Exploring an alternative way of effective selling.
Globalization, indigenization and the vast constellation of business in the form of products and services requires a collective streamlined process of sales. In any flourishing and aspiring business, the sales people lead the race creating an umbilical cord for the business organization. Without proper sales, business is like a house of cards. Thus it evidently requires to stay focused in the frontline for any salesman. It is difficult and hectic but ain't impossible. A business organization is like a garden. The gardener is the best man to nurture the garden with floral and fruitful ambience. The gardener acts like a salesman who knows exactly how much water is to be fed to a particular plant for speedy and maximum growth. This makes the salesman an important member of the business ecology. The desirables are patience, hard work, steadiness and sturdiness. Lets take a look at other invaluable insider aspects of sales that would transform you to a prolific salesman, mapping equally the amount of success, growth and prosperity.
1. Knowledge: The first aspect of any business and consequential selling is the in depth know-how of product, prices, market trends, competition etc. For many a successful sales guys, knowledge is almost half the work done. Most of the salesmen are not given appropriate training and adequate resources, which can help them harness the product knowledge. Inevitably it could sometime backfire, sabotaging the entire business. Sometimes even a tiny and ignorable feature of your product could be the trump card for you. The world has changed and so is business. Customers and clients intents to know every detailed feature of a product or service. So be ready for it. Enhance your learning skill, gather knowledge and present optimistically. Remember life, Learning and knowledge are all the inseparable components of a hydrogen balloon. Inflating the balloon with hydrogen is learning where hydrogen can be related to knowledge which helps the balloon elevate and the balloon itself acts as our life. The same principle holds good for business as well. Extensive and in depth knowledge does keep a salesman on the horizon of success in any business.
2. Identification: Now you have all the knowledge of your product and your organization, the next step is identifying the nature of your client's business, its products, its markets etc. By doing this one can extract an appropriate idea about the need of clients. Even a slightest of hint or expression can execute the process and get your deal done. If you have only one product to sell, then an intelligent and interrogative questionnaire will give you all the facts you want. For multiple products, it is advisable to come handy with variety of questionnaire for the client. The bottom line is never let the client lose interest on you and your product. Keep on probing wherever necessary.
3. Conversation & Rapport Building: Perhaps the most valuable yet priceless skill is our next point. You know yourself, your company and now you got all the desired information about your client's business. Now it is time to talk. This step is similar to dating a girl. You see a beautiful girl, got mesmerized, retrieved a little information about her through her allies; so ask her for a date. Most of the successful sales guys usually get their job done at this stage. Now talking cannot be based on sensitive issues. I found political, business ethos and work experiences are the most clicked conversations. Yes, family and sports/movies related topics are all weather friendly vehicle to ride on. Narcissism has no role to play so better leave your narcissistic behavior in a dustbin. Being a good listener and diplomatic responder not only shows ur omni presence but also let the client generate a distinctive faith on you. Extrovert people usually make the most out of it. Let the relationship grow deep.
4. Self Confidence: I remember few instances, when a sales guy deliberately sold any product on misleading or falsifying statements and informations. Yet the deal was finalized and no further communications were noticed between the client and that sales agent thereafter. I also recall instances when a sales guy pro actively apologized for misleading information to the client, even long before a deal is being finalized. I would always pick the second instance to follow. It shows a goodwill gesture and righteous platform. A generous satisfactory pardonable response from the client after that mistake can exponentially boost your self confidence. Self Confidence can also be grown by following a routine structure and systematic holistic approach.
5. Imagination: As Einstein said "The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination". It is more precise than innovation. For it is, which leads to knitted dreams, sky high inspirations, spirited motivations and glorifying success. When hard work fails to do the trick, try to take some time out to imagine things in another way. In layman's term, try something out of the box. It helps to bring a vision and generate some unethical methods to approach a dead client or someone more of a finicky. I saw many guys who does their imagination work long before any persistence of a deal. We can call it pre determined home work. I also came across few sales agents who thinks a lot and retrospect simultaneously. People termed them as paranoid or nostalgic but the undeniable insider fact is that those agents are indeed best in business, so busy in knitting success and design a spell bounding approach to a client.
6. R&D: A very ancient proverb says that "When all the doors have been closed, God keeps open another hidden doorway". That's where R&D comes into play to locate the hidden door. An aspiring sales guy never gets disheartened or demotivated after a rejected deal. Instead he uses his extensive R&D skill to revitalize his existence. Just like a game of cricket. When you can't hit a boundary, try improvising and do R&D. The next ball is sure to find you a run or hopefully a tricky boundary. This involves trial and error method, finding a suitable reference, creating a choice based scenario and finding all different possible routes to the same spot. Anything that leads to unimaginable ways to re-enter an already dead deal is a by product of R&D. An intelligent, analytically bent researcher will find miraculous paths to retain his client. A pleasant rapport in the past may also get you the job done not necessarily instantly but someday it will.
7. Zeal: At this stage, you are not dead yet. May be bit tired. Repeat the above sentence again. That's what zeal is all about. Rejection and misfired deals are not choices but rather make them a chance to outperform your previous backlogs. Bring your sunny side on. Bring all the energy and enthusiasm to earn your incentives passionately and humbly.
8. Online Presence: Business deals and sales negotiations are not only done in office, telephonic or in field marketing but also internet. In the 21st century of immense technological and internet paradigm, it would be too naive to let go of it without using internet. Online presence and social media is undoubtedly an useful and giant tool to use and persuade clients and customers. Few professional platforms like LinkedIn, Glassdoor, Alibaba, Skype etc other than casual sites like Twitter, FaceBook, Watsapp does provide detailed structured informations and paves way for private conversations. In fact, now a days, a rigorously designed social media marketing is certainly a worthy implication of online presence. It is a very precisely sharp tool, which could cruise you to other correlated success and may enlighten a passage to unearth many more alternative and unethical ways of accomplishing business. With increasing usage of internet and social media, it is not necessary to reach a deal in wee office hours but try buzzing online late at night and you may luckily find your client in the chat box with a green pointer on, i.e. available for chat. Isn't it an exemplary innovative way? I sure think it is.
Apart from the aforementioned aspects it is also necessary to keep a constant tab on your soft skills and current affairs along with global business Environment. I am sure you don't wanna embarrass yourself by not knowing the exchange rates of major currencies or talking about a political leader or celebrity with your overseas client who is actually not interested neither in politics or life of an utopian celebrity.
/*The 3ND*/
/*Happy Business*/
