Taking the ‘Sales’ out of Selling

Steve Jensen explains that the sales process is about helping people make good decisions

Have you ever come across a perception that ‘selling’ is a ‘dirty word’ or ever heard someone say “you can’t trust a salesperson”?

If that’s the case, what if we changed the way we think and speak about sales? Instead, wouldn’t it be great to be ‘a professional communicator who helps people make good decisions’? The true art of communication has been lost, and the truth is, when we focus on just making a sale we won’t achieve the level of success that all businesses need to thrive in the long-term.

Here at Impact Training Corporation, we have a saying “more sales fixes most things in business”.

So, let’s explore a different paradigm that may shift any oldschool negative mindset.

If you were asked: ‘do you like having help from an expert when you have questions and want to buy or purchase something?’, most people would say ‘yes, of course’.

The feedback that I have consistently received over my many years of training people to excel in sales and communication, has been that the skills learned have had a life-changing impact on both their business and personal lives. And we always love hearing about how they use their newfound skills to improve communication with their family, friends, work colleagues and in their daily life as well.

This is because selling really is just helping people make good decisions. It’s a constant ‘win-win’. So, try shifting your mindset from a ‘selling mindset’ to a ‘helping mindset’. How does that feel? Among most people, this tends to resonate positively.

One of the first steps to master in order to become an effective communicator is what we call ‘ALFing’. ALF stands for: Ask good questions, Listen to the answers (be genuinely interested), and Formulate a quality conversation, and is used to help someone to make a good decision. When you understand how to ALF, you’ll be able to make more sales, without ever feeling like you’re ‘selling’ in the traditional sense of the word.

Being able to help someone is an important life skill; and it’s natural that you’d feel excited about doing so. When there is a clear process and proven tools to help people make good decisions, then it can be learned and practised. And learning by doing is how you can ultimately excel - which then attracts the success that people dream of! These skills are a combination of soft and hard skills that, when mastered, will increase your sales and help you become a better communicator.

To level up your communication skills so you can help more people make good decisions, here are 14 tips and skills you need to learn: 1.Have a product a service you are proud to represent. 2.Understand how people make decisions using their ‘red and green brain’ (a marketing tactic draws on an emotional connection to engage the buyer - the red brain is logical while the green brain is the emotional side that marketers want to reach).