7 Powerful Tips to become a Sales SUPERSTAR!

Heads-up - 2000+ words blog (read time of more than 5 minutes) but my promise to you - it will be worth the read and your time :)

Hello and Welcome!

My name is Vigneswari Abraham, friends and well-wishers call me VA. I am an Abundance Frequency “Energy” Coach and creator of Money Breakthrough In 28 Days™ program.

Recently a participant (a life coach) of my program Money Breakthrough In 28 Days™ told me, “VA, I cannot promote myself. It is boasting. I feel if I am good, people will come to me.”

First of all, here’s my viewpoint about selling.

Everyone is a salesperson.

You are either an entrepreneur or working professional selling service, products, ideas, concepts, etc.,

or you can be a parent/grandparent selling your thoughts and beliefs to your children/grandchildren

…and you want your prospects to BUY what you sell, isn’t it?

Are you an entrepreneur or a working professional who has awesome products and service?

Will people get benefited from your products or service?

It is your DUTY to sell.

I have heard my guru Mahatria Ra say,

"If a good doctor doesn’t do his job,

a bad doctor will."

You can have the world’s best products/service…

...BUT if you don’t do your job of selling (the value and benefits) of your products/service, someone else will. Period.

And if that someone is a bad doctor, you are doing a disservice to your patients.

It is not only your DUTY to sell…it is your RESPONSIBILITY to CLOSE THE SALE.

If you don’t CLOSE THE SALE, someone else will (and that someone can be a bad doctor!)

Let me share my experience that happened a few days back while shopping for furniture and my 7 most important take-aways on “how to sell and, most importantly, how to close the sale.”

Here’s my experience…

I am shifting my workspace and wanted a wooden work table. I have been following a particular brand (X) online for the past year for a shoe rack, and I checked out their website for work table and narrowed down on a particular table.

The brand (based out of Rajasthan) happens to have an experience store in Chennai, and the store was just 10 minutes away from my home. So me and my husband Abraham went to the store to check it out.

As soon as we entered the store, the salesperson said, “Sir, this is JUST an experience store. It is for you to touch and feel the quality of the wood. You can make the purchase online. Also, it will take 5-7 weeks for the product to be delivered, given this pandemic it can take more than 7 weeks.”

After saying this, he left us on our own.

After spending a few minutes checking out other products, when we stepped out we saw a board of another furniture store (Y) on the floor above.

My husband said, “Come, let’s see what they have got.”

This furniture store (Y) made customized furniture. When we asked about work table, they showed the pictures of the exact same brand (X) with the name of the brand X in all the pictures (!) which we just checked out, and said, “We will customize it based on your needs, also it will not be Sheesham wood, it will be teak.”

When we asked about the delivery time, the salesperson said, “Within two weeks.”

Though I felt it was unethical, I was in need! I wanted my work table NOW!

After mentioning our customization, the final pricing came to Rs. 18,000 for teak wood to be delivered in 2 weeks (compared to Sheesham wood for Rs. 16,000 to be delivered after 7 weeks).

Which one would you go for?

We said, “Fine, we will take it. How much should we pay now? What is the mode of payment?”

The salesperson said, “50% now, 50% on delivery. Cash or online transfer. If you use swiping machine, 2.5% charges extra.”

I said, “We will do online transfer of Rs. 9000 after reaching home. Give me your account details.”

After giving me the account details, the salesperson said, “Can you please pay Rs. 500 or Rs. 1000 now so that I can prepare the order form and place the order today. You can transfer the remaining when you go home.”

I knew where she was coming from. Though we had the money, I said, “We don’t have cash. We will transfer it online. You can prepare the form after that.”

The salesperson insisted about the order form again but gave up when we didn't budge in.

After thanking her, we came out and noticed there was another bigger and larger furniture store in the next building!

This time, I said, “Let’s check it out.”

My husband said, “You have already told the salesperson you are going to make the payment. You have already decided what you want.”

I replied, “Buddy, nothing is final until the payment is made (!!!)”

The third store “Z”, a branded one, had quite a lot of collections. They had wonderful Malaysian collections on display and the pricing was good too.

Though I was very particular about wood, I was tempted seeing the designs and pricing.

We spent some time looking around.

If the salesperson had taken interest in showing (the value or benefits) of the furniture, I would have gone for it…

…but all he did was stand next to us and answer whatever we asked him.

With no air conditioner given this pandemic, after some time, I lost interest and told my husband, “Come, let’s go home. We will transfer 9K online today.”

After reaching home, I recalled the entire experience. I was a customer (who had not just desire and want but the need and the money) and I was READY to buy. I visited three shops and made the decision to purchase from one shop. WHY?

I knew understanding THE WHY will help me because:

1) I have awesome products/service.

2) It is my DUTY to sell…and, more importantly, it is my RESPONSIBILITY to CLOSE THE SALE.

So, here are my 7 most important take-aways from my experience and 7 Powerful Tips for you to become a Sales SUPERSTAR!

Lesson 1: The importance of online presence

Store X’s manufacturing unit is in Rajasthan, and I live in Chennai.

I have been checking out their site for more than a year now. When my desire became a need, I was ready to buy.

Previously when I took a survey in my business, I was surprised to find out that a lot of my participants/clients have been following me on Facebook, YouTube and my website www.vigneswariabraham.com for more than a year before they made the purchase.

Your customers/clients are Googling for a solution to their desires/wants/needs. Are you coming up on their search?

Lesson 2: Put your products/service out there

Store X had put their designs online (visual impact) and had a nameplate of the brand on every picture. Still, it is not stopping others from copying or stealing their designs.

In my case, I found out that a blog I had written and shared by mail to those who attended my webinars was converted into a video by a trainer (with the exact same headline in English, and each and every word of the blog in the exact same order translated into Hindi).

What did I do about it?

First of all, I was surprised at how someone would go to the extent of replicating each and every word, not even taking the time or effort to modify and make it their own.

Then, I said “God bless you” and removed the name of the person from my mailing list. I just wanted to let the person know, if you want to steal my content word for word, at least take the effort to come to my website :)

If you are a brand, people are going to copy, duplicate, replicate, steal your designs, ideas, concepts, etc.

A few years back, when I launched my trademark program Income Breakthrough In 90 Days™, a trainer from my same networking group had the name of the program printed on his business card in spite of me having trademarked the name!

If something about your brand needs to be protected, go ahead and trademark it so that you don’t end up building a brand around it and someone else does the trademark and you can no more use it!

The rest…accept (that people are going to copy, steal, make it their own), bless and let go.

Lesson 3: Create impact before the conversation/sale

You can create impact in three ways – Visual, Auditory & Kinaesthetic.

Store X’s designs had visual impact on me. Videos can create visual, auditory and kinaesthetic impact.

Last week I had a free webinar with 20 attendees and 3 people signed up for my Money Breakthrough In 28 Days™ program.

Yesterday I had a free webinar with 69 attendees and 3 people signed up for the program!

What made all the difference in conversion rate?

In the previous webinar, people signed up for the free webinar on my website. They had already seen my pictures, watched my videos, read and watched the testimonials of my clients, and then came to the webinar.

They had already bought (the value and benefits) even before I sold (the product/service).

Yesterday’s webinar, people came through Facebook/Instagram ad. Though the value addition happened before the sale, the conversion could have been better if I had created the impact (visual, audio and kinaesthetic) before they attended the webinar.

How about you?

Are you asking a girl/boy to marry you on the first date? Yeah, it works too…rarely!

In what ways can you create visual, auditory and kinaesthetic impact before the conversation? In what ways can you add value before the sale?

Lesson 4: Be a good salesperson/team or go home!

Your customers/clients are coming to you because they have desires, wants and needs.

1) Some will purchase from you even if you don’t sell.

2) Some will never purchase from you even if you pay them!

3) The rest needs to be sold to.

The funny thing is a lot of times people waste their time, energy, money and effort focusing on the second category.

Apple iPhone can be a wonderful product, but let's understand that not everyone is going to purchase it.

Stop focusing on the second category. Start focusing on the third category.

This is the category who has strong desires, wants and needs. Either they do not know the value and benefits of your service/products or they know (like referrals) but want reiteration or want to know more.

To the third category, do not sell your products/service. Sell the value, benefits and uniqueness of your service/products.

Store X and Z had wonderful products but pathetic sales team who just didn’t bother to explain the value and benefits of the products.

If you or your sales team is not selling, someone else will (and remember that someone can be a bad doctor).

It is your DUTY to sell (even if your customers/clients know the value).

I know the value of a diamond but I don’t go around buying it unless I want it badly or I am sold to.

Lesson 5: Close the Sale

If the salesperson in X store had taken time to show the products online and asked us to make the payment then and there, we would have done so…

…BUT he didn’t!

He said, “This is just an experience store. You can purchase it online” and left us on our own.

Whereas, the salesperson of Y store asked us to make a down payment of just Rs. 500 for a product of Rs. 18,000 because she knew if we do not commit (by paying Rs. 500) the moment we walked out of the store, the probability of us making the purchase was minimal to nil.

(Remember, we walked out of “Y” store and went to “Z” store and I was tempted to buy fabricated wood though I wanted teak wood!)

This is exactly why you are losing your customers/clients. You are not closing the sale.

If they don’t give you their money NOW, you have LOST THE SALE. Period.

Money = Commitment

What can you do to close the sale? Come up with ideas and implement it.

Remember, it is not only your duty to sell. It is your RESPONSIBILITY to CLOSE THE SALE (or the patient is going to walk out the door and end up in the hands of a bad doctor!)

Lesson 6: Instant gratification

Store X’s delivery time was 7+ weeks. Store Y’s delivery time was less than 2 weeks.

I love filter coffee. Though filter coffee is the best, we live in a world of instant coffee!

Your customers/clients come to you because they wanted the solutions YESTERDAY, not today!

Having understood this concept a few months back, I implemented it by providing INSTANT ACCESS to download the recording of Sessions 1 and 2 of the Money Breakthrough In 28 Days™ program and a bonus module of Environmental Luck Activation so that people can get started “instantly” and start creating massive success and breakthroughs “right away” and join me in the LIVE sessions whenever it started.

The result?

Awesome!

People started enrolling for the program a month before the actual start of the LIVE sessions (which has never happened before).

Another gratification people get from joining my program immediately is, they can save Rs. X if they make the payment within X time.

How can you implement this in your business or work? How can people experience gratification or instant gratification?

WHY should they make the purchase NOW/TODAY/IMMEDIATELY? What is the “instant or extra” benefit by purchasing NOW?

Lesson 7: Deliver teak wood

If I can get teak wood instead of Sheesham for a slightly higher pricing, I opted for teak wood and was willing to pay for it.

Are you delivering fabricated, Sheesham or teak wood?

Let’s understand there is a buyer for every wood.

Make your products/service so good and deliver it better than your promised time/value, people are willing to pay that extra price.

So, those were my 7 most important take-aways.

Unimplemented knowledge is burden, isn’t it?

That was quite a long blog, but if you have read thus far, it simply means you have awesome products/service and you want people to benefit from it.

Which one of the above lessons is your biggest take-away? Let me know in the comments below.