Knowing how to sell anything to anyone is one of the most valuable skills you can have. Being great at selling opens up more doors of opportunity for business owners and entrepreneurs. By learning a few simple techniques that can be used in any situation, you can sell face-to-face, online, over the phone, or in an interview.

Understand Your Customer’s Needs

The most vital part of selling is to understand the needs of your customer, no matter what you are selling. How can you meet the needs of your customer? Focusing on customer service and meeting these wants and needs will allow you to more successful than a person who just focuses on the features of what is being sold.
Maybe your customer has a pain point that your product is able to solve, or the product is able to fill a desire. If you’ve determined the needs of your target customer and how your product is able to meet those needs, you can tailor your sales pitch around meeting their needs.

Know How to Sell Yourself

It’s important to keep in mind that a person must be willing to hand over their hard-earned money to you. Whether you’re cold calling or have spoken previously, the person must like you just as much as the product that you are selling.
When making a sales pitch, take the time to get to know the customer and allow them to get to know you. Make them laugh, tell them a short story, or just let your personality shine through. If the customer can see you as a person, or even as a friend, rather than a salesperson they’ll be more inclined to buy from you.

Research Your Target Customer

You need to know as much as you can about your target customer before you can understand how to meet their needs and create your sales pitch. Increasing sales often entails researching a specific customer if you need to make a major sales pitch to a high-profile person within a company. Other times it may just be researching who your target customer actually is for the product you are selling. Analyze their demographics, desires, and needs.
Knowing as much as you can about who you are selling to before you even begin your sales pitch is key if you want your pitch to be as effective as it possibly can be.

Ask Questions

Making sales is a conversation between you and the customer. The most important part of any conversation you have is the questions that you ask. By asking your customers questions and actively listening to their answers, you gain tremendous value.
Hearing your customers’ responses to your questions helps you learn more about the person you are selling to, their needs, and what they are looking for in a product. Asking questions is also effective because people just like to talk about themselves!
When you show genuine interest in your customer and give them the opportunity to talk about your product or service, they will be much more likely to enjoy the conversation, making them more likely to buy something from you.

Help, Don’t Sell

If people believe you are just selling something, they do not believe that you are helping them solve their problem. Struggling with an issue that they hope the product will solve is the primary reason that people purchase new products or services.
It is your job to be as helpful as possible.
When you are genuinely trying to be helpful, your sales pitch will be much more successful.