Make more sales
This Make more sales Info Guide will explain how you can make more sales by avoiding common sales traps and through an improved understanding of the powerful influences that determine why people buy.
Great sales people:
The sales profession requires lots of hard work which eliminates error and reduces the bad salesman’s temptation to rely on natural talent.
Remember!
Pearls lie not on the seashore. If thou desirest one thou must dive for it.
Chinese Proverb
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Super salespeople always put the customer first – they are always available and ready to provide solutions.
Remember!
If you work just for money, you’ll never make it, but if you love what you’re doing and you always put the customer first, success will be yours.
Ray Kroc
Founder of the McDonald’s brand
If you are motivated by 'What’s in this for me?', you are guaranteed to fail in the long run. Ask yourself this simple question: 'If I was standing where my customer is right now, what would be the very best thing the salesperson could do for me?'.
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To succeed in sales, you need to offer solutions, fulfill needs and challenge the competitor’s proposition. If you set out to solve your customers’ problems or address their needs you will find that sales happen while you are busy helping them out. This is especially true when providing a service or an experience.
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Remember!
To speak and to speak well are two things. A fool may talk, but a wise man speaks.
Ben Jonson
British Poet and Dramatist
Great sales people ask questions and are naturally curious. People like answering questions about themselves. Poor sales people talk too much and especially about themselves.
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As long as you ask questions you will always stay on safe ground. Questions show interest without giving opinion. Better still, questions gain information.
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Many salespeople fail because they talk too much or don’t listen. Think of a doctor in a surgery. Imagine if they talked too much? Imagine if they didn’t listen? What if they didn’t ask questions? How would you respond?
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If you want to excel, go the extra mile. Doing more than the customer expects costs little but has a high impact, eg offering the lone breakfast diner a newspaper, taking a guest’s suitcase to their bedroom, going to the local shop and buying their favourite magazine when a customer enquires if you have a copy. These are low cost initiatives with a high impact that will make you stand out from the crowd.
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If the sales person isn’t excited or inspired by a product or service, it’s unlikely the buyer will rush to purchase.
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Often, we buy an 'experience’. The decision to buy the experience is not solely price based - it is frequently about the adventure ahead. For example, instead of discounting in a competitive market, a B&B owner could instead delight customers with the variety of activities on offer in the area - 'When you stay with us, we can bring you fishing on the lake in the morning and show you the scenic walks nearby. If you have time this afternoon, we can bring you to the pier to watch the dolphins'.
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Do your homework - research your customers and find out what they want. Show empathy with them and cater for their needs.
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Value means a fair price to both the buyer and the seller. Value makes customers return.
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To be successful you need a flexible plan which allows for unforeseen change. A plan is simply a map that you use to guide you and keep you on the right track.
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Great sales people understand their productor service intimately. They know its benefits, value and unique selling points. They know their competition and understand the trends that make customers buy. They continuously strive to learn, and exude confidence and a passion for their business.
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Wise sales people always set out to provide a great product, service or experience first. They know that money follows.
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A sales target is an ideal economic figure that gives you profit. Sales targets cover every aspect of your business, including bar sales, bedroom sales, food sales, sales from promotions (including adverts, flyers, PR and tradeshows), targets for sales calls, targets for visiting new customers and existing customer targets.
Anything that can sell or anything that can drive sales in your business must have a target and must be measurable. Targets can be measured daily, weekly or monthly. Any bigger gap will not allow you time to adjust quickly enough.
The most obvious and measurable target is revenue – ‘How much did we turn over?’- followed by the percentage that is profit. A sales related target might be measuring performance this year against last year.
Targets are not always economic. You can have targets and measures for complaints, eg, ‘In the next quarter, let’s aim to reduce the complaints by 50%’. This is measured by counting the number of complaints.
Other measurable non-financial targets include:
- The amount of customers over the previous years
- The number of new enquiries after you ran an advertisement
- The number of people who bought your special offer
- The average time, day and month that people use your product or service
- The number of sales telephone calls made
- The number of sales meetings
- The number of sales presentations delivered
- The number of tradeshows attended
- The number of new products/services sold
The easiest way to measure any of the above targets is to ask if you are on target, behind target or ahead of target.
Setting targets and measuring progress: B&B example
A B&B’s sales target might be that they need to sell three bedrooms a night for six months of the year at €50 per night.
The next step for the B&B is to measure performance over an agreed period. Using six months as an example, ‘the measure’ would be the overall target divided by the six months. Therefore, if the average room sales in month one is two bedrooms per night, the B&B is behind target. If it is three bedrooms, the B&B is on target. If it is four bedrooms, the B&B is ahead of target.
Remember!
Sales targets are vital to make sure you know if you are on course, off course or likely to make a little more profit. Measuring and monitoring sales targets tells you how your business is performing, what works, what does not work and where to invest your effort and money in future.
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Great sales people sell confidently based on what the product or service delivers. They don’t focus solely on price. As Alfred Dunhill (developer of Alfred Dunhill Ltd. which specializes in men's luxury leather goods, lighters, timepieces, fragrances and clothing) said: 'Quality is remembered long after price is forgotten'.
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The buyer knows that you are in the business of making a sale. They will respect and admire the professionalism that guides them to a solution. Always close by asking for the sale and confirming it.
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