The Best Way To Learn Sales

If you’re reading this then you realize that sales skills are an integral part of being a business owner.

There is no way around it, in fact, you’re selling all the time whether you realize it or not.

If you’re trying to convince your friends to see the movie you want, that’s sales.

Let’s get into the best way to learn sales.

What Most People Consider “Sales”

The other day I walked into a bicycle shop near my home. I asked the lady at the counter a few questions about the bikes. She then took me through what I assume is her ‘sales process”. All she did was take me to each bike and tell me the price.. She did this for each one and then gave me a small discount in case I decided to come back. That was it. 

First off, that wasn’t sales and it’s the reason why she probably gets paid $10 an hour or less compared to a $100+ per hour salesman who knows what they’re doing.

To learn sales is the difference between being poor/forced to take a job and being financially free and master of your life’s direction.

Do Your Homework

When you first get started, you need to figure out what exactly is happening in your prospects lives/businesses. What problems do they need solved? What service do they need but they can’t do? This is the first yet crucial step in getting good at sales. Without it, you’ll speak to the wrong people and provide a service that isn’t desperately needed. I highly recommend you do not skip this step. You’ll end up wasting a lot of time working in the wrong direction if you don’t do proper research first. 

Another point, the lady in the bike shop didn’t ask me any questions. She assumed that I knew everything I needed to know about bikes. 

Asking questions allows you to discover exactly what objections you’re prospects have to buying from you. Maybe they’re unsure about you as a freelancer, which means you’ll provide more proof that you do good work. Or they’re unsure about the price. Then you’ll show them how much money they can make from your service which easily covers your cost. 

And you’ll understand how and when to ask questions when you…

Learn Sales with a Proven Process

Once you’ve figured out exactly who needs what service, it’s time to learn a process that will allow you to speak to a client on the phone and have them pay you for your service. Without this, it will not matter if you have the right service and are talking to the right people. That’s because sales is a skill of influencing people emotionally. It’s about positioning yourself as a credible authority who can get the job done well. Even if you provide a fantastic service and you’re the best at it… It will not matter if you cannot lead and close clients on a sales call. 

Don’t go in blind. If you have no idea what you’re doing, you will waste a lot of good leads and potential clients. Make sure you have a solid “map” of what needs to be done on a call. This will ensure you ask the right questions, elicit the right emotions, develop credibility all in the right order. Make sure you’ve done this before you go to the next step which is… 

Develop a Lead Pipeline for Sales Calls

Now, the only way you’re going to have enough potential clients to practice and learn sales from is with lead generation. You need to constantly be looking for new potential clients. For people new to business and sales, upwork is a great place to do this. Within two to four weeks you can have 5-10 sales calls on your calendar.

Upwork isn’t the only place but what’s important is that you constantly have new sales calls being scheduled so that you can practice. Practice, practice and then once you think you’ve got it, practice some more. Only through repetition will it become second nature for you to ask the right things, at the right time with the right non-nervous tone of voice.

And you can’t practice without a steady stream of potential clients.

The KEY: Deliberate Practice

Deliberate practice is the mother of skill. Just doing sales calls isn’t enough! Practice, refine and improve each part of your sales process.Practice again and again handling your potential clients objections (and create scripts for each objection you encounter). Then practice presenting your proof, your case studies of a job well done and past testimonials from ecstatic and happy clients. And practice presenting your “offer” and how much they’ll benefit from working with you. 

Monitor how many more clients you convert. Does your “close” percentage improve? Figure out which part of your sales process you’re weak in and fix it. As you pay attention and see your skills and income improve. 

Finally…

Remember That You’re The Expert

Remember, whenever you get on a call… You are the expert. The client needs your skills whether it’s because they can’t do it or they don’t want to do it. If you want to be paid well, then you must position yourself as an expert in your market. No way around this. Everyone else gets paid on how cheap they can do it but that’s no way to get rich. 

Experts get paid well because they provide value, generally in the form of increased revenue and that’s how they sell themselves.

They don’t offer discounts, they don’t have sales and people are happy to pay because they know whatever the cost, they’ll get back 10X or more in value from that expert.

Be the expert, not the employee.

Sell the value you provide and clients won’t mind paying you a princely sum when they’re making a whole lot more!

This the best way to learn sales.

Good luck out there.

-Aleksander Vitkin

Aleksander Vitkin

Aleksander Vitkin has helped over 700 people with a sincere interest in entrepreneurship and contribution, to start profitable businesses and quit their jobs.

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