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Selling is an art form, and the discipline is always adapting, growing and changing.
As such, there are a great many sales techniques and methods used by salespeople to attract the right customers, maximise their selling capacity and easily ‘close’ a sale.
Some techniques are so effective, they have been used for decades. Others are newer or more experimental. The methods you choose for your business will depend heavily on how your brand operates and how you wish for it to be perceived — as well as the specifics of its products and services.
Some Amazing Sales Techniques
Here, we will explore just a few of the most effective methods you can choose to be employed by your business’s salespeople.
Upselling
This is a well-known sales technique and one that is employed across a range of organisations all over the world. There are numerous different types of upselling techniques — and they can be tailored to suit your business’s products and services.
Simply put, upselling involves a salesperson persuading a customer to purchase a higher-tier product — for example, ‘supersizing’ their meal or purchasing a set of kitchen knives rather than a single knife.
There are a range of incentives that can be pitched to customers in order to achieve successful upselling. A more expensive product may have more features and uses than a standard, cheaper item — or, if a particular product also comes in a set, the customer may receive ‘more bang for their buck’.
This means that the items that make up the set may be more expensive to purchase individually than as part of the ‘deal’ that your salesperson is offering.
Whatever the specific method, the end goal of upselling is to encourage the customer to invest in a higher-value item than the one in which they were initially interested.
Cross-selling
Also known as link-selling, this method is not dissimilar to upselling, but it usually involves the salesperson promoting products that are associated with the item a customer is already planning to purchase.
For example, if a customer wishes to buy a wallet, the salesperson may inform them that there is also a belt — or a pair of sunglasses — in the same range. This gives the customer the opportunity to coordinate their accessories, while the brand makes a greater profit.
Another example of cross-selling is seen in certain hospitality venues, where customers are asked if they would like a particular ‘side’ with their main meal.
There may be some form of discount available on the associated item if it is purchased alongside the main product — or it may simply be that the two complement one another or may be combined in some way.
Partnership selling
Partnership selling is also sometimes known as relationship selling, or consultative selling. This is very much as it sounds — with the salesperson attempting to form a particular relationship with the customer that allows them to better understand their needs, preferences and ‘pain points’.
The first step in relationship selling is to establish an honest and positive rapport with each potential customer.
Next, the salesperson must establish a strong sense of their own expertise and encourage a sense of trust in their product or brand. This may be achieved by putting the customer’s doubts to rest regarding negative preconceptions of the product, or by presenting a few surprising or interesting facts.
After this, the salesperson must develop an understanding of the customer’s wants, needs, ambitions, concerns, pain points and barriers regarding the potential purchase of the product in question.
The next step is to gently and positively but firmly and effectively reveal the ways in which the product can work towards fulfilling all of these wants, needs and ambitions and resolve the concerns and pain points.
The salesperson should also work to provide solutions that will help the customer to circumvent or overcome the barriers they may have between themselves and the purchase of the product.
In following this process, the overall aim is to reveal how the product — or even the brand — will add value to the customer’s life, therefore persuading that customer to make the necessary purchase.
This sales technique is developing and changing all the time. Following a business news outlet will help you to stay abreast of the most recent developments when it comes to relationship selling.
Selling against — or shifting — the Status quo
This method of selling involves persuading reluctant customers to invest in a particular product or service by tackling ‘status quo bias’.
Using this technique, a salesperson may be able to convince a customer to end their irrational attachment to a certain brand or position by presenting certain information about their own products.
For example, a salesperson may learn that the customer has concerns about a product’s effect on the environment. To that end, the salesperson may be able to convince that customer to switch from their regular brand of coffee, as the one that they are promoting has fewer air miles.
There is a huge spectrum of sales techniques that can be easily tailored to your business. In fact, everywhere you look online, you will find lists upon lists of excellent tips on how to close a sale and achieve the best possible results from the interaction.
However, the most effective salesperson is one who has been trained to carefully read each situation independently and can therefore choose the most suitable approach themselves.
There are some excellent remote business courses available to help ambitious individuals to develop their understanding of matters of this kind. For example, it is possible to easily attain a masters in business & management online with Aston University, which has six intakes per year.
This means that your employees can study for a new qualification — and gain vital insights into the world of business — without it disrupting their work.
At the end of the day, the sales techniques you choose must reflect:
- The nature of your products and services
- The strengths of your business
- Your brand’s ‘personality’
- The demands, interests and attitudes of your key audience demographics
- The specific talents and training attainments of your sales team
- The capacity of your employees to ‘customise’ offers and make deals
Great training and development is one of the best ways to ensure that your business’s salespeople are fulfilling their potential and providing a great return for your brand.
