Sale is a complex process. For every sale that you book, there is a complex sequence of activities that you go through, from first contact to the final sale. But if you get it wrong, it can lead to no sale or a string of canceled meetings.
Although it may seem easy to succeed in sales, it's not easy for everyone. Some people have limited knowledge and experience but have mastered the art of persuasion.
Moreover, businesses can't survive without sales. You may have an amazing product, but you don't have a business if no one knows about it. Here at Convin, we wanted to help business owners learn a few strategies to help with their sales.
Why?
Because an average business owner spends 4-5 hours per week on sales alone, but if they spend at least an hour a week on these strategies and do it for a year, that's at least 8 hours of extra time you get to spend on growing your sales and business.
Before we get into the strategies, let’s understand what a sales strategy is?
Definition of sales strategy
Sales strategy is a collation of decisions, plans, and sales positioning to achieve the sales goal of revenue. The sales strategy defines how the sales unit of a business will function for winning and retaining customers. It also helps in defining new business opportunities and markets for the business.
P.S: Want to create a stellar sales strategy backed with crucial business data?
Now without boring you too much, here are a few sales strategies that you should consider for improving your sales numbers and improving your salespeople’s performance.
8 Sales Strategies to follow immediately
#1. Define your ideal customer
Salesmen are usually under a lot of pressure, and this makes it very difficult to determine which leads to pursue. Chasing unproductive leads is one of your sales team's most time-consuming and unproductive things. It really is like swatting at flies when they're far away while a herd of cattle passes by nearby - something you'd never consider doing!
That is why it is important to create an ideal customer, or prospect persona is important because that would have higher chances of converting with much lesser effort.
For creating the persona, first, go through a couple of LinkedIn profiles of your existing customers to understand what made your brand and product the right fit for them. Then in a sheet, add details like:
- Their age
- Location
- Industry
- Company size
- Job profile
- Demographic
- Their clients
- Revenue - ARR
- Likes
- Dislikes
- Publications they follow, etc.
These details will help you better target leads and even help you with prospecting.
#2. Add value prepositions in your messaging and script
Don’t sell your product; sell the value your customers will gain from your product.
In order to sell your products or services successfully, you need to know what your customers are feeling on a daily basis. Most prospects either do not know or do not acknowledge their own problems. So even if you have a really quality product, they won’t recognize its value.
That’s why you need to craft a powerful and persuasive appeal that helps people realize the pain points they experience on a regular basis. This goes beyond describing features since this approach only portrays you as similar to other solutions, forcing buyers to compare options against each other.
It is easier to persuade someone who has an actual problem that needs solving by leveraging emotions explained in detail within the message itself.
#3. Learn storytelling
Storytelling is no more just for movies and marketing.
If you are a seller, you should also be a compelling storyteller.
You know how when it starts raining, you run for cover?
Well, what if there was something out there that could help you stay dry from the rain?
You would want to get that shield ASAP!
That's what happens when you use a sales story. It pulls your customers towards your product or service because they can relate to something similar in their own life.
A story is like a metaphor that makes an analogy by equating the unfamiliar with something more familiar. The power of story enters a person's imagination and emotion because they extend outside the boundaries of ordinary experience.
When you use stories to convey your product's features, you offer your listeners more than just information; you begin to create a picture that helps them imagine how their lives will change for the better once they've made the wise decision to invest in your business.
#4. Be Flexible
During sales conversations, you’ll never quite know what’s going to come up since each company is structured a little differently and has a distinct set of internal processes in place. It makes sense to expect any number of demands from your prospects since saying "no" isn't an option.
Even if you think you cannot meet the demands, then also be sure always to give a positive answer rather than a negative one, as a negative answer can mean the death of the deal.
#5. Be prepared with sales objections and questions
As you go into your sales meeting with a prospect, they'll have many questions for you. It's inevitable. Your prospect will ask more questions than either of us have hairs on our body (which is a lot).
And knowing how to deal with these inquiries can determine whether or not someone buys a product or service from you, which, if you're in sales, is kind of your whole job if you're in sales. That is why create a repository of most asked questions and sales objections and be prepared to answer all questions.
#6. Tailor your marketing efforts around the sales funnel
One of the biggest challenges in any business is that the sales and marketing teams do not collaborate but end up playing the blame game for leads and conversion.
When both the team should be working together like two hands of our body, helping each other when and where required.
When the marketing team brings the leads, it’s the sales team’s job to connect and qualify the lead and post that the marketing team should work together with the sales team to generate compelling. Content to convert the prospects from the awareness stage to the consideration stage to the buying stage.
#7. Use Social Media for social selling
According to reports, nine out of twenty people use social media on a regular basis, making it an essential tool in marketing your business online. Before you get started thinking about where to invest your energy, consider the variety of ways that people can use this platform.
For one, social media is used by people all over the world, so you won’t be restricted to just the local community when implementing social selling strategies throughout your company.
Customers have a preference when it comes to social media channels, with Twitter and LinkedIn being the most popular for B2B businesses.
Use LinkedIn to connect with potential customers by liking and commenting on their posts and eventually sliding into their DM to become a trusted advisor of tech solutions.
#8. Integrate AI into your sales processes
When we say without technology, remote selling is impossible without technology, we are not exaggerating.
Tools like video conferencing platform, Cloud-based CRM, chatbots, Convin’s platform for assisted sales, etc., is very important to converse, track and engage with your customers.
For example, Convin’s platform for assisted sales can record, transcribe, and analyze sales conversations for sales performance, customer intelligence, and a lot more.
Conclusion
We would end this blog with the famous words of the bestselling author and sales strategy coach Grant Cardone -
“In selling, you are seeking an agreement. Your customer is almost always distrustful and uncertain, not about you but about themselves. Most salespeople think selling is about gaining trust, but in reality, selling is about getting the customer to trust themselves enough to take action and close—which often takes flexibility. Learn to close the sale, not just make a sale."
Results first, payment later
