The 3 non-negotiable ingredients that you need to make a sale

Reading Time: 7 min

Before we jump in a quick term clarification so that everyone can follow.

Sale: Convincing someone to donate money or buy you products

Product: can be a service, a physical product, donation membership

B2B: When you are selling your product to other businesses

Benchmark: Comparing what other competitors are doing in your market

There are plenty of problems in this world, so why should people prioritize our issue of saving and restoring nature?

This goes on when you want to convince people to donate to your cause or to buy your product. By now people have plenty of options. So how can you make sure they support you?

That is the reason why learning how to sell is so important. So let’s get you up to speed.

3 ingredients to boost your sales to new levels

For the majority of my career, I worked in sales. I sold clothes, holidays, ideas, services, etc. So I can confirm to you that those ingredients are crucial and work.

Yet you might still doubt if I know what I am talking about. So I present you the 3 ingredients that one of the best salespeople on this planet identified.

Jordan Belfort, also known as the Wolf of Wallstreet. He wrote a great book that I can highly recommend.

All ingredients are needed for NGOs & businesses alike. Keep in mind as an NGO you are still selling. You are selling the positive impact.

So what are the 3 ingredients that you need for every sale?

You will laugh in a second. Because they are no-brainers, yet we often fail to use them to their full strength.

Ingredient #1 Make people fall in love with your product

Told you, a no-brainer.

Yet, many of us struggle with it.

To make a sale the person needs to fall in love with your product. On a scale from 0-10, they need to have 100% certainty that this product will help them to achieve whatever they desire.

How to step by step make people fall in love with your product

• create a special page on your website just for your product

• make a 1min video to explain it

• create a slide deck that runs people through your product (when working in B2B)

• Create a story around your product instead of focusing on features

• Create an easy onboarding experience

• Create help material in case they are blocked

• Ensure that customer service is available as soon as they run into a problem

• Make the pricing as transparent as possible

• Show testimonials to prove it works

• Use beautiful pictures

On a scale from 0-10, how many points do you give your product? Write it down for the end of this newsletter.

Ingredient #2 Get people to trust you

Wow, mind-blowing, right? Of course not.

I hope that is what you take away from this. Sales is actually not as tricky.

So, we tend to forget that all decisions are taken by humans. You can have the best company or a great product, but if the person on the other side doesn't like you, they won't buy it.

Plenty of other fish in the sea to support.

This is how you can concretely create more trust so that they support you

• Create a detailed section about who the people are behind your company/NGO

• Use a good profile picture of you (no sunglasses, not blurry, not grumpy)

• Clean up your social spaces no matter if Linkedin, Insta & co.

• Be authentic, there are so many sales sharks out there, so being refreshing different goes a long way

• Start to create a personal brand on one platform to show what you are about and your knowledge

• To be honest, again in today's world quite a unique skill

• Use the language of your ideal customers (you don't talk with teens the same way you talk with scientists)

• Make a quick video to introduce you

• Emphasize the possibility to call you via a video call

And what is your score from 0-10 this time?

Ingredient #3 People need to trust your company

Ok, last ingredient. The one that people probably know most about.

Yet, if it would be so easy, why aren't there real competitors to companies like Google, Apple, Amazon, Disney, and co.?

If you are the kindest person in the world and people actually like your product, they would still hesitate if they don't know your company / NGO, or even worse hate it.

Here are actionable tips on what you can do to boost the trust in your company

• Creating a brand. This is sooo crucial. Does Nike really produce the best sports shoes? Probably not. But everyone buys them. (how to create a brand goes beyond this article, check out this book if you want to start today)

• Be transparent as much as possible about your impact and financials

• Get other people to talk about you through PR, Influencers, etc.

• Keep your promises

• Invest in a good website. It’s basically your home planet, where every visitor from Newsletter, Social Media, PR, etc. comes back to. So make sure it is first class.

• Work with trusted partners that are bigger than you, so that their credibility rubs off on you

• Benchmark what others are doing in your field

And what's your score this time?

Your turn

What was your final score?

0-10 Don't be too hard on yourself! You got this. Start with your product first, then with your company, and then with yourself.

10-20 Ok some room here to improve. Take the one where you scored the lowest and use some of the tips to get those numbers up.

20-30 Congrats! You are doing great already OR you are biased. Check-in with potential customers if they feel the same.

Block yourself a timeslot for next week to increase your ingredients. What about Tuesday? Usually not as busy as Mondays.

Cheat Sheet:

In nutshell: 3 ingredients for every sale: love your product, trust in you, trust in your company / NGO

Recommended book: The Way of the Wolf

Set up time: Depending on how you scored, can be hours to weeks.

Maintaining time: 1h per week

So boost up your sales with those 3 ingredients. More money should mean that you can have a bigger positive impact.

See you next week. Have a wild one!

Oliver

Whenever you are ready, there are 2 ways we can help you:

1. 1-to-1 business consulting. Detailed and personalized consulting to double the impact of your biodiversity venture in the shortest possible time. Sales is actually one of my favorite topics.

2. Wild Business Mates in Action. Wild Business Mates help you to execute in areas you are struggling with. Tech, Marketing, Sales, Communication, etc.