No matter what kind of business you run, you can’t be successful without selling it to potential customers. Through Inkjet Wholesale’s Office Hacks, here, we’ve dealt with the subject of selling or sales a number of times. In fact, by covering sales and selling a number of times, we’ve already provided you with multiple workable sales tips. So, before we move onto the sales tips within this post, we do recommend checking those posts out.
Our earlier posts covered subjects ranging from the basics of selling and the sales process a business should follow to creating a sustainable, effective business selling strategy and closing sales like a pro.
If you went through those posts, you’re probably thinking you know a lot already. As a matter of fact, you may even be wondering why you should bother with this post of new sales tips? Let’s answer that question systematically.
Why Bother With New Sales Tips?
You know, businesses that don’t bother creating a good selling strategy and following the right sales techniques don’t really last long. This means that every operational business in the country has a selling strategy and is deploying some form or variety of selling technique.
Since sales and selling are all about convincing someone to buy your product or use your service for a price and every business is doing it, why is it that only a few of them are growing while the others are stagnating?
The businesses that are stagnating and these are, indeed, the majority are those businesses that are failing to mix it up.
Their selling strategies and sales techniques have gone stale, repetitive, and ineffective. In fact, it is even possible that these businesses are stuck in a loop where they’re approaching the same people as potential leads again and again.
Stagnation isn’t something that is limited to their potential leads and customer bases either. Their sales professionals’ methods have also stagnated to a point where they aren’t having the right effect because the professionals themselves have become stuck in a mundane routine.
Selling is an enthusiastic exercise. The sales representative needs to convey the feeling of excitement or, at the very least, hope for solving a problem. A dull sales professional, even if he’s only dull internally, will never be as successful as a passionate one.
Mixing up your selling strategy with new sales techniques and perspectives can help revitalise your business’s efforts by renewing your target audience and making your sales representatives more efficacious. To this end, we present to you some new sales tips to dig your teeth into.
New Sales Tips #1: Become Dedicated
You’ll find most new sales tips in this post to be designed for Small to Medium Enterprises (SMEs). The reason is simply that larger businesses revitalise their sales and selling strategies on a regular basis anyways because they have specialised professionals handling their entire sales and marketing objectives.
For example, it is common for entrepreneurs of SMEs to pursue their sales objectives on an irregular basis. Small and even some medium scale businesses tend to only have part time sales representatives with even the bosses only looking into the on-going efforts infrequently.
Simply by becoming dedicated to your sales efforts, you can improve your results.
You can become dedicated by simply setting aside a specific time every day, every other day, or even every week to focus on your sales objectives.
New Sales Tips #2: Nurture before Reaping
What do all successful companies have in common? They understand that nothing can be reaped before something is nurtured. Whether it is manufacturing or providing a service, unless you will nurture something, you won’t be able to reap anything.
In sales and selling, this principle translates into helping existing and potential customers before even pitching to them. You could help them in any number of ways so long as you prioritise their interests above yours.
The goal should always be to add value to their lives, whether it is by giving information or some kind of special service. The direct benefit of doing this is that your potential customers will stop seeing you as a “salesman” and, hence, lose his hesitation in dealing with you. Once that is done, you can begin your pitch.
New Sales Tips #3: Build Your Network
Whether you do this as a business or as a professional is irrelevant because your network will be the absolute core of your sales and selling efforts. You cannot sell if you can’t get the right leads.
Your best leads will always come through your networks. This is especially true if you’re in a B2B industry. In fact, direct inquiries are quite rare in B2B industries because most entrepreneurs like to work with businesses that have either been recommended to them or come with good references.
New Sales Tips #4: Focus On Metrics
How can you know if any of your selling strategy is succeeding, if you don’t measure anything? How can you position your business to benefit from market trends, if you don’t measure those trends? How can you tweak your strategies without measuring anything?
When you measure, things get done. There is method in measuring metrics. If you haven’t been measuring anything till now, then you need to start immediately. It doesn’t even matter what you measure so long as you start now.
On the other hand, if measuring metrics has been a part of your existing strategies, then you may need to step up your game to benefit from such new sales tips. For instance, in this scenario, you’ll do well to change your Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) because different KPIs can reveal different limitations or opportunities of a market, a strategy, or even a trend.
New Sales Tips #5: Improve Your Presentation Skills
This tip is also designed for those businesses that cater to other businesses. When it comes to B2B, the primary mode of selling is usually presentations. Convincing another business to take on your product or your services has turned into an art form.
There are theories surrounding presentation skills and new techniques that sales professionals can study to improve their effectiveness. However, all of those theories and strategies will boil down to one thing and that is improving presentation skills.
A basic PPT with 10 bullets on a generic background is no longer sufficient. A droning voice reciting what is written in the PPT is no longer enough either. A modern day presentation needs to be powerful, persistent, and persuasive.
It needs to leave an impact on the audience. This means that you need to not only improve the content and design of your presentations but also your delivery.
New Sales Tips #6: Revisit Lost Clients
Every business loses clients. It is inevitable because there are so many different reasons for a person or company to stop dealing with your business. For instance, the most obvious reason is that your product or services are no longer needed.
Other reasons include poor experience, better options elsewhere, and even forgetfulness. Regardless of what the reasons are, what is certain is that they can be recaptured.
The best way to do this would be to call lost clients and customers after a certain period has passed. Virtually, every reason for a client to stop dealing with you can be resolved with a simple phone call.
If they went for a better offer elsewhere, you can counter it. If they simply forgot about you, it’s a good idea to remind them of your existence. If you messed up with your service, then you can make amends.
Whatever the reason is for their dissatisfaction, if you call them back you can deal with it. For this reason, our suggestion is that you commit to calling at least one of your lost clients per week to rekindle your business relationship. You literally have nothing to lose except for a little bit of pride.
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