ShuBee caters to tens of thousands of clients involved in nearly as many businesses spanning across several unique industries. Despite their differences, all of our customers are somehow tied into sales. Whether it’s Joe Plumber trying to close the deal on a new installation, a franchise purchasing agent acquiring supplies for multiple locations or a wholesale distribution buyer re-upping inventory for resale – sales are at the root of the business.

For any business to keep its doors open and be profitable some form of selling has to happen, and there are three basic selling principles that are relevant in absolutely any and every selling situation:

1. Learn about what your client “does” – Some may argue that identifying a client or prospect’s “needs” is the most important information you can gather during the selling cycle. Sure, that may get you a quick sale right now, but it may not be the best solution to solve the customer’s problem. If we can take a few minutes to do some information gathering to figure out what the customer is doing right now, we may be able to offer a better solution to the problem than what the customer originally had in mind. For example, if one of our clients calls in to place a large order for our Deluxe Comfort Back Support Belts, we could ask if they routinely do a lot of heavy team lifting with oversize objects and introduce them to the Forearm Forklift. Not only does this add an extra item to the sales ticket, but it also helps us create a closer relationship with the client. They appreciate the help we offer to better solve their problem and helps us turn customers into fans. It’s important to ask questions during this part of the selling cycle, but make sure these questions are focused on what the customer is doing, not what the customer thinks he needs. Some effective information gathering questions are:

• What are you doing now to solve this problem?
• How many times have you had to address this issue?
• Why did you decide to use this method?

2. Be more concerned about their problems than they are – Once you’ve completed the first fundamental principle of selling by learning what the customer is doing or trying to accomplish, make sure they understand it’s your mission to help them achieve their goal. You want your customer to know you’ll be more disappointed if they’re not successful than they will. If you’re concerned that a client may not achieve a goal or expectation, you’re more likely to help strategize ways to ensure that your client is successful. For instance, if one of our resale customers has a goal of moving X number of cases of product during the next month, we work hard with them to help achieve that goal through marketing collateral and other internal incentives. This approach to solving the customer’s problems puts us in the position of being their ally on their project and again helps to convert customers into raving fans.

3. If all efforts to close fail, ask where you went wrong – Strategies may have changed, positions altered or the stars just didn’t line up quite to your favor. You were certain the deal was in the bag but your client backed out at the last minute. It’s a bummer. Rather than just let this prospect go on their way and you yours, find out what happened. All it takes is a quick email or phone call to ask the simple question, “What went wrong on this proposal?” This type of question will generate fast responses with excellent information. Use this information to re-evaluate your closing technique or strategize a new proposal to present to your prospect. Many times you’ll find that you didn’t do anything wrong during the selling process. The customer or company simply changed position. Use this information to suggest alternative plans or options to get around any problems that may have come up during the proposal.