The ultimate hacks that will make your sales job a breeze

When I was starting out in sales, my boss told me “Sales is the highest paying hard work and the lowest paying easy work”. He was half right. To get paid well in sales, you need to put in the work, but it doesn’t have to be hard. Most people starting out, learn through trial-and-error, but you can take a shortcut to success if you follow these hacks for making your sales job a breeze.

1. Know Your Product

There’s good news and bad news. I’ll start with the bad news: Customers have more choices available to them now than ever before and that complicates the buying process. Now the good news: Having strong product knowledge will simplify and shorten the buying process for your customers.

Yuni B., a retail sales professional, says, “In order to sell a product, you must fully understand the product you are selling.” Customers want to know how and where your product is made. You should also be able to give them accurate price, delivery and warranty information about your products and those of your competitors.

2. Listen To Customers

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Many of us make the mistake of trying to sell our products before fully understanding what our customers really need. This is like your doctor handing you a prescription before taking the time to fully understand your symptoms!

Daniel J., a business development executive, says, “Your customer may not always be right, but if you don't listen to them, you may be selling them the wrong product, service or advice.” Just as a mechanic examines your car before estimating repair costs, you need to learn what your customers want to buy, before you start selling to them.

Hack: Follow the 80/20 Rule. You should be listening to customers 80% of the time and talking 20% of the time. Within that 20% talking, 10% is asking questions and 10% is selling.

3. Learn From Top Performers

One way to make your sales job a breeze is to make sure you’re interacting with positive people in a good environment. Misery loves company and miserable people love to bring you down to their level. Stay away from complainers and whiners. Instead, hang out with winners.

Sean R., a telecommunications sales representative says, “Stick to the top performers like glue. Copy his or her systems and processes. Once mastered, add your own personality and you can't go wrong.”

It’s important to have a positive attitude in sales because a negative attitude becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. Henry Ford said it best, “Whether you think you can, or think you can’t - you’re right”. Hack: Keep learning. Read sales books, take sales courses and get a mentor. Shadow winners and notice what they do differently from whiners. Then apply what you learn. Learners are earners.

4. Establish Strong Relationships

This may come as a surprise, but you could have the best product or lowest price and still lose the sale, because of the relationship between the customer and your competitor. Craig W, a business development executive, suggests to “Embrace the precept that integrity is always essential in developing relationships with the understanding that people like to buy but they don't want to be sold.”

With increased competition, there’s a need to adopt a relationship strategy that emphasises the lifetime customer. Instead of viewing customers as transactional that you sell to once, you view them as partners in a long-term selling relationship.

Hack: Move from selling to supporting. Support your customers in solving their problems and you’ll never have to sell a day in your life.

5. Anticipate Common Objections

You probably know that answering objections is an important part of sales. What you may not know, is that objections typically fall into one of four categories: Price, Effort, Time or Effectiveness.

Do you get caught off guard when a customer says your product is too expensive. Veronica B., a retail sales representative, says,  “It's helpful to know the common objections that your customers have and know exactly what to say for each one to overcome it.” When a customer says no, what they mean is not yet. I’m not convinced yet. You haven’t demonstrated the value yet.

Hack: Listen to your colleagues answer objections. Ask your manager for a list of frequently asked questions. Anticipate common objections. Formulate your answer. Practice your response. Start implementing your new sales skills at one of these sales and retail marketing jobs. 

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