Remember the film with Leonardo DiCaprio “The Wolf of Wall Street”? The actor plays the role of Jordan Belfortthe unscrupulous American broker and salesman in possession of all the skills that a successful person would like to have.
In the scene on the poster you can see money flying, employees dancing, demonstrations of collective joy. Jordan Belfort seems like the man to achieve anything.
How did he achieve that level of success? Did he have unique qualities?
No, he had a method.
Although it was his life of madness that made him stand out to the world, Belfort followed a pattern that allowed him to sell anything even a pen.
How to become a great salesman? What distinguishes an average salesman from Jordan Belfort or Steve Jobs? These are the questions everyone asks.
By studying the behavior and results obtained by these great sellers we can draw up a list of features and one behavior pattern similar.
Are you ready to find out how to become a successful salesperson? Let’s not waste any more time!
Characteristics of a successful salesman
Every successful salesperson has discovered that personal behavior aided the conduct of the sales process.
Are these innate qualities? For some, yes. But I can assure you that not even the greatest sellers in the world, without one good dose of exercisethey would have achieved such astonishing results.
The characteristics of a good salesman can be more or less developed within each of us. However, to be successful it is important knowing how to recognize them and train them.
Don’t worry if you’ve already been working as a salesman for a few years and you haven’t yet managed to achieve the results you were hoping for. In this article you will find what you need to implement the characteristics of a good seller.
Trust me, there is no secret that you too cannot learn and refine over time.
So, let’s get started right away!
1. Understand the interlocutor
I bet you’ve heard of it before, but have you ever actually done it? I’m talking about put yourself in your interlocutor’s shoesunderstand him and understand what his true desires or actual fears are.
This may seem like an irrelevant question to you, but do you listen to your customers?
I can assure you that most sellers don’t do this.
To understand your interlocutor you need to develop a active listening during the negotiation. This means that you have to pay attention to everything the other person says to you and even what they don’t say openly.
After listening carefully, you must exploit another innate gift of the human being. THE’empathy.
It’s that quality that allows you to put yourself in another person’s shoes to fully understand his state of mind. This is what you need to really find the right solution to solve your problem.
Only in this way will you be able to fully satisfy the customer and conclude a profitable sale for the company.
2. Face fears
How many times have you heard a dry “No” during a negotiation? Too many, I’m sure. In short, it happens even to the best.
The moment the customer in front of you yes opposes your offeryou should not automatically think that you are incompetent at your job or that there is no longer any hope of selling the product or service.
I know how discouraging a negative response can be, no one likes to receive a No while you are doing your job.
However, this It doesn’t necessarily mean failure.
If you want to become a great salesperson, you need to succeed overcome fears related to customers. Don’t think that they are suspicious, that they want to put you in difficulty, that the price is always too high. This way you put a spoke in the wheel with your own hands.
A successful salesperson knows that Everything is fine No it’s an opportunity. The opportunity to better explain the characteristics of the product or service it is selling, to understand the psychology and needs of the customer, but also to discover what the company can do to satisfy its customers.
Face your fears and close as many sales as possible.
3. Present the product well
Convincing customers to spend their money at your company is certainly not child’s play. No one likes the feeling of throwing away their life’s earnings!
Here then is to be absolutely convincing you have to be prepared about the product or service you are selling.
This may seem superfluous as advice, but throughout my career I have encountered far too many salespeople who didn’t know what they were selling. If you are not prepared you will fall at the first questions of customers and you will miss out on great sales opportunities.
If you show yourself prepared and professional, however, you will even be able to sell a pen and there will be a fight to get it!
To become an excellent salesman you must know all the characteristics of the product or service you are selling and prepare for it objection handling that your customers will surely have right at the moment of purchase.
Being aware of the audience’s objections a priori provides you with a notable advantage and allows you to master any conversation. As well as gaining the trust of your customers.
4. Communicate effectively
What does a sales negotiation consist of? In one relation between two, or more, people.
If you’re wondering how to improve your sales skills, here’s a new tip: value your relationship with people.
The customers are there most important resource of your company, without which it could not exist.
This is why you have to learn to communicate.
What does it mean? Give the negotiation all the time it needs, don’t be in a hurry to conclude just to move on to the next customer. Look authentic with the interlocutor and don’t give away the feeling that you are only interested in profit.
Be clear and transparent.
You could also leave out all the other sales techniques and dedicate yourself only to oneexcellent communication. That would be enough to achieve huge results.
Think about Steve Jobs. Millions of people around the world were (and still are) waiting for the launch of its devices with wallet in hand. How come? Because he was a good speaker and sold his idea before devices.
5. Optimize the use of language
Words have enormous power and sellers know it well. Choosing the right terms with which you express yourself makes a big difference on the psychology of your interlocutor.
First of all, you need to be prepared on the technical language related to your product or service.
You’re not selling peanuts at the town fair, customers expect to hear you speak professionally. You’ll worry about it later explain the meaning of the terms unknown to the customer.
After that, you need to know the so-called evocative words. These are terms that have the power to induce the customer to take an action.
Let’s look at some of them together: free, instant, cheap, hidden, effortless, increase, try, discover, show, invest, opportunity.
The words I mentioned, and their synonyms, are very powerful for induce the interlocutor to react. Try it to believe it!
The Straight Line System by Jordan Belfort
At the beginning of this guide I mentioned Jordan Belfortthe Wolf of Wall Street, not surprisingly.
In his famous work The Little Red Book of the Wolf of Wall StreetBelfort has revealed all the secrets that are important to know to become a salesman with great skills.
In his book he explained the method he himself created and named Straight Line System.
What this method allows you to do? To establish a relationship of trust with the customer, understanding their needs and addressing objections, until reaching a brilliant conclusion of the sale.
It is an imaginary straight line that leads the customer from the first contact to the sale, overcoming objections and rejections with solutions.
The Straight Line System is divided into one series of phases:
- Take control of the situation: the entire course of the negotiation will depend on your first offer;
- Gather useful information to identify the customer’s needs, as well as discover his value system and weaknesses;
- Build a relationship with your customer using verbal and non-verbal language;
- Offer the customer the best solution based on the information you have collected;
- Show i main advantages for the interlocutor;
- Concrete the order;
- Overcome any objections of the customer which only represent smoke and mirrors and highlight his uncertainty;
- Reloop phase: presents new facts;
- Identify new advantages for the customer;
- Exploit the pain based on the personal information you have collected from the conversation with the customer;
- New Reloop: presents other facts than the previous ones;
- Close the sale.
Remember that there must be well-established gods in the customer’s mind fundamental concepts like the product, the idea and the relationship of trust with both you and the company.
Conclusion
The sale is a skill game and what I have given you are the guidelines on how to become a great salesman.
Work on these aspects, mimprove yourself and the way in which you approach the moment of sale and the relationship with your interlocutor.
If you do this, there will be no more obstacles to the successful outcome of the negotiation.