Sales Skills Aren’t Just for Salespeople

Some do everything they can to avoid it. You may find yourself in this situation now, even though you know that you have to sell to stay in business.

In this video, you’ll recognize the need to develop your sales skills so that you can truly help and serve your customers.

Why You Need to Develop Sales Skills

Sales may not be your profession, but you need to make sales if you want to have a profitable business. These may be online or offline sales, but the skills are the same.

Think a bit deeper about what selling is. It’s an exchange of goods and services for money. In other words, you are giving something back when someone pays you money, so you have nothing to feel ashamed about.

But the impression persists that selling is sleazy, tacky, or even dishonest. If you resonate with this, then try changing the way you think about selling. Instead, think:

• Selling is solving a problem for my customer.
• Selling is serving them in the best way possible.

You know that you want what’s best for your customers, but you can’t help them if you don’t make the sale first.

Selling is about matching what you have to offer to what customers need, so it must always be customer-focused.

Your job when you’re selling is to help your customers make a decision — the right one for them. You’re their decision coach. And they may well come to work with you because of that decision.

Of course, the sales process is often a lengthy one and begins with you finding suitable leads before you make an offer. Here, we are focusing on the vital communication and relationship-building skills you need to master to sell successfully.

Depending on your business, you’ll use sales skills in a variety of contexts, from sales conversations to webinars, to small groups.

Also, depending on your type of business, you may be selling to other companies. That’s known as business-to-business and often abbreviated to B2B, such as a manufacturer selling products to a wholesaler. But you may sell to individuals, or business-to-consumer (B2C), such as a life coach selling their services to an individual client.

Your core sales skills will work for you in all situations.

Attributes of Customer-Focused Salespeople

Successful salespeople are not out to manipulate people into buying something they don’t want. That’s an old-school, high-pressure way of selling. It might’ve worked for a first sale, but it wouldn’t have people coming back for more.

Customer-focused salespeople are:

• Committed to customer success.
• 100% confident in their product or service and in themselves.
• World-class communicators.
• Enthusiastic educators.
• Effective problem-solvers.
• Efficient at building and managing relationships.
• Excellent coaches.

Be aware of your strengths when it comes to these attributes. You might perform better at some than others. As long as you’re committed to the customer and confident in your offering, you can develop the other strengths.

Key Takeaways:

• Selling means matching what you have to offer to what customers need.
• You can improve your core sales skills as long as you’re committed to your customer’s success.

Action Steps:

1. Identify the contexts in your business where you need to use your sales skills and with whom, e.g. in sales conversations, webinars, small groups, etc.
2. Rate yourself on a scale of 1 – 10 on the following statements. Note where you are strong and where you need to develop:

• 1. I am committed to customer success.
  2. I am 100% confident in my offerings and in myself.
  3. I am a world-class communicator.
  4. I am an enthusiastic educator.
  5. I am an effective problem-solver.
  6. I am efficient at building and managing relationships.
  7. I am an excellent coach.

Are you struggling to get comfortable with selling?

Check out my full program, where I teach you the A-Z of mastering the mindset and skills you need to sell effortlessly.

Check it out at Asking for the Money..!