Businesses which depend on selling products or services are constantly forced to keep looking at their own sales techniques, as well as those of their competitors. You should continually be asking, why are people buying from company X instead of us and continue to refine your process.The business world does not stand still, and businesses which are not constantly improving and refining their sales techniques will not survive.

Do you need to have unique talents to be a top salesperson nowadays?

There is a common misconception that selling is a natural skill which you are either born with or you are not. This could not be further from the truth. It is certainly a fact that some people seem to have a natural talent for sales, but selling involves a set of skills and sales techniques that are continually learned and revised, as customer habits change and the business world changes with it.

There are actually a number of basic sales techniques which have been around for a long time, and yet which many professional sales people do not seem to have grasped. One of these is that people buy what they want, not what they need. The decision to buy is triggered by desires and emotions, not by logic as the logic comes in later, to justify the purchase. So successful sales techniques will concentrate on emotional triggers rather than the features of the product you are providing them.

It's true...people buy from people they like

Another is that customers buy from people they like, so it is essential to establish an empathy with the customer. In fact, sales techniques are basically about understanding the customer, and getting the customer to say Yes. The Yes principle is very important. Ask an innocent question at the beginning, to which the customer is bound to answer Yes, and this really does get the customer into the Yes frame of mind. For example, if you are selling a phone, you could ask if the customer thinks good communication is important. This is one of the most useful sales techniques. Above all, remember that the customer does not like being sold to. Successful sales techniques ensure customers do not feel they are being sold to, but that it is they who are making the decision to buy.

In other words, it is becoming increasingly clear that successful sales techniques are more about focusing on the customer than focusing on the sales person. Businesses in Australia that have seen the most success in improving their profit margin have been concentrating on customer psychology and on getting inside the customer's mind. At the very core of all your communication you want to be able to know what is your customer's desire for gain or their fear of loss. Those two elements alone will enable you to successfully structure your technique to truly get into your customer's mind.

Discover the strategies to get your customer saying yes sooner

At present all across Australia, there has been a big increase in the number of business professionals attending sales workshops, concentrating on reasons why the customer says No, and how to overcome these reasons. Sales selling skills are about getting the customer to say Yes and asking the right questions, understanding the customer's needs, engaging a customer's emotional response, and getting to the customer's real motivation to buy.

Practically every business in the world depends on sales techniques to compete in the market. Developing and improving sales techniques and focusing on the Yes principle, will certainly ensure that your business can increase its market share. The greatest benefit of all is not just to your bottom line but your sales team will be greatly motivated to achieve more and will have higher confidence, backed up by a can do attitude. As a business owner you have the opportunity to create an incredible atmosphere within your company where everyone is focused on helping the customer which in turn increases sales and profits across the board.