Business

Making money is all a mater of improving your business skills. Different business skills will be added to this page with time.

Selling

Sales is one of the most important business skills. It is showing a customer that you have something of value, and asking them to buy it from you.

Ask Them to Buy From You

This is the most important part of any sales transaction, whether you are at a job interview or selling a product or service. This is known in sales as the "close". If you want to sell, make sure you ask the them to hire you, or buy your product or service. There are so many ways to ask, just make it clear. Doesn't it make sense that you will get something only if you ask? Most people only think about how they buy things. They see something they want or need, then they pay, and the transaction is complete. They expect the same when they try to sell something. What they don't see is the behind the scenes things that people or businesses do to sell that product or service to you. They put a cash register right up front and center. This makes it clear that this is not a museum with nice things on display, but a store where you can buy those nice things. This is one of countless ways to ask a customer to buy your product.

Be careful not to "unsell"! Each time you explain a benefit, or other reasons the product you are selling is valuable to a customer, you should ask "is this reason good enough for you to buy my product/hire me?". If not, ask why! You will be much more successful if you find out why the customer does not want your product yet. Maybe they don't have money... in which case you are wasting time. Maybe they just want to know if it has one specific feature, but after telling them about 100 other features you forget that one that they want to know about. When you ask your customer what they want, it is a lot easier to give it to them and get paid.

You probably heard that you will need to sell at some point in your life, whether it is selling products, or selling yourself to potential employers. Improving your sales skills is probably the fastest way to make more money. Your boss wants to keep costs down. Do you think he or she wants to give you a raise? If you just got a raise, then there is small chance the answer is yes. Most likely the reason is that it is part of your contract or they are trying to be a competitive so you don't leave for another company. Maybe you were smart enough to show them how you are valuable and then asked for the raise. If you did not just get a raise, then that last point is what you should be doing.