So, you’ve identified a good-fit prospect and have begun the sales process. How do you ensure you’re driving the sales process in the right direction? By keeping these 5 sales tips in mind to stay in control of the sale and close more deals.
What separates a good sales rep from a great one? Their ability to control the fire.
A good sales rep lets the customer drive the sales process, but a great sales rep will bring the prospect back and understand what they value before leaning into their sales process. This process typically includes thinking and guiding the prospect through the deal, committing to meeting milestones and staying on track to the close date.
This way, a great sales rep ensures they are batting at the best pitches to strike a home run.
Your prospects are busy people, often juggling multiple projects and ideas — so keep things simple for them!
Drive the process forward by setting meeting times, creating transparent agendas and making sure to get confirmation ahead of time. Remember to respect your own schedule; set realistic milestones, plan ahead and adhere to the agreed upon timeline.
By keeping things moving forward smoothly, you will help reduce friction with your prospects and help gain commitment.
It’s important to leverage the tools your team offers you. Align your sales team with the marketing team and tap into their intelligence of marketing to help drive your sales team to be more efficient. Consider instituting a Service Level Agreement (SLA) that holds each team accountable to specific, agreed-upon expectations that align to the same goal: driving revenue.
This will help create a better sales process and enhance your expertise, ultimately helping you close more deals.
When it comes to selling, it’s important to understand what works best for you and your prospects. Identify a sales approach that works best for you and tailor it to your prospect and what they value. Consider some of these sales approaches:
Challenger Sales: The Challenger approach is focused around making prospects aware of the issues they are facing, and then teaching prospects through the sales process how you can help solve these issues. This approach allows you to take control of the conversation and tailor your sales process accordingly.
Solution Selling: Solution Selling emphasizes the solution you’re providing, rather than the physical product. This approach focuses on creating value that address the prospects pain points.
Consultative Selling: This sales approach focuses on building a relationship with your prospect. By taking the time to get to know your prospect, you are able to not only better address their issues with the right solution but also build your expertise in the subject matter.
Remember, selling focuses on the why, what and how trinity: “why” your prospect should change their current practices; “what” they need (in this case, your product); and “how” this product will help them.
So, your marketing team passes along a prospective lead. You identify that this lead is a good fit for the company and fits your target buyer personas — but is it a good fit for you?
Not all prospects will respond well to your specific sales approach. It’s important to understand how you sell and how your prospects react. Find your sales superpower by identifying which buyer personas you sell the best to and re-route the leads that you don’t sell well to. This will increase your overall win-rate and ensure that each lead is getting a tailored sales approach.