Keep in mind sales, is about your customer. It is about meeting the needs of your customer that your product or service can satisfy. In order for you to fill that void of your customer you have to know more about them, what drives them emotionally to make that purchase of your product or hire your service, and that is done with a technique called, drum roll please, listening.

I know it is not a state of the art technique or tip I am sure you were expecting, but many sales people lose more sales because they just can not shut up. They continue to talk and invariably say a lot of wrong things that do not appeal to the customer, and in the end they lose the sale.

Most importantly in sales, get the customer to speak. You want to find out what they want, what they expect out of your product or service, and most importantly what are they trying to accomplish or achieve with your product. Ask questions and then sit back and listen to their answers, making many mental notes of what it exactly is they need. Most of the conversation should be spent listening to the customer speak and not the other way around. Customers did not call you or walk into your store or respond to your advertisement or marketing brochure to hear what was on your mind. They have a need and are hoping you can fill it.

Also you will want to stay up to date on the latest trends in being an effective salesperson. Lenann McGookey Gardner of New Mexico Business Journal says, "Some of those ideas are not bad, and are effective in today`s marketplace. Others are old, may be irritating to prospects, and have actually been proven not to work. If your approach to selling is based on training or a book that is more than ten years old, reevaluate it; much has changed in the last decade, including the ways in which people like to be approached. Many books on the "sales" shelf in your local bookstore are pretty and well-marketed, containing plausible-sounding suggestions for your selling activity. But check out the publication date on any book you consider heeding and, if it was published more than ten years ago, question the contents. It`s important that you regularly update your selling skills."

The key to all sales, is to get in front of or on the phone with your customers, and get them talking. The more potential customers you interact with the better chance you have of making a sale and at the same time, you will continue to fine tune those skills. Fine tuning your skills is one of the greatest assets you can work on. The better your skills are the better your business will be.

Now get out there and make some sales!

By: Bruce A. Tucker