Tag: selling

On selling

Confidence is key to selling. If you lack confidence and are meek, it doesn’t matter if you have the best product and it’s at a great price. If you leave any doubt or confusion in the buyer’s mind, you’ll lose them to more confident competitors.

When you lack confidence in your own product, people will find reasons (real or made up) as to why it’s not a good purchase.

Know your product inside and out. Know the competition’s product. Understand the market in general. Be positive, talk clearly and concisely, and be energetic (but not annoyingly so). Dress according to what is expected of the product you’re selling and the people you’re selling to. When in doubt, slightly overdress as opposed to being underdressed for the occasion.

On what it takes to sell…

There are three things you need to consider when selling. They are:

1. The right PRICE

2. Enough EXPOSURE

3. Good APPEAL

You can sell anything if any single one of those things is convincing enough for the buyer. But, you can sell it quickly and even get into a “bidding war” from the buyers if you get multiple of those items right.

For example, if you offer to sell a $300,000 house for $100,000, you’ll be able to sell it immediately. The price is so good that it can overcome the possible lack of exposure or appeal.

The opposite is true too. If you price a $300,000 home for $400,000, it doesn’t matter if you get a lot of interest in the house and it looks nice. If one thing sticks out too much (good or bad), it will help or hinder your ability to sell it accordingly.

That’s why you need to focus on moving any of these three items in your favor as much as possible. Even if the house is priced higher than it should be, if you get enough eyes on it, you still might sell it just due to sheer volume of people who see it. Or, from the appealing aspect of it, if a house is beautifully staged or you can help people envision living a happier/better life there, they will be more willing to buy it. If it is appealing enough, they may be willing to pay more than market value because it is promising them intrinsic value.

When listing a home, the sellers and I come up with the price together. Yes, they’ll mostly rely on my research and opinion for what the market value is, but ultimately they get to decide what we list the home for (the asking price).

The exposure is solely up to me. The sellers are paying me to sell their home, and with that comes the responsibility for me to get as many eyes on it as possible. The sellers can help by spreading word to their family/friends/co-workers and posting on social media, but really, it’s my job to get the word out to as many people as possible.

Lastly, the appeal is mostly up to the sellers. I can make suggestions on what to keep/remove from their home, how to stage the home, what needs more cleaning and what updates need to be done, but it’s up to them to actually do those things. If they have a messy house or if potential buyers leave feeling like they need to immediately wash their hands, the sellers just hurt their chances to sell.

These are the three basic items we need to factor in when thinking of selling anything. There are many other elements involved in selling, but if we get these three things right, we will have the best chance to sell that item quickly and profitably.

Patience with teaching

It takes strength to be gentle. Anyone can be rude, but it takes self-control, strength, and discipline to be patient and caring.

For example, do you get easily annoyed (and show it) when others aren’t understanding what you’re explaining? Be gentle with them. Try to explain it in another way. Whether that means using a different example (verbally) or using a different teaching method (they may learn better by reading or doing instead of listening), if you really want them to understand what you’re talking about, you need to adapt your teaching style to how they learn best. Regardless of whether your other methods work, at the very minimum you’ll become a better teacher by learning how to use different teaching methods.

Lastly, if you really want someone to learn something, you can be firm with them, but don’t be rude or make disparaging remarks. While that may motivate some people, it will make even more people “shut down.” Then, not only do you lose your chance at a teachable moment, but you also hurt their self-esteem and lose their respect (if only temporarily) in the process.

Sales

Good salespeople have good answers. Great salespeople ask great questions. Ask open-ended questions and then repeat their answer back to them to get your prospect to feel understood. This also helps because it allows the prospect to clarify something you may have misunderstood or assumed incorrectly.

If you are confident in your abilities and are a good communicator (i.e., you listen well and know how to encourage others to give you more relevant information), you will do well in sales.