Forget well-thumbed manuals that promise tried and tested techniques to help you to sell your way to a million pounds. An acronym isn’t as useful as the right attitude and being able to listen for leads, say our experts. Here are a few of their insights for getting ahead in sales:

You’re a professional. You know your products inside out, but don’t forget to be confident and polished when you pick up the phone, says Paul Dominguez, a senior internal consultant at Zurich Intermediary Group, who sells investment protection and pension products to independent financial advisers.

Be sensitive. “Try to adapt to the person you are speaking to,” Dominguez says. Some people will want to stick to business, others are happier to chat about the football results before coming round to discuss what you need to know.

Don’t try to be a salesman. The best are naturally inquisitive and ask questions without sounding pushy, says James Kippenberger, the head of UK sales at BigHand, a dictation software maker. “We are all pretty savvy consumers,” he says. “We don’t like being sold to.”

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BACKGROUND

• Sold on getting results

• Tall tales about telesales

• The key to selling

• How to motivate salespeople

The numbers game. Successful selling is about solving problems that people may not know they even have, Kippenberger says. If you can build a case for your product as the solution with a number of people within an organisation they are more likely to buy it, he says.

Look to the long term. Be proactive about keeping existing customers happy, says Andy Cowan, the head of private clients at Towry Law, private and corporate wealth advisers. “It’s about knowing your clients really well and understanding what they really need. You have to establish a long relationship built on trust rather than a quick sale.”

Go beyond. If you’re just content to meet your targets and not driven to exceed them, you’re probably in the wrong game, David Holmes, a senior business development manager at Barclays Asset and Sales Finance, says. “You have to set your sights high so that you can overachieve above everyone else.”

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