5 Sales Tips for Beginners

In the modern digital age, it is a common practice to go online and look up how to do things. From how to tie a tie to how to run a business, the Internet seems to be overflowing with “helpful advice” on all topics. Sales is one of those topics.

A cursory Google search for “sales tips and tricks” resulted in such a deluge of information that it was almost overwhelming. As such, we’ve decided to go through the mess and pick out 5 sales tips which we thought were the best for beginners to keep in mind.

With no further ado, let’s just jump into it.

1. Know Your Product

The first one is a no-brainer but it still bears repeating: if you want to sell a product effectively, you must know the product really well. Let’s look at why.

When you know your product well, you can speak freely about its abilities and features. You are also more prepared to go “off script” (i.e.: improvise) when the situation calls for it. Additionally, you can also answer any number of hyper specific or situational questions that the customer may ask of you.

Knowing your product can also lead to you being able to speak passionately about it. This can affect how customers view the product you are trying to sell.

2. Understand Your Customers’ Needs

People usually buy products that they desire on some level for some reason. No matter how well you know your products, you cannot convince someone to buy a product that is not relevant to their desires.

Any desire is born from a need that goes unfulfilled. It is highly recommended that you take some time to chat with customers and find out what their need is, rather than simply wax poetic about all the features of the product you want to sell.

When you understand what exactly the customer is dealing with or what they are facing, finding a product that helps them will become much easier. The best way to do this, of course, is through talking and listening.

3. Know Your Customers

Business advice is full of catchy little sayings and mottos. “Show them you know them” is one of them. So let’s discuss this further.

This one applies more for scheduled meetings and more organized gatherings, rather than customers who walk in. The logic here is that when you understand the potential customer’s background, interests, and views, you are able to cater your pitch to them directly.

Being prepared for a meeting shows that you are competent and you have an amount of knowledge that can inspire confidence in your potential customers. So take some time to look them up before you go meet them.

4. Always Follow Up

According to the mountain of websites we trawled through, all sales experts apparently agree on the importance of following up. Apparently, whether your meeting went perfectly or not, a lack of a follow up can result in a guaranteed sale slipping away.

Sending emails might be the most professional and practical way to do it. After all, it can be personalized based on the rapport established between you and the potential customer. Some of the different types of follow up emails sent include emails that look to connect to clients, mails you send right after a meeting to acknowledge their time spent with you, mails sent to continue a conversation you were already having, and emails sent to check whether the sale is happening or not.

Now’s the time to work on polishing your mail writing skills and updating your templates. The more people you follow up with, the higher your chance of successful sales, apparently.

5. Learn from Failure

This last one is not just good sales advice but good life advice as well. Failure is not an outcome most people want to see. However, it is sometimes unavoidable. As such, we should learn the correct and healthy way to deal with failure.

Don’t use failure as an excuse to double down on your current way of thinking or acting. Don’t take it personally and try to analyze why your endeavor failed. Think about your pitch, your presentation, your tactics, and your client/customer’s response. Try to spot parts they responded well to and parts they didn’t.

Self-analysis is a good way to keep growing as a salesman and as a person. However, it is worth noting that it is possible to take this too far and become overly critical. This can affect self esteem in a bad way. So learn the right way to reflect upon your failures and learn from them.

And there you have it! Five sales tips for beginners to get started in the industry. We hope that you found these tips useful.

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