7 Tips On How To Sell Without Being Sleazy - Part 1

There’s just no denying the fact that the words ‘salesman’ or ‘sales consultant’ immediately turns off most people. These words conjure up images of slick and sleazy guys such as used car salesmen who resort to flashing insincere smiles and deploying sneaky subterfuges just to close the sale.

The general impression is that sales people will sell their mother just to meet their target and the only thing straight about them is their hair.

The question now is… “Why?”

Why do sales people have such a negative reputation? Why is the sight of an insurance agent or an Amway representative enough to send most people running for the hills?

The answer quite simply boils down to ‘poor sales skills.’ People love to buy. It makes them feel good and they want to do it… BUT they hate being sold to. Herein lies the problem.

The experienced salesperson knows exactly how to approach his potential customer and convince them that their life will be incomplete without the product he is selling. He doesn’t need to hard sell anyone because he’s a master at communication.

The inexperienced salesman, however, is totally focused on making the sale at the expense of everything else. They do not communicate properly because they’re trying to rush the sale. As a result, they exude an air of desperation that is picked up subconsciously by the prospective customer and it repels them.

The inexperienced sales person only appears to be in it for themselves and starts to look sleazy. The sad truth is that the majority of sales people are in this category, when all they need is a little education and EQ on how to approach a potential customer and what to focus on.

In this article, we’ll look at 7 ways for you to sell without appearing sleazy or desperate. While the tips below may seem like common sense, rest assured that when one is faced with the pressure of meeting sales targets or generating a specific income, all common sense goes out the window and emotions take over. In times like these, it’s especially crucial that you adhere to the tips below.

1. Create a Customer Avatar

A customer avatar is a fictional person that represents your ideal customer. You know exactly what their wants and needs are. You know exactly how your product is perfect for them.

All the best sales people have a very good understanding of who their product is perfect for. While many of the prospects you meet may not fit in perfectly with your customer avatar, as long as they display some of the needs and wants that your avatar has, you’ll be able to hone in on these needs and be more convincing in your pitches.

A customer avatar will roughly allow you to anticipate what objections you can expect to hear. This will allow you time to prepare and overcome these objections so that you’re ready when you actually face them.

For example, if you’re selling gym memberships, one common objection that you may receive is that it’s too ‘expensive.’ So what will you do? Will you tell them that they can’t put a price on their health? While that may sound good, it probably won’t work on all people.

If you have a customer avatar of a young man who wants to get a fit body to attract the ladies, you could probably tell him that the gym membership will pay for itself many times over when he looks ripped and turns ladies’ heads wherever he goes.

Of you could tell a lady that with a gym membership, she has access to all the equipment she needs to get in shape so that she’ll look good in anything she wears. She just won’t be able to get that by exercising at home. She probably could… but your goal is to sell her the gym membership and not a fitness DVD.

You can have several different customer avatars for the same product. The avatar is just a tool to help you understand your prospect and be prepared to sell to in a way that resonates with them. You MUST be on the same ‘frequency’ as your prospect.

2. Sell Only What You Believe In

You can’t convince others if you’re not convinced yourself. You absolutely must believe in what you’re selling. Not only will your pitch be more convincing, but you’ll also feel a sense of satisfaction. You’ll be more driven and have more desire to tell the world just how great the product you’re selling is.

If you stepped into a Lamborghini dealership, you can bet that every sales person there will totally love the cars they’re selling. They’ll probably be fanatic about fast cars and know all the specifications and will be able to give you a hundred reasons as to why their car is the best in the world. They’re passionate about their product and the passion rubs off on the prospect.

Avoid promoting or selling something that you don’t believe in just because you want the money. This happens online and offline too. Every day, tons of online marketers mail their list promoting products that they’ve never tried or have no interest in. They just want the commissions.

Over time, they lose credibility and their list of subscribers stop believing them… and once this happens, it’s almost game over. If someone does not believe you, they’ll NOT buy from you.

Believe in your product and your prospect will believe in you and your chances of getting the sale will skyrocket.

3. Listen and Empathize

This is key to succeeding with sales. It’s all about listening to the customer and understanding their needs. In fact, the best sales people don’t even mention their product for the first 15 to 20 minutes. They’re more concerned with what the prospect needs.

By having a listening ear and showing empathy, you’re building a relationship with a customer. If we used the same gym membership example above, you’ll discover the emotional reasons why people are considering joining the gym.

By talking to your prospect, you may notice that maybe they lack confidence because they’re overweight and they hope to shed the pounds. Or maybe they had a life-threatening health issue and now they want to turn their lives around. It could be a mother who wants to be healthy to see her kids grow up.

It could be a wife who wants her husband to take notice of her again. It could be anything… but you’ll only find out if you listen and show that you have their best interests at heart. Doing this alone is enough to show that you’re NOT just another sleazy sales person.

Over and above all, be genuine. People can discern if you truly care or if you’re just going through the motions. Like Zig Ziglar said, "You can have everything in life you want, if you will just help other people get what they want."

4. Know What You’re Selling

This is of paramount importance. You must know your product. Selling a car? You need to know the specifications, the price, what are the benefits, the safety features… the everything.

Make it a point to know as much as you possibly can about your product. Anticipate any questions potential prospects might have.

You need to know all the features of your product like the back of your hand and when you’re talking to your prospect, you’ll mention these features but dress them up as benefits and show how these will put an end to your prospect’s problems.

E.g. (Features) The gym has a variety of cardio machines ranging from treadmills to stair climbers to rowing machines. There’s enough machines so that there’s always equipment free for the client to use.

(Benefits) They’ll not need to wait for the machines and this saves them time… and with cardio, they’ll lose weight much more successfully.

Parts 5 to 7 will be arriving on the blog tomorrow.....