10 Ways to Ramp Up Your Sales Skills
Most businesses – whether they are pedalling services or products – are only as good as their sales organization.
Having capable, qualified sales reps is critical, as is having a crisp value proposition and marketing strategy that aligns with your goals.
Not every business owner can deploy significant resources to support a comprehensive sales effort. But there are things you can do to help ramp up your sales and drive increased revenue.
This blog post will explore ten ways that you can ramp up your sales skills.
- Lead with the problem – It is tempting to start selling by talking about your product or service. But that will be construed as self-interested and ‘sales-y’. But – if you can lead by addressing the problem that you solve, your sales pitch will be much more authentic and will resonate with prospects. So instead of selling “the best microwave on the market, equipped with state-of-the-art popcorn and defrost features”, sell “time with your family” or “healthier eating” or “easy family meals”.
- Talk less, listen more – Listening is much harder than selling. But it is necessary, if you want to close a deal. Pause during your pitch. Make sure you hear your prospect’s needs. Take a genuine interest, and follow up on promises.
- Understand the customer’s buying journey – Some sales cycles are swift while some are longer and more complex. You need to understand where your customer is at, at each stage of the buying journey, if you are going to close the sale. For each stage, you will want to map specific activities that will help drive prospects to the next stage.
- Identify your target personas – Who are you selling to? What do they care about? What problems are they trying to solve? Make sure you speak their language and directly address their needs and interests.
- Identify an executive sponsor early – Related to #4 is the notion of an executive sponsor. The person investigating your product or service may not be the person who has the authority to make the purchase. If you don’t identify that path to purchase, you may not seal the deal.
- Understand the competitive landscape – You will need to be able to respond to objections that come up while you are selling. And often, those objections are related to the competition. Are their products/services better? Less expensive? More popular and well known? Make sure you familiarize yourself with the competitive landscape so that you can effectively respond to those objections and preserve the interest of the prospect.
- Build relationships – Selling is very much about building relationships. The ultimate decision to buy often has more to do with how the prospect feels about the seller than they do about the product or service. Keep this in mind; nurture the relationship; invest yourself. However – don’t become so enmeshed that it keeps you from advancing the sale.
- Never stop prospecting – When your pipeline is full, there is a temptation to focus on closing deals that have already been identified and cultivated. But if you stop prospecting, your pipeline will dry up. Quickly. Make sure you take time every day to continue building your pipeline and ensuring a healthy stream of leads and prospects.
- Create daily rituals – Selling requires a lot of discipline. It is easy to become distracted. Standardize your schedule so that important sales strategies become routine, and built into your day-to-day work activities.
- Herald your success – If you have customers who love you, and with whom you’ve maintained relationships, make sure you ask them to serve as a reference. Share customer success stories on your website, and ask for public facing testimonials that you can showcase on your website.
If you are looking to ramp up your sales effort and would like some additional support, contact Miller Bernstein today.
