According to a Hubspot study, Buyers Speak Out: How Sales Needs to Evolve, the first word that participants thought of when asked to connect one with salespeople was pushy.
Not exactly a positive adjective, right?
Now, selling a product or service is certainly one of the most difficult jobs out there. Brands develop business promotion strategies, but they often fail to warn their salespeople to avoid being forceful.
You see, persistence and pushiness are different things—still, there are times when the line between them becomes blurry.
While persistence is an important essence of sales as following up at least five times (or even more!) to secure a customer is necessary, but when you get pushy, you can be certain that your chances of landing a sale will be very low.
The catch here is to be as subtle as possible without losing effectiveness.
In this article, we will discuss the do’s and don’ts of unobtrusive selling, and improving it on the whole.
What You Should Do When Selling a Product or Service
Avoiding declarative words and phrases
Phrases and words like “have to”, “need to”, and “should“ needs to be eliminated from your vocabulary when you’re selling.
You might think that using declarative words can help make your speech sound similar to giving advice or sharing useful suggestions. However, in reality, your customer can consider it condescending and forceful.
Instead, you should be more tactful with your approach. For example, you can use phrases like, “Businesses like yours have found success by using…“
Swapping statements with questions
This is one of the most common errors made by even seasoned salespeople.
Most of the time, we end up thinking it would be okay to make a few assumptions about our prospect’s company. After all, how else are we supposed to sound like we know what we’re doing?
Let’s face it: you can never really know the specifics of your prospects’ businesses. So, it would be better for you to ask them questions as opposed to making calculated guesswork.
Instead of sentences like “I‘m sure you must be facing problem X,” use something around the lines of “According to my experience, companies in your niche often face problem X.”
Keep the calls short
We know: it can be quite tempting to continue the conversation once your prospect picks up your phone. But, if you don’t let them off within 10 to 15 minutes, they will consider this as being pushy.
If you have something that you’d want to explain to the prospect, ask them to schedule another call and warn them about the longer duration beforehand.
Choosing the right time to say bye
This is perhaps the most important part of selling – knowing when to let go.
It’s a natural tendency to try a little harder to achieve our goals. Still, there will be times where you won’t be able to seal every deal. Hence, when it becomes apparent that the prospect isn’t interested in what you have to offer, let them go.
Also, it would be better for you to refocus your energy on potential customers where you would have a better chance of closing.
Learning to take no for an answer is crucial to prevent yourself from sounding too pushy.
Things that You Shouldn’t Do When Selling a Product/Service
Packing on the pressure
Finding and retaining clients can push constant pressure on every business owner. After all, they are your primary source of income.
As a result of this, we often feel pressured to get every prospect to purchase your product or service. We don’t try to know our customers and straight away get to the sales pitch. This is exactly what might make your sales methods come off as aggressive.
To overcome this problem, You need to work on changing your mindset. Don’t view every opportunity as an absolute event that you must sell.
Giving your prospect little to no response time
Firstly, don’t get too enthusiastic and start speaking at a speed that makes you difficult to understand.
Always speak slowly and give your prospect time to respond so that actual communication takes place. Further, when you speak less, you usually tend to get more information as well.
Mentioning all the new products and services
This is where the subtlety comes to play.
If you want to make your prospects aware of new product lines of services that would be useful for them, try to come up with a story that has a connection with what your customer is currently buying from you. This will ensure that you don’t come off as somebody who is only interested in boosting sales.
Use important niche-specific keywords that can connect to your products such as business strategies, networking ideas, customer acquisition, and so on.
Not aligning your CTAs with your prospect’s current state
Including a call to action is an integral part of every sales methodology. But, to prevent a forceful approach, you need to align these with the current stage your prospect is in.
For example, you might have realized the pain points of your prospect, and exactly how your products can help to solve those problems.
Now, if your next step involves showing them how your product can benefit them, we have to stop you right there.
You should first focus on educating the prospect about their pain points and then creating a solution that includes your product.
Takeaway Thoughts
Using the above-mentioned tips, you’ll be able to boost your sales without coming off as being too pushy. In fact, on the contrary, you’ll close more deals with your changed mindset and improved approach.
