Sell Your Products and Services

Tips to Effectively Sell Your Products and Services

We are selling something every single day of our lives. Whether it is a concept, an idea, a product or a service, selling is at the heart of every business. So, it pays to acquire skills for it and good skills at that.

I have seen sales courses share conscious mind, obvious stuff that could be read in a book. My approach to an NLP for selling course, would be to assume that a salesperson already knows how to sell.

Hence when I conduct an NLP training, I go beyond the obvious. Working with a salesperson’s mindset, I share tools for impact selling with NLP that include processes like:

• How to build rapport
• Ways to manage conflict
• Language to handle objections
• Negotiation skills

If you were a salesman, wouldn’t you think these would be more valuable to you? The “how to” depicts process that an NLP course would teach. Using these NLP techniques to sell your products and services is where the actual magic is, as these processes are applied to the context of selling.

NLP has been hailed as a powerful toolbox for many years. Many have experienced the wonder of it but only because these learners have in the first place, an expertise and depth of knowledge in a specific field.

So, as in a sales context, if you are a great salesperson and want to move to the next level, an NLP for selling course would be of tremendous benefit. Since even the best product or service requires some form of selling, I would highly recommend that everybody does some form of an NLP course, to learn techniques that will help them in sales and life as a whole.

In this article I share five effective techniques to sell your products and services:

1. Set Goals to Direct Your Focus

It is important to have a sales strategy in order to focus your energy towards a directed outcome. It prevents wasting precious time by charting a clear path.

First things first, establish your target market. When you are clear on who your segment is, it will be easier to come up with the most effective sales plan to sell your products and services. Understand who they are, what they need, what their business is about and their buying patterns.

Once you have done some research on competitors, set your realistic goals to direct your focus and make things happen.

2. Build Rapport

In an NLP for selling course, building rapport is emphasised as the most fundamental skill to have in life. When you are in deep rapport the client feels comfortable and is less likely to object. And even if they have any objections, your NLP training should augur well to resolve it smoothly.

You build rapport when you make the selling about your client rather than just putting across a sales pitch. Listen carefully and match their language. For example, observe if they are very visual in their explanation or description, then use the same type of language in response. This is something you can easily learn in an NLP course.

3. Appeal to Values

Always emphasise benefits that the client will gain by buying your products and services. This is more effective than just spouting a list of features. For example, if you’re in the software business, show them how much time and money they could save by going digital, with facts and figures as back up.

Then elicit values that are important to a client. Is it congruence, where the client expects to receive exactly what you have promised? Or speed of service? Whatever the case, appeal to what the client values.

When you sell your products and services with values in mind, the client will feel heard and this matches his expectations as well.

4. Reframe to Handle Objections

Respond to objections as an opportunity to get nearer to closing a sale. Don’t get defensive and never take objections personally. Seek to understand what aspect of the products and services they’re objecting to and provide an acceptable response.

I personally prefer a client who asks many questions because it is a sign that they are engaged and interested. Clients who just nod and say “no questions” are generally not engaged in the sales process and this is not a good sign.

Be prepared with a list of common objections related to your products and services. Create this list before you meet the client and ask yourself “what else could this situation mean for the client?”.

Think about how you could open the client’s mind to something that he has not seen. This is called the art of reframing and is taught in an impact selling with NLP course.

5. Close the Sale

Sometimes you can get so caught up on how to sell your products and services, that you forget to actually ask for the sale. At some point, after presenting the benefits, cost and features of your products and services, you need to take responsibility for closing the sale.

In an NLP training, I have often heard sales professionals saying, “I was so close, but……”.

So, working through the negotiation funnel to close the sale requires concentration and sensory acuity to pick up on the client’s language. As we negotiate down to close the sale, we stand the risk of losing rapport.

Ever so slowly and in tandem with the client’s rhythm, asking for the sale is an intuitive call. “Would you like to place the order now?” must only happen, when you get the feeling that the time is right. It is an art to hone in on that intuitive feeling, something that is sharpened at an NLP course.

To sum it up, you cannot avoid the sales process if you want to sell your products and services successfully. Learn how to do it effectively and boost your business. Practising these techniques will save you time and energy. It will give you the confidence to strategise, build rapport, handle objections and close sales like a pro.

Sylvia Fernandes is the Founder & CEO of VIA Frontiers. She is a Master Trainer of NLP who is specialised in corporate applications. She started her business in Sydney in 2002 and has been operating in the Asia Pacific Region ever since. She is currently based in Singapore. She is also the author of Bye Bye Black Cat -- Turn Your Luck Around and Realise Opportunities. Visit VIA Frontiers for more information.