A review of selling skills
 By Mike Riley, MBA

Without salespeople, who would customers buy from? Who would inspire a customer to purchase a particular companies product over a competitors product? Who would provide support and hand holding when problems arise? How about the Internet? Twenty two years ago in a corporate sales meeting, the statement was made that “salespersons were the middlemen of society that made commerce work, although they don’t manufacture anything tangible, salespersons are very necessary for the people that do”. I believe that Salespersons perform valuable services for customers and businesses within the industry they represent. 

Twenty two years ago, companies in the United States manufactured many products in the United States, but since then, international politics, free trade agreements, rapid global transportation and affordable global communication systems have drastically changed the factors of production including the job market in the U.S. Today, most products are imported from other countries where labor is much cheaper than in the U.S., and even the basic components of products that are still assembled in the U.S. are also produced abroad. Try to find a garment with a label “made in America“ on it. Today, many companies offer their products through the Internet or a Telephone 800 Number, along with technical help and product support. Now, even the technical help and product support is coming from places like India or the Philippines where there is a pool of computer literate people that will work for less than their American counterpart; enabled by the advances of telecommunication technology and free trade agreements. 

While many firms do business over the Internet and telephone, face to face meetings still are a necessary part of commerce. Salespersons are still needed regardless of where the product is manufactured and/or sold. Salespersons need to keep track of and stay in touch with their past and present customers and constantly search for new business opportunities.  Sales persons should become familiar with the use of the internet, it is gaining popularity and is useful.

Most people will listen to a short presentation to satisfy their curiosity about something. People expect a salesperson to provide information about the product or service of interest in response to their inquiry. Some people will go out and buy what they want when they feel they need it and some people must be sold on everything before they will spend a dime on it. Most people do not want a salesperson to waste their time, and when a person decides that their time is being wasted, they lose interest. 

People are unique, with different needs and desires. While large changes have occurred in manufacturing and commerce, making good use of the available time for sales activities remains important. The economic challenge of a salesperson remains the same: to consistently reach or exceed their goals. Your companies very existence depends upon the sales department reaching its assigned goals. This challenge of dealing with unique people in an atmosphere of industrial change toward the service market requires that one have effective selling skills to compete for their share of the market segment they represent. 

Effective selling means one has to provide a product or service that benefits or enriches the customer and at the same time supports the salesperson, manufacturer or service providers needs too. Effective selling must provide a mutual benefit. The benefit does not have to be an enduring one, situations change, but enduring benefits provide greater satisfaction and later on, more referrals. 

Effective selling means that one has to do some planning to set goals that are reachable and then set benchmarks to measure the progress along the way. Businesses vary in the way that goals are established according to the business need. Individuals that operate their own small business can determine how much money they want to make, or how much time they want to spend to make a certain amount of money. Then they must plan accordingly, and set the goals they must meet to make their predetermined sum.

Goals must be achievable and measurable to be effective. Goals that are set too high place the salesperson under a lot of pressure and over time, eventually cause a loss of self esteem when they realize they just can’t reach the goal. That loss of self confidence further degrades their ability to sell. Goals that are set too low allow the salesperson to spend their excess time on unrelated projects. They are not making as much money as they could if they worked a little bit harder. When one has their own business, one has the freedom to balance free time with expected income and spend their time as they choose according to their own business needs. The corporate world has a sales manager checking up on your performance and someone checking up on him too. The end result for both - too high and too low, is mediocre performance. It takes good planning to set appropriate goals, so take the time to do it right. 

Achieving the goals you set depends on your sales performance in several critical segments: Prospecting, follow-up, development of rapport, discovery of needs, handling objections, making good presentations, closing, and after sale support. 

No matter how good your technical knowledge about your product or service, you will consistently undersell if you don’t practice good selling skills. To be a good salesperson, one has to have a friendly personality. It is difficult for an adult to change their personality, so if you don’t inherently like to deal with people, I recommend that you find another occupation, because people like to deal with people that seem friendly. 

Learning to use selling skills will not change your personality, but the newly acquired knowledge will enable you to deal with people more effectively. Just apply yourself to the task and learn them.

I am going to attempt to pass on to you what I learned about selling in the remainder of this article. I used these skills for eight and one half years as a salesman for a major technology company and became one of their top salesmen for several years in a row. One day, my supervisor, national sales manager for the division that I worked in, stopped by my cubicle, looked at all the sales awards that were hanging on the wall and said “Mike, with all those plaques on your wall, how am I ever going to find any new men that can compete with you.”   Well, he found a way, the next year he significantly increased my quota. I accepted his challenge and worked hard to find new opportunities, then uncovered some new business at a major account that allowed me to reach my goal that year. Then, I moved on to become a sales manager for a foreign technology company that wanted to develop their business in North America. I trained and motivated many independent salesmen over the following eight years.  The benefits were many as their success was my success too.
 
Here are some sales skills that I learned along the way:

First of all, maintain your health, a healthy body will provide you with a high energy level, and the enjoyment of working with people.

A good attitude will carry you through the sales roller coaster; a bad one will throw you off. Like I said earlier, people like to associate with friendly people.

If you can bring enthusiasm, and cheer when you greet your prospect or customer, they will probably react the same way.

Customers have feelings; sometimes they have problems that interfere with your call. If their attention is somewhere else, reschedule the call for a better day or better time if possible. Judging their attitude toward you is just one of the decisions you must make during the process called prospecting. 

Your judgment of the selling situation is important to set the stage for making the sale today or later on down the road. .If you find a prospect with a receptive but skeptical attitude, you have an opportunity to change it to a favorable outcome. A positive attitude on your part is a very good starting point for a sales call. Psych yourself up to win before you make the call, but be sure to sell to meet their “needs”. If you do not see a “need”, move on. Prospects and customers may not initially see the “need” for your product or service, that’s why you are selling. Remember, it is your job to get their attention and develop the interest and enthusiasm within them that makes them want your product or service. When the prospect sees the “need”, if it is important to them, they will find a way to buy. 

Selling to meet the “needs and wants” of a prospect is the ethical thing to do, in my opinion. When your customers realize that is what you are doing, it builds trust, and that trust is what keeps them happy to work with you. Happy customers are usually repeat customers and good referrals. 

Now I have just told you some helpful skills that led to my success in the sales arena. If you desire to know more about my consulting assistance, please contact me at your earliest convenience.  Helping others to succeed in business is what I do.