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How Well Can You Sell Your Product?

You have a good to great product at your disposal to sell into your “target market.” How well can you sell your product? There are several different schools of thought regarding the importance of knowing your product, pricing, etc. all of which will impact your sales volume. Conventional sales philosophy preaches the need for high sales volume to produce the income you desire. At the end of the day, it still boils down to your ability to sell.

A sale is loosely defined as the process whereupon the salesperson using one of the generally accepted methods convinces his prospect to purchase the product or service he is selling at an agreed price. Essentially here is where the salesperson needs to have all the necessary tools in his tool box. I have always held to the opinion that even if you are the greatest salesman in the world your chances of closing the deal are slim to none if you do not know your product inside and out. If you went into a new car dealership determined to buy a car that day how likely is it you would buy a car from a salesman who knows little about the cars he is selling? Most of us would agree the buyer would walk out the door with no intent of returning.

What is even more damaging in this scenario is the loss of referrals that would have come his way had this salesman been in possession of product knowledge. Referral business is the best business as these buyers come in looking to buy only from you. This type of buyer is not overly likely to be one that shops around all over town in search of the best deal that is rarely the best deal. Yours is the name that sticks in their mind that they need to buy from. The more referral business you can generate the less you will have to hunt for new prospects. I am not suggesting that if you have a solid book of referrals you can sit back on your haunches and cease trying to generate new sales.

In between all of this is the not so small issue of price. Here again, I hold to the opinion that you don’t need to have the cheapest price but you do have to know how much your competitors are charging for the same product as you are selling. Bear in mind your market territory can and will factor into your pricing structure. Just to digress for a moment the reason you do not have to be or should not have the cheapest price is that if you have to make any downward deviations to what you are charging you will now have the needed room to reduce your price while maintaining a reasonable profit. This too falls under the how well you can sell umbrella.

We have touched on a few of the more critical aspects that a salesman needs to have a firm grasp on that are determining factors for success. Now we have to delve into other issues that are also on the must-know list. One of the ingredients that have not yet been infused into this mixture is the topic of how do you sell your product. It can safely be argued that there is not only one way to sell. Although the prior statement is correct each product has a certain uniqueness about it that presents a mandate for the way it needs to be sold. Negotiating the curves of the tangible sale will steer you into oncoming traffic when you are selling an intangible product which is by far (based on my experience as well as those of other upper echelon salesmen I have interacted with) the more difficult of the two. Hence there exists a clear-cut route for each.

Inclusive in the process is to be enlightened if your sales presentation skills are up to par. If you are too long winded or babble you will literally put your prospects to sleep. Conversely, if you go for the jugular right away or are so rapid in your delivery you will wind up confusing your prospect. Few sales are that automatic (irrespective to their originating source) that you can come off as if you are trying to hide something. The presiding feeling on the part of your prospect is you are brow beating them. In other words instead of the atmosphere at the negotiating table being one where the buyer wants to buy you are making him feel he has to buy. Congratulate yourself (meant sarcastically) as you have now created a snarling attack dog with saliva dripping from his mouth whose eyes are fixated solely on you! Barring divine intervention, this deal is dead or at the very least on life support with an almost empty oxygen tank.

Optimally you want your presentations to reveal you know your product, you know how to price your product, and you are adept at establishing a common bond between yourself and your prospect/buyer. People buy from those they not only feel are honest and trustworthy but are very likable as well. In terms of how long your presentation will partially be determined by what you are selling. The amount of time that must be invested in each prospect is a byproduct of your skill. One call closes are great but never discount the importance of the 80/20 rule.

Selling for a living is not for those who are faint of heart or loathe the idea of living life on an emotional roller coaster. As you can see there are many moving parts that are involved with each sale. Sales horror stories are plentiful as are the stories of those who made “six figures.” For most a steady flow of income that meets the needs of a well-balanced lifestyle is best. When it is all said and done the money you make rides on how well you can sell your product or service. It’s (the money) out there waiting for you to come snatch it off the tree. How badly you want it and what you are willing to do to get it makes the branches lay low for you or out of reach.

For those of the Christian faith, the holiday of Easter commences on Easter Sunday which falls on the 16th of this month. For those of us of the Jewish faith, the eight-day holiday of Passover begins on the evening of April 10th. These two holidays represent the time when we retrain our thoughts to focus on all the good that comes only from G-d. Whichever holiday you celebrate I wish all of you happiness and health.

Joel Elveson
Joel Elvesonhttps://jelveson.wixsite.com/recruitersite
INDEPENDENT Executive Recruiting By Joel is an "up and coming" Executive Search Firm formed and headed up by Joel Elveson whose visionary ideas, leadership & creativity have brought to life a more "user-friendly" approach to recruiting. His clients and candidates form powerful strategic partnerships that we use to help you. Joel’s Firm offers Permanent, Temporary (case by case), & Temporary To Permanent staffing solutions for all of your Human Capital Requirements. Contract IT/Consultants are available if needed. Above and beyond they are experts (by way of their personal industry work experience) with mortgage, mortgage banking, middle-market banking, accounting, along with many others under the vast financial spectrum of disciplines. Their business goes beyond candidate recruiting as they also train, mentor and develop your internal recruiting staff with an eye towards helping you reduce the cost of hiring. They will also work in areas such as compensation, effective onboarding processes and alike. In other words, their business is to help your business by becoming an extension of you by filling in gaps that cause delay or waste. The recruiting methods employed by Joel’s team are time tested that results in a high rate of successful placements. Joel was trained in the art of recruiting by some of the top staffing industry executives in addition to the best recruiter trainers who to this day drive me to exceed the lofty goals he has set forth.

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8 CONVERSATIONS

  1. Coming from an expert salesman of the caliber of Joel Sir, the above article gives us some very important pointers that global economy is based on.

    Sales professionals are the uncelebrated bridge between demand and supply, and thereupon rests the wheel of industry per se. Having said that, I would take the liberty to highlight one of the most powerful tools a great salesperson employs towards accomplishing his/her goal. In my mind, this tool is ‘Value Proposition.’ Until and unless you bring out this important factor before your prospect, making a sale is nothing short of a game of dice. Offer value and clinch the deal by making ‘price’ a secondary consideration.

    Thank You!

    • Bharat, these comments that originate from a mind such as yours carry a ton of weight. You understand how business works and course you understand sales along with the sales process. In my estimation, you are of above average (way above average) in terms of intellect.

  2. Salesmanship is not emphasized as much as it used to be. It should be. Instead people just lump it in with business development. Some say marketing is the science and sales is the art. I don’t agree. I feel sales is an animal all of its own.

    • Chris, My personal experience has been that business development was the opening of the account. Sales was always as you put it an animal of its own. It is the sale the drives everything. If salespeople don’t close deals all the business development people, account executives, support staff, etc. would be patrolling the unemployment line.

    • I agree. Our practice emphasizes salesmanship and revenue. We pull from the “Selling Power” library we built up over the years.

    • Hi Chris, Nobody formally taught me how to sell outside of a few pointers here and there. I derived some benefit from sales tape cassettes which shows how long ago that was. Other than that I learned by doing things myself. From my trials and stumbles I learned to sell. Thank you Chris!

    • The name sounds familiar but I don’t think I am overy familiar with him I remember listening to Dave Yoho and Dro Robert Shook. There were other sales trainers but being it was so long ago I can’t remember their name. The first place I worked in the staffing Industry (Concepts In Staffing-Arthur Abrams) really taught me that business well. I use a lot of the sales techniques in everyday life. The first place I worked for in the Mortgage business was GFI Mortgage Bankers. They gave me some sales training. No much sales training when I was in the insurance business. I never sold Life Insurance as the focus was on Car & House insurance. Those products were all rate based meaning if you had the best rate you would get business. Nothing else matters. Take care Chris. Hope you have a great weekend as well!

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