Lies – The Ultimate Sales Sin

English actor David Suchet says;

“A successful swindler has to be a great salesman even more than a great actor.”

The “salesman” has long held disreputable connotations, ever since the days of the door-to-door snake oil salesman. Many people cringe when confronted with a sales person because of past misconceptions that persuading, lying, and luring someone into something they don’t want or need is a good way to make a sale.

We all know that it’s not about using tricks or under-handed techniques or trying everything under the sun to make a sale. It’s about treating your customers and prospects with integrity.

Today’s sales person has to work even harder to prove his or her honesty. Here are five tips on how to treat everyone with integrity:

1. Use your own product. If you regularly use your own product or service, you know the ins and outs of how it operates or functions or feels, etc. When you know something that deeply, your passion for your product or service will be sincere. And when you’re passionate about your product, it rubs off on potential customers.

2. Build long-term relationships. Forget about selling. It’s about building a long-term relationship with someone who will know you, like you, and trust you. If you listen more than you talk, you can gain a wealth of information about a prospect that will help you show him or her how your product can make life easier, make her wealthier, give him the health he’s looking for…Whatever their needs, you’re in it for the long haul to help them.

3. Give them more value than worth. Always give your customers and prospects more value than what your product or service is worth. If your product is worth $10, throw in a service or something else to make your product worth ten times that amount. Give your customers value for their hard-earned pound, and you’ll build trust, which builds long-term relationships.

4. Give a guarantee. Make a prospect’s decision to purchase your product or service either low-risk or no-risk by offering a money-back guarantee. This tells customers and prospects that you believe in and stand behind what you say about your product. If your product or service doesn’t perform like it should, you don’t want unhappy customers out there fuming about how they’ve been duped.

5. Be ready to walk away. One of the hardest things to do is walk away from a potential buyer whom you’ve realized is not a good fit for your product. By selling to the right buyers, you reduce customer dissatisfaction and you increase your successes, which leads to referrals and repeat business. And by only selling to the right buyers, you take away the urge to fudge the truth a little to impress an unfit customer.

By using these tips, you’ll become customer-focused. And once you’re customer-focused, you’ll naturally identify what’s best for the needs and desires of your customers. This builds trust, repeat sales, and bottom line success.

Natural Training offers several training programmes that are geared towards stimulating honesty and integrity in sales. If you or your company would like advanced sales training that focuses on your naturally inclined abilities and characteristics, call one of our Consultants now on 0207 043 1582. Let us help you avoid the Ultimate Sales Sin — Lies.