After creating a successful line up, what any entrepreneur requires is a set of selling skills which works well in the real world. The foremost thing one must learn to grab a hands on sales experience is to learn the psychics of the bunch of individuals who are going to buy the product that you are selling. Learning about the different spheres of selling is a major yet manageable challenge for all the entrepreneurs out there. If you are also an entrepreneur worries for the sales part of your product, we bring here some of the important lessons which are imparted during the selling skills training session:
In every business lesson, the entrepreneur is always asked to move out of the comfort zone. But when it comes to selling, the first step is to find a level of comfort with selling. For gaining the confidence and the penetrated knowledge on the subject of selling, the guidance of the mentors and bosses mixed with a certain level of comfort can work wonders.
'I know them better', this is a mistake often made by small business entrepreneur. They presume that they are well aware with the needs of their targeted set of customers and are making the right kind of sales strategy to satisfy them. This is surely not the correct path. Instead, one must ask certain questions from the customers in order to learn the sales driving force. This way, the business can learn about the criteria the customers use in making the buying decision.
In order to refine your business and sales strategy, it becomes imperative to know and understand the bunch of audience you are targeting. By knowing the target audience, the selling skills can be applied in an effective manner. Always remember you cannot satisfy one and all at the same time, hence knowing whom to satisfy and delight becomes of great importance.
A customer relationship can never be built in nano seconds. Customers do take a lot of time in trusting the brand and its products. The deadliest mistake committed by entrepreneurs is failing to establish relationship with their customers. Always remember the first thing you are going to sell is nothing but you. If the customer does not like you, then it is assured that he is never going to purchase your product. Thus, instead of sending standardized messages to your customers, try sending personalized messages and Emails. The more face time you invest on your customers, more the profit you are going to achieve.
Sales is not that aspect of the business which can be left in abeyance even for a single day. It is something which you must do on a daily basis. Even if you are the one who is wearing all the hats in the company, make it a point to spare at least two hours on a daily basis for sales activities. Set a weakly goal for the sales activities and meet a minimum of 10 prospective clients in a week's time for getting a better sales value.
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Selling Skills Training covers a wide spectrum or should I say very wide spectrum! It’s a huge field and encompasses many different aspects of Selling. It could be based on the type of selling like Retail or Rural Selling or it could be on the channel that is used like Channel Sales or Feet on Street Selling. The new type that is currently making waves is based on the internet. It could be social marketing (SMO), where we sell our products and services through various social media platforms like Facebook, Whatsapp, LinkedIn, etc. As these may seem to be more individual based platforms, organizations are resorting to use the more commonly used SEO, for marketing their products. So what is SEO? It’s search engine optimization. A simple method to come amongst the top results in the google list when an individual searches for a product or service. This method thus revolves around our most favorite friend Google. In fact it is he who decides who is going to appear at which position your website is going to land in the list! So how does it work? By using keywords. Let me give you an example. Suppose you were trying to find a good soft skills training company in Mumbai who could deliver all sorts of trainings for your employees. So when you type ‘soft skills training company in mumbai’ google throws up a list of results. It is but natural that you will start reading the list from the first entry at the top and after checking each website will keep coming down the list. If you find a good company at the start of the list itself, you won’t bother to look further or at least not go beyond the first page. Knowing this typical tendency, it becomes all the more important to ensure that your organization website occurs as a result on google on the first page itself. As per research which is being done on SEO on how to increase its effectiveness, the latest findings say that it is better to have long tailed keywords. So if I am a soft skills training company which operates out of Mumbai, it is always better to put the keyword as ‘soft skills training company in mumbai’ rather than just putting ‘training company’. The advantage that you get is that a person who types soft skills will also reach your website, one who types training company will also reach your website, one who types training company in mumbai will also reach your website and those who type soft skills training companies in mumbai will also reach your website. So don’t you think that’s great and will definitely add up to the number of hits you get on your website? Another great way to get on top of the google listings is by creating blogs on a frequent basis. Having articles written by you on a regular basis brings in greater traffic on to your website and frankly serves as a great way to plug in those keywords that you require to pull yourself up on the ratings. The best part about it is it serves as a great creative outlook too, allowing you to write on any topic under the sun, as long as you can relate it to your organization and its services! Other methods that are being taught as a part of Selling Skills Training nowadays are the use of paper click campaigns (PPC) where your advertisement is displayed on certain pages by google or as a part of google directory listings or simply how to use e-mail or SMS marketing more effectively. Selling Skills Training has become a must for all sales employees. Competition is growing faster than ever and being one up on your competitor is becoming more and more important. Companies are constantly engaged in improving the quality of their products; however they tend to miss out on who is selling their product and how he’s doing it! Yes, the sales executive is just as important as the product, if not more! No brownie points for guessing why! That’s why Selling Skills Training is becoming a necessity nowadays. So let’s have a look at what’s covered in such a session:
Ever wondered why you’re unable to match the sales figures of the top performing person in your organization? You are pretty good at what you do but it’s just somehow not good enough? There must be something that he/she does which must be different and which really works with the customers. Helping you get that edge and understanding what different you have to do is just what our Selling Skills Training is all about.
Top performers ensure that they know more about their customers. That’s how they are able to give them exactly what they want. They pick up queues from what the customer says, their body language and the way they talk. For this it is important that they have exceptional listening skills and can listen to the customer with an open mind and without constantly trying to think about how they are going to sell their product. They allow the customer to do most of the talking so that they can get maximum information about the customer’s needs and then ask questions which further help them to zero in on what the customer wants. They then they think of whether or not they have a product that matches the customer’s needs. They never try to force themselves upon the customer and are genuine enough to say that their products are not what the customer’s are looking for if that is what they feel. One of the most important things is that they give the customer genuine advice just as a friend would and win the trust of the customer. Another thing that these salesmen typically do which makes them one step ahead of the rest is that they give their customers exceptional service. They go out of their way to help their customer and ensure that they never promise anything which they cannot fulfill. This goes a long way in building long term relationships with customers and changing the perception of ‘salesmen’ that customers generally tend to have. So what do customers really want? They want someone who they can trust to give them the right information and not just someone who is looking to sell his product at any cost. They also want someone who they can have a great rapport with and who is approachable and available to them whenever they need them. In short, they want a trustworthy friend who genuinely cares about them. If you can become that to a customer then you have definitely used the Selling Skills Training to take you to the next level! Selling skills is one of the major qualities which are required in a sales person. The company depends on a sales person to gain more prospects which helps in the development of the company. So in order to learn the right ways to sell and practice the methods there are several institutions offering selling skills training to candidates who want to take up their career seriously. Selling includes a number of practices which are a vital step to increase the number of leads.
Questioning Most sales person fail to execute a project effectively because of their poor questioning skills. Few such worthless questions are, “Are you interested in saving money?” and “What is your budget?” Clients will definitely feel pained with such useless and non-valuable questions and finally end up wasting their precious time. A true salesman knows to ask questions of higher value like, “What are the goals that you are striving to attain this year?” and “What are the issues that is costing you low revenue and lessening the number of customers?” You can find a major difference between these questions and the one who asks similar questions like the latter is a professionally skilled sales person. Presentation A good presentation should be focused on the content and your verbal appearance. You should know the actual timing and delivery of the content and speak it at a standard pace. Your body language and gestures also matters a lot while you give the presentation. The training on selling abilities will also conduct a session on improving your presentation skills. Communication and relationship building To gain a lead for a long term business you need to attain rapport building and communication skills while you sell. You can establish this skill by delineating the goal of your sales term and verifying the allotted time. Selling is a complex business in today’s world, so you need to execute it very smartly. Selling is an art as well as a science. You either have the talent inborn to sell yourself well or have to learn it the hard way. To learn the art, you need to practice over and over again and learn the right tactics to trade a product. There are several organizations that provide selling skills training and help enhance your confidence to sell.
Why should you be proficient in selling? Selling skills are required in order to run and grow the company. In fact a human being has to start selling himself right from the time he/she is born. So selling becomes an integral part of our life. When you approach a customer, he should be impressed with your presentation, your homework about the product or services and your communication skills. The way you speak always creates a positive or a negative impact on the customer, and can make or break a situation for you resulting in loss or gain of sale. Hence the fun is in being well trained. How to improve your selling abilities? Improve your voice Your voice, tone and speed matters a lot while you speak to the customer. If you speak in a negative tone then the customer might get irritated. Hence keeping your tone humble and polite is necessary. Also keep your rate of speech normal i.e. not too fast or too slow. Speak clearly with complete mouth open so that the customer can understand your words clearly. Avoid using fillers, try to have a neutral accent and modulate the voice to have the right impact. Make him understand Customers won’t be interested in your product if you cannot educate him properly. You need to explain the key benefits of using the product or service to him with a detailed step by step explanation. Teach him how your product is beneficial for him and why should he use it. Explain how your product is better than the others. Overcome any objection he has for the product with detailed explanation. This will clarify the customers’ doubts and he’ll have better idea about his decision to buy the product. Be an expert To be a good salesman you need to eat, live, breathe and drink the product or the service as if it is your life. Its only when you involve yourself into it completely you will become an expert. It is great to make mistakes and fail so that you get the experience and you can learn from them. The more you handle objections the more you learn to handle them. The more you handle them the better you become in sales. Selling skills are all about learning how to identify the process consumers go through when deciding on a purchase. The application of appropriate selling techniques and skills at every stage of a sales process helps in closing more business than usual. Key skill areas included in selling skills training include new business prospecting, call planning, identifying the needs of customers, value presenting, managing feedbacks, and gaining motivation and commitment. Any purchase decision by a customer generally goes through a five-step process. 1. Openness 2. Focus 3. Knowledge 4. Evaluation 5. Decision It is important for sales people to coordinate their sales process with the decision making process of the customers. Selling skills training helps sales team in the coordination and hopes to achieve the following. 1. Building of effective relationship with the customers 2. Research strategies to generate greater interest among customers 3. Techniques to identify the business priorities of customers 4. Tips to overcome challenges and objections 5. Motivation and commitment The training provided is based on the concept that every organization is unique with its own processes, culture and challenges. Personalized training programs for every organization are offered with case studies, examples to better address the sales and challenges. The training is devised based on relevance to the participants. It is important to be an effective sales person without having to resort to pushy sales tricks. All professionals be it sales professionals or non-sales professionals, require selling skills at some point of time. Learning how to generate and pitch your idea or service effectively is a useful skill to possess. Putting in plenty of preparation time is a good rule in successful selling skills. Customers tend to be more receptive with people who are thorough selling professionals. The success or failure of a sales campaign depends largely upon the sales skills possessed by the individual members of the team. While some professionals are born with a natural flair to sell different types of products and services to customers, others might need to develop them with practice. Irrespective of how the selling skills are developed by the sales team, they need the basic key elements to be a successful sale professional. Identify The Target Audience: Good sales executives should be able to identify the specific customers that they would be catering to. This not only helps them understand the customer behavior but also enables to develop the most effective sales practices that would help make a sale. Develop A Relationship Of Trust: The key aspect of ensuring better sales is to develop a strong relationship of trust with the customer. A good salesman not just wants to sell a product or service to the customer by hook or by crook ,however strives at providing correct information at all point of time so that the customer can make a guided decision weather his needs match the product features advantages and benefits. Avoid Assuming Things: Often the best salesmen commit the grave error of assuming what their customers want. This assumption can only sabotage their sales closures and also ruin their relationship with the customer leading to a greater loss to them and their organization. Do not make false promises: It is extremely critical for the sales people not to make any false promises especially about discounts or replacements. Most salesmen make this mistake in a bid to increase their sale or just to please the customer, despite being well aware that this is beyond their authority. The result is loss of customer faith as well as company credentials and trust. Wear The Customer Shoes: The key to ensuring a successful career in sales is to wear the shoes of the customer. This not only helps the sales people in understanding the thought process of the customers but also the factors that play a critical role in their decision making. Getting under the skin of the customer makes the sales process extremely easy and successful. Many a times we hear that the salesperson talked himself in or out of a particular sale. Why does this happen? It happens because the salesperson lacks a logical, systematic selling procedure.
So are sales really a process-oriented activity? The answer is YES. However to most salespeople selling is an art. What these people do not realize is that their art has evolved to the point where it's consistent with the science. There is a big difference between customer buying and successful selling. Customers like to buy, they do not like to be sold to. The professional salesperson makes it easier for customers to buy by using his selling expertise. In most organizations, 80% of the revenue is generated by only 20% of the sales team. If you aspire to be in that 20% then you will have to master the art of doing the science. There are dozens of selling skills that every salesperson should know. Not everyone is born with the natural ability to be an effective sale professional. Sales professional are made, sculpted, trained and trained again over months, years and even decades. If you want to build a strong foundation to your sales career and if you want to achieve the next level of scalability, then you will have to learn the art and science of selling. The Yellow Spot offers various workshops on enhancing your selling skills. Some programs offered are:
These programs focus on:
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