Besides public speaking, one of the top fears business owners have is when they are faced with a sales situation. Whether it's a lack of confidence, inability to handle objections, or knowing how to close a sale, situations like these cost business owners money and clients.
Today, I’m going to break down each of these problems and give you solutions for each, so you can go into future sales situations with confidence that you’ll land and convert more business.
Lack Of Confidence
The first problem I see with most business owners I coach is that they simply lack confidence when it comes to being put in sales situations. Typically, when someone exhibits a lack of confidence, it’s either because they haven’t been put in enough of the situations, or the situations they have been put in, they’ve crashed and burned most of the time.
Whichever is the case for you, if you want to gain confidence, then you need to do two things: you need to put yourself in more sales situations, and in the situations, you do put yourself in, you need to be as prepared as you possibly can be.
What do I mean by being prepared? I mean doing your market research on the customer/client, knowing exactly what their needs are, what problems they’re facing, and what products/solutions you can offer them at what price point that will alleviate the issues they’re having.
The more prepared you are, the more comfortable you’ll feel going into sales situations. The more sales situations you go into, the more confidence you’ll gain because soon, they’ll become second nature. Make sure you’re going into every sales meeting/call as prepared as you can possibly be.
Inability To Handle Objections
This point could have gone in with the previous point of being prepared, but it is such a big issue that I wanted to talk about it all on its own. When it comes to handling objections, this is where most business owners freeze up.
The top 3 objections you’ll usually get during a sales call have to do with your pricing, timing or limiting beliefs, with pricing being the one you’ll hear most often. The main thing to do is know ahead of time you’re likely to hear one or more of these objections and make sure you have a confident response to them.
Let’s take money for example. Say the person says your products/services cost too much. I like to handle it by saying something like this: “If you have other options that cost less, let me ask you . . . why haven’t you gone with those options? What are they lacking that had you seek me out?” You’re calling their bluff.
They obviously got on a call with you for a reason, so what was that reason? You have to frame your products and services in a way that let people know WHY you’re priced the way you are. Handling objections confidently will be the biggest key to you landing more business.
Knowing How To Close A Sale
I’ve seen so many business owners do everything right, and handle objections confidently, only to talk too much when it’s time to shut up and let the potential customer give you a “yes.” Once you’ve handled objections and talked about pricing/terms, all you have to ask is one simple question, and that is this: “How does everything sound to you?” Then stop talking, and listen. If you’ve done everything right, you’ll hear that it sounds good and to proceed forward. If not, then chances are you need to revisit their needs or any objections they might still have.
Even if that’s the case, keep calm, and stay confident, because they’re not saying “no,” they simply want to discuss something else further. Closing a sale is about understanding their problems, getting straight to the point, and letting them give you a yes, not talking for 10 minutes trying to convince them why you’re the best option.
If you do these three things, you’ll find yourself breezing through sales calls with confidence and converting a lot more of your leads into business. If you still feel like you need sales help, then you can always book a call with me HERE, and I’d be happy to help in any way that I can!