Source: ACCA Contractor Excellence

Most salespeople have been trained on certain steps to a sale. It may have been a 10-step selling system, maybe a 12 or 13 step selling system – they are all pretty much the same, as selling really hasn’t changed since the beginning of time when Eve was sold on taking the apple from the serpent.

The main steps to a sale are as follows:

• Meet and Greet
• Interview – build rapport – investigate
• Select a product or service
• Present that product or service
• Demonstrate that product or service
• Trial Close
• Service & Parts
• Negotiations
• Close

Let’s now discuss the ingredients.
There are five ingredients that every sale must have. In other words, you as a salesperson must sell these 5 things. They are:

You – you must be able to sell yourself first and foremost. Not many people will buy what you are selling if they don’t buy you first. Yet if you sell yourself, a lot of people will buy whatever you are selling!

Who You Represent – Why buy here? You must be able to sell your customer on buying from your place of business. There are other vendors out there selling similar products with similar prices, so why should they buy from the company you represent? A professional salesperson will honestly believe that they are representing the very best company in the field, and therefore believe in that company. Selling that company then becomes easy. If you don’t think you represent the best – change companies!

Product – You need to be able to sell the product – this is probably the easiest of the 5 ingredients – use the presentation step in the steps to a sale above to do this. As with your company – if you don’t believe you are selling the best product, do something about it.

Price – If you can’t sell your potential customer on the price of the product, go back to the product itself – have you done the best possible presentation of the product? Remember that customers buy benefits, not features. Build value in the presentation and demonstration stages to help sell the price.

Time – Customers need to hear that there will never be a better time to buy this product or service than right now – you need to sell them on this fact by creating urgency.

I am going to discuss each step in more detail – this article will cover the first one, and the others will be covered in more detail in a subsequent article.

Selling You
Your customers will judge you initially using 3 of their 5 senses. They will look at you, smell you, and listen to you.

So, how do you look? Did you shave today? Do you need a haircut? What do your clothes look like?

How did you look when you went on that very important date with someone you wanted to impress? What did you do to prepare for that date?

Here’s what I think – you went to extreme lengths getting ready, chose your clothes carefully, asked other people for their opinion, showered, shaved (guys as well!), clipped fingernails, ironed clothes (yes, that contraption that plugs into the wall and hisses), polished shoes, and put on some “smell nice.”

Why did you do that? Because you were trying to sell yourself – that’s why! You knew that the person you were hoping to impress was going to look at you and assess you. You knew they were going to smell you and assess you. You knew that they were going to listen to you and assess you. You also knew that in order for any relationship to develop, you needed to pass these tests, so you went all out to impress. Anything less just wouldn’t do.

Here’s what else I think – you don’t go to these lengths each and every day for potential customers. Why? Probably because you think you are a good enough salesperson that you can still win your customers over without having to go to so much trouble. You see we are a lazy bunch, us salespeople. We like to do as little as possible in order to gain as much as possible.

What would happen if we made the very best first impression every time, every day, without fail, no exceptions? Are you willing to even give it a try? What is the worst that can happen? Absolutely nothing different than now, right?

How else can you sell yourself? Use the steps to a sale above – the first couple of steps are crucial. You must conduct a professional meet and greet – introduce yourself, allow the client to establish eye contact with you – maintain a sincere smile – have a firm, professional handshake – control your voice.

Conduct a professional interview/fact finding/rapport building session. Allow the client to do most of the talking – the more they talk, the more they will like you. This is not a time to sell, it is a time to allow the customer to get to know and like you. This needs to be a conversation like you are talking to a friend – not an interrogation.

Work hard on selling yourself – all the ingredients are important – I happen to believe that this is the most important of the five, you sell yourself and the world is yours.