Secrets to Improving Your Sales Skills

If you have read any of the previous blogs or listened to recent episodes of the SHIFT CONTROL Sales Podcast, you’ll know that improving your sales skills is critical to achieving success.

The challenge is that with so many strategies, techniques, and tips available, it can be difficult to know where to start.

Try seeing sales as both an art and a science in that it requires a deep understanding of your product, your customer, and the psychology of selling.

In this blog post, we’ll discuss what we believe to be some of the top secrets to improving your sales skills that will help with your conversion rate and boost your sales figures

Ultimately sales is a complex and multifaceted business that involves good relationships, understanding customer needs, and the art of persuasion. Whether you’re new to sales or an experienced professional, there’s always room for improvement.

Understand Your Product

Before you can sell a product or service, you need to understand it inside and out. This means knowing the features, benefits, and remarkable differences (Hard to call anything ‘unique’ when everything is copyable, no?’ You need to be an expert on your product and service, the industry you work in and the competition you face on every sale.

Not only do you need to understand your features, benefits, consequences and outcomes but you need to be able to present and communicate those to customers in whatever way works for them – 1-2-1, 1-2-many, online, face-to-face.

You need to be able to write good emails, sales content and social media text – for me, being ‘understood’ is the most important rule for any profession but especially sales.

Know Your Customer

Sounds obvious, right? One of the biggest mistakes salespeople make is assuming that they know what their customer wants. The truth is, every customer is unique and has different needs and preferences. To be successful in sales, you need to take the time to understand your customer.

This means doing your research and asking questions. You should know your customer’s industry, their pain points, and their goals. By understanding their needs and preferences, you can tailor your sales pitch to resonate with them.

Assumption is the mother of all F-ups? You know it is – but are you doing anything about it?

Build Relationships

Sales is all about building relationships. You need to establish trust and rapport with your customer to persuade them to buy from you. This means being personable, empathetic, and attentive.

To build relationships, you need to be a good listener. Listen to your customer’s needs and concerns, and address them directly. You should also follow up after the sale to ensure that they’re happy with their purchase.

If you are interested in improving your sales skills ask yourself the question: ‘What am I doing about it?’

I always recommend listening to podcasts and reading books / listening to audio books but watching football matches doesn’t make you a good footballer, right?

Consider what might be the practical steps for you to help improve your sales skills.

Sales Coaching? Sales Mentoring? Sales Training?

All very different in terms of perspective, potential outcome, duration, relevance – but each one can add value to your sales ability and can help you push on to the next level.

Drop us an email and we can have a no-obligation diagnostics consultation – an hour should do it – find out if Shift Control can help you achieve sales success. Email info@shift-control.co.uk

Thanks for reading