How do you actually sell?

I believe part of being a good salesperson is to make sure that you spend your time selling something that customers do want/need to spend money on. For example, I knew this girl in high school who sold high-end knives for Cutco (pyramid marketing scheme). Now she could have spent her time cold calling all the numbers in the phone book and getting hung up on until her voice was hoarse but, she didn't. Instead, she reasoned that new home buyers would at least believe that they were going to be doing more cooking as they had just purchased a big kitchen and would likely have budgeted for new home furnishings. So, she got her hands on property transfer records (publicly available), cross checked the names with the phone book and targeted her search. She made a killing and funded her college education.

A seller for me must have known about the services and products. He or she must be able to know the target customers preferences and needs.

there is some confusion in this thread.

Institutional sales vs retail sales

Retail Sales, like a car dealership, or a furniture store, or a computer store...the salesman is trying to connect emotionally with the customer...a good retail salesperson will find out why the customer is in the store....what are their needs...and then will talk about how this product will solve their problems and fulfill their needs.

Institutional Sales: To an extant, the same as above...but also...sometimes the customer just needs access to the product that your firm offers, and the "salesperson" is just an insider who knows how to process the transaction. They make the process as smooth as possible, from their institutional knowledge (how to book the ticket, all the comparable securities, available inventory),

When you think about it this way, from the abstract, both retail and institutional sales are doing the same thing (being an access point to the firms inventory). If you wanted to buy a CDO (even if you know exactly what you want to buy), good luck doing that without a salesperson.

The salesperson provides -access -inventory knowledge -how to process the transaction -delivery instructions -knowledge about comparables, to help the customer make the best purchase decision based on their stated needs / desires.

For items that are commodities, then the salesperson just makes the experience easier and more fun (they will entertain the client).

Sales and I guess the Emotional Intelligence aspect as well is crucial in succeeding, be that HF Coding RE. I know a PM and he out performs his competition and bench marks with less infrastructure and resources at his disposal. His undoing is his EQ and lack of sales skills, if he could reach out and be less awkward he would probably be earning a lot more than right now. OP I can't answer your question but I've seen it first hand how important it is to sell in any form of profession.

At the end of the day, in all forms of sales (few absolutes in life but this is one of them), they have to: Know You, Like You, Trust You

Know You: Have to be comfortable dealing with you / your firm (establish credibility) Like You: They have to want to deal with you. (as opposed to other options available) Trust You: Have to have confidence in your knowledge / capabilities

Without those three, you have basically nothing. People may buy, but it wasn't your fault, and if they could do it without you, they would.

Sales is based on luck and demand, but your job is to create demand.

You NEVER sell the person who doesn't have a rebuttal. If you can get through a pitch and they agreed at every question: they're either broke and take any call OR they're idiots.

The secret is sales is being able to create value and then add even more value.

There's two ways to do that: find and exacerbate pain points and then offer a solution.

You call a prospect and the first thing you need to do is to find a decision maker, talk about a pain point (like losing customers, or not hitting goals for the year) and then deliver a solution (your product or service). And yes you'll get a rebuttal no matter how good your product is, and that's when the selling really begins.

It's not what they "want" to do, it's what they "need' to do because it's a good business decision.

What I do is a I call into a company, I get their receptionist and then I say "I need to talk to UTDFinanceGuy" and at that point they transfer you over (tons of nuance to getting past GK, but that's the gist) at which point the decision maker picks up the phone.

Hi UTDFinanceGuy, this is SalesGuy at XYZ Company. How have you been?

Great to hear, hey UTDFinanceGuy the reason I'm calling you is because I work with ABC Company and DEF Company in the metro area and I'm sure you know this but less than 2% of people who come to your website actually take the time to fill out a form or reach out. That means, and the problem is, that 98% of potential prospects are coming to your website and leaving to competitor to continue their shopping. You're in the XYZ industry, right DM? Great, so here at Company we have a piece of software that shows the business name and contact details of every single business that comes to your website, capturing that 98% of business... blah blah blah.

If I could show you 3 to 4 businesses that have been on your website, looking at what you do, shopping your services, but they didn't reach out. I'm guessing that's information you'd want to see, right DM?

If they say Yes, then you can set up a demonstration. If they say no, you ask "what do you mean DM, why wouldn't you want to see those businesses?" and then they give you a bullshit reason and you come in and say "Absolutely DM, you do business different with referrals and word of month. But if I were to refer you a company to look into where's the first place you're going to go to learn more about that company?" (their website) "Exactly, and I'm guessing you haven't used every service or visited every place you've ever been referred to right DM?" -- "And that's what we do. We show you everyone who's been referred to you (and organically found you) so that way you don't miss out on someone who's came to the website and wanted to learn more about you."

That's very specific example, but there are three parts to a sales process: Pain Point, Solution Provided, Value Added.

Of course you need to build rapport and have a process, and match your prospects with your best fits. But that's the basics of how you actually sell.

Introduce yourself, find pain points, show them a solution, add value around it, ask for the next step.

Been in Sales / Marketing for 5 years;

Starting off, 90% of the time you'll have to grind your way through inside sales which is smiling and dialing, cold emails and InMail pitches for at least the first year.

In the field, being good looking, having a personality and having a high EQ will keep you in sales for as long as you'd like to be there (especially if you're a female).

The very good ones will leverage a smooth variation of the Socratic method to find a customer's compelling reason to act, and then sell into the core compelling reason to act.

An understanding of pricing, billing, ordering and contracting is far more valuable than deep technical / domain expertise (you'll have an SME for that). The most valuable sellers know how to work the internal levers of getting deals pushed through quickly with the right terms.

Have a level of self-awareness before embarking into the industry. Are you somebody that people want to have a beer with? Amicability, wittiness, conversational intrigue, body language, the ability to connect and the ability to influence are all attributes that are honed at the highest levels.

sales is the lifeblood of any business and the finance industry is no exception. think about it;

bankers 'sell' their bank's services to clients and sometimes 'sell' companies vc's and growth pe's 'sell' capital to startups in exchange for equity every type of buyside firm must 'sell' their organization's value to LP's the list goes on...

I sell dreams. I sell freedom. My job is to make my clients happy. Most of them don’t know what they really want. They just want their problems to go away. So I came in and tell them exactly how I am going to make everything good again - for a handsome fee. In my business, I cannot account the number of time where people don’t want/dare to make hard/difficult decisions in life so much that they hire people to make one for them.

Everyone sells something. First, you gotta sell yourself.

The way I sell is:

1. NEVER EVER position yourself as a salesperson. People hate sales people

2. You have to make the buyer think that the purchase is their decision.

3. Present the facts in a light that the buyer would understand and comprehend

4. Be a "strategic advisor" and not just trying to move widgets.

5. Sell yourself as well as the product/service. They can buy from anyone, why not you?

read this book https://www.amazon.com/Influence-Psychology-Persuasion-Robert-Cialdini/…

it was the first thing we were given in my sales class, has been very helpful