Sales persons are considered at the bottom of the list, according to a gallop poll. I know it’s because of scores of sales people going about the sales process in the wrong way. With terms like “snake oil peddler”, “Con artist”, etc, the picture is certainly not a pretty one.  I also know, though, that the sales profession is one of the most rewarding jobs ever. Of course, it’s only as good as you treat it. It can do you good when you approach it right. Here are some immutable laws of sales that you should keep in mind:

The first date – you don’t want to mess with it

Unlikely comparison but it makes sense here. You do know how a perfect first date goes, don’t you? You get excited, nervous, and most importantly curious. You ask questions and try to know as much as you can about your partner. You’d tend to pay attention to the body language such as fidgeting, shifting nervously, voice tone, eye contact, and speech patterns.

With clients, it’s the same – except that you don’t have any romantic inclinations here. Ask them the right questions and find out everything you can. That doesn’t mean, however, that you ask questions for the sake of asking them.

Clients are family

Talk to your clients like you would talk to one of your very close ones. You don’t have to share anything too personal with them or try to probe them to know about anything personal about them either. All you have to do is to tune your voice, demeanour, and behaviour with them as you might with your family. What this specifically means is that you jettison the ‘sales pitch’ – the gyrated, almost orchestrated talk, the hypnotic persuasive talk, the pushing and pulling, etc. This is precisely what causes clients to think negative about sales persons and the sales process in general.

Ask them what’s stopping them – the barriers

You ask questions, and then you listen to them. Talk to them like you talk to your close friends and family. Only after all these steps will you be able to offer your solutions and that too in the form of a mere suggestion, insinuation or an indirect reference. By now, you’d have a firm understanding of what your clients want (and what they don’t want by reading between the lines and listening to what wasn’t said). It’s time to build a bridge: ask them what’s stopping them from moving forward. See how you can surmount their problems for them.

Nurture your clients

Often, the first time you talk to them nothing much would come out of it – at least not a sale right away. There’s more work to be done: an effective follow-up sequence, nurturing your prospects by answering all those questions, doing the due-diligence by researching and giving your clients more information, etc. The key is in the nurturing. It takes time, incredible amount of patience on your part. That’s where I believe the actual value delivery comes forth for a sales person.

What do you think?

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