Sell me this Pen “The Art of Selling”

the art of sellingIn the Movie ‘Wolf of Wall Street’ the Protagonist Leonardo Di Caprio asks a person while interviewing him for a job in his company at Wall Street. “Sell Me this Pen”…

What he was looking for in the person here was not how the gentle men explains him about the features of the pen, but how he portray his image in front of Leonardo….

This generally happens in maximum sales interviews. It is the mother of all questions which makes or breaks the prospectus of the person of being selected for the company.

Selling is offering to exchange an item of value for a different item. The original item of value being offered may be either tangible or intangible. The second item, usually money, is most often seen by the seller as being of equal or greater value than that being offered for sale.

So what is the art of selling all about; Is the person born with it? Or does it require something EXXTRAAAA….

There is an underlying process of sales management. There are some essentials to crack the sales. It’s not a rocket science to crack sales but these following items when taken care of help individuals achieve their desired target.

  1. Preparation– It all starts with planning. Doing research on your client is essential to crack the deal.
  2. Introduction– Introduction or opening makes or mars the deal to be cracked. The opening should be structure and develop credibility in front of the client. The opening should also be that a good first impression is created and which helps in closing the deal quickly.
  3. Questioning– Its is not always advisable to question your clients but to understand the need it’s very important that questioning is done carefully to establish rapport and trust
  4. Presentation and explanation or demonstration helps the client understand what are the ranges of product/service available with the company.
  5. Overcoming objections and negotiating helps in fine-tuning the client and making him confident about the product/ services.
  6. Close the deal and confirmation is the last but one step. This step done means the sales person has achieved what he had desired to and thus bears him with the fruit in for of Commissions and incentives.
  7. Follow-up and after-sales services help the sales person maintain the rapport and thus creating a “customer for life”.

A person or organization expressing an interest in acquiring the offered item of value is referred to as a potential buyer, prospective customer or prospect. Buying and selling are understood to be two sides of the same “coin” or transaction. Both seller and buyer engage in a process of negotiation to consummate the exchange of values. A good Sales person requires these three main qualities to achieve the desired outcome.

  1. Understanding the need of the customer
  2. Having 100% Confidence on his product
  3. Convincing Skills

Understanding the need of the customer:

Need is defined as something that is necessary for organisms to live a healthy life. When we talk about need of a customer we have to first analyze the customer accordingly. Profiling and understanding the customer is required. A good salesman makes a customer comfortable before pitching him his product. The reason is a customer never falls for the feature of the product he buys a product or service when he is in his comfort zone and not been attacked or bombarded with information about the product or services. Building a brand is about building a relationship with your customers. This process requires need identification.  For this relationship to be long-lasting, it has to be based on something meaningful. That comes when a brand satisfies a real need, either better or in a different way to any other brand available. The exchange, or selling, process has implied rules and identifiable stages. So Understanding the need for value creation becomes the epitome for the sales manager.

Having 100% Confidence on ones product:

The assignment of bringing a proposal to someone with the power to do something with it is called a pitch. A pitch cannot be completed and the customer can’t be convinced if the sales manager himself does not have faith on the product. The faith is shown when the confident Manager uses the product himself or quotes example of how that product has changed the life or ways of doing business. The sales person should ensure to know his own product/service extremely well – especially features, advantages and benefits that will be relevant to the prospect while meeting him. A sales Person looses a pitch if he himself is not confident about his product.

Convincing Skills:

Developing the powers of persuasion will help you get ahead in business and professional world. When you want to convince a client to make a big purchase the goal is to persuade, to make them want to agree with you and feel happy, smart, or right, when they do It is implied that the selling process will proceed fairly and ethically so that the parties end up nearly equally rewarded.

The convincing skills can be related to the communication skills one has. Its not only about talking with the customer but also about having an ear to listen to him. Here it is very important to understand and Check for the 7Cs of communication: These are

Clear – Use of precise and vigorous words with active voice to make things clear

Conversational – Group your ideas into conversation. Creating a friendly conversation helps in understanding the consumer better. Use a mild tone without using any jargons and prevent pompous language.

Courteous – Be straightforward to the client. Use respectful tone to make him realize that you are here to help.

Coherent – Use transitions and order ideas logically so that there is no confusion in the minds of the clients. Be logical and orderly to the clients to win their trust.

Concise – No redundancies and repetition of ideas or words. Use perfect tense whenever required. Don’t use it unnecessarily only to create a hype.

Complete – No assumptions should be made in front of the client.  Always use adequate detail and audience perspective and solve all the queries. If it is not possible to solve all the queries tell the client that you will be get back to him. This help in generating trust among your clients and make him believe your authenticity towards him.

Correct – Accurate information should be provided to the client. It should be error free. When false promises are made the client the client looses confidence in the sales person and he may switch to other options.

When these C’S are taken into consideration convincing is never a problem.

The art of selling gets polished more and more as practiced and followed. These few elements create the differentiating factor between the winner and the loser. So as a management graduate the Trainee has to master these skill sets as selling is required not only for the sales person but in every form of life where he goes.


Contributed by Roopesh Rao ( Class of 2007, IBS Gurgaon ), Corporate Trainer and can be contacted on https://www.linkedin.com/in/roopeshrao1

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