Introduction to Selling
This content is a short summary of the Skills21 session ‘Introduction to Sales’ delivered by Tarek Chelaifa.
Many people think that sales are about being an extroverted good talker to seduce customers. No, it’s not. Sales are the art and the science of moving people to solve their problems.
People buy solutions not products!
That’s why you need to qualify prospects by asking relevant questions, so you can understand their needs. Once you uncover the pain, recommending your product will be easy.
So, please forget about these 2 popular myths: ‘sales is good talking’ and ‘a good product sells itself’.
As a salesperson, you have to be good at active listening to make sure that the product fits your customer’s needs. And by the way, we are always selling something. An idea to a student, an opinion to a colleague, or even ourselves to a recruiter or a life partner.
The Sales Process
Sales is a linear process. And to make it so effective, a salesperson needs to be highly agile and organized. In other terms, you need to implement a whole system of doing things.
This system can be broken into 3 phases:
1-Pre-sales:
Pre-sales is all about preparing for the actual act of selling. During this planning phase, a sales rep identifies the ideal buyer persona, makes a prospects list, and does a competition study to understand the Unique Selling Proposition.
All this information will help him/her write a plan with clear SMART goals.
2-Sales:
This step begins by creating a connection. You need to be likable to sell. So, try to introduce who you are and why you do what you do. Credibility is also essential because people hate liars.
Likable and credible, you can go now into what we call pain uncovering. This is the moment when you identify the issues that the customer faces.
From there, you present the product as a solution. And here, don’t be a boring data dumper. Instead, touch emotions and engage customers using stories. Narratives are more powerful than facts.
If there are any objections, address them again in a likable empathic way. This way, you can close the deal and win the client.
3-Post-sales:
This stage is the follow-up that comes after closing the deal. In such a competitive market, it’s so important to keep a customer. Thus, this step is so critical to long-term customer loyalty and results in significant increases in cross-selling and up-selling opportunities.
Research shows that it’s infinitely easier to sell to a current happy customer than trying to bring on a new one. So, treat your customers accordingly.
Sales Careers
Sales and marketing are two different business functions within an organization, but both of them increase leads and revenue.
The term, sales, refers to all activities that lead to the selling of goods and services. However, marketing is the process of getting people interested in the goods and services being sold.
So, let’s explore some of the sales profiles with a startup or an organization.
1-Business developer is someone who identifies and builds business partnerships to increase the client panel. Biz Devs create new venture opportunities in new market segments or geographies. They also closely cooperate with the product, marketing, and sales teams to reassure the development and commercialization of the right product.
2-Sales Representatives are the focal point of contact between a business and its customers.
They pitch clients, sell products, and ensure current customers are satisfied.
3-Inside Sellers are responsible for sourcing new sales opportunities through inbound lead follow-up and outbound cold calls/emails. They understand customer needs and requirements, route qualified opportunities to the appropriate sales executives for further development and closure.
4-The Growth Hacker mainly focuses on increasing 3 KPIs: acquisition, activation, and retention to maximize revenue. So, they need to leverage a lot of marketing channels using techniques like scraping, A/B Testing, data analytics, and automation.
5-Customer Success supports and retains customers in the use of a solution or product to derive maximum value. They provide feedback to product teams to improve the solution based on customer feedback. They are also responsible for identifying upselling opportunities.
If you are interested in pursuing a sales career, Skills21 is the right solution for you. We help you, not only develop tech sales skills but join promising startups in the MENA and Africa. To get more details about us, please visit http://getskills21.com/
