How to Nail Sales: Learn from Bobby Singh

“Sales is about building relationships. People do like buying from people that they like, that they trust and that are most like them.” 

Regardless of the size of your team, how long you’ve been running or which sector you work within, sales is a major part of business success. Whether you’re selling a product to a customer, a service to another business or selling yourself to your stakeholders, the same techniques and processes apply. 

Of course, the gift of the gab doesn’t come easily to us all. Luckily, we’ve got some advice from our Business Scale provider, salesperson extraordinaire and owner of BSA Training, Bobby Singh, to get his insight into becoming a great salesperson. 

Build & Maintain Relationships  

“I used to work in retail – we had a shop. About 100 yards one way, there was another shop, and 100 yards the other way, there was another shop. We all sold the same tin of beans for the same price. But I like to think that people came and bought their tin of beans from us because of, well, us. We were the difference that made the difference. It was about building that rapport, building that relationship. It was about making people feel welcome and important. 

In the world of sales, there has been a shift from being an ‘order-taker’ in a transactional relationship towards more consultative selling. It’s now about transformational, long-term relationships, intelligent questions, active listening, creative problem-solving and matching your solution to your customer’s needs. 

Archetype, ‘smarmy’ salespeople – the stereotypical Del Boys – can make people feel uncomfortable or like they’re being hoodwinked. So, we need to make this potentially uncomfortable process more comfortable. If you can do that, your customers not only come back to you, but they start acting as your advocates. They tell other people about the good job you did, your products and your services, and in effect, you’ve got this marketing department promoting what you do.” 

Become a Guide 

“Your job as a salesperson is to guide your customer through the sales process in the right order. When you approach your customer, you’ll have to do some fact-finding to discover more about their wants and needs (more on this later) and then offer your solution in a persuasive way. You may have to handle objections/concerns before the final offer and close of the sale. But then the final stage is post-sale activity. What happens afterwards? How do you make sure the customer has gone away happy and will come back to you or recommend you? You need to continue to guide your customer to make sure they’re happy and that the sale has met their wants and needs. 

There’s a logical flow to this process, and you have to take them through the journey. People are generally resistant to change, but taking them through each step and asking them the right questions at the right time can reduce this apathy. If you do it right, you can help the customer come to a conclusion about what they need themselves. It’s a bit cheesy, but the saying goes, ‘If the salesperson says it, it’s sold. If the customer says it, it’s gold.’ If you can get the customer themselves to talk about your product or service and how it could help them, that’s far more powerful.” 

Know Your Customer 

“The art of persuasion is obviously really important in all types of selling, but you have to remember that we’re all persuaded by something different. Aristotle said that motivations can be categorised into logos, pathos and ethos. People motivated by logos are interested in logic, cause and effect, data, numbers, that sort of thing. Those motivated by pathos, in contrast, are influenced by their emotions. Finally, people motivated by ethos are most concerned with the credibility of the person standing in front of them – do they know their stuff? Are they knowledgeable? So, when you’re approaching a sale, you need to do the work – the factfinding – to figure out what factors and approaches will be best suited to your customer’s needs. Ask intelligent questions and really listen to the answers.” 

Know Yourself 

“Selling can be a difficult game. You’re going to get lots of heartbreak, kicks and knockbacks, so you have to develop the resilience to keep going. You’ve got to learn how to master yourself, regulate yourself. That’s how you learn to pick yourself up, dust yourself off and give it another go. I read somewhere recently that 95% of salespeople give up after the fourth call to a customer, yet 60% of sales are made on the fifth. It might not be a yes today, but it could be a yes tomorrow. So keep on keeping on. If you can command yourself, you can command the world.” 

Thanks so much to Bobby for the excellent advice. You can hear more of his fantastic insights in the upcoming sixth episode of the Scale Up! podcast. 

If you’d like to find out how to increase your own sales, don’t hesitate to get in touch. You could be eligible for funding towards consultancy support from BSA Training through the Business Scale Up Programme. Book a free consultation to find out more.