Selling is the art of matching product benefits with customer needs or desires. Sell your businesses offerings by communicating the value of your product or service to your potential customers. Lead the customer through the buying decision and facilitate a satisfying transaction.
Know your product. Imagine every question a prospect might ask and arm yourself with answers, linking each product fact to a customer benefit.
Explain your offering in a sentence. Condense everything you know into a brief explanation that can grab interest and cause the prospect to think, “Hmm, this will benefit me.”
Know your prospect. Visit Web sites, read company brochures, talk to mutual associates, and do any research necessary to arrive armed with prospect knowledge.
Know what message your prospect is ready to receive. Especially if yours is a new or unusual offering, you may need to help the prospect see the need before asking for the order.
Set your sales presentation goal. Often, your aim is an incremental step — to prompt the prospect to request a proposal, to schedule a meeting with a higher-level decision maker, to arrange a demonstration, or to take some other step to move the process toward its final step.
Dress for success. The general rule is to project your own business image well while dressing at least as formally as those to whom you’ll be presenting.
