The best salespeople make selling look easy. Some people are built to offer solutions and close the deal without breaking a sweat. For the rest of us, selling might be less intuitive and more like actual work. Here are eight make-the-sale tips gleaned from a variety of selling superstars.

1. Get Excited about Your Product

But what if you don’t? Make a list of five things you love about it. There must be at least five reasons someone would buy, download or sign up for your worst product. From there, look at your best product, the one you actually love. Enthusiasm for this favored product should spill out of your mouth when you talk about it. Find the passion for what you sell.

2. Put Things on Sale

People love to buy cool stuff on sale. Some people only buy things on sale. Make sure to offer a few discounted items in your online storefront or retail space.

3. Skip the Online Carousel

Lemonstand, an e-commerce shop provider, has a great blog post that explains why to ditch the rotating product slider. But if you must include a carousel, they tell you how to do it right.

4. Help Fill the Need

People are always looking for something and most like to have their problems solved. The perfect gift for your 13-year-old nephew? The most reliable portable battery charger? If you have the answer, offer it to your customer. Make sure to listen rather than say too much. If you are careful, they will express their need.

5. Maintain a Mailing List

Whether retail or online, it’s vital that you can communicate with your customers. New products, flash sales, expert visitors…if you can’t tell customers about exciting opportunities, you can’t make the sale.

6. Offer Your Service

By walking into your store or clicking on your URL, the customer is entering into a new relationship with you and your staff. How will they be treated? Smiling, listening and responding to email questions are all ways you can say loud and clear: I am here to serve you. A Gallup study  found that customers value service quality over service speed, so make sure you are offering a quality experience.

7. Make Staying in Touch Easy

Perhaps your prospect walks away without buying. Don’t give up! Make sure they walk out the door with a small card or other collateral with your contact information. Denver-based Insight Auto Glass offers on-the-spot quotes for replacing your windshield. Their cards contain the estimate and the salesperson’s name and phone number. For online merchants, make sure you send at least a  newsletter or special offer by email.

8. Collect Your Customers’ Preferences. Stand out from the crowd by keeping great records of your customers’ likes and dislikes. Memorize names and faces. Everyone loves to be remembered. This blog post from a researcher shares awesome tips on how to remember names.


We’re curious! What are your best selling tips? Share them in the comments.

Olga is a Senior Manager of Sales and Marketing Operations at Connectivity.