Everyone needs to understand how to market and possibly sell a product. Whether you are 17 or 70 it really doesn’t matter; you will spend a good part of your time attracting people to things you want them to do. Sales skills are required by people who market products; house wives trying convince hubby over the choices to be made; children who want their parents to take certain decisions in their favor; spinsters and bachelors that need to attract the right partner to marry; politicians who want to be popular and attract votes and endorsements; preachers who wish for people to accept their faith. It really doesn’t matter who you are or what you do. You need the convincing skills of selling a product to people around you!
Your objective is to make the people you want to attract feel confident that they will be happy and satisfied with your product, no matter what it is. The product could be objects that are seen or skills that need to be demonstrated. Three things are central to us being able to sell our products: We must believe in the product ourselves! Our conviction must be strong enough to convince our audience that whatever we are selling is worth buying. Some people think that good marketing and sales persons need to be able to speak well; that is true. But a good speaker without conviction can be spotted by the sensitive listener easily. We also need the ability to prospect. That is the process of identifying qualified people to purchase what we are selling. Not everyone wants to buy and one major skill is to be able to spot the customer at the drop of a hat. If we can get involved to the level of helping people make decisions that would benefit them, selling would come naturally to us. We must have the expectation that: “the buyer would thank me for what I have done in the future”. It is called empathy. Caring about the client, really caring, not just having him part with his money.
One major strategy we must learn is making conviction come from the client. We don’t want it to look like we manipulated him into buying. Neither are we forcing our opinion on him. If I say the product is great, the client might be skeptical. After all, I’m the one that is selling it. But what if I can get the client to say the product is great?
Here are three questions that sales people can use to get the client to answer in the affirmative:
1. The hold them down question: The objective of this kind of question is to get the client to say yes in response to your question. Here is an example: “Investing in a great product makes sense, doesn’t it?” The answer that follows is bound to be “yes it does!” Once you get them answering in the affirmative, you are on your way to closing the sale.
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2. Two choice questions: This is a question which will lead to you giving an option of two answers. The client would select one. Both answers are in the affirmative. You can use the two option question to make appointments with people who avoid sales personnel. “Sir, could I meet you at 3 o’clock or 7 0’clock? “Should I come to your office or would you like to come to our facility?” Wives can use the two choice questions to commit their husbands on what to eat: “Would you like some rice or some beans for dinner?” Children can ask parents to commit to taking them out at a festive period: “Daddy, can we go to the amusement park or the football game?” The whole idea is to get the client committed to what you want him to do.
3. The third kind of question for commitment is the sticky question. As a person selling a product we make the buyer know that there are options available. Options would lead to the client “sticking” to what he wants: Do you have a smaller size? Do you have one in red? Can I get it delivered to my house? The trick is to provide a range of options which would lead to the buyer requesting for one.
In order to have the patience to go through all of this and convince the client to buy into our idea or product, there are certain qualities that should be expected of us. We have mentioned some of them already. First of all, you must believe in your product to the extent that you use it yourself! Don’t be like Michael Jackson who was icon for Pepsi cola in the 1990s, but preferred to drink diet coke. During an interview with Oprah Winfrey, the camera panned to his waste basket in his room at the Neverland Ranch and there was a can of diet coke in it.
Another rule of thumb we must observe is we must be enthusiastic about what we are selling! Enthusiasm is contagious. It rubs off on people. When asked what to do if the congregation is sleeping in church on Sunday, a world class preacher said; “Prod the preacher with a hot rod. That should wake the congregation up! The moral is, we cannot allow for a dull moment to take over. We have to be totally excited about what we are doing. Finally, we need to find something we love doing and do it with all our might. Whatever you are selling you must like it and it must show.
By Alex Ogundadegbe
