While the world of professional selling can be full of uncertainty and adversity, having some baseline rules for sales success can be a huge time saver. The following 7 rules for sales success are based on principles that have proven themselves successful with hundreds of thousands of salespeople worldwide. Here they are:
The 7 Universal Rules for Sales Success
1. Proper positioning, prospecting and pre-call planning will guarantee that you will be in front of the right people with the right message at the most appropriate time:
- Positioning – The ranking or perception that prospects have of you, your product or organization as compared to your competition.
- Prospecting – The proactive steps taken to identify, isolate and get in front of qualified prospects.
- Pre-Call Planning – The research, data gathering and preparation that you must make in order to be totally prepared for a sales presentation.
2. Building trust with the buyer is based on the proper approach and not dominating the conversation.
3. Professional selling is based on asking enough of the right questions in the right way and not determining or presenting any solution until you have discovered:
- What they’ll buy
- When they’ll buy
- How they’ll buy
- Under what conditions they’ll buy
4. Properly presenting your solution based on the conditions, terms and parameters under which your prospect will buy is the essence of the successful sale.
5. People expect salespeople to make claims for their product or service. They are impressed, however, when someone else does or if they are able to experience claims made for any product themselves.
6. No sale is ever made unless you ask someone to buy your product.
7. The real work begins after your first sale. Professional salespeople know that servicing accounts, exceeding expectations, anticipating problems and being available instantly are all part of the sale even though these things occur after the sale is made.
There you have them. The 7 universal rules for sales success. Sales is a profession and far more than just a job.
Consequently, these rules for sales success are just a beginning. Become a student of your craft and constantly strive toward personal selling mastery.
The IMPACT Selling system gives salespeople a 6-step, buyer-focused process that they can use to sell virtually any product or service.
