Do you ever want to see your hard earned customers angry? Definitely no.

Knowing the selling skills is great.

Knowing to interact well with your prospect is great too!

What if you know some secrets to not sound like a ‘salesperson’ and at the same time you sell your product?

Unbeatable, that is.

Most people have negative perceptions about the sales individuals. That’s when, soft selling comes into the role. The savior.

Soft selling is all about dealing with your customers gently without pressuring them to buy your product/service and providing them with some value as well (that too for free!). Additionally, it is also about marketing yourself without overkilling it.

Mathematically,

Soft Selling = Sales Excellence + No overputting

So, here I suggest some secret tips that will help you to enhance your skills from stronger to strongest and also to attain your affinity audience.

1. Attempt genuinely

People don’t like the pushy attempts to selling something. Instead of going for a hard sell that might irritate a person, be authentic for what you want to offer. If your intention is only the sales of a product, this might repel the interest of the customer.

What could be done? You should rather

a. Exercise developing curiosity,

b. Gather the knowledge of likes and dislikes of your inventory,

c. Collect honest reviews.

You will realize how the knowledge of potential interest and honest feedback automatically drags you to the closing of the sale effectively. The focus might be shifted to gaining the customer rather than gaining the profit. Once a probable buyer is retained, retargeting him again with asking the problem he faced during the buying process is the best way. Transiting it ideally, you now know the intention of the person and certainly it will help in drafting a marketing strategy corresponding to the interests.

2. Build trust

The selling process doesn’t end with knowing your audience base and compelling them to buy. One of the most important aspects of a business is trust. When you build trust with people, they consider you and are also happy to give their time. At any time, you introduce a new product or service, the individuals might give a positive thought to purchasing it. Needless to say, you will develop strong a connection with your prospects.

Now,

How to establish trust?

a. Be active and ready to respond to the customer queries as soon as they arise. Time matters a lot, so does the trust.

b. Offer reliable services that solve the needs of your target audience. Ensure that the quality of what you are offering is high, so the people might not end up being dissatisfied and leave negative feedback about your business.

c. Strengthen your integrity to maintain trustworthiness. Always honour the promises you made at the beginning and resolve the mistakes you were responsible for.

d. Surprise and delight your users by giving them more than expected. Provide them complimentary services without any prior knowledge.

It is the trust that will let your audience spread a word about you to others. One of the American venture capitalists, Scott Weiss states:

“Trust leads to approachability and open communications.”

3. Highlight USPs:

Your prospects consistently expect what they are receiving is a special fit for them. You might have your competitors offering the similar products and services. This is the situation when your business demands a Unique Selling Proposition(USP). The USP helps you stand out from the industries dealing with the same range. Be aware of your USP and work on it.Put forward the unique aspects of your services in front of the potential people. Go heavy on promoting the distinctive qualities of your brand that are truly concerned with the client’s problems.

One job is to know your USP, developing it is another.

Here’s how you could promote it:

a. Include it right after your branding. If you run an online business, mark it vividly on the landing page of your website. Use microinteractions, bold face fonts and bright colors. Bear in mind, your USP should strike prior to any other content on the webpage.

b. Share it in your business documents, proposals and emails. When you interact with the client regarding your business, always incorporate it.

c. Introduce it verbally over the call or if you are speaking at an event to engage people and generate interest in your business.

When you finally reach a perfect person to sell to, it makes your service more appealing to him/her. It helps to personalize your brand to a great extent and this is what a target person demands.

4. Respect privacy

For enhancing the relationship with the customer, knowledge of interests and behavior is important. The traditional approach might involve tracking the buying and search behavior and the ideal time of need of a service. As a business crosses the line of privacy in this case, such insights should be used to recognize the actual problems pertaining to a specific product or a service of a brand. It serves as a platform on which your sales strategy could be tailored to bridge the gap between the industry and the user.As it is a sensitive part of marketing, additional care is required. Overboarding the content shares with respect to the customer’s privacy might make you look creepy. You will never want to be portrayed as a company playing with the personal interests of the people. Keeping this in mind and in order to preserve the privacy, new set of policies has been introduced by the European Union in General Data Protection Regulation(GDPR).Various organizations from around the world are shifting their focus from outbound strategies to inbound business generation.

Planning in accordance with these,

What approach could be followed?

a. Emphasize on creating platforms that will act as the communication medium between you and the audience. Effective methods might include white papers, videos, infographics, blogs, webinars and social media posts. If you are successful in providing value and engaging through these, potential customers will probably share their personal data.

b. Work on increasing the funnel size rather than using the custom email lists, cold calls and direct business pitch.

Doing it ideally and precisely will get you more targeted people into your sales funnel.

In the end, it does matter…

Learn from your customers and improve your brand consistently. A good investment of efforts directs your business to reach at a level where you earn the time, trust and money of a potential client.