SKILLS TO BECOME A PROFESSIONAL SALES EXECUTIVE

Recently, my friend went to a seminar on marketing. The speaker was Mr Jeevan N Sahadevan who is a successful entrepreneur in Asia Pacific. According to him in order to sell we must bear in mind that we are actually helping our clients to make decision to buy. He said that besides having a professional image, a marketing executive needs to acquire certain skills in order to sell his products.

• Bridging a relationship
Most consumers only like to buy from people they know and trust. In order to built your credibility as a professional sales executive you must be able to communicate clearly, with good voice projection accompanied by body gestures. You may also use other supporting tools such as pictures, charts of previous successful performance and so on. It is good if the prospect can have a look of the real product in order to convince them in buying the product. You also need to recognize the prospects’ interests so that it will be easier for you to explain through the product. Touch more on the area which connects to the clients’ interest for example, if you want to sell a car, you might want to focus on explaining more about the accessories if you know that the clients hobby is on car accessories. In addition, don’t be too serious dealing with clients. You might want to share jokes in your communication to make it appear friendlier and less formal.

• Asking the prospect
If you are willing to listen more, you might as well sell your product easily. Only through asking questions like; What? Who? How? Where? When? might help you in understanding the background and interest of your prospect. Show that you are professional in your area and show that you have thorough information about your product. Tell the prospect that you care most about their interests and tell them that it is the best choice for them. Assure them that you will help them in making the best choice. It is important to built rapport with prospects through the follow-ups and your sales will come automatically!

• Defining Value
Explain about the advantages of your product compared to others with the same nature. Tell your prospects or clients why they should choose your product compared to others. Highlight the specialty that your products have which others don’t have. Explain to them clearly on your products specifications so that they will be more confident with your product. Tell them about your product’s market and achievements.


• Encouraging Interest
There are few things that you can do in order to encourage your prospects into buying your products. You can tell them things that you product can do in their life. Give nice pictures or view about the prospects and your products for example breathtaking views on the seaside, peaceful scenery and so on. Other than that you might want to use statistical data about your product which display positive results. Use encouraging words such as “AMAZING”, “SUPERB”, “POPULAR” and so on to increase prospects interest on the products. Testimonials from previous customers also would help you in selling your products.

• Handling Comments / Critics
There are four main excuses which prospects/clients would give when they want to reject the products; they don’t have the money, they don’t have the time, they don’t need the product or they are not interested on the products. Due to the excuses, we need to carefully handle the situation. You might want to ask the prospects;

i. Besides the reasons that you give, is there any other reasons that made you don’t want to purchase this product?
ii. If the problems are settled are you going to buy this product?
iii. If the answer is ‘NO’ then ask again “There must be other problems, is it possible for me to know?”
iv. If the answer is ‘YES’, then let us try to solve the problem together.
v. Ask them is it worth for them NOT to buy the product?
vi. Ask them what are the loses that they might get if they do not purchase the product.
Remember all comments / critics from prospects are responses from the public about your products.

• Taking / Asking for Payments
It is a lost if you have already succeeded in the above skills but you fail to close the deal neatly. DO NOT suggest to the prospect to go home and consider buying the product. You must bear in mind that you are in total responsibility for the purchase of the product. Do not just assume the prospect’s decision but we need to make sure of the decision made by prospect. Ask them ‘Who else is involved in making decisions?” if the person involved is currently not available then you might ask for a deposit and ensure that it will be fully refund if they decided not to buy the product later. At this time you can explain to the prospect other terms of payments such as the interest rates, tenure and so on.