“Making money is art and working is art and good business is the best art.”

– Andy Warhol

[d style=”3″]T[/d]he most successful sales technique for the long-term survival of your business is simply caring about the people you meet. It is about building a relationship, and developing a rapport with the potential customer.

You create a team with each customer, and your team requires teamwork.

Know that absolutely every person you meet is either a potential customer or knows someone who is.

“Sales are contingent upon the attitude of the salesman – not the attitude of the prospect.”

-W. Clement Stone

Good business is the art of asking the right question at the right time that conveys the right amount of interest in what the potential customers’ circumstances are. You then use that information to guide them, through additional questions, to the answer that is going to give you the sale or get you the contract.

Every interaction you enter into is building potential for your business. So what do you need to know? Do you need to know everything about sales? No. Is it a good idea to listen to some You Tube or Ted Talk videos about sales techniques? Yes.

Bottom line: increasing your business means increasing your contracts or sales, and the ability to do that is all about meeting people.

Do your networking. Make your connections. Keep your business and the services you offer up in front of the public that constitutes your market audience. Change up your advertising regularly: Offer deals. You can’t make sales without doing this groundwork.

Beyond that, it’s still caring about the people you meet enough to find out about them – their life, their work, their likes and dislikes, their needs and desires.

When you meet people, get their business card. Make notes after you’ve met them to keep track of what you know about them, so you have that in your pocket the next time you meet them. They will be impressed that you took sufficient interest to remember.

When you show deep empathy toward others, their defensive energy goes down, and positive energy replaces it.

-Stephen Covey

Your job as the representative of your company is to build a trusting relationship with each person you meet. In doing so, you remove the environment or situation that kicks in their defense system, and increase your potential to be the one that provides them the product or service they need or want – in preference to other companies in the same market.

Selling is about people engagement.  It is about building a trusting relationship with your customers and your potential customers. What you say and how you act impacts the first and ongoing impressions people have about you – regardless of the circumstances.

Master the art of being:

[list][list-child icon=”fa-check”]Professional and caring,[/list-child][list-child icon=”fa-check”]Inquisitive without being nosy,[/list-child][list-child icon=”fa-check”]Warm without being mushy,[/list-child][list-child icon=”fa-check”]Knowledgeable without being aggressive[/list-child][/list]

Evaluate every interaction so you learn something as a take away each time.