The ability to increase sales determines the profitability of your business. Great products, appealing marketing, and an efficient team are good things, but they’re merely expenses leading to losses without sales. Your business grows in size, margin, and profitability without significantly increasing the costs per sale when you optimise your sales strategies.
However, this can only happen if you employ the proper techniques to attract target customers and retain current ones. Even if you already have a solid sales strategy in place, it’s crucial to review them regularly to see if they align with your business goals and the ever-changing needs of your customers.
This guide will walk you through tried and tested sales techniques that will allow you to push your business to success and have a great sales mechanism in place.
7 Mind-blowing Sales Statistics
- At least 50% of your prospects are not a good fit for what you sell. (Source: HubSpot)
- What do buyers want from sales pros? 69% say, “Listen to my needs.” (Source: Zety)
- Customers want consultants, not old-style sales pros—79% of business buyers want their sales reps to be trusted advisors who add value. (Source: Zety)
- Asking questions about your buyer’s goals and pain points leads to better sales success. (Source: Spotio)
- Around 75% of online buyers want to receive between 2–4 phone calls before a company gives up, while 12% would like a company to try as many times as it takes to get a hold of them. (Source: HubSpot)
- About 47% of top performers ask for referrals consistently, versus only 26% of non-top performers. (Source: HubSpot)
- Businesses using marketing automation to nurture prospects experience a 451% increase in qualified leads. (Source: Spotio)
10+ Sales Strategies for Your Business
1. Have a dedicated outbound team
Reaching out to prospects for your products and services can be a complex and challenging task. A lot goes into it, like planning an effective strategy, handling outreach, following up, qualifying leads, building relationships with leads and business partners, and closing deals. To help raise awareness and drive people to your business, you need a separate team targeting potential customers
2. Draw in the right customers
An outbound sales team can help educate prospects on your business while gaining insight on whether there is actual interest in your products and services. Outbound call centres remain an impactful form of sales outreach, with 41.2% of salespeople saying that the phone remains the most effective sales tool since it allows you to get instant feedback and more targeted lead generation.
To generate more sales at less cost, your efforts should be focused on people who are most likely to buy your products and services. When you target your audience, you’re breaking a market into key segments of customers whose needs and desires match your offerings. Aiming your sales efforts at specific groups makes the promotion, pricing, and distribution of your products and services more accessible and cost-effective
3. Listen to your prospects
Listening to your potential customers is crucial if you want to know how your business is performing. Their feedback towards your products and services—may it be anger, excitement, or apathy—provide a roadmap of building your business while establishing a connection of trust and solidarity with them. Communicating with prospects will boost your sales numbers and credibility as a trusted authority in your industry.
4. Upsell, cross-sell, resell
Before spending a significant amount on bringing in new business, look at how you could upsell, cross-sell, and resell to your existing customers. After all, it’s 5–25x more expensive to acquire a new customer than to retain an existing one. One of the fastest ways to make more sales is to get your existing customer base spending more with you.
Upselling encourages the purchase of anything that would make the primary purchase more expensive, such as an upgrade or premium. Cross-selling aims to encourage your customers into buying anything in conjunction with your primary product or service. Finally, reselling involves finding a way to get your customer to purchase your products or services repeatedly.
When choosing to upsell, cross-sell, or resell, make sure there’s a genuine need for another product or service. Get to know your audience by thoroughly studying your target market. From there, you can build out the customer journey and identify how they will use your product or service, along with the challenges they may experience along the way.
5. Use lead scoring to prioritise prospects
The more leads your business generates, the more selective you have to be with your leads. Lead scoring helps you prevent chasing dead-end leads and identify people who are most likely to buy your product or service. Lead scores are a quantitative element that represents how prospects are the best fit for your business.
Lead scoring can also help you prioritise your prospects based on the strongest possibility for closing the sale quickly. This allows your sales team to focus on the most important opportunities, such as closing more deals and better understanding who they’re attracting and what types of leads they should be attracting more.
Structure your lead scoring model according to factors such as demographics, firmographics, behaviour, contextual behaviour, and engagement.
6. Stay on top of qualified leads
Always assume that your prospects are also researching competitor products alongside yours. Therefore, it’s essential to get in touch with qualified leads as quickly as possible to answer any questions, obtain feedback, and guide them through the ways your product or service can help them.
Engage with qualified leads in direct conversation within the first day of signup, but make sure to ask when the proper time is to speak on the phone about how you can be helpful to them. Provide some options for specific times you’ll be able to connect.
7. Articulate results
It’s vital to communicate your results to your prospects once you’ve captured their attention. Customers need to know what they’ll achieve by using your product or service as a solution to their problem. They also need to know what they’re going to get as far as deliverables, when results will be met, and all the benefits and costs.
Focus on the aspects and qualities of your offerings that will appeal to prospects. For instance, if you’re an eco-friendly packaging manufacturer, emphasise the biodegradable materials you use and the data that supports how your packaging contributes to energy efficiency in the long run.
When speaking with investors, emphasise your business model and focus on the ways your products and services will provide net income. Describe your target market, talk about your margins and the cost of materials and labour, and provide information about your earning potential.
8. Incorporate storytelling
Stories have become a staple in the marketing world since people can cognitively retain information better and more efficiently through storytelling. It’s standard for sales departments to put together a pitch that shows why they are the best logical solutions for their prospects. However, for your prospects to visualise your product or service in the context of their needs, you have to connect at an emotional level.
Story plots usually have a clear introduction, middle, and conclusion and should be the basis of your prospect’s journey. Determine who your main character is (target prospect), their main challenge, and how they will overcome that challenge through your product or service.
9. Create a powerful perception of value
To create a powerful perception of value for your business, you need to emphasise the gap between the “before” story (the flawed approach to your prospects’ problem) and the “after” story (the new and improved way). This contrast creates a sense of urgency to take action.
Tied with compelling storytelling, a powerful perception of value is linked with emotion. However, don’t forget to use financial proof and data to enforce how your offering can solve your prospects’ pain points and offer value in the long run. Identify missing gaps or opportunities that affect your prospects’ goals, and then justify the impact of their decision to purchase by telling a customer story with contrast.
10. Follow up
On average, only 2% of sales are made during the first point of contact. That means if you don’t follow up, you’re missing out on potentially 98% of your sales—so don’t stop at having several good sales calls.
Dropping a prospect after the first call results in a “maybe,” which can kill your business. The success of your sales depends on how well you seal deals, and a strong follow-up plan is key to increasing the number of signups from old and new customers, which can positively affect your bottom line.
11. Ask for specific referrals
Instead of targeting all of your clients or customers, focus on your existing network when asking for referrals. Target clients you already have a relationship with, who offer complementary products and services, or in your community.
Your sales strategy should rely on leveraging current customers to get in touch with new leads. They’re likely to refer your products or services to others since they trust and can vouch for you and have a chance to work with you side-by-side.
You can get more high-quality referrals by researching prospects in advance through LinkedIn. The list of their connections and their previous companies can give you an overview of strong potential referrals.
12. Negotiate a win-win scenario
Negotiating for a win-win with your prospects shows respect and intention for a long-term relationship. Every negotiation should be fair and well-balanced and benefits all parties involved. Discuss your interests and create an exchange that has mutual benefits.
For instance, if you get hung up on a minor detail that won’t significantly impact your sale by the end of a big deal, it might turn a prospect away for good. At the same time, you need to know the bottom-line price you’re able to accept even before communication takes place.
Prepare alternatives that exist for both you and your prospects, such as additional features, add-ons, or special offers. You can also research and analyse your competitors and offer facts and data on why your product or service is the best solution. You can then better determine your prices, reservations, timeframes, and terms and conditions.
13. Utilise Automation
Automating and outsourcing whatever you can help reduce the time and money you spend on your operations. For example, automating your sales emails can take away the time you would’ve spent creating new emails. Cloud-based platforms such as HubSpot are virtually hands-off services that can track and organise a sales lead.
Outsourcing work to a remote team can help your business operate more efficiently, so long as you maintain clear lines of communication with the team. It also allows business owners to hire team members from countries where labour costs are lower, saving you money on payroll costs.
Achieving Sales Success: Strategise, Actualise, and Thrive
Regardless of the size of your business, selling a product or service requires strategic planning and effective implementation. Sales strategy encompasses how people buy products and their experience during the entire process, as well as how your sales team should perform to achieve your goals.
Because sales is vital to your business, you need to clearly define what you want to achieve, who your target market is, what you’re going to sell at the right moment, and how you’ll sell it. An effective sales strategy helps coordinate your team efforts and ensures that you’re focused on what needs to be accomplished, how you’re going to achieve it, and why it matters.
Your dedication towards your sales strategy is key, and so is a dedicated team. If you’re looking for business support services or looking to outsource an outbound sales team, consider Australia’s most reliable outsourcing partner in the Philippines, Select VoiceCom. Select VoiceCom can help you put your sales strategy into action while saving you time, effort, and money in achieving sales success in the long run.
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