To be successful in selling requires you to learn and use basic sales techniques. Products don’t sell themselves, salespeople do. These sales techniques don’t come via your DNA, they come from continuous learning and years of experience.

But if you learn the right skills and techniques and take the time to practice them regularly, you can sell anything.

Selling, like art, is all about perception. When you show the value of your product you won’t have to defend its price. Don’t start selling until you have uncovered a problem that your product can offer a solution for.

Here are some basic sales techniques you can use to sell just about everything. These techniques, however, require you to be passionate about the products you’re selling.

Buyers buy products not because they are excited, they buy products because the sales person is excited.

No sales technique will work if you are not committed to the products you’re selling. Your sales prospects and customers can tell when you are not genuinely enthusiastic about the products you’re selling.

Bottom line – if you can’t get excited and passionate about your products, please don’t expect your customers to get excited – it just won’t happen.

Another basic sales technique you should adopt is to always use the words “You” and “Your” when discussing your products. You can’t use these words too often.

Doing this ties your products to your customers, so that they can picture themselves owning your products. If you use words like “I” or “he/she” you don’t create the same effect.

In a sense you’re transferring ownership when you say “You” and “Your” when you’re talking to sales prospects and customers about your products.

Another good basic sales technique is to let the sales prospect handle the product. For example, if you’re selling computers, invite your prospect to use the computer so you can demonstrate the key features and benefits.

If you’re selling cars, ask your sales prospect to take it for a test drive.

If you’re selling Cessna Citation Jets, invite your sales prospect to sit up front with the pilot for a test flight.

Another fundamental sales technique is to ask really good open-ended sales questions to uncover problems that your products can solve. This is what selling is all about. It’s not about selling, it’s about helping someone to make the right buying decisions.

Selling isn’t about convincing and persuading – it’s about understanding what your sales prospect needs and wants and helping him to get it. And for Pete’s sake don’t talk too much. The more you talk during a sales call the more you run the risk of sounding “Pathetic.”

Another sales technique involves being well informed about your customers, your competition and even your own company and the products you sell.

Now, how in the world can you do this without committing to a 24/7 work schedule? Google makes this real easy for you. Go here to check this invaluable sales tool out for yourself. http://www.google.com/alerts

When you get to this page enter the names of your biggest sales prospects, customers, and competitors. Anytime anything at all is written about them – you’ll get an e-mail with a link to the article.

It’s simply a great way to become well informed on the things that matter most to you.

Finally, always have a positive attitude. Remove the words “Can’t” and “Impossible” from your dictionary. And if you don’t own a dictionary go buy one fast. The ultimate resource for salespeople is words. How can you not own a dictionary?

Not all of your customers are going to buy your products. That’s life. But every sales prospect has the potential to become a future customer – so be careful not to burn any bridges with a poor attitude.

Remember – in sales you get what you expect so always expect the best outcomes on all sales calls.

By: Jim Meisenheimer