gold key

Let’s be honest, there are thousands of techniques that can be used to sell, but there are 3 universal techniques that can be used from everyone from the Porsche dealer to the snake oil salesman.

1. Tell a Story - Once upon a time there was a struggling salesman who learned that telling stories is a great way to engage the mind of the potential customers. He learned that people relate to stories in a way that boring sales speak can never compete with. What happened to this struggling salesman will never be forgotten, it will go down in sales folklore for eternity…

Would you like to know what happened to the struggling salesman?

Well the truth is that I invented the above story, but I managed to prove my point. You were engaged and wanted to know more. Would you have been as interested if I had just bombarded you with facts and stats?

2. Be Honest - This sounds an obvious choice, but I am not referring to not stealing from your customers etc… I am talking about using honesty as a sales technique.

Here is how it works: You confess to something, point out the flaws upfront etc… Why? Simple, people are so used to exaggeration, 10 pages of fine print, and other forms of deception, that they will be impressed and disarmed by your open and direct honesty.

Don’t worry, you won’t have to say anything like “I will be honest, this product is crap”. But you can use more subtle techniques to impress the potential customer.

“I will be honest, this is not for everyone…. but”

or

You could point put a minor flaw and then re-assure the customer that it is not a major issue etc…

3. Those who can teach - If you can teach people with your product or service then they will become more emotionally engaged in what you are saying. I am not going to get into the scientific reasons as to how the neural connections react when you learn, I will save that for a rainy day. But if you can find a way of educating without boring, then you are onto a winner.