Selling for non-salespeople

We live in a world where extroverts and big personalities are often the most admired people in the room. Leaders who are outgoing, charming, and charismatic. People we believe we should model our behaviour on, especially when it comes to business, and particularly selling.

If you’re an introvert like me, this goes against your natural personality settings. The selling process can create stress and conflict, which as an introvert, you avoid at all costs. As a business coach, I love delivering solutions to my clients and seeing improvements in their businesses and their lives. You are a builder and probably love to deliver successful projects and see the results of your physical efforts. But to get to that point you need to be able to sell yourself to a stranger. So, if you are not a natural, extroverted salesperson, what is the best way to do that?

The best way is to forget about trying to develop a strong selling personality and rely on having a strong process. In the long run, process will beat personality every time. You can then focus on improving individual parts of the process to improve your sales results, rather than thinking: “I need to get better at selling!”

So, what does a sales process look like, and is there a plug-and-play template to follow? Every business is different and the mix of projects and clients you come across requires a certain amount of customisation. Most of my clients are custom builders (new builds or renovations) so there is seldom a one-size-fits-all approach you can use. That said, there are fundamental steps in the sales process you can follow, which can be adjusted to your, and your client’s, needs. The most important stages are the early ones. This is where you either focus on building trust and rapport with people through education and asking good questions or qualify them out of your process if they are not a good fit. A typical sales process looks something like this: By putting more time and energy into the early stages of your sales process, you’re likely to save yourself more work and pressure down the track when you need to put together the price proposal and contract.

Most of the education material and questions used in the trust building stages can be applied to all future sales opportunities, so take time to develop it well so you only need to refine it after each use. Material is available from NZCB, MBIE, and other organisations that you can use as a baseline for your education steps. Beyond these sources, you’re best to cast your mind back to previous situations where prospective clients asked certain questions about the build process. These questions come up often, so develop useful FAQs to address them and put your company in a good light.

One final tip is to use stories in your sales process. The human mind is hard-wired to engage with stories and will often find them more believable than facts and opinions. If you want to make a point about what sets your business apart from other builders, or why certain steps are necessary, tell a story from a previous build to illustrate your point. Document these stories so you can use them in future prospect discussions.

By putting more time and energy into the early stages of your sales process, you’re likely to save yourself more work and pressure down the track when you need to put together the price proposal and contract.

Need help to develop a sales process for your business? Email me at andy@tradescoach.co.nz and we can make a time to discuss your needs.

Andy Burrows, Director of The Trades Coach and NZCB National Partner. I encourage you to take advantage of a free business strategy review session to see how we can improve your business performance. Call Andy today on 027 688 6721 or email andy@tradescoach.co.nz.