Andrew
Entrepreneurship Matters
Dr Kudzanai Vere
All the truckloads on our roads, rail and ship, men and women in our streets loaded with merchandise speak of closed sales and some massive business activity. What we call commerce, or otherwise are all testimonies of a successful sales function.
It’s either you sell or you have it all housed in your four walls, mind or system locking in value that is meant to benefit you and others. Selling unlocks organisational value.
By definition, selling is a process where a good or service is being exchanged for money. It also refers to the art of persuading a person or organisation to buy something. Selling gives meaning to all the other organisational processes of recruiting and selection, procuring of merchandise, pricing and marketing. Without a value unlocking process in the form of sales be it a product or a service, there is no business to talk about.
You have seen that the ability to convert your products and services into cash gives your business meaning and identity. The focus today is on the skills one must have in order to effectively convert products and services into money.
Listen twice as much as you speak
Good sales persons are excellent listeners. You can only have a deeper understanding of the customer if you give them the opportunity to talk while you listen.
What a person says can be interpreted differently by different people. How you hear what is said matters in the conversation as it determines your levels of success. Even the Bible in Luke 8:18 says “Be careful, therefore, how you hear.”
As you pay attention to what the customer says, your subconscious mind should be busy siphoning business opportunities from the conversation.
In his inspirational thoughts for living your best life book, The Light in the heart, Roy. T Bennet says “Listen with curiosity. Speak with honesty. Act with integrity. The greatest problem with communication is we don’t listen to understand. We listen to reply. When we listen with curiosity, we don’t listen with the intent to reply. We listen for what’s behind the words.”
Most people enter into a conversation with preconceived thoughts. Once you do that, you will always listen with the intention to reply. You often see yourself cutting the other party with interjections even before they finish what they are saying to you. Such an attitude doesn’t make a good sales person.
Be a subject matter expert
What I have noted in my over 18 years of retail experience, product knowledge is key in the sales matrix. You can’t effectively sell a product whose features you don’t quite know. Whenever you interface with your customers, exhibit product or service masterly.
Speak and demonstrate as if you’re the inventor of the product or service. Such actions build confidence in the customer and will ultimately boost your sales and revenue flow.
Communicate the value in your product or service
The solution in your product and whole story behind it is what matters to clients. Be in a position to tell the story of your product in a succinct and convincing way. I have had experiences where people queue for a poor quality product leaving better ones in certain shops simply because of how they have communicated their product story to the masses.
Strong communication skills are foundational in the creating and maintaining of relationships with your customer base.
Such kind of communication creates presence and boost confidence. In your interaction with the market, you must be truthful. Do what you say you will do for this builds credibility, trust and respect which is ingredient in the whole sales process.
Story telling is key in connecting with people minds. Customers connect better and are in a position to give you the best support if they know you and your product better. If you can’t show and share it well then you can’t sell it.
When I realised that I had a lot in me that can benefit the world, I created 20 WhatsApp groups, a personal website, LinkedIn, twitter, Instagram and Facebook account to which I started sharing on entrepreneurship and personal development.
As we speak, most of these followers have turned into my clients supporting the Kudfort Group and all its subsidiaries.
You can only communicate the value that you have. Become of value in order to attract value.
The best sales persons knows how to ask best questions to their customers. The type and quality of questions that you ask determines your chances of success within a sales conversation.
As you tell your story to the customer, make sure you ask as many questions as possible in order to acquire more about their needs and way of life.
Negotiate
In sales, negotiations are inevitable. Remember you’re giving up something in exchange for some value and thus negotiation is the whole processing of it.
Most of the useful skills in business can be acquired. Sales people are great negotiators. You must convince the customer by persuading them to understand your viewpoint. To boost your bargaining power, you must be well conversant with your product and services.
Once the benefits of the products and
To Page 3
Online Reporter