Effective selling is an art that involves much more than just a pushy sales patter. Everything, from how you prepare to what you say and do, will have an influence over whether or not you excel at face-to-face selling. The key to achieving great face-to-face sales is to get your message across without being pushy – that way your customers are much more likely to take positive action.
Know your customer
Effective selling is not just about knowing your own business, products and services, it’s also crucial to have a good understanding of who you’re trying to sell to. What do your customers want and how can your business give it to them?
Be concise
The most effective salespeople understand the value of keeping the conversation short when it comes to making an impact. Don’t waste your customer’s time – or your own – with a lengthy sales pitch that is only 30% information and 70% useless or pushy chat.
Align your products or services with their need
A sales pitch that focuses purely on how wonderful a product is will be almost useless if there is no alignment with what this particular customer actually needs. So, make sure you highlight how your products or service will help them specifically.
Don’t be afraid to ask questions
Interaction is key to engagement and asking questions is a great way to get customers to be more focused on the conversation. Use questions to find out more about customer needs, for example, “I noticed your website states ____ - how are you currently achieving this?”
Make sure you answer any questions the customer asks
If you’re faced with a direct question, always answer it. Dodging the issue or fudging an answer will immediately impact on customer trust and impede any potential sale. Answer the question with information, data, explanations and examples. Avoid waffle or spin.
Show your customer how much you care about what you do
There are few things that are more convincing than someone who is genuinely passionate about a product or service. If you really believe in what you’re offering then the chances are that your customer will too so don’t be afraid to let that passion show.
Be creative when you’re selling
A dry, uninspiring sales chat is rarely effective – you can increase your chances of success by being more creative in the way that you approach pitching your product.
Know your market
It’s important that you’re able to show an understanding of where your business sits in the market so that you can demonstrate why your products and services are unique and better than competitors.
Regardless of the outcome always follow up
It’s not always possible to accurately interpret customer reaction to a sales conversation so it’s always worth following up. What may have seemed like a rather unenthusiastic response could have changed, since you spoke, into a firm commitment.
Our “
The Client Meeting - Face to Face Selling” course is designed to help anyone improve selling face-to-face to customers without being pushy.