Sales is often what drives a business. Without customers, you don’t have a company to run. Yet, at the same time, sales is often neglected – seen as either intuitive or uncomplicated. Nothing could be further from the truth. Before you send your salesmen out into the field, you should try streamlining your sales process. It’ll make their job, and your job, a whole heck of a lot easier.
Be Clear About Your Value Proposition
Do not, under any circumstances, walk into a sales meeting without a clear value proposition. It only wastes your time and your prospect’s time. No one likes that. A value proposition is something you have to offer that no one else can. So, for example, if you sell pizza, you might have a value proposition that goes something like this: “Fresh, hot, pizza in 30 minutes or less, guaranteed!” In fact, this was Domino Pizza’s value proposition for many years and it’s what created the pizza giant.
It was a differentiator in a market that had grown stale. Every market, no matter how dynamic, has a stale element. Every market has room for improvement. Be that improvement and advertise it to your prospects.
Use Contact Management Software
Good contact management software keeps you and your prospects (and clients) connected through multiple channels. For example, a good software solution will keep contacting your prospects via email at least once per week. It will remind you of important life-events like birthdays and holidays. It will even help you sort and organize your prospects by what they’ve purchased, where they are in a sales cycle, and whom you haven’t talked to in a while.
Don’t Try To Push Sales
One of the biggest mistakes that both sales managers and employees make is that they try to “push” the sale. They believe that the closing techniques used in movies are the best way to move a sale along when it’s “stuck.”
The truth is that, even when you can make sales this way, you often see a high reversal rate – buyer’s remorse. You also create an antagonistic relationship between you and the customer. They start seeing you as a “salesperson” instead of someone trying to help them.
People buy when they’re ready to buy, not when you’re ready to sell. So, the best way to turn a prospect into a lifelong customer is to keep in touch with them, always trying to solve problems. If you can bring problems to the forefront of a prospect’s mind, all the better. Remember, you’re a problem-solver, not a peddler.
Target High-Value Prospects
High-value prospects can mean a couple of things. First, it means you should be going after prospects with money. Prospects with no money cannot afford whatever it is you’re selling. Secondly, target people who actually have a need for your product. Your market is not, and never will be, “anyone who fogs a mirror.” It doesn’t matter if you’re in the remodeling business or the pots and pans business. You do not sell to everyone. Define your market and only sell to these people.
Provide Better Training
Your salesforce probably needs better training. So, set up a quarterly sales training program that will help them constantly improve on their technique as well as their general approach to sales.
Frederick Davis is a seasoned business sales guru. When he’s not training others to close the deal, he often blogs about the tips and tricks to sales success in today’s economy.
