Whether we like it or not, we are all salespeople to some degree. Whenever we recommend a restaurant, or a movie, or a holiday destination to someone, we are effectively selling that thing to them.
When it comes to business, there is more pressure placed on our ability to sell because we are actively trying to earn money so that we can do what we want with our lives.
However, like anything that seems difficult at first, it will seem far more achievable when you break it down into smaller chunks. And if you can master the following principles, you will become much better at sales.
Establish A Connection And Start Building Trust
When we interact with someone for the first time, we make an impression with the way we dress, the way we act and the way we speak.
If you come across as confident and knowledgeable about your subject, then you will transfer certainty to your audience. This is an essential early step towards building trust.
Imagine trust as a piggy bank and then add coins to it. Each coin represents an extra layer of trust and you can gradually build it up. However, if you say or do things that make your audience doubt you, the piggy bank will start to lose coins.
Influence Your Audience
As soon as someone starts to trust you, they take more notice of what you say. They become interested in your opinions and your recommendations. And they start to think that if you say something is good, perhaps it is worth their investment.
Gaining someone’s trust is a significant achievement on its own, but it is only half the battle when you are trying to grow your business. The other aspect involves encouraging your clients to make changes to their lives immediately rather than waiting to see what happens a few months down the line.
As American author and businessman Seth Godin puts it, “If you want to grow, you’ll not only need to get someone to decide that you’re worth their time and money, but you’ll also need to motivate them to act now instead of later.”
Positively Persuade People
If you get your tone and your body language right, your audience will feel inclined to listen to your ideas and follow your suggestions. Once you have mastered these elements, it is up to you to ensure you present people with the right information.
For example, if you are pitching a new training programme to a room full of company directors, it is important to make sure you highlight the ways in which that programme will improve the performance of their staff and make their businesses more profitable.
If you do this successfully, you have added value to the lives of your audience and had a positive impact on their present and future. This is always one of the core objectives for many of the best salespeople.
Show Your Passion
If you can demonstrate to potential clients that you are credible and trustworthy, you will be able to sell them products or services to add value to their businesses.
However, if you want to lift your selling ability to the next level, you need to show your audience how passionate you are about your company and what it offers the world.
To do this, think about what gets you up in the morning and motivates you to work. Think about why you run your business and what you want to achieve with it. Then share your reasons with your audience and they will hear the passion in your voice and see it in your body language.
And if you are unsure whether your enthusiasm is coming across when you speak, practice at home and record yourself so that you can listen to how you sound and watch your expressions and gestures. Then keep practicing until you are happy with your performance.
Know Your Business
Imagine if you gave a great speech and got a round of applause from the audience, which put them in a receptive mood to buy from your company.
Now imagine an audience member asks you an important question about one of your products and you freeze completely because you do not know the answer. In that moment, some of the trust you have built up during your presentation will disappear.
This kind of scenario highlights the importance of knowing your business and your products inside out. Each time you answer a question from the audience, it backs up everything you have said in your speech, and adds another coin to that piggy bank of trust.
Solve Problems
“The best salespeople know that their expertise can become their enemy in selling. At the moment they are tempted to tell the buyer what he needs to do, they instead offer a story about a peer of the buyer.”
These are the words of renowned sales expert and author Mike Bosworth, and they emphasise the significance of one of my favourite sales techniques: storytelling.
During a presentation I gave while I worked for an engineering company, I began one of my stories with the following words: Imagine you don’t have a business anymore. Imagine that if you didn’t invest in innovation, your business would stop working.
Then I explained the problems they were likely to face and the impact these could have on their businesses, which put them in a receptive state of mind to consider the solutions my company could provide.
This is a powerful structure if you want to be persuasive. And you can adapt it however you want so that it suits your style of speaking. Just remember to begin with an attention-grabbing introduction, follow it up with an explanation of a problem and then finally present a solution for it.
Summary
There is not one all-powerful secret when it comes to speaking to sell. Instead, there are several key elements you can constantly improve in order to become a better salesperson.
Some, such as tone and body language, involve working on how you present yourself. Others, such as knowing your business and solving problems, involve gathering knowledge and expertise. And the third category involves inner work, because you must develop your mindset and understand your purpose so that you can convey your passion. If you master all of these elements, you will have the potential to be amazing at sales.
If you would like to learn more about how to become better at selling, join my Speak To Sell Show.
