HARDISON’S TIPS – JANUARY 22, 2021 – Tips From Closers – PART ONE
There is a very intimate skill in becoming and being a top sales professional in any industry.
Surprisingly, the industry itself doesn’t matter, and the techniques used by the top sales professionals selling software systems to international industries and those selling medical equipment to individual doctor’s offices are not much different.
One of the biggest issues in being a successful sales professional is having and maintaining a deep and up to date knowledge of the products and/or services you are offering.
You must also have a significant understanding of the business or industry you are selling within. This is so that you can come up with unique and very good solutions for your customers/products. Once you have that mastered, there are eight other techniques that top sales professional use that can be incorporated into any type of sales.
The more of these techniques you practice and use, the bigger improvement in your sales you will see. By employing the techniques top sales professionals use you will see an increase in both your volume of sales to existing customers and your volume of sales to new clients and accounts.
Turn Cold Calls Into Warm Calls
One of the biggest benefits of social media, including sites such as LinkedIn, is that sales professionals now have the ability to create nurtured leads. A basic definition of a nurtured lead is making your buyer/prospect aware of the benefits of your company’s product or service by providing informational content prior to your sales pitch.
As the seller, you have already built the brand recognition and positioned yourself as a resource for the buyer. In research completed by the Annuitas Group a nurtured lead, when making the first purchase, will make a 47 percent larger purchase than a client that was developed with a cold call.
Avoid Comparisons To Other Companies
A very common mistake according to Sanjeev Saxena, the CEO of the prominent medical sales equipment company POCMedical, is to bring up the competition in your initial sales calls. As soon as you mention the competition the customer immediately starts to think of the other product. You want them to focus exclusively on your solution.
Not Being Direct
While it is essential not to be pushy or overbearing to a customer, giving them an option to opt out of the sales call is never a good tactic. Avoid starting the conversation with “do you have a few minutes?” or “is this a good time to talk?”
A better option, according to Jill Konrath, author of Agile Selling, is to immediately present how your product will make a difference for the organization you are selling to. Focus on knowing a problem your customer is facing and addressing how your product or service will address this problem.
Make it a champion day!
