I am sure you know what it feels like when sales seem to happen on their own. You do not have to push your product or service at all, and the customer wants to have it as soon as possible. Your products and services are snatched off your hands without any major effort.

Then, at other times, you feel like nobody wants your product. No matter how hard you push or market, no matter how much time and energy you spend. No sales technique seems to help. Everything you say falls on deaf ears and you get frustrated. What on earth is happening?

Answer the question why

Selling basically boils down to being able to answer the customer when they ask: “Why?” Give your customer the opportunity to realise why they need your product. What problem can your product or service solve. This realisation awakens a need in the customer: the need to get the product that you are selling.

This need is borne of the customer learning something that they have not come to think of before. The customer learns something new. Think of selling as giving. You offer the customer your robust expertise so that you can help the customer realise something new and then you offer solutions.  

Forget fancy terminology

You must be able to phrase things simply enough that every listener is sure to understand what you are talking about and why. Forget fancy sounding terms and speak like a human being to another. Imagine you are selling the product to your grandparents.

When the customer understands the matter properly, selling the product becomes easier. This creates a need to hear and learn more. The realisation is the be all and end all that generates the sale. You must be able to present your message in a simple and interesting manner so that you create the need. The realisation requires understanding.

Tell a story

Weave the product or service you are selling into a story. Create a story around your product that people can relate to. Tell the customer where your product or service comes from, how it is made, who makes it and what values it represents. Tell the story of how your product or service was born. Elaborate on the story of your brand. First and foremost, tell the customer what they can achieve with the product, or what has been achieved with it. Sharing other customers’ experiences with your product is a good idea. Good customer feedback lends reliability to your product or service.

A story helps make your product or service easier to approach and understand. A good story supports the reason why the customer should buy the product. The story explains your product or service and gives it background.

Focus on emotions

Also attach the story of your product to an emotion. First give the customer an impression and then a feeling about your product. Which feeling does your product or service bring about? When you make your product attractive and enticing to the customer also on the emotional level, it increases their motivation to buy it. Focus on creating an impression for the customer that buying the product will give them that same feeling that you sell or advertise your product with.  Emotions steer decision-making while reason lags behind.

Selling is remembering and helping

First and foremost, selling is remembering. In order to remember, people need reminders. Keep your product or service in the minds of customers. Remember that you are primarily a helper and not a salesperson. You help people solve problems. When you do, people will be grateful that you helped them.  Because people have access to so much information these days, finding correct information is often troublesome and time-consuming. People are prepared to pay for not having to look for solutions themselves. You provide a solution to the customer's problem.

Instead of thinking of selling as repulsing, think of it as attracting. You are not forcing your product or service on the customer, but instead you are making it so attractive that people want to buy it. The customer is interested in what the product or service can do for them. So, focus on creating a story, appealing to emotions and, most importantly, on helping. When you do this, selling does not feel like pushing but stems from a genuine desire to help people. When selling stems from authenticity, it feels natural and effortless.