How to sell anything, to anybody, anywhere at any price was the title of a talk given to me to deliver at the National Achievers conference in Kuala Lumpur and Singapore in 2001 in front of over 5,000 participants in each city.
Although I was fortunate to share the stage with inspiring speakers like Robert Kiyosaki, I was the only speaker on sales.
How to sell is one thing, but to how to sell anything, to anybody anywhere at any price is another. At least that is what I thought when the title was first given to me. However, the more I thought about it, the more I realized this topic, “ABC, 123 Sales Results System” covered all the bases.
Let’s first build a solid foundation for how to sell. How to sell starts with Attitude – a desire to want to sell, with a belief in yourself, that you can sell. How to sell requires you to believe in your organization, it value proposition, it’s products and services and the supporting team players.
When you believe, others will too. However, If you do not believe in yourself, your organization, it’s products and services, the supporting team players, or the market, nor will the prospect. How to sell is based first on beliefs.
Your beliefs is your foundation to how to sell successfully or not. Your beliefs determine your attitude. It is our attitude that determines how you feel. How we feel determines the actions you take. The actions you take determine your results.
When it comes to how to sell, your beliefs lead the way. Your beliefs are under your control and only you can change them. As an adult you should be able to distinguish between what is real and what is not in your beliefs and clean them up. You need to get your beliefs up to a 10 if you want to succeed in life, not only in sales.
The next step in how to sell is to ensure you demonstrate appropriate results oriented Behaviors. Behaviors are your daily habits. First do you have personal goals? If so, great as they are your guiding motivators when it comes to how to sell.
If not, how can you ever achieve goals for others, if you first cannot achieve them for yourself. You cannot give something to somebody else if you do not have it to give away in the first place.
When it comes to how to sell, our personal goals keep us focused, disciplined and motivated. Our corporate goals also keep us employed, focused, disciplines and motivated when it comes to how to sell.
However, when it comes how to sell to the market place, our behavior for results has to be targeted. Targeted to markets and prospects that will give us the quickest market positioning, reputation and results, in the shortest time frame.
In others words, how to sell requires you to do some homework and consider your return on time invested (R.O.T.I.). How, when and where can you maximize your R.O.T.I.?
How to sell requires the right foundation as we have learned in Attitude and Behavior. How to sell also requires that you follow a sales results system, or sales process. This is referred to having the appropriate Competencies when you are face to face with a client.
The Competencies that we are referring to here when it comes to how to sell are communication skills. The art of asking in depth questions and listening, while taking notes is fundamental when it comes to how to sell.
With competent communication skills we can build rapport, develop trust and start a relationship. The first competency step in how to sell. How to sell requires that you also qualify the prospect. With trust you can proceed to set parameters, uncover buying motivators, financial ability, and decision making processes, qualifying the prospect.
It is at the summary stage that you will know if you can help them with a solution or not. If not, let them know you cannot. If you can, proceed to prescribe them a solution. How to sell up until this point is all about building trust qualifying the prospect. That is the job of a real sales professional.
Now take note that you are asking all the questions up until this point putting you in control of the sales process. That is how to sell. How to sell is not about telling – it is not about you, your company, products, services or solutions.
How to sell professionally is about engaging the prospect into buying- it is all about them, their needs, their budget and their decision.
