Forget about sales tactics right now. Nothing quick or easy is going to help you when you just want to make money fast.
1. Be extreme
2. Live disciplined
3. Give more value than people pay for
4. Act human
It doesn't matter what strategy you use when you factor in all (4) of those.
Individually:
Speak less, Listen more, Show interest
Ask about current practice and feedback before suggesting your product
Read about "the feldman method" (Ben Feldman)
Team Wise:
Set up an incentive program for most failed sales calls
Track your team failing sales calls and encourage them to fail more.
Will change the morale of the team and shift attitudes
LISTENING to your prospect.
NOT doing the "Show Up and Throw Up" presentation dump the amateur salesperson delivers.
Asking questions. Asking some more. Asking uncomfortable questions. Instead of trying to bypass, ignore or sweep under the rug a key issue you might find makes working with this prospect "Not A Fit", ask the question and find out for sure.
Looking for "Fit", not "Trying to sell everyone". Everyone is NOT a great prospective client. Some people would be The Client From Hell. Sometimes, the best sale is the one you never made.
Stop being desperate.
Stop being overenthusiastic. Fake enthusiasm of the oil slick of the lousy salesperson. You need it to get the sales job, but out in the real world with prospects it's a real turn-off. ("Why is the salesperson smiling so much? They must be ripping me off big time and making a huge commission.")
Now I have to point something out. Everything I've said so far is actually a Sales TACTIC. Not a strategy.
A Sales STRATEGY involves:
* determining your target market
* deciding on path(s) to market -- eg. direct mail offers, retail, channel
* formalizing prospecting methods -- how are you going to start the communication with individual prospects in your target market? By knowing the key typical problems you solve for your customers, you can use these issues as a conversation starter and qualifier
* applying a consistent qualifying process -- making sure you work with people who are a "Fit" for you (who you can help, will treat you well, value what you offer)
If you've done the strategy steps to this point well, and the prospect qualifies "In", selling should be pretty straightforward.
Selling is not about persuading, cajoling, fooling, forcing, deceiving, pitching or any of the other awful things we see in (fictional) movies like Glengarry Glen Ross or Boiler Room or Wolf of Wall Street. Not ethical, effective selling, anyway. It's too bad the public gets its information about salespeople from bad experiences in poorly run retail operations like appliance stores and low end car dealerships...and from movies like those. High level business sales works very differently.
I've tried everything myself, first off I'd need to ascertain whether this is a small sale or a large sales. I'm guessing by the nature of Clarity this is a large sale, so I've outlined a few things I do as part of a plan of action rather than a strategy which isn't possible without more detail.
Sales is the marathon rather than a sprint so plan accordingly what your schedule is each day or you'll be less motivated to get up each morning. When starting to sell from scratch from with no pipeline I find a certain satisfaction (not inefficiency) from sourcing my own data, as it brings a certain sense of ownership to the table. That being said if you're going to buy in a database probably due to your product catering for a larger audience, lower price point then having a larger customer purchased database could save a lot of time.
Focus on a sector rather than spray and pray. If you've got no client references i.e you're starting from scratch then use previous clients you've worked with in past jobs. Social proof of mentioning who you've worked with always comes up trumps when speaking with clients.
Write a script, as some people will disagree with this thinking "he's going to sound like he's reading from a script". The purpose of the script is simply to give you a structure of what you're going to say and also let the initial prospective client explain why you're calling. After introducing why you're calling, start to ask questions.
Research, research, research! Don't pick up the phone or blast off an email without thoroughly researching who it is you're calling. With this in mind set up alerts for the companies you want to work with to find out changes in their industry.
I don't always start with the decision maker, I make a few fact finding calls to different departments and try to get the different stakeholders talking internally if possible. This makes any sales call more informed and wastes the decision makers time less. On that topic a lot of B2B sales people waste customers time and see it as the buyers duty to listen to them. They don't need to return your email or call so make the first call count.
Qualify early whats in it for you as well as the client, a lot of sales literature talks about customer centric selling, however the buyer will want to know if what they have other than budget to buy your product or service whether they're a "good fit" for your company as well as them.
Stop selling and build relationships. Be authentic, transparent, and genuine. When you build your "know, like, and trust" factor, the sale becomes a foregone conclusion.
You are your greatest competitive advantage, be human, be social, and ditch the pitch, skip the sell, and find out what your buyer really wants (and needs).
Needs are budgets, wants are investments.
Certainly would depend on the type of sale. I have done door to door sales that have been effective in the photography business netting over $1,000 profit a day and I have promoted attorney's where I generated in coming calls because outbound is not allowed in the legal field. That took my last attorney from zero clients to $65,000 a month in billing in 2 months using online tactics. We need to talk to figure out your best strategy.
Start with these four simple techniques:
* Be Proactive and Responsive
* Be Communicative
* Provide Choice
* Be Thankful
Providing options for customers who might benefit from an advanced version of a product or service, or from a product that would supplement the use of their main purchase, is a great way to provide value (and gain an extra sale in the process).
But, again, if you push too hard to upsell or cross-sell your customer, they might walk away without even making the original purchase they planned on making.
You can find more effective sales techniques in this blog: https://www.fieldboom.com/blog/sales-techniques/.
Some years ago I had one my first sales call.
It was with the CEO of a notorious company
I was a bit nervous, so I told him:
“Look, I know you’re an experienced seller,
You'll probably spot every advanced sales technique if I use them
So… I’ll just be authentic.”
He replied:
“Angelo, the best sales technique ever is having a great product.”
And his words stick with me since then.
When Mark McCormack started IMG, the first athlete he signed was Arnold Palmer.
At that time Palmer, now considered one of the greatest golfers ever,
had only won one championship.
What McCormack saw in Palmer, Gary Player, and Jack Nicklaus,
and the other well-known athletes that he then signed when they were still unknown,
was more than mere trophies.
These athletes had a strive for excellence and other positive qualities
that directly would have made them outstanding in the long run.
A couple of days ago, I was listening to a podcast with Steven Sashen, CEO of Xero Shoes.
I could tell from his words and description that what he built is something outstanding.
It made me want to buy it immediately.
Sumo, it’s another example of an excellent product out there.
I tried all kinds of similar plugins,
but Sumo is the only one that never gave me problems!
—
Need clarity? I help entrepreneurs, consultants and freelancers get more traffic, generate more leads and get more customers → Call me now
Sales strategies are meant to provide clear objectives and guidance to your sales organization. Most of these guidelines are helpful for communicating goals and keeping your sales reps on the same page. Where most sales strategies fall short, however, is that they are too focused on the internal workings of your organization. To truly be effective, your organization’s sales strategy needs to focus on customer conversations.
So, even if you sell a truly remarkable product, your buyers probably will not recognize the real value you offer to their organization. In fact, Forrester research found that 74 percent of executive buyers will give their business to a company that illustrates a buying vision, compared to vendors among a group of commodity suppliers. This is not just about touting your product’s features, hoping that your buyer chooses you over your competition. This powerful value proposition will uncover previously unconsidered needs for your prospect, create contrast, and drive the urgency to change using stories and insights. The truth is that most buyers prefer to do nothing instead of change. In fact, 60 percent of deals in the pipeline are lost to “no decision” rather than to competitors. To break through Status Quo Bias and get prospects to leave their current situation, you need to tell a story that makes a compelling case for why they should change, and why they should change now. Answering these questions are what creates your unique value, differentiates your solution, and sets the tone for your buyer’s entire Deciding Journey.
Storytelling paints a vivid picture for your buyers, illustrating the contrast between their current situation versus what is possible, and connecting what you offer directly to their unique situation. Once you start sharing stories in your sales conversations, your customer relationships will become deeper and more rewarding. Typically, the sales process involves several steps like prospecting, qualifying, discovering needs, negotiating, and closing. This would be an ideal checklist to follow if all your buyers were robots being taken through an assembly line. Instead of being “program-centric” with a one-size-fits-all sales strategy, you need to be problem-centric, addressing the specific needs of your buyers as they arise with situationally relevant messages, content, and the skills to deliver them. Customer profiles and buyer personas sound good in theory. But when used as a superficial profiling approach, personas can lead your messaging astray. Buyers are motivated by outside influences that challenge their status quo and convince them to change. So, instead of focusing your sales strategy on a lot of inconsequential attributes, speak to your buyer’s situation and why their current approach is putting their business at risk. Too often, salespeople base their marketing messaging on the needs that prospects tell them they have. Then, they connect those identified needs to corresponding capabilities, in standard “solution selling” fashion. You fall into the trap of commodity messaging along with your competitors, who are likely constructing their value message in response to the same set of inputs. Research conducted by Corporate Visions found that a provocative messaging approach that begins by introducing an Unconsidered Need enhances your persuasive impact by 10 percent.
Most sales and marketing teams spend most of their budgets and effort on customer acquisition and demand generation. Nearly half of the companies surveyed by Corporate Visions invest less than 10 percent of their marketing budgets in customer retention and expansion. The challenge is, retention and expansion require a distinct messaging and customer conversation approach. While customer acquisition is all about challenging the status quo to highlight the benefits of switching to your solution, customer retention and expansion requires you to reinforce your position as their status quo.
Besides if you do have any questions give me a call: https://clarity.fm/joy-brotonath
