INTRODUCTION

If you found this, then you’re looking for some help or guide with your sales. You want to sell something, whether it’s yourself, your services, products or whatever it is, and you need some help.

I’m not going to lie: Selling isn’t easy. In fact, it’s one of the most difficult things people do every day. Whether you’re buying a house or pitching a friend to invest in a new startup, sales are hard.

Most people are struggling with sales. It’s not because they’re terrible at it, it’s because there isn’t enough information out there. You see the same sales strategies everywhere: there’s a lot of “pump-and-dump” going on. Tons of people are being misinformed and left feeling frustrated by unfulfilled promises.

In this article series I want to share with you a simple way of selling anything to anyone. I’m going to walk you through everything you need to know to take your amateur sales pitch and turn it into a professional one. 

You don’t need a degree in sales, and you’ll never have to change your personality. We’re not talking about setting up a phone schedule and cold-calling people (don’t worry I don’t know many people who enjoy doing that). Whether you’re currently in sales or just looking to transition from an amateur marketer or affiliate, there’s something for everyone in this guide.

Selling is about creating a need in the mind of your prospect. If you can shape his primary objections, whether they are financial, emotional and so on, you can win the deal.

1. Understand your ideal customer and create a buyer persona

When building a business, it’s easy to get caught up in the mechanics of getting started. You may be focused on acquiring customers and you should be, but this is only half the battle. To ensure that your effort pays off, you have to know who you’re trying to attract in the first place.

In other words, you need to understand your ideal customer — and create a buyer persona.

Who are your buyers?

A buyer persona is a semi-fictional representation of an ideal customer based on market research and real data about existing customers. When creating your buyer persona(s), consider including customer demographics, behavior patterns, motivations, challenges, pain points and goals. The more detailed you are, the better.

Once established, a buyer persona can help inform how you position your brand online and make sure that you’re targeting the right people with the right message at the right time.

For example: Suppose your target customers are stay-at-home moms looking for products that make cleaning easier. In that case, you would want to focus on using keywords they might use in search engines like “easy cleaning tips” or “best products for cleaning.”

Creating your buyer persona(s) requires some work upfront but will pay dividends if done correctly.

2. Get in front of more people, the right people.

If you have a product or service that solves a problem for a specific audience, and understand your ideal customer — and create a buyer persona. The next thing you need to do to generate sales is:

Get in front of the right people.

Yep, that’s it. That’s the next important step you need to take. If you are able to get in front of the right people and make an offer they can’t refuse, you will generate sales. 

This sounds like a simple concept, but many business owners struggle with this because they don’t know how to identify their target market or they don’t know how to get in front of them.

If you want to sell more, you need to get in front of more people who are likely to be interested in buying. That means you need to advertise.

Of course, advertising comes with a cost. But if it gets results, then it’s an investment that should pay for itself many times over.

Getting in front of the right people is key to making advertising work for you.

3. Use the power of social proof to boost your sales.

When you go to the store, you rely on product reviews to help choose which products to buy. The same is true when you’re shopping online. And while most businesses know they should be using product reviews, they don’t always know what to do with them.

Social proof refers to the fact that people are more likely to buy an item if they see other people buying or using it.

For example, a customer who sees that a particular product has five-star reviews from other buyers is much more likely to buy it than one who sees no rating, or even a three-star rating.

That’s why you should use the power of social proof in your selling process, to help boost your sales and profits.

First, make sure you have lots of positive reviews on your products/services. That means you need to give great service – and be prepared for negative reviews from time to time.

Most people will take the time to write a review if something is wrong with a product or if you don’t deliver on your promises, but few will do so when everything is fine. So you need to ensure that as many customers as possible leave positive reviews

4. Leverage the power of neuromarketing and use scarcity and urgency tools

Brace yourself for some eye-opening statistics:

According to Harvard professor Gerald Zaltmam, 95% of buyers decide on a purchase based on subconscious factors.

Another study found that only 5% of our day-to-day decisions are made logically. The other 95% are made emotionally.

Eye-opening, right?

The takeaway is that no matter how business-minded, savvy, or experienced you think your customers are, their decisions (including the ones they make with your business) aren’t driven by logic. They’re driven by emotion.

Your customers’ buying habits are based on the fundamental need to find meaning and purpose in their lives. This is where neuromarketing comes in.

Neuromarketing is the science of using neuroscience to understand what drives consumers to make purchases.

It taps into the way consumers behave subconsciously and makes use of this knowledge to help businesses create more effective marketing campaigns.

Don’t let your customers make the decision to buy on their own. Use scarcity and urgency tools to give them a reason to buy now.

Here’s how it works. Set a deadline for customers to make a purchase, and then remind them about it constantly. You can use an email series, pop-ups, countdown timers and more to encourage customers to act now.

Why do customers respond?

They’re afraid of missing out (FOMO). When you set a limited time, like 24 hours or one week for a sale, you create urgency for your customers. They’ll be more likely to buy from you when they know there’s a limited window of opportunity.

The scarcity principle: Buyers tend to place more value on products that are scarce than those that are abundant.

The urgency principle: People tend to take action when they feel like time is running out.

5. Make your customers happy to get more referrals

There’s no better way to grow your business than through happy customers. When a customer has a good experience with your company, they’re likely to tell others.

But if they have a bad experience, you can bet that they’ll tell even more people.

These days, it’s not enough to just provide a good product or service at a fair price.

You need to do everything in your power to make sure that each and every customer is happy — and keep them coming back for more.

That sounds easy enough, but it’s harder than you might think. It takes time, patience and an understanding of your customer’s needs.

The best thing you can do is stay on top of things and get ahead of any potential problems before they arise.

Fortunately there are plenty of tools out there that can help you make sure your customers have the best possible experience with your company — here are just some of them

6. Increase your Customer’s Lifetime Value (Turn old customers into repeat customers)

One of the biggest challenges online sellers face is figuring out how to maximize their profits through increased sales. Having a regular stream of active customers is essential for maintaining and growing your business, but acquiring new customers can be expensive and time-consuming.

A study by Bain & Company found that a 5 percent increase in customer retention can increase a company’s profitability by 75 percent. It also costs five times as much to attract new buyers than it does to keep current ones.

On average, repeat buyers spend 67 percent more than new customers. The likelihood of selling to an existing customer is 60 to 70 percent, while the probability of selling to a new prospect is only 5 to 20 percent. In other words, existing customers are 50 percent more likely to try new products and spend 31 percent more compared with new customers, according to Invesp Consulting.

That’s why it’s important to look after your existing customers and find ways to increase their lifetime value to your business. If you can keep them coming back for more, not only will you save time and money, but you’ll also have a much better chance at increasing your profit margin.

Marketing/Sales Funneling is a great way to increase CLV. Implementing a sales funnel process, allows you to close more deals with the same amount of effort

CONCLUSION-selling made easy

This is the crux of it. When you understand the needs of your customers and discover what motivates them, you have all the information you need to make a sale.

The client is king, and it’s up to you to give them what they want. These six steps outline how you can take on the challenge and succeed. 

When you do so your business will flourish, but most importantly, your sales will soar. And while these are just the basics of professional selling, you’ll find with practice your success rate will grow. 

Which of these methods have you adopted before and how did it play out, comment below.