According to data from Vorsight, only 3% of the market buys, 40% is poised to buy and the rest are not. Selling is clearly difficult. However, the sales process is smoother when you have sufficient knowledge, use sales techniques, and understand the role of the salesperson.
Benoit Mahé, an expert in sales techniques, explains that it is essential for the salesperson to specialise, adding to their repertoire the ability to understand the needs of potential customers in order to also be able to offer advice. Basically, understanding customers' needs is vital. In fact, some 76% of customers expect companies to take their needs and expectations into account.
If you would like to learn which sales techniques work best and what to avoid during the sales process, let us explain all.
It’s important to know what steps should be avoided when it comes to sales, either because they're ineffective or because they can even create aversion to the product and even the salesperson themself. Some of these include:
There are many different sales techniques, all developed by salespeople or institutions within the sales and business field. Some have been in use for decades already, others are more modern. However, when it comes to choosing one sales technique or another, the important thing isn't how old it is but what type of product or service you want to sell, as well as which sales channel will be used.
But for a sales technique to be successful, it needs to be designed around the interests and needs of the target clients, in other words, it must be customer centric. In fact, companies with customer experience are 60% more profitable.
Below, we outline the most popular and effective sales techniques for you.
AIDDA is the acronym of Attention, Interest, Demonstration, Desire and Action. Nowadays, this approach has been streamlined by skipping the demonstration phase, so the acronym is reduced to AIDA.
This method, developed at the end of the 19th century by the Alexander Hamilton Institute in the United States, is based on a procedure that adapts to the natural purchasing process of a product, from discovery to acquisition:
SPIR stands for Situation, Problem, Implication and Resolution. It is also known as SPIN, with the N meaning "need payoff". This sales technique consists of posing a set of questions tailored to each of the steps:
AICDC is the acronym for Attention, Interest, Conviction, Desire and Closure. It's also called the Percy method, after the name of its inventor, Percy H. Whitting, who described this method in his book The 5 Great Rules of Selling. In this approach, the phases of an effective sale are as follows:
FAB is the acronym for Features, Advantages and Benefits. This method is ideal for any case where the final benefit is not clear or there are several features and benefits. It comprises the following stages:
The Sandler system, developed in 1967 by David Sandler, is based on sellers acting as consultants rather than as pushy salespeople. This sales technique seeks to raise appropriate questions during the qualification process, instead of forcing the sale of a product to a client who might not need it. The Sandler system has seven steps:
Consultative selling is a technique that focuses on the customer's needs. It seeks to build a long-term relationship rather than a short-term transactional one. Consultative selling techniques follow these steps:
Collaborative selling is about working with a customer to identify their needs and find an optimal solution for them. The key focus is on improving customer relations and enhancing the customer experience.
With this sales technique, salespeople need to focus on working together with the client, as this ensures the fair exchange of ideas and concerns in order to develop a win-win solution.
Regardless of which sales technique is used, there are several strategies that can help to move the process ahead and close the sale:
As you can see, despite sales being difficult to seal, there are plenty of sales techniques and complementary strategies that make it an easier and more enjoyable process. However, apart from understanding these tools, it's vital to also possess certain soft skills such as empathy, creativity and active listening, to be able to accurately identify the customer's needs and build lasting rapport, thus making the whole process much more effective.
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