Every year brings the prospect of new difficulties and hurdles which we have to plan an approach to navigate to improve our businesses and increase sales. There are things we cannot control external pressures that are downwards in your industry, the increase of competition, or the disappearance of market leaders. However, there are things that we can control, such as proper goal-setting, regular prospecting, and high-percentage selling (you have control over your sales procedure, not the prospective customer).
When I coach and train sales managers, I make sure that my message is the same throughout my sales education sessions. I advise people “if they are aware of their company, are aware of their competitors, and know the reason why their customers purchase from them and, most importantly, adhere to a sales procedure to succeed, they will gain more.” It’s the survival of the fittest in sales. The game has changed.
There’s so much that contributes to scalable and sustainable sales performance. If you’re willing to change, improving every day and becoming top in the world at your job (shoot to the moon, in the worst scenario, you’ll be on the moon), The year to come could be your most successful year ever regardless of economic gloom and doom. There’s still business to grab.
I’m about to present five proven strategies for increasing your chances of sales and driving prospects with higher qualifications to the sale funnel… quicker. These tested and proven strategies were successful yesterday, they’re working today, and they will continue to work in the future. The rest is up to you.
1.) If you are cold-calling to make an appointment,
make sure you get “pain points “only. Face-to-face appointments consume about four hours of work. This is about 50% of the time. Everyone knows the value of time. I train people to create qualified leads from their cold-calling efforts by asking potential clients difficult questions. It is important to know the real need. (Hint that we don’t do it by dumping products on the phone). We’ll simply inquire about their concerns as well as the areas where it is causing them pain and how it affects their business, and what they’re going to take action to address it. Your call is not required to run more than 7 minutes. “Mr. Jones, as an expert in widget manufacturing, What do you think is the most pressing issue facing your marketing department right now?” It’s pretty simple.
2.) Do not let the prospective hurry you through the selling process.
Sales professionals who are successful are able to have a sales strategy implemented for various reasons. It’s your sales roadmap and the central place. It is essential to be aware of the two motives in play when dealing with potential customers: the customer’s as well as yours. If you permit your prospective customer to hurry through the process of submitting an offer before you’ve done the necessary qualification or thorough research, it is possible that you will end up trying to sell hours of time for a dollar. We’ve observed over the years and found that 90% of customers will appreciate a salesperson who stands his ground and adheres to a procedure instead of an inexperienced, weak salesperson (they claim to jump, but you ask, “how high?”). Follow your strategy and stand firm and allow the chance to unfold according to your own conditions and not your own. The selling process is everything.
3.) Don’t make presentations to a non-decision maker never.
The subject is not ambiguous. Areas. If a non-decision maker is unable to declare NO, they cannot offer a YES. Salespeople like to live in the realm of “maybe” or “hopium”. What happens is that we are unable to inquire about who is participating in the decision-making process that is the basis of the connection. We are scared of hearing the”NO” (or any other form that is a form). We believe that speaking to someone is better than speaking to no one. We’re in the YES or No business. It is not uncommon to hear many more Noes than Yeses. Don’t put yourself in a position to fail. Instead, play for the Yes. Finding out early on who the decision-makers are in the business is good business. This could be echoed as: “Mr. Jones, thank you for your willingness to meet with me today. I look at our meeting. Should we choose to take things forward from today’s meeting, I’ll be back to discuss solutions. Who else other than you is part of the decision-making process?” It’s easy. Do it!
4.) Find the date and time at every step from hello to close.
We look at time and dates in a set of micro-commitments. If you are unable to find an exact date or time, go back to the potential client with the goal of moving them along your funnel of sales. It’s not like you have a prospect; we simply have a possibility. If you’re not on the prospect’s calendar, then you’re not on their list of options. Finding a time and date starting from the initial meeting until the signing of a contract that is radically faster will accelerate your sales process and, most importantly, remove people quicker. The actual buyer has enough time on their schedule to visit you in the future. A suspect is a busy person and won’t be able to see you for seven weeks. Find the time and date at the conclusion of each meeting or call.
5.) Keep a journal of your activities, keep track of your call ratios, and take your temperature.
You’ll never be able to know where you are until you are aware of the exact location you’ve been. If your sales duties involve cold-calling to create leads, you must be monitoring your call ratios each day, with no exceptions! It is vital to be aware of the data and balances, such as how many calls you take throughout the day, the number of people you call, and how many make an appointment. Monitor these numbers every day so that you’ll have new prospects to reach out to and to sell. If you’ve had a rough prospecting phone call or face-to-face interaction, do you take notes of the experience, either good or not? Notes on calls that don’t lead to second meetings and new business is a great way to encourage self-correction that is healthy. Benchmarking is a method used by successful salespeople do. Get started today.
Growth and change are not inevitable. However, it is an option. It’s time to choose in the year 2011. You have the option of choosing to stick with to keep things as they are or decide for a more active approach to creating more business, with actual change, a real improvement.
