10 sales tips as a guide on selling to the modern customer. We all need some sales tips every now and again, to help keep our sales activity sharp and focused. Selling today can be a complex process that requires a unique set of sales skills. The savvy salesperson knows that to sell successfully they need to have a deep understanding of their customers’ needs and provide them with a solution that meets those needs. In this article, we’ll explore some sales tips and the key selling skills that salespeople need to succeed. 1.Product to Market Fit First up on our 10 sales tips is to understand how the product fits and what it delivers is the basis of any successful sales conversation to a customer and is the first of our sales tips. Salespeople need to have a real understanding of “product to market fit” in order to target the right customer set plus FAB (features, advantages, benefits). They should be able to clearly communicate the value proposition of their product to potential customers in a way that is relatable to the challenges that buyer is facing. Once a salesperson understands the customer’s needs, they then must be able is to communicate the unique value proposition of the product. A clear and compelling statement that explains how the product solves the customer’s specific challenges and helps them get to a better place. To communicate a value proposition effectively, it’s vital to focus on the outcomes of the product and not just benefits. Also, salespeople need to blend in case studies and testimonials from other customers who have achieved success with the product. Buyers are also more likely to engage with a salesperson who is able to demonstrate the product’s potential and answer any product related questions that customer may have. They should also be able to address the product’s unique advantages and how to differentiation themselves from other solutions. 2. Customer Profiling Before ever picking up the phone or approaching a potential customer, salespeople should be fully versed in understanding the customer’s needs and pain points as it related to their offering. They must be able to outline the specific challenges that their customers are facing and then create sales conversations that address those challenges. They also need to know what future state the customer wants to get to, how to make their lives easier and the outcomes the buyer will receive upon purchasing the solution. To do this, the salesperson needs to ask thoughtful discovery questions and actively listen to the customer’s replies. They should also be able to present themselves as market experts and how their product is helping to solve challenges in the customers industry. To do this effectively, salespeople need to ask open-ended questions that encourage the customer to open up about their challenges and goals. What challenges are they currently facing in their business. How do they measure the success of their current solutions. What are their top priorities for the year ahead. Asking these types of questions helps salespeople understand the customer’s needs but if an opportunity to sell really exists. 3. Verbal and Non Verbal Communication Skills Point 3 of our 10 sales tips is how both verbal and nonverbal communication are critical in the sales process. Salespeople are required to explain data and technical details in a way that is easy for a customer to understand. They should be able to adapt their communication style to the personality type of each individual customer. Competent in all the different communication channels, such as video, email, phone, and in person meetings. In remote selling, the customer can gather information from the salespersons statements in terms of the content (i.e., words used) and delivery (i.e., rate of speech, loudness, tone, number of pauses, and disruptive words such as “umms” and “aahs” used). In addition, the customer is subjected to a host of information from the visual channel. These cues can hail from the salespersons facial expressions as well as their head and body movements. The audio and the visual channels, respectively, give rise to the verbal and nonverbal cues in a communication. Sales tips insight. As a given, salespeople should be skilled at building relationships with potential customers. They should be credible, personable, insightful plus be able to establish trust and rapport quickly. 4. Time Management “Time management” is really about salespeople improving their overall work performance in order to make them capable of completing the various sales tasks in a timely manner. Time management comprises three components: Structuring, Protecting, and Adapting time. Well-established time management measures reflect these concepts. Structuring time, for instance, is captured in such items as “Does the salesperson have a daily routine which they follow?” and “Does their main activities during the day fit together in a structured way?” Protecting time is reflected in items such as “How often does the salesperson find themselves doing things which interfere with their sales role simply because they dislike saying ‘No’ to people?” And adapting time to changing conditions is seen in such items as “They use wait time to consider answers or next actions” and “Evaluates daily schedule to optimize sales activities”. 5. Creativity Sales Tips The fifth of our 10 sales tips is that salespeople who are able to develop new ideas for satisfying customer needs and who can generate as well as evaluate multiple alternatives for novel customer problems are more likely to be successful than those who approach their customers in a conventional way. Sellers who are creative are more likely to think divergently about their products and can therefore persuade their customers by citing a wider and more attractive range of benefits. Furthermore, creative sellers can also apply their divergent thinking skills by devising novel procedures to acquire new clients. Sales creativity is characterised by the ability to perceive the sales role and customer interactions in new ways, to find hidden patterns, to make connections between seemingly unrelated topics, and to generate solutions. It is salespeople’s10 Sales Tips for Every Salesperson