reveals over 18,000 books categorised as sales, or with “sales” in the title.

Yet, sales doesn’t have to be complicated. It is in fact simple - when you get the basics right.

It is said that most concepts in life can be broken down into two simple steps. For example, the two steps to boxing is:

1) Hit, and
2) Avoid getting hit.

From there it’s simply a matter of doing those two basics better than anyone else. The same goes for sales. Here are the two simple steps:

1) Gather valuable information
2) Solve a problem

If you do those two things better than anyone else on the prospect’s radar, you will win the business.

Let’s have a closer look at how you go about doing this:

1. Gather valuable information
There are two types of information you can gather on a client:

a. Information in the public domain

Sales peak performers will take the time to research key facts about a company that will help them to understand what the company is up to. The main areas of a website we recommend are company reports (if a public company - particularly the exec summary at the front); the about us page; a blog if they have one and most importantly their people page.

If you can get an understanding of the person you are about to call (try googling their name) then that is the best information you can get. You might even find your dad is at the same rowing club! Don’t forget Dale Carnegie’s famous words “There is no sound as sweet to another person as their own name.”

b. Information not in the public domain

While public domain information is useful, its use is diminished by the fact that your competitors will also have access to it. A better way to gather information is via strategic questioning skills. Questioning skills are highly undervalued by most salespeople - yet they are simply the most important skill a sales person can have.

What do you think of someone who asks you a stupid question? (No need to answer that out loud). Now what do you think of someone who asks you a professional, intelligent question? Society rates very highly people who are able to ask intelligent questions. Look to the world of UK entertainment (Michael Parkinson), journalism (Jeremy Paxman) and psychology (Paul Britton) if you are in any doubt about this.

The better we can get at asking professional, credible questions the more prospective clients will value us, appreciate that we are not calling from a call centre and give us their time more readily.

In order to build your skills, try some training - all of our sales workshops have a strong questioning focus.

2. Solve a problem
We all have business problems. Here are mine: we need to put up a whiteboard and can’t find the time, we need at least one more dedicated telesales person and can’t afford the time to interview, I need a new colour printer but don’t trust the printer market anymore after being let down a few times; I need to completely re-write our website but can’t find the time to write a good brief to give an web designer; and I find it hard to find the time to keep my blog up to date.

You have your own problems. So do your prospects. Everyone does. The key to selling (after you have gathered the right information) is to solve problems. This means articulating the solution in exact terms that are going to thrill (not just mildly please) the prospect. It also means focusing just on their specific problem, and not talking about all the other wonderful ways you can help them one day in the future (prospects don’t like that, they want to go on a date before getting married).

Steps to solving a problem:

1. Recap in strong, spoken words their situation. Paraphrase if you want, but try not to lose meaning, or twist things your way. This shows great active listening skills.

2. Focusing just on their one single problem work out the best way to solve it using your resources. If you can’t, source another supplier who can. It will only take 10 minutes but your prospect will love you for it.

3. Present your solution to them without waffling. Don’t confuse the sale like so many sales people do every day. Your prospect doesn’t necessarily need to hear how global you are, or your wonderful account management model. Your job is to clear paths and make it simple to say “yes”. Tip: If there are more than 3 things for them to do to get to “yes” then you need to simplify it. Many sales can be lost because of the complicated process to get the account under way.

Again we run workshops that help with this. Our spoken presentation skills workshops are all about focusing on your key messages and articulating them to the client with the aim of great clarity and creating understanding.

Conclusion
Sales doesn’t have to be complicated. You will absolutely make more sales if you focus on being the best you can be at gathering information and solving problems. Continually working on these basic yet crucial two steps will ensure a brilliant selling career.

This entry was posted on Friday, May 11th, 2007 at 10:40 am and is filed under Natural news, Sales advice. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.