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Free sales training from The Digital Sales Institute. Sales training lessons with insights into selling skills across the entire sales process.
Our sales training includes over 200 sales training videos and an accompanying e-book per course. Plus templates and guides.
A certificate of completion is awarded for each sales training course passed.
Free Sales Training - What is Selling?
As a salesperson, you know that selling is the exchange of one product or service for something else in return (usually money). The key is streamlining this sales process so that your efforts result in higher sales numbers and higher returns on your time investment.
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The core of selling can be concentrated into 2 pillars: conversations and commitments.
Quality sales conversations must have clear objectives, and you must gain commitments (no matter how small) to keep the sale moving forward. Real and genuine Sales Conversations are core if you are to build interest, rapport, and trust with customers. Sales conversations that explore needs, issues, challenges, and understanding of the customer’s current position. Conversations to qualify willingness to change and undertake actions together, and they have the authority to act. Then, you have to gain commitments from the customer to create future value together. Without a series of commitments, there is little chance of a sale being completed.
Sales Tip. Always monitor your ROSE (Return On Sales Effort).
When we talk about “what is selling? It is important to understand the psychology of selling. We don’t sell products or solutions. We sell stories, ideas, commitments, results, satisfaction, relief, trust, confidence, assurance, etc. Practically every business activity can be viewed as a process. Selling is no different, and a clearly defined sales process uses:
Information
Conversations
Product Offerings
Sales Tools and Assets
Buyer Commitments
So, in selling, a customer-focused solution should be the end result of your efforts in the process. Your role as the salesperson is to be really effective, so your sales activity facilitates the decision-making process for the customer. To do this, you must be able to. Open meaningful conversations with a customer. Understand the business issues of the customer. Help customers understand these issues. Build an effective solution. Link the proposed solution to the issues. Paint a picture of what the future looks like. Gain commitments along the way to keep the sale moving forward.
Now, let’s explore the basic rules of selling.
Customers do not buy products; they buy benefits (outcomes/results).
Selling involves getting buyers to change and acting on that change.
To get buyers to make commitments and then be committed to act.
In order to sell better, we must understand “buyer motivations.”
Selling is about getting customers to take action.
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Sales training online with over 200 video lessons and over 15 ebooks to download
Why would a potential customer listen to you? The hardest part of selling is getting a real conversation started, so how will you go about getting that conversation started?. Weak and irrelevant messages do not open up a buyer to listening, you are just interrupting their day. Your value proposition has to command attention, create an aha moment and tweak their interest (why care). So, start thinking about your offer. Your offer is your basic business proposition and is by far the most important element in your entire sales message.
- What are you selling?
- Why will they listen?
- Why should they care?
- How much does it cost?
- How will you support any claims?
- What’s In It For Them (WIIFT)!
While selling and closing a deal is your ultimate goal, to begin with a sales pitch is the wrong approach. A sales professional is like a therapist, they try to diagnose someone’s issue, are they open to change (because buying is a change management project) and then, if what you’re selling can help relieve the identified pain, you make present a solution that they will want to take to get to the future state you have painted. The sales conversion process needs to identify what is not working for them, where are the gaps to where they are now versus where they want to be. What is their ‘Why?’ Why will they listen? Why will they care? Why should they act?
Selling means exchanging value for value. The basic rule of selling is that people do not buy products; they buy benefits. Sales is about getting someone else to take action, to teach customers something new and compelling and provide reasons for them to act. To be in sales today is all about recognizing the true motivations of buyers and aligning solutions that matches their needs and desires.
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Typically, a sales process consists of 5-8 steps: prospecting, preparation, approach, presentation, handling objections, closing, and follow-up.
Sales is a process, and the following components must be managed:
A. Communication skills in terms of discovery questioning and active listening are vital.
B. Making sure that all sales conversations contribute to building commitments and yes points.
C. Manage the sales process through all the steps.
D. Build a credible and compelling solution for the customer.
E. Link the benefits of the solution with the exact needs of the customer.
F. Handle sales objections professionally using logic and proof.
G. Watch out for and recognize influencers, users, and decision makers.
H. Pay attention to buyer roadblocks, commitments, and actions.
I. Frame the closing of the sale appropriately for the buying group.
J. Use the closing technique that suits the situation.
K. asking for the business.
Selling revolves around 2 core activities. Conversations and commitments. So, making an early impression is important, but ongoing engagement closes more sales. That is possible only by deeply understanding a client and industry and their unique long-term solution requirements. It requires asking deep questions and listening as much as talking.
Do you spend more time talking than listening? Listening means you’re having a conversation with your customers—a dialogue, not a monologue. If the customer’s talking more than you’re talking, your conversation is probably centered on the customer’s world. That’s a good thing, because it means you don’t have to tell the customer everything you know about your product or company—only what’s relevant to his needs. Imagine the impact on customers when you dominate the conversation with a product-focused monologue. It signals that your agenda is more important than theirs.
