Sales Techniques – Free Sales Training Articles and Courses

Every sales professional should have a reference library on effective selling techniques. There are lots of sales trainers who dispel “sales wisdom,” which in reality does not help the salesperson improve their sales close rates. Gathered from sales interviews and insights from sales leaders, here are some really effective selling techniques that have been proven to work. Ten sales technique tips that might help improve sales performance.

1. Find the real problem or pain point the prospect is communicating.  Do not fall into the trap of assuming that the prospect is communicating the true problem that needs solving, the so-called “red herring.” It is important to dive deeper into every customer scenario. Like a doctor, a sales professional must ask, “Is this the prospect’s real pain point, or is it just a niggle?” Then, prior to diagnosing and offering a solution on how to address their challenges, more questions need to be asked in order to get at the root of the customer's problem or pain, and then it is the job of the salesperson to demonstrate value to the prospect by aligning the product to the customer's real goal.
2. Telling is not selling.  In the agreement staircase, a sales professional should always be helping the potential customer discover the best reasons to buy from their company and never ever telling them why they should. The potential customer should have decided they will be buying from you before the final proposal or presentation.
3. Two ears and one mouth. The gift of the gab does not hold true. Salespeople should seek first to understand and then to be understood. The first priority is about listening and asking questions. In a digital world, if a prospect wants the lowdown on a company’s products or services, all they have to do is visit the website. Selling is a series of conversations and building trust via honest exchange of information.
4. Put yourself in your customer’s shoes.  Buyers go through a process of self-discovery and education before reaching a decision on which product or service is the right solution. Customers do not like being railroaded and being told what to buy. To avoid the “selling by telling” scenario, it is critical to ask key questions or relate the “feel, felt, found” third-party stories, which guide the customer to discover the benefits and advantages of your product or services. When a salesperson asks open-ended questions that lead to a discovery, the customer themselves owns the discovery, and buyer resistance reduces. Customers do not tend to argue with their own logic.
5. Ask, Sell, Educate. The first goal in selling is to find prospects and then ask why, and under what circumstances, the prospect will buy from you. Asking questions and listening comes first; the sharing of materials, data, and specifics comes next. Ask, sell, and educate in that order.
6. A salesperson’s time is valuable too.  As the sales conversation progresses, a salesperson must make the decision whether or not to continue investing time in the relationship building with the prospect. If a salesperson is a poor decision maker in order to keep the prospect in their pipeline, the lack of clarity and decisive action will be mirrored in the prospect’s actions. A golden rule of sales is the shorter the selling cycle, the more leads that will close.
7. Never Assume. A good sales professional always gets the facts from the prospect about what they need and why. When a prospect is vague with detail, ask for clarity. Never fall into the trap of being a mind reader. When salespeople jump to conclusions, assumptions are made that lead to a waste of valuable time and opportunities being squandered. As the saying goes, Assume is to make an ass out of you and me.
8. Never work for free. When and if a prospect asks for free work, proof of concept, or consultancy before they will make a buying decision, play the “What If” sales game. Paint a what-if picture for the prospect where the additional groundwork or consultancy is completed, which is then a solution that fits everything the prospect needs. What happens next? Will they give you the purchase order? If the prospect flinches at sealing the deal even after the additional free work is completed, or if they introduce another step in the sales process, it may be time to walk away or focus on the new step in the sales process. When you want to know where you stand, focus on the present.
9. Be tough on yourself. It can be too easy to cast blame on the prospect for stalling the process or wasting your time. Instead, look towards yourself. It is the role of every salesperson to guide, assure, and inform the prospect, plus address any detours along the way. The most effective way to improve sales success is to continue to refine your own sales approach and technique while valuing your time.
10. Never perfume the pig.  Never ignore any product limitations or cover over any issues the prospect identifies during the sales process. Always try to be open and transparent about product advantages, parity, and disadvantages during the selling cycle. The prospect will respect a salesperson that is mature enough to never try and blanket over anything, instead turning the focus on how together you can problem-solve, creating a win/win team approach to the prospect's solution.

So there you have the ten sales techniques. It is not an exhaustive list or even suggesting it is all-encompassing, but even if you find one suggestion that will work for you in your sales career, then maybe the ten minutes spent reading this article were worth it. Happy selling, and for more sales tips articles, visit the Bitter Business.

Sales Techniques – Free Sales Training Articles and Courses

Handling Sales Objections – Free Sales Training Articles and Insights

Handling sales objections is a normal part of the sales process. It has been stated many times that a sale doesn’t really start until the customer gives some objections. Handling sales objections is part and parcel of any sales conversation. It is just another sales skill to be mastered as part of any sales process.

Handling sales objections

With your sales mindset fully tuned, you see any sales objection as an opportunity to learn more about the customer’s needs, and to then open up a simple sales conversation with some pointed questions or a personalized value proposition.

The best tip for handling sales objections is to be prepared. They are going to happen in nearly every sales proposal. So, walk in the customer’s shoes, what objections will they have as they relate to what you are selling. You can pre-empt objections (not all of them or all the time) via the use of discovery questions that lead to Aha moments, uncovering needs and a strong, personalized value proposition.

Objection handling Sales Skills

So, here are some techniques and tips on objection handling in sales conversations.

Technique 1.  The 3F Model.

Feel Felt and Found

Example: I understand how you feel, lots of my customers have felt this way, but they found out by doing x, y or z they [name the outcome] ……………………….

Technique 2. Defuse

Example: It’s great you are happy with your existing process, I’m not trying to sell you anything, I’m more interested in understanding your business in case we can help you sometime in the future, can I ask you……………………

Technique 3. Redirect

Example: I appreciate you have no budget right now; I know that lots of my customers face challenges with the purchasing process for [insert your product/solutions]. So, they plan in advance. How does that work with your budget constraints?

Technique 4. Challenge

Example: You have no budget now because you don’t see [my solution] as a priority or your budget is currently tied up?

Not a priority- see technique 1 above.

Budget tied up – how will that hamper your ability to [ list the key problem you solve and include some urgent factor]

OR

I accept what you are saying, however if by no budget you mean no budget for [my solution], leaving budget aside – what would it take for you at least explore the results I know I can deliver for you?

Handling Sales Objections

To help you handle sales objections in the real world, we have listed some common customer objections below.

First up is “The Status Quo sales objection”. The biggest competition in selling, isn’t your competition but the customers preference for not changing. The “happy with what I have “sales objection is a resistance to change or they are happy in their status quo position. The 3F model and defuse techniques work well here.

This sales objection usually goes like this: We’re happy with our current supplier and aren’t looking for anything else.

1.Answer:  That’s great, if they are delivering for you within your budgets and criteria, then I completely understand. I’m not asking you to give me your business but if anything did go wrong in the future, what criteria will you use to select an alternative supplier? Perhaps if you knew a little more about what we do, I might be able to earn some of your business if ever your current supplier let you down?  Would you like to see what we offer over a quick 10-minute call?

2. Answer: completely understand, like lots of decisions you probably moved to your current supplier for a reason. The world of [my solution/technology/market] keeps changing, not to mention the need to [ name a pain point] or reduce costs. That’s why we [company name] [call out your 2 to 3-line value proposition for this specific customer, so it must be personalized]. Quick question, what would it take to be added as an alternative supplier in case anything ever went wrong?

3.Answer: Great to hear. What is it they are delivering for you that shuts out anyone else trying to win your custom?

4. Answer: That is fine, I’m not trying to elbow out anyone you have built a relationship with and is delivering for you. But like everything in business, things evolve and change, so when was the last time you considered reviewing other options for [ name your solution]?

5. Answer: I understand that you feel no need to change, in fact the vast majority of our customers felt the same way until they found out how that using our [name your solution] to [your 2 to 3 line value proposition]. Can I ask you quickly, if you could improve one thing when it comes to [the problem you are solving], what would it be?

The next sales objection is the “send me an email”. Is this an objection, genuine call for information or a red herring to get you off the phone?

Does this sound familiar: Can you send me an email?

1. Answer: Sure. What is your email address?  What information can I provide you with that you’d find valuable? [continue with more discovery questions that you can highlight the answer to in the follow up email]

2. Answer: Of course. Just so I can meet your expectations with what to email you, can I ask what are your concerns or challenges around [name the problem you are solving]?

3. Answer: I’m more than happy to email you our information but I want you to know that I’m not trying to sell you anything as I don’t know if your company is a good fit for our [name your solution plus benefits]. What is your view on [ ask an insightful discovery question]?

4. Answer: Sure, just give me your email address. In order to know a little more about our company and solutions, what information do you need to see from me for us to continue a conversation in a bit more depth?

Another common objection handling situation is the “No budget available”. If this sales objection happens early in a sales conversation or during a discovery call, then refer to the status quo objection and techniques listed above. The other approach is the reality that they have zero budget right now!!

Prospect says: I don’t have any budget for [your product or solution]

1. Answer: I completely understand, can I ask how do you allocate your budgets and when does your new budget get approved?

2. Answer: That is no issue, I’m more interested in understanding your business than selling anything. I really want to open a dialog with you to give you some valuable insights without taking up too much of your time. [Ask a deep discovery question where you can answer and give the customer an “Aha” moment.]

Then we come to the “better price elsewhere” objection. Buyers decide on price when they can’t see the difference between two products. Research shows that (apart from low regret decisions) price is never the number one deciding factor. Pricing in the more complex or potentially high regret decision usually comes in as the third or fourth factor.

1. Answer: You obviously have concerns about the value my product/solution can bring to your business. Can I ask you what or to whom are you comparing me against? [focus on the outcomes and your points of differentiation, do not haggle on price as they just may need reinforcing on Why You.]

2. Answer: Is the price the only thing getting in the way of you placing an order with me? [when asking this question, you must get a full “Yes commitment” answer]. So, if we can agree on a pricing structure [not discount, pricing structure could be how they pay for it] today, do I have your business? https://www.youtube.com/embed/X7rRxNkLnKc?controls=0

There are many, many more objection handling techniques or answers than those outlined here. Objection handling sales skills training is a key sale skill every salesperson must master to be successful at selling or cold calling. We hope some of the techniques and tips on objection handling will help you improve your progress in any sales conversation. Remember, sales objections should be planned for in your sales process or sales training and prepared to handle in every conversation you have with a prospect or customer.

Handling Sales Objections – Free Sales Training Articles and Insights: 

Sales Training Tips

Sales Training Tips: sales training tips to maximise sales performance and investment in sales training.

Sales training is about giving salespeople the skills and tools to be successful. Effective sales training and coaching will cover topics such as: Core selling skills, communication, mindset, motivation, reinforcement, retention and implementation.
These sales training tips have been formulated to deliver actual, real-life results to help  salespeople acquire the the selling skills without the jargon that often surrounds sales training.

Sales Training Insights
Research has shown it can take 10 months or more for a new salesperson to be fully productive. It may surprise you but 55% of salespeople lack basic sales skills and nearly 60% of buyers say the salespeople are unable to answer their questions effectively. The reality is that lack of sales training hurts companies. When sales people lack training or not briefed properly on the sales playbook, process or how to use the various sales tools effectively, then companies can spend a lot of time, energy and resources with zero impact on sales results. The flipside is that a strong commitment to ongoing sales training whether thats online, in class, seminars, workshops etc. will give any sales team a competitive advantage.  

"Companies where salespeople can implement the correct sales methodology and get consistent coaching see over 80% target achievement".

Sales Training Motivation
To start, the best sales training will improve the performance of an individual salesperson on average by 20%.  Another sales training statistic is that 65% of salespeople say the quality of training and learning positively influences their engagement with customers or prospects.
So, well planned, content rich sales training courses supported by a culture of learning will cultivate salespeople that are willing, eager and ready to use the knowledge given to them in their daily sales activities.

Sales Performance Improvement

Sales Performance Improvement: Tips on sales performance improvement for sustainable sales growth

Sales performance improvement is a program of sales training and self development courses to accelerate revenue growth within a company. Sales performance improvement initiatives deliver the best results when sales management and leadership take a partnership approach where ideas and inputs are solicited from the salespeople, and then used in the various courses or programs.
This support approach gives the sales teams the confidence and ownership to improve the sales performance goals. Before setting any sales performance improvement goals, sales leadership has to acknowledge that it is a process not an event, it is a continuous improvement process NOT a single sales training event.

With longer sales cycles, smaller budgets, multiple decision makers and more educated buyers, every business who is striving to achieve sales growth will want to improve sales effectiveness and efficiency through process,tools and technology.

The first step is to understand that sustainable sales performance improvement is a change management project which can lead to resistance and uncertainty, especially if seen as interfering with the current sales model. So it needs to be resourced and planned properly.

The next step is to review existing sales performance improvement assets such as sales training materials, courses, videos, sales playbooks, tools and competency guidelines, as they all play a key role in driving improvement. A business may not have any or all of this content and some or all of the content may not be available in digital formats.

The first real decision in creating a sales performance improvement plan may be to choose between (1) content that is ready (but doesn’t meet the current needs) and use it anyway OR  (2) invest in refreshing, upgrading and transforming the content and templates etc for digital access. A point to note is that research shows that salespeople's learning habits and preferences are changing. They they want shorter, more engaging learning content, for example sales training videos or sales training courses that can be accessed online as needed or accessed in their down time.

Document Areas for Sales Performance Improvement

Sales leadership in tandem with the sales teams views need to create a baseline improvement expectation across ALL steps in the sales process for every sales team member. Then the sales managers or sales trainers needs to document what areas have been identified that require improvement for (a) the steps in the sales process and (b) for each salesperson. These in turn would be discussed with each individual as part of the overall sales training and development plan.
It is important to remember that when documenting and creating a paper trail for each sales performance improvement area is to ensure that all the information gathered is entirely objective, fact based, and specific. The trainer, coach or manager should avoid generalities and provide detailed examples to support each area that is to be addressed. Once the sales performance improvement areas have been communicated to all stakeholders, a number of templates will now need to be created. These typically include what was expected in the agreed sales performance plan and what was actually delivered. Other templates or documents, maybe as part of the companies sales playbook could include action plans, reviews and consequences of veering outside the agreed process's in the plan.

Sales Performance Should Match Salespeople's Goals

Sales performance improvement needs to be aligned to each individual salesperson and their goals from their action plan should be personalized. Within the overall plan, align goals that focus on areas of self-development and personal improvement, individual to each salesperson. To ensure ownership by the sales team for the plan, within the sales training section of the sales performance improvement plan, give each salesperson the opportunity to enhance areas where they are already competent and improve areas where they agree they have a skills deficit.
To migrate any perceived disruption or risk, a company can start by introducing a smaller sales performance improvement plan with lower goals. An example would be a goal to improve a salespersons sales habit loop such as doing 10 minutes research work ( the research work output should be documented) prior to making a sales call. Another goal example is for a salesperson during quiet time to engage in social/digital selling to connect with existing customers or prospects in the pipeline (again, goals need to be set). Take note that rolling out a new sales improvement plan with goals is not enough, the salespeople have to understand that there be also be consequences such as reviews and evaluations.

Time stops for no one and in a rapidly changing sales environment if there ever was a time to take action to improve sales performance, it's now. Sales leadership, management and trainers need to plan for the future, the future sales model, the future sales strategy, the customers buying journey, the role salespeople will be expected to execute against and how the business plans to develop their salespeople so everyone has a mandate to doing things better.

Future looking leaders never let the pursuit of profit get in their way of progress. Much like any change management process, the sales performance improvement plan will face obstacles and encounter issues. Sales leaders need to focus on how they envision their sales engine performance and sales growth in one to three years time. This includes working with the sales training and development resources to put some well thought out initiatives into play ASAP, as they can often just comply with current objectives. However, they also need to know that management supports them and communicate that it’s not just OK but VITAL that the business  adopts new ways of getting salespeople to learn, develop and grow, so sales performance improvement will be a constant not just an event.

Sales Training Ireland

Sales Training Ireland: Free sales training courses and articles for salespeople based in Ireland

Sales Training, Sales Transformation and Sales Enablement are core areas to be addressed for sustainable sales success in the digital age. The roles and activities of salespeople are  changing rapidly due to the influence of social media, buyer preferences and sales channels. Whether salespeople are selling locally into Ireland or internationally, potential customers and buyers are changing the rules - they are online, digitally and socially networked and more educated in the sales process than their predecessors. These changes into the dynamic of buyer to supplier relationships is now being felt across sales organisations. The biggest question facing sales leaders and management is “How will sales training and education help the sales teams to research, find, communicate and engage clients or prospects across different channels?”.

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Apart from the free sales training articles and tips on this site, we can also deliver highly personalised sales training courses and sales training workshops across a broad set of requirements to salespeople who want to improve their selling skills in sales prospecting, business development, building leads, social selling, lead nurturing, building pipeline revenue, sales process and modern selling techniques.

The goal of Sales Tips is to improve the performance of sales people in Ireland. We research, write and train sales people on the latest techniques and proven sales methodologies. We hope our free sales training articles will improve the knowledge, selling skills, presentation skills and communication skills of each and every sales person who visits this site. From a commercial standpoint, we strive to ensure that all our customers receive real, sustainable value from our sales training.
With a proven track record in delivery of sales strategy, we can raise the skill levels of sales people in the areas of sales communication, sales conversations, prospecting, account development, collaborate and value based selling. Our sales training is personalised to the individual needs of each customer, where sales performance improvement of 10-20% is commonplace. Sales Tips constantly review market trends, sales tools and research for our free sales training articles and workshops to help salespeople become the most effective, confident and efficient sales professionals in their industry.
For further information on our personalised in-house sales training courses and sales training workshops across Ireland, email us via our contact form click here.

Sales Techniques

Sales Techniques: sales techniques tips

A series of sales techniques tips to help salespeople in the sales process whether up-selling to an existing client or trying to open a conversation with a new prospect. Every salesperson regardless of experience needs to acquire a set of sales techniques they can use in any sales situation to progress an opportunity. This list of techniques will hopefully help salespeople to  improve their sales performance.

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Online Sales Training Course

Online Sales Training Course: Online sales training course covering all the key sales skills with modules on sales prospecting,business development and selling tactics etc.

An online sales training course that has been created to meet the expectations of both the beginner and more experienced salesperson. Every professional salesperson understands that they need to build relationships with sets of buyers or customers, which over time leads to sales. Through The Digital Sales Institute sales training course, you’ll learn to how to open, nurture, build and sustain meaningful relationships that profits both parties. 

In the self-educating, digital era, we know buyers and customers can have completed most of the buying process without ever engaging or talking to a salesperson. In fact, due to the ability to easily gather research online and the openness of SaaS models, a buyer can compare and complete a B2B purchase without ever interacting with salespeople. The point is that the time to rethink the impact of the more traditional sales tactics is now, as many of these do not simply work any longer. This change in the buyers journey and the knock on effect to the sales process means salespeople need to transform their sales training and techniques for the digital age.

Any good online sales training course will blend the tried, tested and still relevant sales skills with modern sales techniques that are proven to get the tech savvy buyer to listen whether thats offline or online.  Learning to sell better means adapting to changing buyer habits, and nothing’s changed the sales process more dramatically in recent times than the rise of social media and digital channels. Our online sales course has been specifically designed to help any salesperson to bridge the skills gap, adapt a sellers mindset and take a more rewarding approach to the critical role of selling. The sales course online is divided into modules and separate lesson topics to allow salespeople to target the specific sales area they wish to improve, a sales training course complete with lessons that have been developed by industry experts. A range of sales training courses that includes sales prospecting, closing deals faster, creating and building trusting relationships, coping with the uncomfortable and overcoming hurdles or objections. The Digital Sales Institute online sales training course is self-paced, so a salesperson start and pick up again wherever they left off previously.

Sales Training Class

The goal of the training course is for learners to build modern sales skills and gain the fundamental knowledge necessary for sales success in the digital era through a series of online training lessons. The online sales training course participants will acquire the selling skills to do meaningful research, gather market and client intelligence, select who to target, understand the buyer whys, then develop relationships across a broad range of buyer personas, and propose personalized solutions that addresses the pain points or business challenges of the customers they interact with.

Sales Performance Improvement

Most sales performance improvement is as a result of the digital transformation in sales, which has seen sales leaders focus in on the development and enablement of their sales force.  Sales performance improvement is a process not an event, it is a continuous improvement process versus a single sales training event.

No business who is serious about sales growth will want to miss out on the opportunity to improve sales effectiveness and efficiency through process,tools or technology. However, sales performance improvement is a change management project which can lead to fear and uncertainty, especially if seen as interfering with current sales practices.  Sales performance improvement templates such as sales training materials, sales playbooks, tools and competency guidelines all play a central role in driving improvement. For many companies they may not have any or all of this content and then much of the content may not be available for digital consumption.

The first step in creating a sales performance improvement plan may be to choose between content that is ready but doesn’t meet the current needs, then continue to use the existing content in the old way, or invest in transforming the content and templates for digital access. In today’s digital era, we know that salespeople’s learning habits and preferences are changing. Research shows they want shorter, more engaging learning content, for example sales training video that can be consumed online as needed or accessed in their quiet time.

Begin By Documenting Areas for Improvement
Once the business has created a baseline expectation across the sales process for every sales team member, the sales manager or supervisor needs to learn how to properly document what areas require improvement for both the steps in the sales process and for each salesperson. This would then we discussed with each individual as part of a training and review plan. The important thing to remember when creating a paper trail for each sales performance improvement plan is to ensure that the information gathered is entirely objective, fact based, and specific. Needless to remark, the manager or supervisor should avoid generalities and provide detailed examples as much as possible. Once the sales performance improvement areas have been communicated, a number of templates will need to be created. This include what was expected in the sales performance plan and what was actually delivered. Other templates (as part of a sales playbook) could include consequences of veering outside the agreed process’s, action plans and reviews.

Sales Performance Makes Salespeople Goals Personal

Regardless of the sales improvement or sales enablement plan, every salespersons goals should be truly personalized. Within the general plan, take account for goals that focus on areas of personal improvement, individual to each sales team member. To future proof the business, within the sales training section of the sales performance improvement plan, give each salesperson the opportunity to enhance areas where they are already competent and improve areas where there is a skills deficit.

To reduce risk, start by introducing a smaller sales performance improvement plan with lower goals, goals that could improve a salespersons sales habit loop such as doing 10 minutes prep work ( the prep work output should be documented) prior to making a call, or using quiet time to engage in social selling to connect with existing customers or prospects (again, goals need to be set). However, just rolling out some new sales improvement plan with goals is not enough, there also needs to be consequences such as reviews and evaluations.

Let me conclude with one of my favorite sayings, “Fortune favors the brave”, and in a rapidly changing sales environment if there ever was a time to be brave, it’s now. Take time to think differently about your sales model, your sales strategy, your customers buying journey, the role you expect salespeople to execute against and how you plan to develop your sales talent so everyone can commit to doing things better. Never let the pursuit of profit get in the way of progress. Every sales performance improvement plan will face obstacles and encounter issues, so focus on how you envision your sales engine performance in 1,2 or 3 years time. Finally, encourage your sales training and development teams to put some well thought out initiatives into play as they can often be risk-averse. Then back them up, and let them know that it’s not just OK but vital to adopt new ways of getting salespeople to learn and develop, so sales performance improvement will be a constant not just an event.

Sales Performance Improvement – Sales Training Company - The Bitter Business: Sales Performance Improvement

A Guide to Sales Prospecting

A Guide to Sales Prospecting 

Sales prospecting whether using cold calling, social selling, emails or referrals is a vital sales tactic especially for new or small businesses.  Prospecting and sales are not the same thing, prospecting is solely focused on searching and engaging with potential customers in order to nurture a relationship. The sales event happens once the prospect has passed some qualification criteria.  The act of picking up the phone or sending a cold email can seem daunting to a salesperson, especially if they work for a company whose product or brand name might not be instantly recognizable.

50% of sales time is wasted on unproductive prospecting. [Source: The B2B Lead]

So, here is a guide for sales prospecting success:

Use Social Selling and Digital Selling to counteract lack of name recognition.

Using social selling and digital selling tactics can overcome many of the bigger obstacles for new or smaller companies. As Confucius stated “Worry not that no one knows you; seek to be worth knowing.” So, start by really understanding your value proposition and be clear about the buyer pain points and business challenges your company solves.
Givers Gain. The ability to demonstrate (visually using video or content on social media) that you understand your prospects challenges and that you can be a useful source of information to help them improve their business will result in increased relevant connections.

Share first, sell later. Sharing insights and quality information without a big sales pitch is what will get attention from buyers. Use video, case studies, whitepapers, references etc to gentle highlight the benefits of considering your business. Give examples of what makes you different, whether it is a unique product, free trials, lower cost of ownership, proof of concepts or improved performance. Seeding the benefits of doing business with you that can be viewed online will only reinforce your other sales prospecting efforts.

The first step is to create a list of unique benefits and values that will displace any perceived lack of recognition or recall. Building a social selling and digital selling strategy aimed at specific audiences will position the business as one worth considering when it comes to looking for new providers.

Know who you sell to and who will buy from you

Knowing who you want to sell to and who will buy from you are not the same. If you want everyone as a customer, you will sell to no-one. Create 1,2 or 3 Ideal Customer Profiles. In fact, focusing in on who you want to engage is probably THE most important aspect of sales prospecting. To maximize your success, ensure that you prioritize the prospects and profiles in order to improve the chances of providing value to them and their challenges.

Effective Sales Techniques Tips Video from The Digital Sales Institute

During the research stage, the goals to work towards include:

• To determine if the prospect is worth investing time in
• List, score, and begin to prioritize prospects
• Identify touch points (via social or otherwise) to develop a connection through content, message personalization, nurturing and influence development

Seek to Be Useful, Valuable and Relevant

Regardless of whether you try to engage via cold calling, email or social selling, you should seek to be a useful, valuable and relevant contact. Learn how to social listen so you can research their company and understand their business. What trigger events can you uncover that would warrant engaging with you. Have they just launched a new product? Hired a new CEO, moving to a bigger office, Acquired a new company? Trigger selling is where you leverage specific information to make a prospecting touch point relevant, more informed, and less cold.

Become skilled at Social Selling and Digital Selling

The fact is that while still they still deliver results, cold calling and unsolicited emails are not as powerful as they once were. They still have a place in sales prospecting if used in conjunction with social selling. This activity involves the use of LinkedIn, Twitter and increasingly Facebook as part of the sales process to raise buyer awareness towards a business and then gradually cultivating new connections. Learn to use social media to build relationships before a prospect even starts a buyer’s journey, to close the conversion gap and eventually move online social conversations into offline sales conversations. Social selling is an additive process to connect with all stakeholders, decision-makers and influencers as the buying process moves from status quo, to awareness and onto consideration.

Using your Ideal Customer Profiles, locate and list your prospects on LinkedIn, then begin by sharing quality content, be seen to add value to conversations prior to sending out a connection request. Using a highly personalized message, referencing something that will twig their interest will greatly improve their likelihood to accept your request to connect to them. Now, this can turn your first ‘cold’ call touch point into a warm call and increase the percentage of appointments or demos.

Multi-Channel Sales Prospecting Touch Points

Not one single sales prospecting touch point (Social Selling, Emailing or Cold Calling) should be your entire tactic. C level executives receive over 100 emails a day and try to avoid numerous cold pitches so the likelihood of success by simply focusing on one tactic will probably deliver slim pickings.

Successful sales prospecting is about communication and getting commitments. There will always be person to person personalised communication, so learn the multi-channel techniques to overcome any lack of name recognition on calls and mails. The buying committee is now on average made up of 5 to 6 people, so think multi prospecting touch points to multiple people as part of your sales process if you want to build recognition for the business.

As buyers self-educate, getting their time and attention isn’t easy, but perfecting the channels and timing of when to engage them will dramatically close the conversion gap and increase the number sales conversations you secure.

Learn the Sales Habit Loop, Set a Daily Schedule for Yourself

It takes 66 days on average to learn a new habit, so as basic as it sounds, plan your day, book time slots for different prospecting tactics in your calendar, daily. Then persist with it and prospect. Make it part of your daily routine and give yourself a reward not just for the success but also for the effort.  Selling is a repetitive job, it can be easy to dedicate ourselves to the “easier” sales tasks. Even when your sales pipeline seems full, remember over 80% of prospects make it all the way through the sales process and never make a decision. So, you must have a sales habit loop that consistently refreshes the number of sales prospects you are planning to or are currently engaging.

Never stop Learning

Take time to reassess your sales prospecting process to see what activities generated some return and which ones did not deliver.

After each prospecting campaign, take time to assess how well we:

• Found a pain point or trigger
• Were able to engage in meaningful conversations
• Uncovered challenges
• Understood the buying committee and decision process
• Gave buyers reasons to move out of their status quo
• Closed the conversion gap

Persistence. Learn, have a routine, Try, then try again, reflect, refresh, adjust and go again. And again, and again. Taking time to self-reflect will serve to further improve sales prospecting techniques for future campaigns. Here are some more sales training articles and videos. 

Powerful Sales Techniques – Sales Training Company - The Bitter Business

Powerful Sales Techniques – Sales Training Company - The Bitter Business: Insight into some powerful sales techniques to help prepare when it comes to engaging a customer or prospect. Whether you are a seasoned sales professional or new into sales, you need to have a set of sales techniques you can draw upon to hit those sales targets. The list of techniques to follow should help increase the approach and interactions to improve sales performance.

Sales Techniques begins with Planning and Preparation.

Sales is a process, not an event, meaning that planning and preparation are sales techniques. This technique is about learning to gather information and insights about a contact plus their company. Being competent to have an in-depth discussion about a customer’s industry, markets, news and trends is often one of the sales techniques salespeople struggles with. Coming armed with insights will not only help build credibility with the customer but also show that you have a genuine interest in their business.  Start by using social media to gather some insights, use Google news or companies blog for announcements, research their industry for trends and forecasts. The more information, the better as it can help build a picture of the customers challenges etc. Now plan out the steps, questions and discussions for the call, meeting or presentation. Using the insights, you have gathered, create a personalized value proposition for this customer and what is it in for them to listen to you.  Don’t forget to also plan out the opening statement and 3 or 4 discovery questions so you can get their awareness and attention based on your knowledge.

Challenge the Status Quo.

Learn to challenge the customers status quo because in sales the biggest competitor in securing a deal is not the competition but the buyers status quo position. Status quo comfort or the natural inclination for people to avoid change is one of the biggest obstacles in sales. On a scale of 1 to 10 for sales techniques difficulty, this one is an 8 or 9.  The sales skill here is to understand the customers status quo then uncover everything that makes up their status quo to determine how, if, why and when any change would be required or more importantly accepted internally. To master the sales technique of challenging the status quo, we need to change our mindset to “Servant Sellers”. Servant sellers are willing to work with the buyer as a change agent. This involves undertaking all the grunt work, the running around, the gathering of information from multiple parties and other members of the buying committee who will also not have shifted their status quo position.

The sales techniques include magnifying the pain points, making the challenges, obstacles or opportunities as real as possible plus positioning the true cost of doing nothing as unbearable.  The result we all look for is that our proposed solution gets moved up on the customer’s priority to-do list.

A few questions to note are:

“How would you describe your current situation? (in relation to your product)”

“What is your process for [name it] right now?”

“Which improvements would you seek if you had a choice?”

“Is there anything about your current solution to [name it] that you wish was easier?”
“Could you help me understand this better?”

“What is the impact of leaving things as they currently are?”

“What would you consider to be the obstacles in finding a solution?”

“What is the knock-on effect and cost to the business if your current solution can’t [ scale, adapt, cope, change, etc]?”

“What insights or event would trigger you to explore alternative options now?”

Be a MOP – Master of Performance.

All the worlds a stage, and salespeople are the players who make buying easier. You see, every single interaction with a customer is an opportunity to perform, to build credibility, to influence, to be seen as useful, and to gain their trust. Everything from our tone of voice, from the way we dress, to what is said and just as important – how it is said, is all part of the sales performance. The quality and relevancy of the information we impart is what determines how we progress. People buy from experts and advisors, so confidence is vital. Similar to an actor, learn to tell stories, talk at a measured pace to allow the words flow naturally. Use facts or data with a raised pitch within the story to display confidence. Have the business acumen to know the customer is asking themselves “Why should I listen” and “How are you different from my current supplier”. So be prepared to answer this as part of your sales performance.

Sales 3.0 is about Collaboration.

Use collaboration to uncover sales opportunities, remember the switch rate ratio is 54% listening to 46% talking. Practice and measure the switch rate that you and the customer take turns listening and then talking. This sales technique allows for the flow of information to be two-way. Some sales training will help you master the sales skill of “active listening”, this opens the door to insights, allowing us to work together to help find the solution that best meets the customer’s needs. To help the switch rate runs smoothly, have a list of discovery type questions to ascertain if any real sales opportunity does in fact exist.

Examples include:

“Where are you experiencing the biggest challenges?

“What has been your own experience in trying to narrow down solutions in the past?”

“What type of events or trends would make you review your current solutions?”

“In which area [personalized to product] are you seeing most challenges?”

“What is your process for going about solving these issues?” 

“What would be the criteria for you to consider solutions or options to [name it]?”

“In an ideal world, when do plan to have found some options for consideration?”

“What would the normal decision-making process for my type of solution be?”

Real sales collaboration shouldn’t be rushed, receiving insightful and honest answers will give a good indication of whether there is a sales opportunity or not. If the switch rate is highly interactive, the questions and answers should reveal the customers main pain points. This allows for a progression in the sales process, however if no opportunity exists or can’t be crystalized then it is time to move on.

It’s about Buying Ease not Buying Please.

The sales mindset here is Let me work for you and show you what you need to complete this purchase.” The customer does need more, they already live in a world of more- more information, more data, more options, and more people involved in a buying decision.

We need to focus on buying ease, to bring clarity in the sales process. To collaborate and help customers simplify the buying process, to make it easier to buy. Research shows customers who experience a high level of “buying ease,” opt to do with that supplier, in fact they are 62% more likely to win the deal. Buying ease includes making the customer feel comfortable about moving out of their status quo, that new possibilities are only positive, that the cost of change is manageable, to show them how to sell the solution internally and then make buying easier by being a servant seller.

Sales techniques are a never ending and constantly changing story. They reflect the environment we sell into and our customers evolving preferences for how they buy.