So, you want to sell!!

Photo by Danielle MacInnes on Unsplash

Well, if yes, then you have come to the right place and, I do think I can help. See, I’ve been doing this for nearly 20 years, more, if you count all the side hustles in university. I will save that for another post and get to the good stuff. I promise you, it is good stuff though unfortunately, selling isn't the easiest thing in the world. It takes a lot of hard work. Read that last line again.

So, you want to sell. You either work in a fancy-pants MNC, a robust midsize business or a 300 mph startup that is, for sure, the next Uber (or FB or…. you get the drift). This is where you work and your job is to SELL. Sell a product, service, idea, concept, the company, in return for monetary compensation, bring in the bacon, so to speak. Either you are doing really well, and want to do even better or you have no clue what you are doing and really need to keep that job. To achieve this you need to do three things.

THE THREE STEPS: Yep, you read that right, it is just three steps. 1. Know what you are selling. 2. Know to whom you are selling. 3. Create a solid value proposition based on the knowledge gained in step 1 and 2.

If you can, hand on heart, say to yourself that you have already done all of this, you can stop reading right at the end of this section.

1. Know what you are selling: I cannot stress this enough. You have to know everything about your organization and your product/service on offer. That is the basics, non-negotiable and cannot be excused. Know everything about your company because that is an integral part of the story you tell. Know the industry you operate in and all the dynamics of this industry, who is part of the ecosystem, who are the top dogs and who are the challengers. Know the cycles, the nuances and the laws. The reason you need to know all of this is, you need to understand how your company and your offering and by extension, you, are creating value for the customer. You can only create value when you know what problems exist and how your offering is going to solve them.
2. Know to whom you are selling: Who is your customer? What are the problems they are facing? Why would they give you the time of the day? The old saying that people buy from people, does hold true. People do like to buy from people they feel like they can trust. Of course, when you are trying to make a sale, most potential customers will not have the time to sit you down and give you all the information you need. You need to use as many publicly available resources to get to know a potential customer before you approach them. Look at Google search trend data for your industry and figure out what problems are most common, read whatever news you can find about your prospects, look up their leadership on social media. Do not make assumptions but gather all the data you can before reaching out. If the person you are speaking to understands that you have done your homework, they will appreciate the effort and warm up to you immediately. Remember, there never is going to be a “one size fits all” approach to selling, do the homework!!
3. Create a compelling value proposition: As Mike Wineberg says in his book, New Sales Simplified, it is all about a strong sales story. This is the one weapon that you have in your arsenal that no one can replicate. Create the basis of your sales message, your value proposition, from the information you have gathered in the steps above. It should talk about the value your solution/product is going to create, but more importantly, it has to be personal. If you base it on all the stuff you have gathered then it automatically becomes compelling. Try it out, it becomes so much easier once you get past that first draft.

Now I know you are on to me and have figured out that it's not exactly three steps. Like I said right at the beginning, this is a lot of hard work, and a lot of preparation before you even get in front of a prospect. You have to be systematic in your approach and ensure that you work with all the resources at your disposal. The idea is that you do such a good job with your customer that other people they know come to you and say, “I want one of that as well!!!”. You have to be all in, 100% committed and let that show, your customers will love you for it.

There obviously is a lot more to each of the steps I have mentioned above, so drop me a line and we can connect if you want more information, templates, workbooks that can help guide you through this awesome process.