Selling Effectively - Explained in Effective Pitch Making

In all the scenarios that we have covered so far, you were expected to directly or indirectly sell something, be it yourself (job interview), a decision (compensation discussion), criticism (feedback) or your idea (start-up). 

Successful salespersons are extremely good at persuading their customers. Such persuasive communication skills are a higher objective of communication. You can be persuasive only if you are effective at communication.

So, are there any secrets to being an effective salesperson? In the next video, let’s hear from David as he explains this in detail.

As David explained in this video, how you sell depends heavily on what you sell. For a distinguished and niche product such as the Bloomberg Terminal, you can afford to possess the institutional arrogance across the table. However, for a heavily commoditised product, you probably cannot possess it as much. In fact, the more commoditised a product is, the more effective the salesperson needs to be. The essence is to understand who has the bargaining power in the transaction - you or the buyer.

Let’s watch the next video and delve deeper into sales conversations and understand how you can sell effectively.

Listed below are some guidelines, mentioned by David, which will help you sell effectively:

1. Be your own best self. You can sell effectively only when you are your natural self.
2. Be empathetic and compassionate towards your customers or potential customers.
3. Be humble, curious and conscious of your and the other person’s time.
4. Honesty is an essential trait for an effective salesperson.

There is a fine line between being persistent and being pestering. It is important to know when to be silent as well as to be comfortable with silence. In essence, all these guidelines are underpinned by our version of the rhetorical triangle, with empathy, compassion and efficient delivery as the three elements.