The Sales Function and the skills and techniques of selling are fundamentally under-estimated in small as well as many larger companies.
If you can’t sell, and you don’t have a product that is wanted, then you don’t have a company.
So what are basic sales skills? The chart below shows what key points are involved.
The most important sales skills to learn and fully understand are the need to sell benefits as well as features, to ask open (not closed) questions, and to use the SPIN technique.
Open questions all start with:- who, how, what, when, where, why. In addition ‘What sort of..’ is powerful; so is ‘What if.. ‘ which can also be useful when closing for the order.
A feature can be, We have a big range of products.
The benefit is, ‘We have a big range to suit all tastes’; or,’… for you to choose from.’
Another key aspect is to fully understand your costing and pricing, and to provide clear quotations. Too many small companies fail because of poor costing , pricing and unclear quotations, or the price offering.
An important key aspect is to have a good piece of literature, maybe one or two pages, about your product and service to show or discuss examples with a prospect, and also to leave behind.
How do you learn the details of all these key sales focus points, and how to use them? There is not enough space here to write a ‘lecture’ or provide the written ‘sales training course.’ You can learn the details in the book Rocketship Management- How to Propel your Business to New Heights. Chapters 3,5,6,8 will tell you everything you need to know, and how to progress.
John Fordham
Rocketship Management
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