Your sales figures rely on careful research and planning, authentic communication and tactical skills in persuasion and closing a sale. You can develop a successful sales process for your business using these 10 essential steps to selling.
Find customers
- Research your potential customer base.
- Identify your tactics for finding new customers in your sales and marketing plans.
- Gather information about your customers’ needs, such as:
- what motivates them to buy
- what they prefer
- what they spend their disposable income on.
Plan your approach
- Review information you have gathered about your customers and their needs – make sure it is up to date.
- Consider what products, services, or experiences you have that meet their needs.
- Communicate with credibility.
- Be clear about your purpose. Are you making contact to convey information, arrange a time to meet or hand over your business card?
Make initial contact
- Approach your prospective customer in a way that comforts them and builds their trust in you. Use friendly and courteous body language, facial expressions, and manners.
- Listen to their needs.
- Use an anecdote or relevant fact to establish their interest. For example, describe a recent customer who received the kind of benefits they are looking for.
- Where suitable use humour and be open and genuine.
- Don’t take up more time than you need. Get to the point quickly.
- Make an observation about something your customers have, or say, that relates to your products.
Confirm specific customer needs
- Confirm an individual customer’s needs by listening to their requirements.
- Ask questions that are relevant to your customer’s needs and your products. Questions can be:
- direct – for example, ‘Do you have an interest to change your environment to cloud?’
- open-ended – for example, ‘Tell me about the products you’re using at the moment.’
- for clarification – for example, ‘So you’re really looking for a product you can use in environment x, is that right?’
Select the appropriate product or service
- Consider your product range and choose the product, service or experience that best meets the needs you’ve identified.
- If you have several options to choose from, pick one and focus on it.
Make the sales presentation
- Present your product’s features but focus on its benefits.
- Be enthusiastic and show your conviction.
- Explain what makes your product different from the others.
- Anticipate likely questions or reactions and be prepared to respond to them.
- Use examples of your product’s success.
- Use up-selling or cross-selling techniques to introduce your customer to related products.
- If using a presentation, ensure it is up to date and tailored to your customer.
- Be open in your presentation.
Handle objections
- Be prepared for what customers will say and be ready to respond. For example:
- Objection: ‘Sorry, I don’t have the time today’
- Response: ‘No problems. I’m more than happy to book you a 10-minute test run another afternoon this week so you can take advantage of our complimentary offer’
- Recognise your customer’s comments by acknowledging their views and then responding with solutions.
- Ask questions about their views to find ways to address them.
- Restate the customer’s objection. By saying it aloud, you can reduce its impact.
Close the sale
- Look for signals that indicate the client is ready to make a purchase (e.g., they ask specific questions about availability or warranties).
- Stop talking – give your customer a chance to fill the silence and say yes.
- Offer a choice that assumes their purchase (e.g., ‘Would you prefer the a or b?’).
- Address the customer’s minor questions or decisions about the product to eliminate all their obstacles.
Follow up
- Offer after-sale service and deliver on whatever you’ve said you’ll do.
- If you didn’t close the sale, follow up with additional opportunities or maintain the relationship.
- Update your sales matrix and/or customer relationship management tool.
- Check in with your customer after the sale to see if they are happy with the product.
- Look for the next selling opportunity by drawing the customer’s attention to related products or upcoming specials.
- Build on your rapport to establish a relationship over the longer term.
Review the sales
- Gather information about your business’s sales performance and product popularity.
- Do some customer research. You could use customer feedback forms to evaluate customer satisfaction.
- Look for issues in product performance and take-up and identify where your sales tactics and sales team are most and least effective.
- Consider what you have learned.