Small business owners face a lot of pressure to deliver products and services that are on par with or better than their competition. But sometimes, even the best products and services are difficult to sell. Often, an improvement in communication skills can help.
Here are four principles to keep in mind when you are communicating with your clients or potential clients to help you close more business:
1) Know Your Audience
Knowing your target is arguably the most important step towards effective communication. You have to be able to relate to your audience on their level. This doesn’t necessarily mean “talking down” to them, but expressing your ideas in terms that they care about. Make sure you are honing your message for the right target market. If you need help figuring out who your target market is, check out “Determining Your Target Market.”
2) WIIFM?
WIIFM is a popular sales acronym that stands for “What’s In It For Me?” In other words, your audience doesn’t really care about what services or products you have to offer; what they really care about is how you can improve their lives. When you’re communicating, always be mindful that your focus is on them, and not on you.
3) Help, Don’t Sell.
Do you ever get that icky feeling when it’s time to close a sale and you have to get up and toot your own horn? No one wants to sit through a hard sales pitch, so why would you want to give one? The way to work around this is to sincerely try and help your audience. Remember, it’s not about what you know but how you can help them. If you’re helping them, you won’t feel like a greasy door-to-door vacuum salesperson and they will appreciate your time and wisdom. And if it’s a good fit, you will likely close the sale!
4) Listen.
Listen hard. Let them do most of the talking. Dig. Find out what their problems are and come up with solutions. Sometimes they don’t even realize where their real problems and deficiencies lie, which is where your experience and expertise comes in. It’s almost like being a therapist sometimes, except within the realm of your profession.
Closing clients and increasing your sales is reason enough to work on your communication skills, but helping others and using your knowledge, skills and expertise to have positive impact in the universe is priceless!
Need a hand with your business’ brand? Call Kim Speed at Purple Moon Creative today!
