The driving force behind every business is sales, and no matter what, every person has been selling something or the other to someone on any given day! Not only salespeople, even if you are trying to convince your kids to have a plate full of vegetables, but you are also selling the idea to them, and you succeed if they finish the plate.
It is the same for business; you need to be able to convince people to make a purchase or borrow an idea from you.
Secret Tips How to Sell Anything to Anyone
In this article, we will bring you some amazing tips that will help you to sell anything to anyone! Read on to know more-
Sell yourself first
Forget about everything else and focus on how you are going to present yourself to the customer of the client.
The product or the service comes secondary, if the client doesn’t like the way you conduct yourself, they will never be interested to hear about the product from you, leaving aside purchasing.
Take all the possible measures to present yourself well enough in front of the client and make sure that you know every detail about the product you are selling. Always be the salesperson you would get convinced with.
Listen more
As a salesperson, your idea should be to listen to the claims of the customer and then pitch your product.
On the other hand, you would be instantly marked as a bad salesperson if you only keep bragging about your product. You need to wait and listen to what the customer has to say and then only deliver your sales pitch accordingly.
It will also help you to know what is the actual problem of the client and you can alter your sales pitch accordingly. Giving your clients the chance to speak also gives them a feeling of trust towards the salesperson.
Know your Target Customer Group
If you are selling a product worth $2000 to a person who has a budget of $500, then there are 99% chances that the deal won’t really work out.
The most common problem for salespeople is that they want to sell the product to everyone they come across. This should never be the approach, and a particular target customer group should be made who needs to be approached for sale.
A person with a budget of $1500 is someone you should approach for your $2000 worth of product; they can be negotiated into paying that extra $500 for the sake of product quality.
Know what motivates your client
Before you start pitching your product, know what really drives them to make the final decision on the purchase. On your call to the person for setting up the session, you might have known the factors which interest them.
Also, before you pitch, the customer will have something to say and it will reflect his/her expectations and needs from the product. Use those points in your sales pitch and show them how your product adds value to their lives.
Paying attention to your customer’s words will help you to address the same points and score brownie points in your sales.
KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid)
The key to selling anything to anyone is to keep your sales pitch simple and straightforward. It needs to have details about the product, address the needs of the customer and ask for action from them.
The language and approach need to be simple enough so that even a nursery kid can understand and react to it.
If you are overcomplicating it by showing off all of your knowledge in that elevator pitch, there is a maximum chance that the client will go away right then. You need to practice the elevator pitch again and again and at the same time make sure that it is under 30 seconds so that the customer is hooked onto it.
Research before reaching out
In this age of social media and enhanced communication measures, it is not impossible for a salesperson to know bits and pieces about their next prospect.
Given the list you have at hand, it will hardly take you 10-15 minutes to research the person you are about to reach out to for the sales pitch. It will help you to know your prospect better, and they will have an instant connection with you as you start addressing them.
Personal references are always far more appealing than a direct commercial approach. The places from where you can know about them are-
- Press release page (if a company)
- If possible, the company financial statement
Create a Rapport
Would you ever go to a store where the moment you enter, the salesperson would say, “Hi, would you buy this t-shirt?”.
The answer is a big NO. In the same manner, when you are connecting with prospects, make sure that you lean on the research material you collected in the previous step. Show them that you care for them and ask them questions that would make a good conversation starter.
This will kickstart relationship-building and rapport development with the client, which will help you to seal the deal better.
Be a skillful advisor.
If you jump on your customers with the approach of doing business with them, there are higher chances of them running away.
After you know their problems, try and advise them about what can be done to make things work for them. With such an approach, they will be more receptive to your words, and when you skillfully add your sales call to action at the end of the session, they will be comfortable hearing it out.
Your role as the advisor will separate you from another salesperson who is hungry to score that sale. Such a helping attitude will earn your trust, and people will buy what you have to offer.
Psychological quirks you can use
The human brain responds to certain tricks which every salesperson should know and use to their benefit. Here they are-
- Decoy effect– When a person is given a third option to choose from, they are more likely to make a choice between the two options given before.
- Anchoring effect– The first information that the human mind receives bases the structure for all other perceptions it creates after getting relevant data later.
- Rhyme-as-reason effect– Human psychology tricks us into believing and trusting lines that rhyme more than those that do not rhyme with each other. Script your sales pitch in such a manner so that people are easily convinced by the rhyming effect.
- Peak end rule– Your customers are more likely to remember two significant high points of your entire pitch. One is in the middle, and one has to be towards the end to call for action when it comes to making the final buying call of the client.
Segmentation of the customer base
Every person has a unique personality, and this is why it is essential to pitch according to the customer that you have. Tailoring your approach will give you a headstart in the sales process because every person wants different kinds of information to be convinced to give their money.
The four major personality types that you need to know are discussed in brief here-
- Assertive- This batch of customers are the ones who are interested in the end result and the bottom line of all benefits they will have if they spend their hard-earned money.
- Amiable– These are the customers who are creative with their ideas and want to see the big picture from the salesperson that is speaking with them. Pitching them creative ideas will do a world of good to you and surely help you score a sale.
- Expressive– These customers will be interested in your ideas and would want to focus on how they can affect people. Putting up realistic images in front of them will help your cause here.
- Analytics- For such customers, facts and figures will do the trick. If you put forward stunning facts and numbers regarding your product, they will surely be interested in getting their hands on it.
Emotions sell
When it comes to purchasing, there is no rational decision that has ever been made. There is some sort of emotion or the other that is constantly working to provoke the decision of the customer.
Clever sellers are hence hell-bent on appealing to the buyer’s logic than the sellers’ perspective.
Marketing and sales mastermind Geoffrey James has classified various types of emotion at work while such purchase decisions are made. They are mentioned below-
- Fear
- Greed
- Pride
- Envy
- Shame
While these are powerful emotions, you definitely wouldn’t want your customer to associate some of them with your product or company. This is why it is essential that you pick the right emotion and target the customer with it. Do not make the mistake of choosing multiple emotions.
Treat your buyers as you would want to be treated.
To meet the sales target, sellers forget that their leads are human beings, and spamming them with emails and calls for sales will only make them feel irritated.
You, as a person, wouldn’t want such an approach directed toward you, and this is why you should refrain from forcing or spamming your leads.
Try and be more personable with them and drift to a personal conversation once in a while. It will help you to delve deeper into their skin and know their preferences at the same time.
Become their acquaintance first them try to sell your product rather than just being pushy about your sales.
Shoot them with some questions
Questions are the best way to make any conversation a lot more happening and interactive.
You need to engage your prospect in a game of questions so that at the end, the answer to your final question is your sales pitch. With a series of small questions, you can create a build-up, and they will be able to relate to it by the time they are done answering your questions.
Additionally, asking questions will allow you to know a lot more interesting details about the customers, which you can smartly incorporate into your sales pitch.
Dress for the occasion
While most business gurus suggest that you should always wear business formals (your best suit) for the official pitch, we do not agree with that.
Being in the sales field, if you are dealing with the upper sphere of business class, you should wear business formal, but for other sections of the society, your dress needs to differ.
While approaching the masses, having casual attire will make you a lot more friendly and approachable. Show professionalism in the way you talk rather than the way you dress because certain dresses always act as noise to communication between client and salesperson.
Value time
Time is money, and money is time, my friends! This is a golden line, and you need to follow it to the brim if you want to sell anything to anyone.
Be 15 minutes before time at the place for the meeting that you have scheduled with a client. Being on time also means that you are absolutely ready to rock it with the client when they come and join your meeting.
It impresses them, and in the same way, if you are late, the chances of scoring any sale go down substantially. Make your watch your best friend indeed!
Ideal lifestyle
Just when you are engaging yourself with the customer to the fullest, try and slip in your product as a part of the customer’s ideal lifestyle. It will help them imagine getting things done with its help and hence boost your chances of scoring a scale with them.
Your narrating style of the ideal lifestyle will make or break the deal with the customer, and hence you should be skillful in portraying it.
For example- if you are selling a laptop to someone who uses a desktop PC, you should try and portray their ideal lifestyle as a life that is in need of mobility. Selling them the laptop so that they can always be on the go and get their work done without sitting in front of the desktop when at home.
Follow up on your clients.
Even if you have closed a deal successfully with your client and the sale is made, make sure you offer a follow-up call.
You should ask about how the product is performing and whether they need assistance regarding it or not. If the sale is not closed, follow-up calls will allow you to stay in the minds of the customer, and they will surely reach out to you when they need the product.
This basic step in your sales approach will showcase you as a responsible seller and enhance the trust value of your name.
Be Ready with Tools
Hesitancy is the language of sales and is present in every process that you will ever take up during sales. You cannot get all the sales prospects to buy your product with zero hesitancy.
This is why having the right tools to seal the deal is essential. It is said that human psychology offers a window in which the mind is influenced by the sales pitch, to seal the deal in that window of time, you need to have the tools.
For example, having online methods of payment handy during such sales encounters is a great tool to seal the deal. Especially if the customer doesn’t have cash or prefers one,I expect a mode of payment.
Lucrative offers
Everyone likes offers and freebies and this is something that needs to be kept in mind while selling. If you really want to sell anything to anyone, then go for offers and discounts.
People love it, and there are greater chances that they will give in to your sales proposal when the same is backed with an offer they cannot resist.
As a salesperson, you can put up such offers by calculating the profit margin of the product and then changing the price point accordingly. Even if you lose some money, at the end of the day, you will score better sales for sure.
Self-motivation
Sales can really be a tough job, and if you are afraid of the consequences, you will never succeed at selling anything to anyone.
You need to make sure that you are pumped up every day when you are out on the sales field. If you lack confidence, customers cannot ever put their trust in your words. Keep your spirit high and approach every customer as if the last deal you cracked was the biggest of your life, and you are hence beaming with confidence.
This self-motivation will allow you to be fluent and smarter in your style of selling the product to a prospect.
Condense your sentence
Selling is all about hitting the right chords with the customer. No customer will ever want to hear your long speech on the product you are selling. All that you need to do in order to be successful at selling anything to anyone is by condensing your sentences.
Try and deliver to-the-point sentences to the customer so that they will find it easy to understand and will grasp your product information quickly.
Brief lines regarding your product will have a greater impact and make the customers think hard about it.
Make your customer a part of the narrative.
The cognitive effects of making your customer a hero of the story are greatly motivating for the prospect to purchase your product.
You need to make him/her the hero of the story, and this is how the story should pan out-.
- Hero (your customer) encounters a problem.
- Hero meets a wise mentor (you, the salesperson) who guides him through the problem.
- The mentor offers a plan and guides his further action for success
- Armed with a new plan, the hero faces the problem
- The problem is overcome, and they find trust in the solution (a product that you are selling) offered to the problem by the wise mentor.
Inoculation effect in persuasion
If a salesperson excels in understanding the psychology of the customer, there can be not a single instance when they will not be able to sell stuff to the client. The inoculation effect is the idea of trying to boost the pre-existing belief and make the person on the opposite side rigid.
After this, the new idea should be shot at the customer, which they will repel instantly and, in conclusion, resort back to your product. This works like magic, and you can ensure complete sales success through its skillful application whenever needed.
What makes you different
In this age of fierce competition in the industry, every product that is out there has numerous competitors vying for attention.
Each of the products is in the same stream, and yet they do have their specific positives and negatives, which is to be well understood by a salesman at the job. If your offering has something really different from the others, then this is the best option for you to use and sell effectively.
The difference can be striking enough for the customer, and they will agree to buy a product from you rather than your competitor.
Offer a rating from 1-10
This is a tricky method that you can use with your customer. Rate them on a scale of 1-10 based on their knowledge of the product.
When given a chance, the customers will rate themselves low, and you have got to persuade them into believing that they are in the 8-9 range and nothing less than this.
This will boost their confidence regarding the product, and after some time, they will be explaining their knowledge and speaking more about the product themselves! Just when they are doing so, it is your time to call them for action and pitch your selling line.
Teach them the use
This is a magical way of selling! Maybe your customer doesn’t really know the use of the product you are selling, and this is where you need to teach them how to use it.
Once they are able to use it and feel the sheer joy of using the product or service, you will have a better chance at selling it to them.
The customers will speak of the benefits themselves and will think hard about the various purposes it serves. The perks are mostly in your favor, and you will end up bagging sales with the customer right away.
Brand story
If you want to persuade a customer, it is always effective to engulf them in an inspiring story regarding the brand you are selling. The brand’s click to fame and the various ways it fought off every other competitor or the various ownership issues it overcame in the last decade, everything needs to be briefed.
This will make the customer educated about your brand, and they will create an association with it instantly. Stories have always worked in sales presentations, and this is why you need to come up with an effective one.
Tips on How to Sell Anything to Anyone online
Now that the business is not only limited to offline and physical sales approaches, if you are planning to sell online, then there are certain things to keep in mind.
The presentation and style need to vary across platforms and this is why we have a list of things for you to keep in mind if you want to sell anything to anyone online! Read on to know-
Keep your approach personal.
No matter if it is online or offline. The key remains to make your product as close to the target group of customers as possible.
For online, create landing pages and web pages that will instantly engage and connect with the audience. Right from the web design to the content present in it, everything will have an impact on whether the person will be willing to purchase from you or not.
Such connection will help you maintain a human aspect in the website and hence let people easily opt for your product and connect with it further.
Details matter
When you are selling online, make sure that you stuff your customer with all the needed details for the product. Its various specifications, sizes, and colors, everything needs to be mentioned so that once they are convinced, they can make their call.
The language you use to specify details has to be absolutely simple so that no matter who visits your website, can understand and comprehend it according to the need they have.
While online, your website is the only way your end-user can know about the product. Hence, do proper specification listing to sell better.
Ask for immediate action.
Once you have listed out every detail of the product to the customer through your website, you have no way to ask for immediate action. For the same reason, there are various offers and discounts that are put up on sites.
If your customer is given a 20% additional discount on booking the product in the next two days, they will surely do it right away! Such a sense of urgency is a must if your product needs to meet the marketing target.
People love offers even if they are not worthy enough, but still, people will go for them because it is their psychology. Putting up “Limited edition” tags also helps in gaining business as people will immediately seek your product, and you will succeed in selling it off!
Email marketing
Having a list of prospects is always better to start off your sales process. You can succeed more if you have a longer list along with a planned email marketing technique.
You need to reach out to the mailboxes of your clients to let them know of your service or product and then leave the rest to them to decide whether they are interested in it or not.
You can sell anything to anyone if your email is attractive and serves the needs and curiosity of your customer base.
Emails are never meant to let out the entire information. Rather, they are meant to inform the people only a brief of what to expect, and then the real sales offer comes when they click the link attached in the mail.
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“Business, marketing, and Branding – these three words describe me the best. I am the founder of Burban Branding and Media, and a self-taught marketer with 10 years of experience. My passion lies in helping startups enhance their business through marketing, Branding, leadership, and finance. I am on a mission to assist businesses in achieving their goals.”