The Principle of Salesmanship [Part 3 of 6]

This is the third post in series The 6 Unspoken Reasons Internet Marketing Gurus Are So Successful and today we are going to cover the all-important Principle Of Salesmanship.

You can read the other five reasons by following the links below:

  1. Part 1: The Principle of Sustained Hard Work
  2. Part 2: The Principle of Networking
  3. Part 3: The Principle of Salesmanship
  4. Part 4: The Principle of Execution
  5. Part 5: The Principle of The Basics
  6. Part 6: The Principle of Timing

Salesmanship is another key reason many of these good internet marketing gurus are so successful and if you want to mimic their results; you also need to master the skill of salesmanship.

Everybody wants a simple 5 step formula they can follow to be successful but in business, it is never that easy. In business, you need to convince people that you are worthy of their financial investment.

To prove you can be trusted you need to confirm a few important criteria:

  1. You understand their problem
  2. You have a solution
  3. You can execute the solution, so the problem is once and for all solved

What we are primarily talking about is the sales process. The role of marketing and sales is becoming more entangled because of the internet, so marketers need to become skilled in sales.

Marketing is the ability to attract a new prospect and sales is the ability to convert that prospect into a sale. Today, the distinction between the two is not as clear as salesmanship is a skill marketers require.

Today, prospects are doing most of their research online and only calling sales people when they are ready to make a buying decision or place an order.

In the past prospects would call a company early in the sales cycle to speak to a sales person to have these same questions answered. Now they can have all their questions answered by just Googling it.

Marketers are in charge of creating this content found on Google and have the added responsibility of educating the buyers before they speak to sales people. At times the purchase is even made without consultation with a sales person at all.

So marketers need to learn the art of salesmanship. They need to incorporate salesmanship into their blog posts, emails, landing pages, eBooks, webinars and videos.

[mk_blockquote style=”quote-style” font_family=”none” text_size=”12″ align=”left”]Salesmanship is defined as the level of skill you have in convincing people to buy or in persuading people to do something.[/mk_blockquote]

Internet marketing gurus are masters at salesmanship. They incorporate it into their copywriting, videos and presentations.

Salesmanship is what makes them attractive to their audience. Some would say they are all very charismatic, outgoing and animated in their presentation of their products and services.

I do believe that many of there internet marketing gurus have the ability to sell ice to Eskimos.

I do believe that many are just great sales people who have ended up selling internet marketing services, and no matter what they sold, they would excel.

I do believe that many have qualities of an extrovert which helps them sell so well on video and in person.

But I have been in sales for over 20 years, and I also have seen many successful people who don’t posses those same qualities who are outstanding sales people. Individuals who are at the top of their sales team who don’t fit the typical sales mold.

So don’t worry if you don’t have obvious vivaciousness of a typical sales person. You don’t need it.

I want to distil what is critical in salesmanship if you want to convince people to buy your service.

If you want to improve your salesmanship without becoming a slimy car salesperson (please note not all car salespeople are slimy, just the slimy ones) you need to nail the following:

1. Know Your Prospect

If you know, your prospect inside out you will find it easier to relate to them. You should understand:

  1. What they worry about
  2. What their challenges in business
  3. What roles they fulfill in their business
  4. Where they live
  5. What’s their income
  6. Where do they live
  7. How many kids they have
  8. And much, much more information that relates to the service you are selling them

Defining a buyers persona is another way of describing this process. You can find an excellent resource to help you create a buyers persona as Make My Persona.

When you know your prospect intimately you are then able to go to the next step.

2. Know Their #1 Problem

People are highly motivated to solve their problems. That is why doctors don’t need to advertise. People flock to book in appointments without any coercion because they just want to get their health back. They are highly motivated to remove their pain.

There is a very simple tactic you can use to develop your skill of salesmanship. Don’t talk about your goals, your products or your agenda. Just focus on their #1 pain.

Highlight their pain. Describe it and let them know that you understand it better than they do. There is an excellent quote by William Woodsmall which sums this up succinctly:

[mk_blockquote style=”quote-style” font_family=”none” text_size=”12″ align=”left”]When you can articulate another persons problem better than they can they automatically and unconsciously credit you with knowing the solution[/mk_blockquote]

3. A Simple Solution

Now that you know the #1 pain of your perfect prospect, you need to offer them a simple solution to their suffering. A solution that you know will 100% solve their problem. When you have confidence in this solution, they will too.

Ensure that it’s as simple to explain as possible. Something the prospect can get their head around very quickly.

They need to be able to trust that if they have that pain, then your solution can solve that pain. Simplifying the offer is key to making the buyer decision smoother.

4. Enthusiasm

Enthusiasm is so important because it goes a long way. Even if you make a mistake, your presentation skills are not polished and your solution might not be easy to understand, your enthusiasm can fill the gap.

But you don’t want to do it over with the excitement. You want to have e a mild enthusiasm which is noticeable, but not forced or overdone. We have all seen those over enthusiastic sales people, and they always make us cringe.

Enthusiasm is what you can use if you lack the natural ability of an extrovert, a refined public speaker or natural charisma. If we are enthusiastic about our service, then it will rub off on our prospects.

On the other hand, if we can’t be enthusiastic then our prospects definitely won’t be.

5. Presentation skills

Presenting skills can be learned. They aren’t innate qualities you are born with. Not all can be a Martin Luther King Jnr or a John F Kennedy, but we all can be so much better than where they are at today.

I encourage you to learn these skills as you will need them to develop salesmanship and become better at marketing.

There are four areas worth investing into where your presentation skills are vital to making more sales.

Copywriting

Copywriting is an art, but it can be learned. There are tricks and tactics which can be used to become a better copywriting. As a marketer today, copywriting is a vital skill to be developed.

The ability to convince people to move along the sales process using the written word is so powerful as the written word in the foundation of the internet.

Websites, ebooks, video scripts, power point presentations and webinars are all built on great copywriting.

Invest in the skill of copywriting today. It will pay dividends for the rest of your sales and marketing career.

Public Speaking

The ability to speak publicly is another skill that the great internet marketing gurus possess. When you talk to a large group of people, you can establish trust and promote your business to hundreds if not thousands in one hour.

Public speaking is a method these gurus use to increase their exposure to new prospects rapidly.

Again, public speaking is a skill which can be learned. Everyone can improve, and the best way to start is by just doing it. All the theory in the world is useless unless you put it into practice.

Videos

Being able to convince prospects via a video that you understand their problem and have a solution is a scalable way of winning new clients. You create the video once and then it can play thousands or tens of thousands of times automatically.

These videos can be used on landing pages and marketing automation sequences to do the selling for you while you are doing something else.

You can develop video presentation skills so you can deliver persuasive messages to your prospects. This is another killer super power for today’s marketers and sales people.

Webinars

My personal favorite is the webinar. A webinar presentation is not just a great lead generation tool, but it’s also an awesome conversion tool.

After spending 1.5 hours with you on a webinar, a prospect sees you in a different light. In just 1.5 hours you can win them over to trust you, see you as an authority and know that you understand their pain and have a solution for them.

But to pull it off you have to have salesmanship. The ability to convince people that you understand their problem and have a solution.

To find out how to create a killer webinar ready my blog post on How to create a webinar sales engine.

One-On-One Meetings

Most sales cannot be made online, on a webinar or by watching a video. A more intimate meeting that is required for the final stage of the sales process.

One of the strategies I use the most to convert prospects into clients is the one-on-one online meeting via Skype or GoToMeeting. These meetings are a great way to dig deeper into your prospects specific pain points, stretch the pain, so they really feel it, then deliver your solution as a remedy.

If done well you will be able to close the sale in these meetings, and it will become a vital part of your sales process.

There is a framework for holding these meetings. It isn’t rocket science, but most people don’t follow the framework, so their success in these meetings is sporadic.

The basic framework for these one-on-one meetings is:

  1. Identify the top three pain points of the prospect
  2. Stretch the pain. Get the prospect to tell you will happen if this pain isn’t removed
  3. Determine the rewards if the pain is solved
  4. Make these rewards quantifiable so you can put a dollar figure on the benefit if the pain was removed
  5. Show a solution to eliminate the pain
  6. Compare the cost of the solution to the rewards gained by implementing the solution
  7. Ask for the sale

Conclusion

The Principle Of Salesmanship is a skill internet marketing gurus are using to win over their audience and sell more.

You can learn from them and use salesmanship in your business to get the same results.

No, you don’t have to be an extrovert or be charismatic to have salesmanship. But you do need to build your skills and follow frameworks which help you engage your audience.

Become a student of salesmanship. Learn the skills, test them out in the real world, make changes to your approach and do it all again.

This is how you build salesmanship. It’s a learned skill which you can develop.

Let me know in the comments below if you use salesmanship in your marketing and sales and which methods work best for you.

 

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