No matter how you look at it, once you’ve learned sales skills, you’ve sharpened a tool that will help you throughout your life. Sales performance in any job leads to individual success in the form of promotions, raises, and future opportunities. You can and will use your sales skills in all areas of your life. You may not always be working in a tanning salon, but the skills you learn today and develop at your salon can be transferred almost anywhere in the future.

It’s quite likely that the first time you applied for a job at an indoor tanning salon, you didn’t really think of it as a sales job. Most people don’t. Actually, most people steer away from sales jobs – in part because they don’t really understand that sales is more about relationships than it is about that cheesy used car guy.

Indoor tanning is a competitive industry. In order to compete effectively, every salon operator must become a successful salesperson. And that’s you. When you’re standing behind that front counter, you ARE a professional, educated salesperson, not just someone who turns on the bed after letting the customer determine how many minutes they want to tan. The more effective you are as a salesperson, the more revenue you generate for your salon. The more revenue you generate for your salon, the more the boss likes it and the more successful the salon becomes. The great thing about successful salespeople is that they create business and energy. Everyone wants to be part of a winning team—even customers seem happier when business is good!

The very thought of “SALES” strikes fear and dread into many of us. But it’s really not that scary, and it’s really not that hard to do, once you know how. Selling is a skill, and just like any other skill, it can be learned through study, practice, and the application of principles.

Getting Comfortable With It

There’s a good size curve to learning how to sell well and getting comfortable with the sales process. Here are a few tips to help you as you begin thinking about improving your sales skills:

• Overcome the fear – Many people feel intimidated by the prospect of sales – it’s natural, so acknowledge the fear and move on. Remember the first time you put on a pair of skates, or rode your bike without training wheels? It was scary at first, but pretty soon you started to have fun, even while you were getting better at riding or skating. Learning sales skills works much the same way. Sometimes you will slip and fall and other times you’ll coast along fine. The key to your success is to pick yourself up, brush yourself off, and learn from the experience. And realize – as difficult as it may be – that rejection is never personal.
• Learn the basics – Learning basic sales skills helps you build a foundation that will hold you up while you expand your knowledge. If you learn the basics, practice, and refine your technique and skills, you’ll soon be comfortable selling to anybody, and you might even have fun doing it.
• Manage your attitude – Our attitudes either work for us or against us. If you tell yourself that you just can’t sell, you’ll probably live up to that prophecy. From the beginning (start today!), tell yourself that you have the ability to master the art of selling, and forget the myth that salespeople are born and not made. Sure there are “born” salespeople, but remember, they also learn new skills. The bottom line is that successful salespeople build their sales attitudes over time, through trial and error, practice, and skills-building.
• Start seeing through your customers’ eyes – Take the time to see things from your customer’s perspective. Think through what your products and services are going to do for your customers and how they benefit your customer in both the short and long run. Work toward creating a relationship based on knowledge, trust, and respect – one in which your customer respects, seeks and appreciates your professional advice, and you respect your customer’s needs and perspectives as well.
• Start building credibility and integrity – What is the first image that comes to your mind when you hear the term “salesperson”? Probably a guy standing at your door trying to sell you magazines, or that cheesy used car salesman, right? People often think of salespeople as fast-talking hustlers who are excellent at applying the pressure. Your approach to becoming a successful salesperson should be the complete opposite. You must show a sincere interest in doing what is right for the customer at all times.