Master the 7 steps of selling

To make a sale, it is important to have a solid methodology that indicates the steps to follow and the order in which they should be carried out. The strategies you use to sell your product or service should always revolve around your customer and their satisfaction. By focusing your efforts on your customer, you will sell more and better, as you will create lasting relationships with them. You should also work on commercial communication to increase your sales. The main objective of communication is to generate a reaction from the person in the field of their decisions as a buyer, that is, that they buy. Therefore, interaction with users or customers is crucial.

In this way, you can know what their needs are, respond to their objections in case they have any, as well as ensure the reception and understanding of your message. A good commercial communication must be clear, precise, summarised and natural. These four elements will generate a positive perception of your brand by the consumer. In order to achieve this perception, all the communications that the company carries out through its different channels must be monitored and interconnected.

Now, in order to sell, you must take into account seven classic sales steps that will bring results. Depending on the needs of each company, you can remove or add steps until you find the right method for your business. By having an orderly system to carry out a sale, everything becomes much easier. Now, let's get to know them better.

The 7 steps of selling

1. Finding potential customers

The first phase of a traditional sales process is the search for potential customers for your brand. Here you should direct your efforts and strategies to find these potential customers and determine whether or not they need your products or services. However, before you start looking, you must know who you want to find. This means that it is important to know your ideal customer. To do this, the creation of a buyer persona will be of great help, since with this ideal customer profile you will know their characteristics, their needs, their consumption habits, what ails them, among others. Once you know who your ideal customer is, you can go out and find him or her.

2. Preparation

This phase consists of preparing for the first contact with this potential client to be successful. In this phase you develop the sales presentation and its adaptation to the particular needs of the potential client that has been identified in the previous step. Do not forget that first impressions are important. The first seconds are key to capture the client's attention. Do not waste them and explain what you are going to solve with what you offer. Do not forget to be clear and concise. Do not get tangled up in explanations that will only confuse and bore your client. For this you must be clear and explain things in a transparent way. Explain why you are different from the rest. Tell them what the added value of your company is and why they should choose you. Also, to strengthen credibility, show testimonials or success stories and try all this until it comes naturally to you.

3. Making contact

Sometimes the first contact can be a face-to-face meeting, a phone call or an email. However you contact your customer, don't forget that this is your first and only opportunity to arouse interest in your product or service. There are three ways to approach this phase. The first is the premium contact, which is aimed at customers with a high potential value to whom you can offer a gift to start the interaction. The second is the contact with a question, in which you use a question to get the customer's attention. Finally, the third is the product-based contact, in which the interaction focuses on offering the potential customer a free sample or trial of your product or service so they can evaluate it and see if it is of interest to them.

4. Presentation

It does not always have to be in PowerPoint. Remember that nowadays there are many resources to reach your customer in the most creative and original way possible. Use corporate videos or interactive content to explain how your product or service can provide a solution and satisfy their needs. In this step of the sale it is important that you keep an active listening to know their needs in depth and be able to adapt and improve your strategies and efforts to attract them. If you are going to communicate via e-mail, you should consider what you want to communicate. It is not complicated, first you have to introduce yourself and tell your users how you can help them. Remember: no detours. What users or customers are interested in is what you are offering them and what solution this product or service provides them. Your first message should tell the reason why you wanted to contact the user. It is also important that they feel it is the right thing to do, and that you have the right message for them.

5. Managing objections

This stage is based on listening to the potential customer's concerns and responding to them in a satisfactory way. To do this, it is important to carry out research in order to find out the recurring doubts of the customers in order to know how to resolve them. When faced with an objection, a professional salesperson must offer arguments and solutions to the customer's objections and try to make the customer as satisfied as possible.

6. Closing the sale

This is the last step of the sale. Here are three key strategies to help you close your sale. The first is the alternative closing, which consists of assuming the sale and offering a choice to the potential customer, such as payment in instalments, for example. The second is the extra benefit closing, which is nothing more than offering something extra such as a free month or a discount to convince the customer to make the purchase. Finally, the limited offer closing, which consists of creating a sense of urgency by implying that there is still plenty of time left to take advantage of the offer.

7. After-sales follow-up

You have already closed the sale. Perfect, but be careful, the work is not over yet. It is important that you follow up with your customer so that they repeat the purchase. Ask for their recommendations and ask them how they did with the product or service you sold them. Taking care of the relationship with your customers is paramount. Do not fail to make them feel special and listened to, this will make them feel loyal and will make them come back to you and recommend you.

do you already know the 7 steps of selling, will you put them into practice?

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