How to Be a Fantastic Salesperson

“Everybody lives by selling something.” --- Robert Louis Stevenson

To be a fantastic salesperson, here is what you need in abundance:

Good-Health and Energy: You need good-health at all times to be able to sell. When you are unhealthy, your thinking is distorted, your spirit is low, your drive is reduced, your enthusiasm is deflated and your general effectiveness will be seriously impaired. Not many people will want to do business with a sick man.

A Friendly Disposition: According to ancient Chinese, “A man without a smile should not open a shop.” A friendly Salesperson is usually very effective. You must learn to smile and to put customers at ease. A keen sense of humor is an icing on the cake. Facial expression, the correct body language, voice-tone and voice-moderation all enhance your friendly disposition.

Persuasiveness: A good Salesperson must be familiar with the motives that move people to buy. That is, what motivates them to buy? Different people have different motivations for making purchases. Every buyer has a motive for buying. The product may appeal to the person’s reason, their instinct or their emotion. These are the main motivating factors for buying. Armed with this, a Salesperson should be able to persuade a prospective buyer while using these sentiments. People may refuse to buy initially because of lack of money, lack of time, lack of sufficient information, the need not pressing enough and any such other reason. A good Salesperson works to find a way around these obstacles to make a sale. You should never allow a “No” answer to dissuade you from making a sale. You should always find a way to turn the “No” to a “Yes” through skillful persuasion. It is imperative that you display enormous tolerance, accurate thinking, initiative and self-control. You should never pick offense if and when you are turned down. You should always try to act the impression that a turn-down is temporary and that the matter could be revisited when the obstacles have been cleared. Form the habit of making repeated calls on a Customer even if your calls are not yielding immediate fruits.

How to be an Effective Salesperson

“Everybody lives by selling something.” --- Robert Louis Stevenson

To be an effective salesperson, here is what you need in abundance:

Balanced and up-to-date information: Good Salespersons must be well-informed and knowledgeable about their Product and their Customers. You must know your Product in and out and be conversant with all the new trends that affect the Product. You must be able to size-up your Customer to see if he or she is motivated enough to buy, to see if they can afford to buy, to see if they need to buy and finally to find out if they want to buy. If they want to buy and they can’t afford the money, you can work out a favorable credit arrangement to see if that will help them make up their minds. If they are not motivated enough to buy, you can skillfully work on their emotions or you reinforce the reasons why they need to buy from you. If you do not have sufficient knowledge about your product and its market you will experience some handicap trying to persuade anyone to buy from you.  

Empathy: You must be able to show real and genuine empathy to your Customers. Make friends with them. Show concern and care even for their private affairs where and when it is prudent to do so. Always mentally swap places with the Customer to see whether if you were in their shoes how your reaction will be. Take their reluctance to heart and see how you can gradually help them to arrive at favorable decisions. Show genuine concern and willingness to be of help even if you do not make a sale at that material time.