How to sell: what the process involves

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What selling involves

Mailchimp's guide describes selling as persuading a person that a product or service will improve their life. It says this applies whether a seller works online or face to face, with a large audience or a single person, and that the same core principles apply. The guide adds that knowing an audience helps create better products, improves marketing, and increases sales.

A sales professional's account frames selling differently. It says sales is not about selling but about determining whether and how a seller can help someone. If a seller can help and the help meets the buyer's criteria, the account says a sale will be a natural outcome. It adds that the buyer is the main character in the story, not the salesperson.

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Knowing the buyer

Mailchimp's guide says selling is about knowing what motivates people. It suggests a seller identify a target market rather than trying to sell to every audience, and start with the features and benefits of the product or service. The guide gives the example of children's bicycle helmets: the product offers peace of mind to parents, and those parents are the target market. It says creating a buyer persona, a character sketch of the target customer, can help. For one company, the guide reports, buyer personas produced a 55% rise in traffic and a 97% rise in potential customers arriving online. It says personas can make a business website 2 to 5 times more effective.

The guide also says research helps a seller learn what an audience values and adjust a sales pitch to match. It describes consumer research through social media platforms, which collect information about visitors, and business-to-business research, which looks at a company's financial and operational goals and the decision-maker's professional objectives. For business buyers, the guide suggests looking at trade publications, other companies that sell to the same market, reviews of competitors, and search results for demographic information. It says that if a seller is new to a market, establishing an online presence can help gather information.

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Mindset and motivation

The sales professional's account describes two mindsets from a sales training called the Lappin Method. The "Sales Mindset" is described as desperate and focused on the seller's needs, asking questions to uncover pain and letting prospects sense that their vulnerability will be used as leverage. The "Elite Mindset" is described as abundant and focused on the client's desires, asking questions to understand the client's current state, the future they want, and the gap between them, so the seller can see whether they can help close that gap with less stress and greater ease. The account says a salesperson's mindset matters as much as what they do, because it shapes the words, energy, questions, and the client's experience.

Mailchimp's guide says buyers have their own reasons for agreeing to a purchase, and learning those reasons involves understanding their motivations. It points to a 2017 Forbes account that suggested purchases come down to basic wants such as safety and security, adventure, and social approval. The guide also describes psychological factors that can tip a buyer toward yes, including loss aversion, confirmation bias, the appeal of novelty, and the problem of too many choices. It says a loss is feared twice as much as a gain is desired, and that an excess of options can make a decision hard, so it suggests a deliberately limited set of offerings.

The guide adds that emotion has just as much say in a purchase as logic. It says neuroscientists suggest buyers decide by feeling and then justify the choice with logic, and it quotes a Harvard Business Review contributor who suggests giving an experience that creates the wanted emotion. The guide recommends using a vivid customer story with personal detail to help a prospective buyer imagine being in that customer's situation.