You’re at your wit’s end. You’re about to experience the mother of all meltdowns because of your abysmal sales record for the past few months.
It stinks to high heaven because you started your business with the thought of turning it into a constant source of income. However, the only thing it has done so far is to suck the money out of your bank accounts.
Friends, if you’re done crying your body weight in tears and are now putting together a new game plan to recover from your rock-bottom sales record, then allow me to help you with that.
We will share with you the best sales tips we managed to put together from 23 industry experts. That way, you can consider their ideas when creating an epic strategy to grow your sales.
We reached out to several industry experts with the hopes of putting together a round-up of 10 industry experts only. However, since we received tons of referrals, we decided to add more to the list. Here is what they had to say:
1. Mark Shapiro, President of Executive Boutique Call Center
“In 2010, I had the good fortune of being introduced to Rochelle Carrington who is a sales trainer for Sandler Sales Training. David Sandler was the founder of a world-wide sales training program that totally changed the way I approached sales. Sandler emphasizes that nobody likes to be ‘sold’ to and the process should not feel like your ‘selling.’
It’s really about taking the time to find out what problems (or ‘pain’ in Sandler terminology) your prospect is having and seeing if you can help them solve their pain. It’s only after you have asked the right questions, which will allow your prospect to open up to you about what is really driving their decision making, that you can really know whether you’re a good fit.
2. Michael Quoc, Founder and CEO of Dealspotr
“Selling has three key steps. First, understand the person. Who are they, and what do they deal with each day? Next, understand what they feel. Go beyond their day-to-day activities and understand the gut-level emotions they feel. What do they desire? What are their fears?
From there, develop an action. What easy, simple, immediate action can you motivate them to take that will move them one step down the sales funnel?”
3. Simon Gould, Managing Director SydneyDigitalMarketing.com.au
“Always agree about what success should look like at the very start of your collaboration, that way, everyone’s expectations are managed from the outset of a new client/agency relationship.”
4. Dan Steiner, CEO and Co-Founder of Elite Legal Marketing
“Using pain points is one of the most important parts of selling. For example, lawyers often envy other lawyers, so use what the competitors are doing as a way of selling. Nobody wants to be second best.”
5. Alejandro Russo, CEO of Candela Premium Mamajuana
“The most important sales tip is to listen. When visiting a potential client, most people go in and start selling. No one likes to be sold to. The best of the best simply sit down, ask questions, and listen. The more you listen, the more fundamental insights you will get that will get you closer to sealing the deal.”
6. Sam Oh, Web Strategist, Digital Marketer and Founder of Money Journal
“Increase your perceived value. I’ve seen way too many companies fight over price. They think that lowering their price is going to bring in more sales. Sometimes, this works, but you also have to take into account the new rates multiplied by sales to reach your desired goals.
Instead, you can increase your perceived value by removing copy that triggers price-based thinking (i.e., cheap, bargain, best price guaranteed) and focus on how others see you. Another increased perceived value is to get your customers to leave reviews for you on authority sites in your niche. For example, restaurants can use Yelp, and authors might want to build their profile on Amazon.
Authority sites already rank well in Google, so when a potential customer is searching for your review, they’ll be on a trusted platform people already believe.”
7. Aaron Agius, Managing Director of Louder Online
“My one sales tip is to make sure you clearly identify who your audience is and where they exist before you start trying to sell. If you try selling to everyone, you’ll end up selling to no one. Get your targeting right first.”
8. AJ Kumar, Founder of Limitless Publishing
“The key to success as a salesperson is adaptability. Being adaptable means you are both flexible and versatile. A flexible person is willing to go with the flow, regardless of what is happening. A versatile person is able to go with the flow. If you learn to be fluent to adapt, you will be a winner every time.”
9. Andrew Medal, Founder of Agent Beta
“Your network becomes your net worth. Focus on the relationship, not the sale. The relationship comes first, and the sale happens after. It may take some time, even as long as ten years, but it’s always worth it.”
10. Joe Martinez, Senior Manager, Paid Media & Community at Granular
“If you search for ‘insect exterminator’ in Google, do you need to see ads explaining what those companies do? No. We all know what exterminators do.
Using this understanding when writing ads and landing page content, I stay away from the what and focus on the why. Why should someone choose you over the competition? What problems will you solve for users? What value do you bring another competitor can’t offer? Does the customer know everything they’re getting from your product or service?
Focus on building user trust and confidence to guide potential customers along the next step in the funnel. If you take away the doubt, the only thing left for a user to do is convert.”
11. Cate Costa, Founder of Venture Catalyst Consulting
“My best tip when it comes to selling is to stop trying to figure out how to sell to your ideal customer and start trying to understand your ideal client. When you get inside the head and heart of your ideal customer and figure out what motivates him/her, you’ll have no trouble selling.”
12. Ashley Faulkes, Founder of Mad Lemmings
“My number one tip for selling is quite simple and certainly not new. It is getting to know your potential clients as deeply and personally as possible and opening up to them in return (instead of being a faceless brand or blog).
The reason I recommend this is as follows: when I started selling services directly online, I found it very hard. But then, things began to work for me via relationships and referrals. The reason was simple: those people knew me, so their referrals trusted me by default. Even if what I was selling was expensive Web Design and SEO services
Then, when I started selling courses, the sales mostly came from people who I knew in one way or another. Sure, there were some complete strangers, but most sales came from people who had followed me or known/interacted with me in some way.
Hopefully, this simple advice can save you from wasting time on scaling sales techniques that just don’t work.”
13. Jayson DeMers, Founder and CEO of AudienceBloom
“My best tip for selling is to be professionally persistent. If you send an email or leave a voicemail, don’t forget to follow up when your prospect inevitably fails to return it. Following up politely but persistently has resulted in many, many new sales for me.”
14. Kristen Vanstrom, Personal Branding Coach
“Don’t fall into a stereotype. Don’t change your personality just to fit the typical sales guy/girl mold. Be relatable. Talk from your personal point of view. Communicating with your customer helps you build trust, and ultimately, leads to long-term customer relationships.”
15. Dmitry Dragilev, Founder of JustReachOut
“When it comes to selling and cold email outreach, I think about the opening conversation starter I want to have with my recipient. If I saw them face to face at a conference, what would I say to them? Many people write stuff in emails that they would never say live face-to-face to someone. So, I always ask what I would say to them live if I met them at a conference for the first time. Regarding the resources and templates I use, I like to use:
- 26 cold email templates
- Email endings
- Find a common topic to chat with them by using one of these PR tools."
16. Mike Loomis, Business Coach and Writer at MikeLoomis.co
“Ask questions that unveil the best solution for your client, and keep asking until all parties are clear on the value of the solution you can offer.”
17. David Leonhardt, Ghostwriter and President of The Happy Guy Marketing
“My best tip to selling a service online is to make it easy for people to contact you no matter where they are on your page. The longer your content or sales pitch, the more important this is. I have a query form to the right of my content at THGMwriters.com.
As you scroll, the form disappears and pops up a red “GET MY FREE QUOTE” button, always there when you need it. With our new fully responsive design, that button is there on all devices, so especially on a tiny screen, you don’t have to search for it.
Why I like this is because I am not a hard sell kind of guy. I hate being sold to, and I don’t like ‘selling’ to people. But I love being served, and I love helping people. Being always there for people when they need me is a natural extension of my personality. Nothing sells like authenticity.”
18. Michael Port, Professional Speaker and NYTimes, WSJ Bestselling Author
“One of my close colleagues, Ian Altman, always says, ‘Price matters most when the seller thinks price matters most.’ You need to be able to value your services so that you are comfortable and confident selling them. If you’re always worried about the price, then other people are not going to buy because you’re insecure. They’ll feel it.”
19. Sarah Rickerd, Owner of Content Conquered
“During a conference that I attended recently, I heard the following tip from author Bob Burg: ‘The value of what you’re selling must be greater than the payment you receive.’ I love that. He’s not saying that you should be undercharging, just that your customers need to see value in what you’re offering that’s above and beyond the particular product or service they’re paying for.
When I work with satisfied clients, for example, they aren’t just paying for articles. They’re paying for the leads and sales that come from using content as a brand-building tool, as well as the time savings of not having to do the writing themselves. When you figure out what your value is and how you can communicate it to potential customers, selling becomes so much easier.”
20. Jeff Shore, Founder of Shore Consulting
“There is a profound psychological hack that salespeople would be wise to consider. When it comes to decision-making, it’s easy equals right. The easier a concept seems to a customer, the ‘righter’ it feels. The opposite is also true: complex equals wrong. This principle explains why feature-dumping is so ineffective. The complexity sends a dangerous message to the prospect’s brain.
Think through the customer’s buying process and ask where that customer sometimes gets confused or overwhelmed. If you can figure out how to simplify the message, you will make it easier for the client to make a decision.”
21. Corey Blake, President at MWI
“When selling, it is crucial that you trust yourself and your offering before anything else. Then, you can sell with confidence that will leave people begging to work with you. Selling with confidence takes all ‘desperation’ out of your sales pitch and leaves potential clients wanting to take part in the ‘exclusive club’ that is your product or service.”
22. John Teel, Founder and Lead Engineer of Predictable Designs
“Start selling from day one. Never wait until your product or service is ready for the market before you actually start to sell it. Developing a new product is by no means trivial, but selling will be your biggest obstacle to success. Most inventors and entrepreneurs make the mistake of focusing all of their energy on developing their product and not nearly enough on selling it.
If you feel more comfortable with product development than product sales, then bring on a co-founder who’s strength is sales. For most start-ups, it’s best if one founder focuses on development, while the other focuses on sales.”
23. Vladimir Gendelman, Founder and CEO of Company Folders
“My best selling tip is to take an authentic interest in your clients. No one wants to buy a product from someone they don’t like. Instead, they would prefer to buy from a friend, so I take an authentic interest in each of my clients. I learn everything about them and their businesses, and I share some of my own stories.
I also don’t make promises I can’t keep. Instead, I put myself in their shoes when a problem comes up and solve the issue in a way that’s most satisfying to the customer. When customers see we genuinely care and feel that personal connection, they are more confident in purchasing from me and more likely to return.”
If you have an amazing sales tip (that’s proven and tested to work) that you’d like to share with our community, do reach out to us. We’ll be more than happy to add you to the list. Cheers!