{"id":196949,"date":"2020-03-10T07:46:09","date_gmt":"2020-03-10T14:46:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nationalfunding.com\/blog\/?p=196949"},"modified":"2023-11-01T10:35:23","modified_gmt":"2023-11-01T17:35:23","slug":"salesperson-skills","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nationalfunding.com\/blog\/salesperson-skills\/","title":{"rendered":"4 Salesperson Skills Every Small Business Owner Should Know"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"\">You probably started your business because you&#8217;re good at a craft or trade. Or maybe you&#8217;ve always wanted to have a retail store or restaurant. But running a small business involves more than just being good at your craft or being an effective leader. It&#8217;s also about selling \u2014 and learning the salesperson skills that will make you a better business owner.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Even if the qualities of a good salesperson don&#8217;t come naturally to you, you can follow a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nationalfunding.com\/blog\/build-sales-pipeline\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">basic sales <\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nationalfunding.com\/blog\/build-sales-pipeline\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">process<\/a> to learn the sales techniques you need to succeed as a small business owner. We&#8217;ve highlighted four of the most important techniques for you to get started.<\/p>\n<h2>1. Understand Your Customer&#8217;s Needs<\/h2>\n<p>First, you must understand what your customer is looking for and the pain points they want to solve. Customers will know you&#8217;re invested in helping them if you:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Pay attention to their responses and show that you&#8217;re genuinely interested in what&#8217;s going on in their world.<\/li>\n<li>Listen more than you talk, recognize their concerns, and understand their viewpoints.<\/li>\n<li>Wait to rattle off a list of your products or services until you determined what the benefits would be to the customer.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Learning about your customer is one of the most important parts of the sales pitch, according to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.inc.com\/vanessa-merit-nornberg\/forgotten-techniques-that-really-do-close-sales.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Inc<\/a>. Once you understand what&#8217;s important to them, you can identify their needs and begin to find ways that your business can solve their problems.<\/p>\n<h2>2. Know Your Unique Selling Proposition<\/h2>\n<p>To convince people your business is the right choice, you have to identify your unique selling proposition (USP). What is it that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nationalfunding.com\/blog\/retail-market-competition\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">separates you from the competition<\/a>? Is your product better? Faster? Easier?<\/p>\n<p>Your USP must be a compelling reason that a customer should buy from your business. It should identify the benefits the customer would gain from working with you rather than your competitor.<\/p>\n<p>Put yourself in the client&#8217;s shoes, and show that you understand their position and how they feel. Then use your USP as the cornerstone of your sales pitch to offer a solution.<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone\" title=\"Contractor talks with client on a job site \" src=\"https:\/\/www.nationalfunding.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/clientandcontractordiscu_774528.jpg\" alt=\"Contractor uses salesperson skills to sell client new house\" width=\"500\" height=\"334\" \/><\/p>\n<h2>3. Anticipate a Customer&#8217;s Objections<\/h2>\n<p>In every sales situation, you&#8217;ll have to deal with objections. Don&#8217;t be dismissive when a customer disagrees with you, and don&#8217;t get caught flat-footed, unable to answer their concerns. You need to think about the possible doubts customers could have and prepare your responses in advance.<\/p>\n<p>You&#8217;ll find that several objections will come up consistently. When you develop logical and complete answers to each one, you&#8217;ll come across as competent and confident. Customers will trust you.<\/p>\n<p>The best sales professionals have developed their own clear answers to all possible objections, so when they come up, they can be put to rest at once.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"\">4. Patiently Build a Relationship<\/h2>\n<p>You should focus on establishing credibility and creating a rapport with each prospect. The details of the sale will take care of themselves when a buyer and seller have a degree of mutual trust.<\/p>\n<p>Building trust takes time and patience. The customer should feel that you have their best interests at heart and aren&#8217;t just trying to make a sale. Also, give your customers some breathing room. Let them process information at their own pace and come to their own decision. It takes a lot of time and money to acquire a customer, but building a relationship based on trust will increase your profits over the long term.<\/p>\n<p>If you follow these four tenets of the sales process, you&#8217;ll embody the qualities of a good salesperson. These salesperson skills will help you become a better small business owner and pave the way toward long-term profits.<\/p>\n<p><em>CTA: We&#8217;re proud of you for boosting your sales skills! But you don&#8217;t have to rest solely on your profits to reach healthy cash flow. A <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nationalfunding.com\/small-business-loans\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">small business loan<\/a> can help ease some of that pressure.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Improving your salesperson skills could make you a better business owner. Try out these four techniques during your next sale.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":196947,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[100,90],"class_list":["post-196949","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-planning-for-growth","tag-retail","tag-small-business-resources"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>4 Salesperson Skills Every Small Business Owner Should Know<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Improving your salesperson skills could make you a better business owner. 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Try out these four techniques during your next sale.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.nationalfunding.com\/blog\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196949\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Bottom Line by National Funding\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/national.funding\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-03-10T14:46:09+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-11-01T17:35:23+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/live-nationalfunding.pantheonsite.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/peoplegardeningshoppings_774526-e1583851557932.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1439\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"579\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"James Woodruff\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@NationalFunding\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@NationalFunding\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"James Woodruff\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.nationalfunding.com\/blog\/salesperson-skills\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.nationalfunding.com\/blog\/salesperson-skills\/\",\"name\":\"4 Salesperson Skills Every Small Business Owner Should Know\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.nationalfunding.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.nationalfunding.com\/blog\/salesperson-skills\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.nationalfunding.com\/blog\/salesperson-skills\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/blog.nationalfunding.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/peoplegardeningshoppings_774526-e1583851557932.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-03-10T14:46:09+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-11-01T17:35:23+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.nationalfunding.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/c4b156cf5315ba7a90d7282b39efc8ab\"},\"description\":\"Improving your salesperson skills could make you a better business owner. 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