What’s the secret to increasing more sales in the aftermarket? Stop just selling your products.

For just about everyone who works in sales, it’s customary to work under a deadline to meet certain sales targets. This could be a quarterly or yearly target, or a professional goal you have created in agreement with a manager or mentor.

Especially in a tight economy or a competitive market, there can be a lot of pressure to both identify and close new business and increase sales to existing customers.

For any sales-driven company to hit its annual goals, you must mainly do two things:

1. Keep existing customers and look for opportunities to grow the business and relationship with them.
2. Get new customers.   

If you want to be ahead of the pack, sell more, and build strong relationships, you need to create a distinct advantage. 

Here are six ways to create your distinct advantage.

1. Delve into your customer’s business: Do some homework about their company and potential needs.
 
2. Be prepared: Have your open-ended questions ready to help guide the conversation and to uncover needs and selling opportunities.
 
3. Build rapport: Show that you want to support their business and needs – it’s not just about your next sale.
 
4. Concentrate: Listen with interest to their needs, take notes, and understand their challenges.
 
5. Be genuine: Be excited about their business goals and opportunities.
 
6. Slow down: Don’t jump into providing your solution too quickly; make sure you have enough information before you begin offering solutions. When you are ready to present the right solution, ensure that it aligns with their needs. Sell people what they need to buy – not just what you need to sell!

Also, don’t forget to ask for the business! Your customers and prospects expect you to.

Using these techniques, you will be a more effective salesperson in the aftermarket.

Why? Because people do not want to be sold a product – they want you to care about their problems and find a solution that perfectly matches their need. If you can do that, people will purchase.

In short, when you care about others, you have an advantage over other salespeople – and that is your distinct advantage.