In business, it’s very obvious that sales aren’t possible until and unless you make an effort to value the prospect, understand his problems and devise a well-thought strategy to give them solutions. You need to let your prospects speak out their issues & that’s when you make a play. Bottom line is, you need to connect with your prospects at the right time.

The major reason for sales success is the ability to gather and collect information in various ways to make your prospects want to do the business with you. Your value, pricing, proposition and product’s features nothing matters unless you are able to get the prospects talk to you and listen to what you are saying. Therefore you need to have good sales communication skills to grow your business.

Hence, let’s talk about some of the most important communication skills you need to succeed in sales

(Source: badgermapping.com)

Active Listening

There is a difference between listening and hearing. And in business communication, you need to be a careful listener. Anything less than that may result in disappointment. 

In a study performed by the University of Missouri, it was reported that, immediately after listening to a 10-minute oral presentation, the average listener has heard, understood, and retained 50 percent of what was said. Within 48 hours, that drops off another 50 percent to a final level of 25 percent efficiency.

In most of the cases, salesman conversations always have a fixed mugged up way of selling their product/service in a hurried manner. That’s a BIG NO, dear friends. You need to actively listen to your customers’ problems and the points they are presenting to you.

“Too often, salespeople are waiting for their turn to talk or thinking about what to say next, instead of truly listening to the prospect,” Databox CEO Peter Caputa says.

Analyze that during the conversation, understand and note down your prospects’ problems. Trust me, everyone likes some attention. And we feel good when people listen to us.

Read Body Language And Control Your Own

If the same sentence is said by someone who’s smiling, looking directly into your eyes and sitting straight, it is received in a very different manner when the speaker is looking away and slouching-even when they meant the same thing twice.

It is because we can say pretty much anything we want, our body language mostly reveals the meaning and true intentions. Great communicators know how to read other’s body language, so they can easily anticipate the direction the conversation is leading. It is one of the important skills of a salesperson.

The Tone Of  Your Voice

Voice tone plays a very important part in sales communication strategies & includes your voice pitch, volume, speed, empathy, choosing the right words or even your pronunciation.

Listen to your customers, observe how they speak. Talk slow if the customer’s going slow, try to talk faster if he or she looks to be in a hurry. Above all, always be humble & accommodating.

Understand What’s Not Being Said

There will be instances where the prospect may not tell you the truth. He might be busy, or his attention diverted. Try to read between the lines. Is the prospect a decision maker? Or you’re just one amongst the multiple options he is going to present to his manager? Getting better at this will really save you lots of time & increase your chances of hitting a deal.

Be A Subject Matter Expert

This is pretty much self-explanatory. Considering how well-informed the customers have become, you can not afford to not have in-depth knowledge of the industry you’re in. It’s absolutely necessary to know the latest industry trends, buying patterns & behavior.

If you’re selling something, try to always have the upper hand when it comes to knowledge. Because you’ll hardly buy something from a person who you think doesn’t know much.

Be Curious & Let People Notice

A little show of curiosity goes a long way in impressing someone. When you’re selling something, show that you’re curious & eager to know more about his requirements & problems (if any). It’s proven that great conversationalists are naturally curious about their counterparts & that’s something really essential in sales. Ask questions, make them feel that you care for their problems and want to help them.

“Communication is a skill that you can learn. It’s like riding a bicycle or typing. If you’re willing to work at it, you can rapidly improve the quality of every part of your life.” – Brian Tracy

Avoid Making Assumptions

No matter how experienced you are, or how well versed you are with a sales process… there’s always a possibility of your next prospect being completely different from the hundreds you’ve encountered before. He may well ask you something that takes you by surprise. 

Hence, stay alert. Never make assumptions.

Be Persistent, Not Pestering

There’s a fine line between persistence & pestering. Make sure you differentiate this very well. Continuous calling & emailing without knowing why your prospect isn’t responding can be counter-productive. It may annoy them to an extent of never looking back at you.

Instead, try following up with a different note & a different subject line. Try to offer some well-sounding solutions that will bring back the interest.

Try To Learn. Always!

No matter what you’re doing in life, never act like you know it all. There’ll always be another person who knows something that’s new to you. People appreciate when someone accepts his own lacuna. What’s important here is to keep the hunger alive & getting better every single day.

Learning never stops 🙂

Conclusion:

Effective communication skills is something that you either have or don’t have. Therefore it is necessary to develop strong communication skills.

Start with improving the areas that are covered above, and you will soon develop the communication skills that will lead you to success in sales.

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