"Sales cures all"

It’s funny, when you start a business you think you’re going to just be able to do what you do for the rest of your life. If you start a florist’s business, you think you’ll be able to spend all day arranging flowers. People who start a phone repair business are looking forward to fixing phones all day. However, this couldn’t be further from the truth. When you start a business, your actual product or service that you're providing plays second fiddle. Your no1 job is Head of Sales & Marketing.

If you can’t find any customers, you will soon find that you don’t have a business. Those customers won’t come to you. You have to go out and get them. That means you have to learn to sell.

This turns a lot of people off, because they don’t want to be a salesperson. They think salespeople are fast-talking sharks, promising the earth then disappearing once the payment has cleared. 

For those people, I’ve put together a list of 8 sales tips. I see them as ‘non-salesy’ sales tips, more like common sense but essential starting points. I plan to write more in depth articles in time around sales methodologies used in the past that has helped excel my career and hope that by doing so, I can help you too.

So, most of them involve just being a normal, decent person, which should hopefully come naturally. Next time you find yourself having to be ‘Head of Sales’, try to follow these tips and see how it goes.

Here are my 8 sales tips;

1 – Plan, plan, plan

Like most things in life, the more you prepare, the better the results are likely to be. 

When you’re about to call or meet a potential customer, try to find out everything you can about them and their company. Read everything you can about them online. Website, social, everything. (But please don't spend all day doing so, you have a job to do!)

You’re more likely to make a sale if you can solve a problem. See if you can work out a way to help them before you talk to them.

2 – Listen

You’ve got 2 ears and 1 mouth for a reason...

When you’re meeting a potential customer, let them do all the talking. They’ll eventually tell you how you can help them.

Ask open-ended questions to get them spilling the beans. 

3 – Be natural

When you’re selling, be yourself. There is no need to pretend to be anything else. 

If you’re trying too hard to project an unnatural image, it will show and make your prospect uncomfortable. 

4 – Sell the benefits, not the features

Or, as an old boss of mine used to say. ‘Sell the holes, not the drill.’ (Another article of mine on its way!)

Basically, don’t tell potential customers what it is you’re selling, ask questions, tell them about the end result, the value you deliver. Tap into their desire for a better life.

5 – Make your customer the hero of their story

We’re getting a bit deeper now, but I think you can handle it. 

Show your potential customer that your product or service is the key to them winning. You’re showing them where the bridge is, so they can cross the shark-infested river.

Your prospect probably needs to please their boss, their customers, their shareholders. Tell a story of how you will help them do this.

6 – Don’t be afraid to lose the deal

The worst part of closing a deal is that you usually have to negotiate to get there. When negotiating, have a minimum price in your mind that you will be happy to get. If you can’t agree to a price over that point, walk away. If you take the business at a lower rate than you’re happy with, you’ll end up resenting it.

On the other hand, if you feel your product isn’t right for your prospect’s needs, the right thing to do is tell them why, then walk away. They will respect you for it, and when they do need your product, are likely to come back to you.

7 – Make sure you know what to do next

Don’t leave a meeting without something specific for you to do next. Whether it’s coming back with a contract, a new quote or just a small piece of information, you need to have something. It’s your excuse to keep the conversation going.

Don’t accept ‘We’ll call you’ as an answer.

8 – Build a relationship

At the end of the day, doing business is supposed to be mutually beneficial. It’s also supposed to be fun. The more business you do with someone, the more you’ll find out about them and the better you will get on. 

People do business with people they know, like and trust. Make that happen.

If sales doesn’t come naturally to you, these tips should help you bring more customers to your business. Soon enough, they will come naturally, and you can get acquainted with more advanced sales theories (soon to follow).

How about you? What are your common sense sales tips? Leave me a comment below.