Are You Sales Focused?
If you’re a coach, consultant, own a restaurant, IT service, or SaaS product, you have one thing in common.
You need to sell your product.
Sales are the lifeblood of any business. Most businesses fail if they’re unable to generate sales. After all, business is all about getting paid to solve a problem. Here are some key sales statistics you should know:
- It takes up to 8 cold calls to reach a prospect.
- Only 60% of sales reps make their quota.
- The sales rep needs 5 further calls to start a sales conversation.
- Prospecting is the most challenging part of sales.
- Poor sales nurturing can make sales persons lose close to 79% of potential revenue.
- Customer satisfaction is vital. About 66% of sales teams measure success through CSAT.
As you can see, sales can be a complicated process and the difference between growing your business or keeping the lights on. Increasing your sales is even more crucial in a world affected by COVID-19.
Everyone struggles with sales at some point.
If you’re a salesperson, you know this more than anyone. Your income and even your job depend on your sales success. You can be making hundreds of calls a week with little success. However, with the right tools, anyone can become a sales superstar. Here are 5 tips every salesperson should know. These tips can help them book more calls, have more natural sales conversations, and close more deals.
1. Personalization matters
It happens all the time on LinkedIn. You accept a connection, and you’re immediately presented with a cold pitch. Consumers are more careful about cold pitches. Salespersons should take the time to research a prospect. Find out about the company, recent achievements, or industry changes. When it’s time to interact via phone, email, or social media, there is a genuine conversation starter. The extra time helps make the prospect more comfortable and willing to hear what you have to say. Make sure to use the prospect’s name and keep following up with engaging information that’s relevant to the client.
2. Focus on listening to your potential customer
Salespersons can be tempted to push their products instead of listening to the needs of the prospect. By asking key questions and taking a step back, you can learn more about the prospect. That extra information helps you gauge what the customer needs. You may even be able to craft a customized solution based on the specific pain points you gathered from just listening more.
3. Be a subject matter expert
An easy way for a prospect to lose confidence is to have a sales rep who does not know the product inside and out. Most salespersons fail because they don’t know and believe in the product. Get as up-to-date as possible. Go through the sales process yourself. Use the product or service and note the pros and cons. Not only would you be able to build confidence in sales conversations, but you can also help solve future issues. Addressing future problems can bring return business.
But let’s not stop there. Position yourself as an expert through certifications, recommendations, and testimonials. Use the website, sales documentation, or social media to share authority, which will attract leads to you. The more you put into learning the product inside and out, the easier the sales process.
4. Build a lead-generating system
According to 99Firms, about 50% of potential prospects are not a good fit. That means all sales reps can only close a max of 50%. Sales goals need high quality leads in the pipeline. Spend as much time and resources in a system to create leads.
First, make sure and set clear lead generation goals. Goals could be from a business level, department level, or individual.
Then, figure out who you will engage the leads to take action. Finally, start driving traffic to your lead generation system.
This could be a combination of cold outreach, email, social selling, and advertising.
I cover the basics of social selling in the video below:
5. Social Media is your secret weapon
Salespersons leave considerable money on the table when they don’t use social media. According to Forbes, 78% of salespersons who use social media outsell their stick-in-the-mud peers.
Take Heather Ballentine, for instance. This supercar Sales Representative uses YouTube to sell Lamborghini cars to fantastic effect.
Her engaging personality, in-depth knowledge, and clear call to actions do all the heavy lifting. If someone wants a Lambo, she won’t need to convince them. They will be there to sign the dotted line.
There is an opportunity on every social media platform. However, I’m a big advocate of using LinkedIn, especially for B2B sales. Four out of five members on LinkedIn drive business decisions. That means these users are more likely to be the person signing the checks.
Your social media content does not need to be as polished as Heather’s. Pull out your camera phone and start adding value, addressing pain points, and objections. As your following grows, you will get more leads from evergreen content.
Step your sales up today
Sales should be an exciting, invigorating process. Some persons are sales naturals while others need coaching and guidance. But when it's all said and done, everyone could sell. It alls comes down to a system, listening, being genuine, persistent, and consistent.
These 5 sales tips can help you become a more confident salesperson. Moreso, if you’re struggling with improving your sales, invest in coaching and courses. My LinkedIn course covers crucial parts of selling in 2020, including Social Selling, and LinkedIn Sales Navigator.
