Before becoming a designer, I worked for 5 years with sales. At first prospecting for sales people to get in touch, after a while I started making sales by telemarketing, and finally visiting clients in person and offering the services of the company I worked for. (Real estate systems and websites) I believe that if I didn't have this experience I would not have any success with the studio today. Selling is art.
These days I was interested in buying a new car. I contacted 3 dealers. The next day there were 3 "salesman" calling me on whats-app. I read things like, "Why don't you come get the car right away?" "I got close to your proposal, let's close it soon!" Besides an absurd insistence after I said clearly that I lost total interest in the proposal. I'm almost having to block them to stop bothering me.
We are all sales people at some point, whether selling products, services or ideas. Here are 8 pro tips I learned from working directly in the field.
1. Position yourself as a master of what you are providing. Even if the prospect found it expensive, it will have you as a reference for information. And that can be convert to a long term sale.
2. Demonstrate that selling to him is not a matter of life and death for you. That you don't necessarily need him to buy that from you. Never be desperate.
3. Be friendly and reliable, I’ve avoided buying many times just because I didn’t like the salesman. First you sale yourself, then you’re product.
4. How to sell yourself? Demonstrate you’re interested in your prospect's problem, don't try to steer the conversation constantly to the product.
5. Try to talk to the prospect as much as possible without mentioning the product. This way he will be feeling "indebted" to you for taking you’re time and will be more likely to buy.
6. Know when to stop selling. There is a moment when the prospect already understood what he had to understand about the product, many salesmen keep repeating, insisting, it becomes tiresome. Several times the prospect comes up with some excuse to hang up or leave the store. Never press the customer.
7. Being sarcastic, ironic or provocative are great ways to make a prospect dislike you.
8. Always remember the long run. Salespeople tend to think only of present time, so they often treat the prospect poorly when they realize that they are not making a transaction right away. Selling a business management system over the phone or on the website is VERY difficult. The way I would do business was to gain trust and become a reference for my prospects. Example, I called once, answered the secretary. She said the prospect would be traveling in two days, so I could call back. I jotted it down in the spreadsheet, next to her name and the name of the prospect, and then called in exactly two days. I would often ask when would be the best time to get in touch with him. When I called and was able to talk to the prospect, (which made the company's decisions), I always said, "I called on Tuesday, but you were traveling, so you’re secretary informed me that you could talk to me today." I made a point of being insistent, but not disrespectfully. I would then introduce myself and my product, and try my best to generate dialogue with the prospect by asking objective questions of interest to him. At the end of the call, it was very rare to be told that they had no interest in the product, what they would often say was, "Look Victor, now the situation is difficult, call me in 3 months?". The poor prospect didn't think I'd call, but I'd jot down the spreadsheet and call. And believe it or not, they’d buy. This becomes a cycle because every day there was someone to return to after many months. So most of my sales were a long-term result. I’ll never forget a client who stalled me up for 2 years, Mr. Aroldo from Fortaleza. When he did agree to buy my product, he said, "I'll miss our conversations Victor." Notice that my insistence was not a bother. It was just a matter of time to do business with me.
For those who have read this far, I am not a guru, I am not a coach or even a teacher. I don't intend to launch any digital products, and this information sharing is no strategy for content creation. I say that because I know what it's like to consume content thinking. "This guy just wants to sell me something" What I post here are just tips and ideas I have and enjoy sharing.
It wasn't easy working directly with sales, but everything I learned there I deployed when I created my own studio, and now I can share it with you.