The secret to making consistent sales is to stop selling.
Instead of pushing for a transaction, salespeople should ask questions, make statements and suggest value propositions that help customers realize they have a need to address.
With that in mind, here are nine essential tips to help sales professionals generate more consistent sales.
1. Be prepared and adopt an advisor mindset
The best salespeople are trusted advisors. That’s truer now than ever with research indicating that over 70% of customers conduct research online before purchasing. Today’s salesperson must be prepared to interact with this highly informed individual and offer personalized advice to enhance what they already know.
2. Listen actively and bring value
Successful sales people are genuinely helpful. Listen closely to what your prospective customer is saying and respond with solutions that meet those expressed needs. This is how you help prospects make their own decision to buy.
A sales professional will soon lose credibility if he or she doesn’t show a deep understanding of a prospect’s needs or doesn’t understand in detail his or her own company’s offerings.
3. Call high
Seek out prospects who have the authority to make an order.
4. Be disciplined
Keep an up-to-date prospects list, where you gather information about each prospect including their needs, their level of interest in your offerings, the date of your last conversation and proposed future steps. Group prospects into categories: Excellent, average or weak leads. This will help you adapt your strategy and follow-up efficiently.
5. Be systematic about generating leads
You need a structured approach to meeting your sales objectives. Make sure you’re systematically generating sufficient sales prospects on a weekly basis. You or your sales team should have specific targets for the number of prospects you need in the pipeline at any given time.
6. Manage your time diligently
Pull the weeds from your garden. Identify leads who will never buy from you and focus your energy elsewhere.
7. Be ready to respond to objections
You have to be prepared to handle them immediately. Potential customers may have read online reviews of your product or service, or compared features against those offered by competitors. Assume he or she has done research and be ready to respond to any concerns or reasons to resist buying.
8. Ask for a next step
Every time you have a telephone call or face-to-face meeting with a prospect, you should sell a concrete next action. If you’re not closing the sale at that point, ask if you could get together again and continue the discussion. This is how you know whether you can take this further or you’re just wasting your time and energy.
9. Ask for referrals
Recommendations from satisfied customers build your credibility and increase your trustworthiness in the minds of prospects. Referrals shorten the selling cycle and enhance the chances you’ll get the sale.
Source: Business Development Bank of Canada
