Also, with most inbound sales scenarios like selling cars, it’s important to remember that most people are there for a reason.  They are already interested in buying what you sell.  This is often forgotten by salespeople with a bad attitude.

With these things in mind, here’s a list of good things to do when selling to consumers.

Remember names

It’s important to not only remember your prospect’s names, but to use their first names often.  Maintaining rapport is critical to building trust.

Be assertive

Keep your prospects in line by reminding them that the reason there there is to purchase.  Consumer audiences tend to feel threatened in a sales scenario, so if they express any hesitation or fear, you should justify your position by saying something like, “I understand that, but I also know that you wanna put all of the shopping behind you.  That’s why I want to make sure to understand your needs so that I can help you make the best decision possible.  This is an important decision.”

Focus on communicating value

This sounds basic, but everything in sales is “basic”.  Many salespeople simply talk about what a product IS rather than what it will provide for the consumer.  It is far more important that the buyer understands what the product will mean to him or her than understanding how it works.

By remembering to focus on these few simple things, you should easily be able to improve your numbers this week.

Send follow up emails

Although the average low earnings sales Rep does these during work hours, it’s far more productive to do this miscellaneous task after hours.  You can even send your follow-up emails from home.

This will even become an enjoyable activity.  Get home, crack open a beer, and cut and paste your follow-up message and email it to whoever you spoke with during the day.

Write prospecting letters

Usually, you’ll want to just print these out.  You can even set up a mail merge with Microsoft excel and Microsoft word.  Browse through a local business directory to find people to mail these to.  Or, if you sell to consumers, try using salesgenie.com.

Miscellaneous tasks

Try to keep all of your non selling tasks confined to after-hours time.  This way you’ll get them done faster.  For example, every single sales job is filled with plenty of paper shuffling.  These things may include: activity reports, order form changes, and a variety of other mind numbing, nonproductive busy work.

When you keep all of these activities confined to their own 1 hour space after normal business hours, you’ll be able to maximize your productivity during the day.