Before we go ahead with our article, take a look at this video and listen to him very keenly at what he says.
As you read this article keep this in mind as you continue reading, that you are not expensive and that you give yourself permission to make a profit with each and every sale that you make, if not, then what is the point. If you are someone running a business or works in a company that requires you to do sales and negotiating with clients, you will need to understand the factors of selling and negotiating. It’s quite simple actually, once you get to know and understand how selling and negotiating goes as well for a person in this field or wants to join.
We have to know what selling is first, and knowingly it is a process through which the seller identifies how the solutions he offers, resolves a buyer’s needs at a given point in time. Knowing the solutions of a buyer helps you identify the buyer’s needs and what they want when it comes to selling.
When it comes to negotiation, it’s the process through which both parties agree to the terms of a deal, which is better than any other alternative.
Always remember never say no to a deal, you might never know what can happen.
The Essentials of Selling
Selling is a key part of the product life cycle, as it is how to price a product. Knowing your consumer is key, and finding the right consumer to sell your product is essential to know. This way you will know how to price your products and sell to the right consumer.
The Selling process
In the selling process, you must know the key part of this is having the best salesperson possible. You should/they should understand the buyer’s behaviour and motives. In the next steps to selling you must know, is that the salesperson must be motivated, knowledgable and know the products backwards and forwards.
The Steps to Selling
When it comes to selling, you must have done your research and also you need to have the right mindset when it comes to selling, you should be ready, healthy and focused.
So there are 8 steps to selling each and every step is a guide to help you close a sale.
- Prospecting – This step requires you seek the prospective buyers who either need or want the product and are in a position to buy it. Customers can be located through existing customers, observation, social media etc. So have your research done thoroughly and see how well it will go with buyers.
- Pre-sale presentation – Understanding the product and how it relates to the market in general. You should know your competitors and be able to convey how their product is better than competitors. this eventually helps you to know who they are and be in sync with them.
- Approaching – Before calling on potential clients, the salesperson must learn as much about them as possible, knowing their habits and needs will allow the salesperson to better meet the needs of the customer.
- Presentation – This step requires the salesperson to know how to present the product and be able to describe its features and specifications.
- Demonstration – The salesperson should be prepared to demonstrate the product if possible. He should not hurry or rush the customer, which could leave a bad taste in the customer’s mouth. The salesperson should not try to impress the customer, just be honest and respectable. Suggesting the customer try the product is a great idea.
- Handling Objections – Some customers will baulk or question the product. They might question the product and be concerned they can’t afford it. The salesperson must be able to clear all doubts in a clam way. The salesperson must convince the customer that he is getting his money’s worth with his product.
- Closing the sale – The salesperson should always allow the customer to feel that he made the right decision to buy the product on his own. When closing the sale make sure you have all the tools ready.
- Post-sale follow up – Make sure the company requests its customers to fill out a questionnaire post-sale, and this can be a great way to gather information and improve services. Remember always follow up with your customers, if they are happy to ask for a referral if they are sad to find a way to fix it.
When it comes to pricing strategy, always give yourself permission to make a profit with this sell you are about to make, always remember that.
Remind yourself why you need to make this sale, why you started in the first place. Confidence is key and you must have a profit at the end of the sell and that’s why having a BATNA ( Best Alternative Negotiated Agreement) is necessary.
Pricing a product is central to the success of a business. Price too high, and you lose customers, price too low, and you lose your profit. So, what’s it going to be?
There are three main avenues to price strategy, and they are as follows:
- Cost-base pricing – With this approach, the price is determined by taking the cost of the product and adding a profit on top of that.
- Customer-based pricing – With this approach, the price is decided by what a company believes a customer will pay.
- Competitor-based pricing – With this approach, the price is determined based on what competitors are charging.
Essentials of Negotiation
Through sales and negotiation, you learn how to understand your customers needs better. Understanding your customer is the difference between negotiating and selling.
Understanding your customer puts you in a position to offer better services. By improving your customer’s relations, you may be able to attract & retain more customers.
Ways to get through selling and negotiating
- Redefine your business strategy – A clear business makes your team members on the same page. Working together towards common goals can strengthen your teams’ dynamics & also build your customers trust.
- Analyse your sales negotiation tactics – When negotiating with your customers, you can go for a hard or soft selling approach. Your choice depends on om several factors such as type of product and sales priorities.
Remember negotiating provides value.
Tactics on selling and negotiating
There are 2 types of negotiating tactics:
- Hard selling tactic
- Soft selling tactic
Let’s take a look at each one and hopefully after going through the 2 you can decide which approach you prefer to use.
The hard-selling tactic uses a direct approach to sales negotiation and is also known as high pressure selling.
- HARD SELLING TACTIC
Hard selling is straightforward and focuses on informing the customer of the benefits of buying your product or service. It is commonly used for door-to-door sales and cold calls
You can use the hard-selling approach when making one-time sales or dealing with quick-moving products. Customers who need help deciding on a certain product can appreciate this approach.
When deciding to go through this approach, if used in the wrong way, hard-selling can drive away your customers.
When hard selling, the ways to be improve a customer’s experience is:
- Honesty – You can lose valuable deals if your customer catches you in a lie. Mahatma Gandhi once said, “the moment there is suspicion about a person’s motive, everything he does becomes tainted.”
Be honest you can gain your customer’s respect about a product’s pros and cons.
- Relevance – Hard selling can overwhelm your customers with too much info
- Business etiquette – Hard selling techniques are direct & can be perceived as aggressive. Lack of business etiquette can be a valuable skill when dealing with a tough customer.
- Value addition – Hard selling is often accompanied by discount offers for time-sensitive deals. You can drive customers satisfaction by offering valuable deals while offering discounts can reduce your merging, the aim, of course, is to generate revenue.
2. SOFT SELLING TACTIC
Soft the selling tactic is geared towards guiding rather than pushing your customers to a decision.
Soft selling is a more subtle, persuasive or indirect style of selling. In soft selling, you can talk to your customers in a more friendly yet convincing tone.
Usually, large companies use a soft selling approach to build brands & customer loyalty. This approach works well forging long-term relationships with valued customers.
Soft selling is suitable when making complex sales such a professional service where customer trust is vital.
The tactics you can use when it comes to soft selling can be:
- Informative videos – Many companies produce YouTube tutorials and promotional videos to indirectly present the benefits of their products. This is an effective method to help build customer trust.
- Social media – Many companies post blogs and articles about their products on social media and also use platforms such as Facebook and Instagram.
- Free trials – Let’s take this as an example; customers can learn to use the software before making financial commitments
Review your negotiation style
They are 5 negotiation styles you can use when going through a sell with a customer. Let’s take a look at them.
1. Avoid (I lose – You lose) – Avoiding is a style of negotiation where both you and your customer lose something.
– customers who are not ready to make a purchase may use the avoiding style. It is best to be considerate with customers who use this style as they can be intimidated more easily.
– It is a style that seeks to end the confrontation at any cost.
2.Accommodate (I lose – You Win) – The accommodating style can be used by customers who want to support your business. These customers are typically more interested in the relationship than the deal at hand.
3.Compete (I Win – You Lose) – The competing negotiation style is used when you want to win and don’t care much for how the other side fares.
– If you must use this style, you should learn how to be respectful and keep your temper in check.
– Using the competing style is also an easy way to drive away customers. You can use this style if you have a decisive advantage and have calculated that your customer has no other option.
4.Compromise (I lose/win some – You lose/win some) – A compromising negotiation seeks to find a common ground between you and your customer. This negotiation style depends on making concessions.
– Both you and your customer should be willing to meet somewhere in the middle.
– The compromising style can be challenging if your negotiation strategy does not have room for concessions. In sales, concessions don’t have to mean reductions in price. Your concessions can be better payment terms or credit extensions.
5. Collaborate (I Win – You Win) – Collaborating is often spoken of as the holy grail of negotiating styles—especially amongst sellers.
Here, both you and your customer seek to maximize value in the final deal.
Additional negotiation skills;
Active listening – enables you to gather information that can improve your negotiating position. Active listening can encourage customers to talk to you freely.
Patience – Patience is a valuable sales negotiation skills master. You need to be patient to develop your customers’ trust.
Self-control – It is important for sales negotiations to have self-control; you don’t want to get carried away and drive your customer off.
With all that we have discussed on how to go about selling and negotiating, you will come to find that maybe you have been doing some of these tactics without realisation or maybe you’ve been doing them but in a wrong way. And just maybe you didn’t know how to go about it, we really hope that discussing this topic can help in any way possible to help you drive sales back and give you an understanding on how to go about it.