Thank you, but I’ll have to think about it. Every salesperson under the sun cringes upon hearing this polite, and yet vague response to their perfectly crafted pitch. It’s true that many things in the sales process are beyond your control, but some aren’t and you should focus on them. One of the things you can control is how much you sell. There are some strategies you can employ in order to start selling more and closing bigger deals. Here are 6 tips to help you crush your sales goals.
Don’t Be Outnumbered
Before you can start working on crushing your sales, you need to have a clear picture of your situation. So, get down to work and start crunching numbers. Establish how many calls you have to make, emails you have to send, or meetings you have to schedule on a daily and weekly basis. This may seem like a simple and not particularly effective method, but you need to know how to measure your progress. Certain stats might help you with this. 80% of sales require 5 follow-up phone calls after the meeting (Source: Marketing Donut). Only 2% of cold calls result in an appointment (Source: Leap Job). Today, it takes 8 cold call attempts to reach a prospect (Source: TeleNet and Ovation Sales Group). You do the maths and come up with a strategy that will lead you to your goal.
Know Thy Decision-Makers
Reaching the decision-maker is one of the most important things in the sales process. Before any business meeting, ask your prospects who the decision maker is. Having your presentation in front of people you may not know might be frustrating, but if you find out this key information you’ll be able to prepare your pitch to resonate with the audience. As you know, decision-makers can be particularly hard to reach, and once you find out who pulls the strings at the company in which you make your presentation, it will be easier to find out more about that person and see what approach would be the best. You can check out LinkedIn, and similar social networks to collect all the necessary information.
Value Proposition
When it comes to presenting your value proposition, you need to understand that your prospects aren’t interested in listening to that tech lingo you use when you’re talking about features and benefits of your product or service. They want to hear how exactly it will solve their problem. It’s important to emphasize the real values your prospects can expect if they decide to buy what you’re offering. Of course, the first rule of sales is that a good product sells itself, and your role is to help your prospects see why your product is good and how they will profit from using it.
Disqualify
Another important thing to remember is that no matter how excellent your product is, it won’t be of the same value to all your prospects. Don’t hesitate to disqualify your prospects if you realize that you’ll waste your time on someone who isn’t the right fit for what you’re selling. Some companies use the BANT (budget, authority, need, timeline) process in order to qualify leads. This means those companies want to deal only with prospects who:
- have enough money to buy their product or service
- have authority to close the deal,
- have a business problem that their product or service can solve, and
- have the need to buy the product now.
This technique can be useful, especially when it comes to big companies with lots of leads and prospects. You don’t need a clogged pipeline, packed with bad leads who, basically, can’t benefit from your product. By disqualifying bad leads, you will flush your pipeline and make space for some good leads, and at the same time, you will establish a reputation of authority and integrity.
7 Seconds Away From Closing a Deal
You’ve managed to reach that hotshot decision-maker and you’re relieved, thinking to yourself that you’ve done a great job. But, a real challenge is how to spark your customers’ interest and how to capture their attention. According to the “7 seconds” rule, you’ve got only 7 seconds to do that because if you don’t your prospect will just let you say what you’ve got and say “thanks, but no, thanks”. It would be a good idea to script and act those crucial 7 seconds out before you make an actual call.
Don’t Sell, Advise
Instead of desperately trying to sell, it would be better to change your perspective. Don’t think of yourself as a salesperson whose only goal is to make people buy. Try to establish yourself as a reliable advisor with a lot of experience, whose role is to help prospects understand what’s best for their business. By dropping that air of despair and feeling that you’re bugging people and practically begging them for a minute of their time, you’ll be able to create a new mindset. Selling is a two-way street, and both parties profit from it, so act like you’ve got something of value and importance to offer to your prospects.
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