How To Sell If You Hate Selling

Hi Everyone,

Welcome to the fourth edition of Pitch Perfect.

Does the idea of having to promote your goods or services make you nervous? Whether you like it or not, selling is an essential part of any business, regardless of the product or service you offer. If the idea of generating new business makes you want to run a mile, you may simply need to change your mindset.

In this edition of Pitch Perfect, we offer some practical tips to help you learn how to best apply your natural skills and be structured and strategic in your approach.

Are High Performing Sellers Born or Made?

Let’s face it, most people have a clear view on what makes ‘bad selling’. We have all had experience of poor customer service or felt pushed into buying something at some point. You only have to think of the archetypal pushy car Salesperson or look to the conniving silver-tongued stereotypes portrayed in movies (Wolf of Wall Street, Jerry Maguire, Glengarry Glen Ross to name but a few) and you can understand why selling (or what you assume that involves) has a bad reputation.

Maybe you are an entrepreneur or run a small business that was set up to launch a specific product or service to a specific market, based on a specific innovation or gap in the market, or to exploit an area of expertise. Selling might very well not be part of your core skillset and one that you need to learn fast.

Or perhaps you have recently been promoted to a senior position in an accountancy or law firm and now all of a sudden you are bequeathed a new healthy sales target to sit alongside that old friend, the chargeability target. You might find this new territory daunting – after all, your promotion may have been based on technical skills or experience, not necessarily your ability to sell.

Or maybe you work for a small or medium-sized organization which has a joint sales and marketing function – two different beasts requiring different skills and experience but that is attempting to fulfil the same objective. If you are all of a sudden required to start selling, this might very well fill you with dread.

There may also be other, more personal, reasons why you might hate the idea of selling. Maybe you have a fear of rejection or failure, or worry you will come across as pushy, intrusive or manipulative. This begs the question – are high-performing sellers born or made? Is it nature or nurture?! If you’ve spent all or even just some of your career in a sales environment, then you may well have a natural ability to sell. There is also plenty of research that stipulates if you want to be a high-performing salesperson, you might very well need to display specific personality traits.

However, not being an extrovert or a natural-born seller doesn’t mean you can’t succeed in sales. If many salespeople were born to sell, how come less than half of all sales reps meet their targets? Being gifted with an innate talent for selling isn’t enough. The truth is that many high-performing sellers learn how to best apply their natural skills and are structured and strategic in their approach.

10 Practical Sales Tips

If you find selling daunting and overwhelming, here are 10 practical tips:

1. Develop a clear sales strategy that outlines your goals, target market, sales process, and sales channels.
2. Understand the value your product or service offers so that you can communicate it effectively.
3. Build a broad range of business contacts.
4. Use questioning and listening skills to gather quality information about customer needs and concerns.
5. Focus on helping customers to buy rather than just pushing your product or service.
6. Deliver a well-crafted pitch that addresses the customer's pain points.
7. Proactively follow up after each conversation.
8. Be honest and transparent with your customers to build credibility and trust.
9. Nurture existing customer accounts to drive further growth.
10. Invest in the development of your sales skills to improve your confidence, customer relationships, business performance, and sales revenue.

To find out more, visit our website...

If you need any further support with increasing your selling confidence and ability, we’re here to help – get in touch!