A Big Guide to Sales and Your Small Business

People aren’t born great salesmen and women, they’re made. With the right tools, know-how and acumen, anyone can master the art of selling. Granted, some people’s personalities might make them more ‘naturally’ gifted at selling but anyone can hone in on the skills and take advantage of the tools on offer to successfully sell.

Sales Tips and More

Don’t Be Afraid of Selling

You may be surprised at just how many entrepreneurs are afraid of selling or have an introverted personality seemingly unfit for a career in sales.

The stark truth is that solopreneurs and entrepreneurs need to sell to succeed. To help overcome the fear of selling, consider the following:

• Rejection is a good thing.
• The more you sell, the easier it becomes.
• Selling helps others.
• Selling can be fun!

Are You Selling with Conviction?

It may sound obvious and simple but to successfully sell your brand and its products and services, you need to sell with conviction.

How do you sell with greater conviction, you may ask? Reminding yourself why you started your business in the first place can be a good place to start. Remember, selling is all about emotions and it’s vital that when you’re doing a sales pitch you allow your passion to show through and connect with your prospects.

What About Social Media?

Social media is a phenomenon no small business can afford to ignore — not if they want to sell, sell, sell that is!

When using the likes of Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram to sell your products and services, it’s a good idea to build relationships with your followers first, to avoid turning people off your brand by using social media as a hard selling platform.

You should also take the time to finding out where members of your target market spend their time online to ensure you focus social media selling efforts on the right accounts.

To help small businesses and sales teams successfully sell on social media, there are numerous social selling tools and platforms to consider, including:

• LinkedIn Sales Navigator
• PeopleLinx
• Trapit
• Bambu
• Nimble
• Socedo

And that’s just for starters!

In addition to utilizing social media to promote and sell your products, sell you expertise on other online channels such as writing guest posts.

 

Do You Have an Online Selling Portal?

The internet provides small business owners with the opportunity to sell their products and services on a global scale. There’s a whole host of ecommerce sites available to promote and sell products. eBay is one of the leading ecommerce sites that enables sellers to list and sell products.

Etsy is another popular ecommerce platform, which is especially focused on art, crafts and handmade goods. For example, if you make handmade jewellery, listing list your jewellery on Etsy to reach a broad as audience as possible.

Are You Reading Sales Books?

If your small business isn’t hitting the sales targets you want, you may want to resort to reading sales books to help improve your sales techniques. Reading quality sales books will teach you methods on how to turn prospects into customers, the psychology of sales, how to overcome sales obstacle, among other vital aspects of sales.

Make Use of Sales Book Reviews

If you’re unsure which are the best sales books to help improve your sales tactics and results, make use of sales book reviews.
‘Story-Based Selling: Create, Connect and Close’, by Jeff Bloomfield, for example, is a fun and educational read that will help small business owners understand the value of story-based selling.

Are You Stuck with Tons of Slow Selling Products?

No business wants to be stuck with stock and products they can’t seem to budge. The savviest of salespeople are experts in moving slow selling stock. Three principles of selling products that are doing little more than getting in the way and gathering dust is to:

• Remarket the products
• Offer discounts
• Sell online
• Sell the products to a liquidation company

If you’re a new business looking to sell your services quickly and without delay, check out these tips on how to start selling your services in the first five days.

Are You Aware of Selling Mistakes?

Even the most experienced of salesperson can make mistakes when pitching to a prospective customer. Some of the most common sales mistakes are:

• Rushing sales pitches
• Coming over too bolshie or obnoxious
• Not letting the prospect do the talking

Avoid making common sales mistakes by taking a look at these easy ways to sell including making your prospect feel comfortable and focusing on their problems rather than your product.

Don’t Be Opposed to Fear-Based Marketing

Did you know you can scare customers into buying your product? As Lea Dunn of British Columbia’s Saunder School of Business notes, when someone feels frightened or alone, they form an emotional attachment to the brands around them. In this sense, you may want to consider injecting some fear-based marketing into your sales practices.

Have You Defined Your Target Market?

One of the five key successful sales strategies is to define your target market, which is critical to sales success. The importance of identifying target audiences and markets is mapped out in many sales books and strategies, surveys and data related to how to successfully sell.

Have You Cracked the Sales Code?

In order to crack the ‘sales code’, small business owners must think about two basic principles:

• Think behaviors, not ‘dollars
• Practice influence, don’t sell

Another basic principle savvy sellers should not underestimate is learning sales techniques from children. Some of the best sales lessons can be taught by the naïve powers of persuasion of young children.

Are You Familiar With the Selling to the Bottom of the Pyramid Model?

The selling to the bottom of the pyramid was introduced by the late professor of the University of Michigan, C. K. Prahlad in his book ‘The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid: Eradicating Poverty Through Politics’.

In a nutshell, this well-established selling model involves considering marketing opportunities present in both the affluent markets and at the bottom of the pyramid.

Are You Aware of Your Body Language When Selling?

Body language speaks volumes when it comes to selling. Win more customers and build a better sales team by applying the following body language rules:

• Smile
• Sit up straight
• Lean in to your prospective customer
• Mirror similar body language to your customer

Have You Hired a Sales Team?

You run a small business, you’ve got a million and one things to do…. except sell. If you’ve not got time to put enough effort into sales, it might be time to hire your first sales rep.

From helping you sell luxury goods to unfinished products, and experienced sales team, will help give your company the sales funnel it needs.

An experienced and quality sales team, whether it’s a one-man band or a ten-person army, will put your business on the road to smarter sales solutions.

Are You Paying Your Sales Reps Enough?

Given the importance of a skilled sales team, you need to make sure you are paying sales reps adequate commission. Sure Payroll’s sales commission survey gives an indication of whether you are paying sales reps too much or too little in commission.

A small change in your business mindset can go a long way in increasing your sales. Being aware of sales blunders and mistakes, practicing consistency, reducing sales time stress by taking on experienced sales professionals, utilizing online sales tools and apps, and conducting regular and efficient sales reports,  will all help improve your entrepreneur sales skills and ultimately become a better salesperson.

Sales Team Photo via Shutterstock

This article, "A Big Guide to Sales and Your Small Business" was first published on Small Business Trends