Once you've established that your idea or product is a good one, you need to sell it. Find out about the first steps here.
Now that you’ve established that your business idea or product is a good one with a solid group of potential customers – you need to sell it. Effective selling isn’t about attracting people with promises you can’t keep – it’s about showcasing the benefits of your service and product. This is an important point. Customers buy benefits, rather than features.
Think about it this way – it’s not about what your product can do (its features), it’s about what your product can do to make a person’s life easier, better, or solve their problems (benefits).
Example
I'm going to buy a hoover. I'm not particularly interested in hoovers, but it's an important tool. I'm busy, I have asthma, a cat, and I like my house to look nice, so the fact that my hoover is broken and now I need to buy a new one is annoying.
I look at two hoovers.
A:
Hoover A's information tells me it has an XYZ motor and a 345 filter and a HEPA certified SSU head for filaments and particles above 3mm. It's version CY55DD2 which has been redesigned from version CY55DD1
B:
Hoover B's information tells me that it has a powerful motor that will make hoovering more efficient. It has a very efficient filter and a specific head that will deal easily with cat hair and collect more dust, so I will have to hoover less to stay comfortable and healthy. It's been redesigned to be more conveniently shaped, so it's easier to store out of sight.
Both of these paragraphs give essentially the same information: but one focuses on its features, while the other focuses on its benefits for me, the customer.
Which hoover will I buy?
Always have this in the back of your mind when you’re in a selling situation and couch your offering in these terms. If your product or service is good from this perspective, the sales inquiries will follow.
Marketing your product is different from selling it. Marketing is getting your product in front of potential customers. Sales is ensuring that they purchase it. The two cannot be entirely separated, but they sometimes require different approaches.
You can see our guide to early marketing for your new business here, and how to market your business effectively once it's up and running here.
If you want to keep your customers intrigued and invested in your business, you need to keep things fresh. Staying at the front of your customers’ minds and being the go-to company for your specific product over all your competitors, means keeping your marketing and sales techniques in line with the market’s demands and desires.
Selling doesn’t come naturally to everyone, but don’t worry, there are a number of local sales training courses that can help you develop your sales technique further.
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