IN spite of what people may think, we are always selling or being sold to in life. If you have any idea or proposal, you will need some basic skills in selling if you want to close the sale and have your idea/product/proposal accepted.
Great leaders and rich men possess this skill. Selling will come in handy for many endeavours in life including:
Job interviews
How you prepare and present your resume, how you dress up, posture, composure and presentation (voice projection, eye contact and calm disposure) will play a role in determining whether you make an impression with the interviewers!
Whatever the case, it is mostly how much one is able to “connect” and “close” the interviewers by effectively showing how much they will gain by having the job seeker that wins the day rather than what papers and qualifications you have. Another aspect that has everything to do with selling is personal branding.
Proposing marriage
For men, you have to look like you have a plan in life because women always look for security in a relationship – security?
Well, I read an interesting equation the other day about women and money and it goes something like this. Women = Time + Money, since Time is Money or Time = Money then it means Women = Money + Money. Conclusion, Women = Money2!
I wouldn’t agree totally although there is a point here!
For women, you need to be presentable. Men are visual so they look at the exterior first before they get onto other qualities. Many would claim that they go for the heart but truth be told – who ever saw a heart walking down their high street and fell in love with it?
We all start with what we can see, then the personality comes in as we get to know them more.
So, if you are a lady but have a rotten personality, you will most certainly have a tough time landing the right partner for life.
You will need the right way to “sell” yourself if you want to get that man.
Of course it’s important that you have the right motives and methods to get that man or woman.
This is cardinal, for that which is built on the wrong foundation will always crumble and fall in the end even if it may look like one has temporary success in the beginning.
Negotiation
Negotiating well has a lot to do with skills in persuasion. Many think it’s about who seems to be able to shout and speak the most, yet it has very little to do with that. Negotiation involves listening, allowing the other party to explain themselves well and even looking like you empathise.
However, the greatest part of it comes when we are able to present a counterproposal that creates a win-win situation for you and the other party in point.
The ability to get such a position taken by the opposing persons requires high skills of selling and influence.
Business
In no other field is this skill more needed than in business. Why?
Because selling is the greatest key to getting that bottom line and bank balance to look better.
The great news for you and me is that selling is a learn-able skill!
You too can learn it easily, the better you get at it, the more successful you become.
How do you acquire this skill? For starters I suggest reading from two of the greatest sales gurus of all time, Brian Tracy and Zig Ziglar as they have mastered the art of selling and have been able to make millions of dollars out of that.
Robert Kiyosaki says that the difference between a “Bestselling book” and a literary masterpiece is that one has sold and the other may not necessarily be one.
The big difference is always going to be how many copies you sell. This in itself has got to do with marketing.
One common error in many companies and corporations is to place sales and marketing in the same department.
These two are not related to warrant them being in the same group or sentence.
Sales deals with units sold and exchanged for money either in cash form or credit form.
Marketing has to do with creating an awareness of your product and the fact that the general public or target market needs this product/service. When that is done effectively, sales increase. If it is done badly, no sales are created.
Selling (marketing) is the ability to get clients to realise the need they have for your service or product and how it will solve their problem.
The greatest sales men know that emotions plus benefits always sell the product!
Science has shown us that emotions are 24 times more powerful than logic and that is why whenever you use emotions (why) in any campaign/advert/negotiation, you will always get a greater response than when you appeal to cold facts and figures (what and how).
So, to get that sale, to get that opportunity, negotiate that standoff, get the girl of your dreams or whatever you are looking for, you need to get this skill under your sleeve.
How then do you sell effectively? Start by making the right impression, prepare adequately by dressing appropriately, understand your product and meet at the right and opportune place and time.
Be confident and friendly maintaining eye contact (don’t stare) with your clients. Have a sense of empathy by engaging them well.
Ask the right questions and get your client to tell you what their problem is.
If you ask the right questions, you will get the right answers.
Listen intently and look for your point of entry. If you ask the right questions you will find that opening statement.
It is here that you present your “solution’ through your product/service bearing in mind that benefits that solve a problem with an emotional tag to it will always get the client to buy! – lordsoracle@gmail.com