GrowthBusiness.co.uk: Your gateway to entrepreneurial success

Everyone hates a hard sell. It’s enough to make you turn down a good deal.

I say everyone – perhaps there are people who enjoy being bullied, terrorised or strongarmed into a transaction, but I haven’t met them.

And yet desperate sales tactics are becoming more common, at least according to Jack Downton, a former colonel in the Royal Marines who now makes his living training executives in how to deal with clients.

Downton reckons the downturn is making salespeople more desperate to close a deal, leading to them using the wrong selling techniques. They’ll pounce on the first sign of interest and zealously enumerate features and benefits when they should be letting the prospective customer do the talking.

Walk into any estate agent these days, or a big furniture store for that matter, and you’ll see this in action. Sales teams will circle you like vultures, and if their commission is paid individually, there’ll be a barely concealed battle for fresh blood.

In a sense you can’t blame them. Times are hard and buyers of pretty much anything – from companies to houses – know that they have the upper hand.

That said, the skills of a really good salesperson have never been more urgently needed. You know the type: they appear to know what you want before you know it yourself. They’ll win your trust by recommending a cheaper option, then convince you to buy three of them. They’ll quickly establish a connection, a shared interest or attitude, in a way that doesn’t seem forced. They won’t put you under pressure, but they’ll know a thousand tiny tricks to steer you towards a decision. And nine times out of ten it’ll be the decision they want.

These people know how to make you feel good about yourself. You may know you’re being manipulated, but somehow you won’t care.

It’s not quite true to say that without these people, no business can thrive. There’ll always be the odd business whose proposition is so attractive or different that it sells itself – but even in these cases there’s no doubt a slick sales team can raise the company to even greater heights.

There is a world of difference between the truly slick salesperson and the clown whose most cunning trick is to say, ‘It might not be here by the time you get back’. The hard sell may be about as popular as a bank rights issue, but the subtle art of selling has never been in greater demand.