The First Step in Sales

What is the first step in sales? what would you say first when you are trying to sell a pen to a customer? Some people might start describing the features of this pen and how much better this pen is compared to other pens. People who watched Wolf of Wall Street would ask, “Write your name down for me” to create an awareness for the customer. This famous “sell me this Pen” example shows how important it is to understand your customers first, what their needs and awareness are, while also understanding your product, and what problems can your product solve for this customer. Therefore, to understand your customer and the solution your product can provide, a successful salesperson must begin by asking questions.

First, you need to analyze your product before you sell it to the customer and come up with different categories of reasons why people will use this product. Now you are ready to talk to your customer, begin the conversation with a general open-ended question such as “What brought you to the store today?” to identify their need. most of the time asking one question would not be enough to identify their problems, so ask another general question such as “What other product have you looked at?” to better understand what type of solution they are looking for.

After asking the general question, now it is time to ask specific, and probing questions to identify how much they need this product. questions such as “What matters to you the most when it comes to….” and questions that ask about their interests and what problem they look forward to solving in the future can identify which category of reasons this customer falls under from the pre-sales analysis you did before the conversation. If the customer does not fall under any of the categories, then simply walk away from the sales conversation.

Asking the right question is one of the most important steps in a sales process, by establishing your customer’s pain, and showing that you care about them, they will trust you as a salesperson, and establish a business relationship with you.