Selling face-to-face might seem like the most terrifying thing on earth for the newbie door-to-door salesman. However, if you understand that face to face selling is nothing more than a numbers game, you’d find it easier to take things all in stride.
Here is exactly how it works: if you go door to door, making cold calls to possible clients or customers, you are statistically going to have twenty prospects and five actual sales. That is the numbers game.
If you understand this numbers game, you will quickly understand that you become an effective salesperson by selling smarter and not by selling faster. Also, you may need to quickly ditch whatever indoctrination you gained from your sales training lectures. You are invariably going to learn new and even more valuable stuff from every face to face encounter with your prospects. Here are some things to help you on your way.
1. Grow to Know Your Customers
As you progress as a salesperson, you will easily be able to make split decisions on the “prospects” of a business. As you make your rounds of seventy five businesses or more clients every day, your experience will be able to guide you on what clients are likely to respond well to your sales pitch.
This way, you will spend less time on ‘lost causes’ and move on to the prospects and quickly convert them to actual sales in no time. Of course, the danger here is that if you become too judgmental, you may lose some useful customers without even checking them out first.
2. The First Impression Counts – A lot
Ensure that whatever you do, you always have confidence in your stride, and you have a warm smile for your clients. If you want to sell, you need to get them to let their guard down within minutes of meeting you. Let them see your products. Generally, let the air around you be a calm and friendly one.
3. Get the Statistics
Find a way to find out just what they know about what you are selling. Find out the product that catches their attention the most. Estimate their budget and find out the price range they are comfortable with. Also, look out for what exactly they look for in a product.
4. Let the Buyer Meet The Seller
When you have found out their felt and unfelt needs, it is now your role to link them to the product that meets and solves that need in the best way possible. To be an effective sales person, you need to be able to match products with the needs of the prospective buyer.
5. Begin the marketing
When you have decided which product is ideal for the customer, you have to present the product in such a way that it appeals to them. Use demos, and show them why it is the product they need! Visual displays are always good assistance in such cases.
6. Be Ready To Alter your Prices at a Whim
This occurs when you are convinced that the interest the customer is showing in your product is genuine. They will begin negotiating on the price, and you may feel inclined to reduce the price for their benefit.
7. Sealing the Deal
When you have done your calculations and sold to your customer at a fairly reasonable price, it is always good to seal the deal by giving them a little gift. This could be a token key chain, t-shirt or even a mug. Make sure you have the warmest smile when doing it!
Face to face selling can be interesting and challenging. It is also easy to become burnt out. You may become so consumed in the work that you may begin pushing yourself to unreasonable limits. Exercise moderation at all times.
Selling face to face is not always feasible. But when you find yourself in front of a prospective client, it is better to focus less on your sales pitch and more on how the experience would add to your experience and make you a better sales person in the future. Learn from people, and when you understand the human mindset, selling face to face would become second-nature for you.