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Business sales and selling
James Barlow, chief executive of the Scottish Institute for Enterprise, gives his advice on how to perfect your sales technique. Follow these tips and with a bit of thought and some careful preparation, you can be sure to achieve sustainable sales growth.
• Until the money’s cleared in the bank you haven’t made the sale
Be realistic about how long it will take from initial contact with a customer to money in your account. Keep an eye on the full cost of generating each sale and include everything - you’ll only be kidding yourself otherwise.
• Know what the customer is buying
Sometimes what you are selling is not what people are buying. For example, you might be selling cost savings but people might be buying into the idea that they can spend that saved money on something else.
Think about aftershave or perfume - people aren’t buying cetyl alcohol, phenoxyethanol and a bunch of other compounds, they are buying into the thought that someone special will get close enough to notice.
• Sell benefits, not features
Remember the bridging phrase: ‘which means that...’ because people buy benefits, not features. For example, compare: ‘You should buy this handset because it has Bluetooth’ to: ‘This handset has Bluetooth which means that you can use it legally with a hands free set in the car and never miss important calls.’
• Recognise opportunity
Be aware of “overselling”. It might be that your product does X,Y and Z, but if a customer only needs X and can see that you can provide it, you’ve probably already done enough to get your sale. If you carry on regardless, selling Y and Z, the customer’s interest may drop and the sale will slip by.
• Ask questions
The customer can teach you everything you need to know in order to make the sale. Be interested in them, their situation and their issues and you’ll be able to quickly assess if your product can help them.
If your product can’t help someone, it’s better to find out early on rather than spend hours getting to a no or finding out they don’t really need it.
• Answer the question
When a customer asks a question, you’re making progress. Few sales are closed without a customer raising queries and this is a crucial time to get them on side. There are 4 things to remember:
1) Acknowledge the question and its validity.
2) Clarify what it is the customer is asking to make sure you fully understand it.
3) Handle it. It sounds obvious, but you’d be amazed how easy it is to answer the question you want to hear instead of the one you’ve actually been asked.
4) Expand the conversation to bring it back round to the strengths of your product.
If you’re a fan of acronyms, the one to spot above is ACHE.
• Use the right language
Match, but don’t parrot, the language your customers use. If you’re selling a diamond to a non specialist, don’t get technical and talk about how it scintillates and returns the light to show how much of an expert you are - talk about sparkle and how it’s a great quality stone.
• Find your key contact
Don’t waste huge amounts of time selling to someone who doesn’t make the decisions. You need the person who has accountability for the problem or the authority to spend the budget. This might be one person; it might be a group of people.
Either way, find out who they are and when they meet - do your best to get them in the same place at the same time. This will save you time, effort and, ultimately, money.
• Selling online
If you’re selling on the internet, your communication lines are more limited than if you were face to face or on the phone.
So go for a soft launch, test your channels, and be flexible in your approach so that you can constantly amend the way you do things. If you don’t adapt to what your customers want, you’ll lose them.
• Get stuck in
Don’t get a third party involved if you’re just starting out. Getting to know your customers yourself means you’ll get a better idea of what motivates them to buy.
You’ll make mistakes, but they will be cheap mistakes that you can correct quickly. And if you can’t get the sales yourself, you certainly won’t be able to brief a third party well enough to do it for you.
SIE provides free support for students at all of Scotland’s Higher Education Institutions to encourage enterprising spirit and skills.
It helps start-up companies by providing advice and mentoring support on issues such as funding, branding, patenting and networking. To get access to more business advice go to www.sie.ac.uk
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