Leverage your sales team with these tips

Seth Rozee – a Senior Account Executive with 10 years of experience selling into the courseware and training industry joins our blog today with his guest post on his tips for successful selling.

The sales department plays a crucial role in the success of any business. The role of sales is to recognize the needs of potential customers and connect them to the product or service the company offers. Sales plays a major role in influencing the success of your organization. It requires building strategic relationships with customers, strong product knowledge, and experience. Below are our top ten sales secrets to increase your organization’s revenue and meet your goals.

1. Develop the Traits of an Excellent Sales Representative

Anyone can be a strong salesperson. However, there are various traits that are highly beneficial to be mindful of when working in sales. Assertiveness is one of these traits. Being assertive has four main components. These include calmness, positivity, enthusiasm, and honesty. Assertiveness is a balancing act for salespeople because it is important to not be too aggressive or pushy, but a good salesperson must also be able to draw in customers with confidence. Furthermore, strong sales representatives require emotional intelligence. Being able to identify, control, and manage emotions is crucial for stressful situations that can come up working in sales. This can also mean being able to solve problems on the fly and remain adaptable.

2. Know Your Clients

The role of a salesperson includes having the ability to make strong connections with your potential customers. This means having an understanding of your client’s needs. It also means being an expert on the product you are selling and how it can fulfill the needs of your client.

Determining your customer’s needs requires research. This can be done directly by communicating with your potential customers to better understand what they are looking for. By immersing yourself in your customer’s world, you can understand how your product is relevant to customers and better address their needs. Even better, foreseeing challenges that may arise in your client’s future can help you find the right time to step in and tell them how your product can help them. This can be done through timing your calls when they may need your products quickly. Being there in the “nick of time” will help you stand out from the competition. It is also important to understand the customer’s values. This means knowing what they need to be satisfied with their purchase. Some general examples of customer values include ease of doing business, quality of product/service, reliability of product and provider, customer service, and the overall value of money spent.

3. Be an Expert on your Product

Before you can sell your product, service, and brand, you must know what you are selling and understand your product inside and out. This ensures that you can answer your potential customer’s questions effectively. Being educated on not only the product you are selling, but also the company you are selling for will increase the customer’s level of trust and credibility. As a promoter for the company, you should express your belief in your company’s product and be an ambassador for it and the brand as a whole. If you believe in your company, your customers will too.

Good sales people aren’t enthusiastic because of the sale; they make the sale because of their enthusiasm. Showing enthusiasm for your product means taking an interest in your company, its vision, its products, etc. If you are not interested, neither will your customers. Enthusiasm also means being knowledgeable. Through your knowledge, you can educate your customer to their options, needs, and future needs. Enthusiasm also stems from motivation. Being enthusiastic means being will to reach out and advocate for your product confidently.

4. Be Smart about your Leads

A sales lead is a customer that has a need for your product or service. It is crucial that you spend your time on valuable leads that you are most likely to close deals with. A good sales person is able to sort through leads and prioritize how profitable they are. This means questioning if the potential lead is qualified and interested in making the purchase. If the potential lead is, and the product you are selling is appropriate for their situation, then it may be a good idea to reach out. Having the ability to let go of leads that are not profitable and focusing on positive leads will allow you to make the most of the time you spend contacting them.

5. Have Authority in your Company and your Industry

Sales reps that know their product, company, and industry and are authorities in their field. They have developed expertise in their field that customers can rely on. This also means being open to continuing to learn about your industry, whether it be from other industry leaders or through continual training and education.

To be a leader in your industry, you must know your competition. By knowing and watching your competitors, you can understand their strategies, and sometimes even predict their next move. It is good to be researching your competition consistently so you can stay on top of what is happening in your industry.

Having authority means you can use it to solve problems for your customer. This will build rapport and strengthen your relationships. This requires self confidence and assertiveness so you can build trust. This can also be through giving your client several options and being willing to assist them in making the best choices for their needs.

6. Build Trust with your Clients

Successful sales representatives have the ability to build trust. This brings in customers and keeps them coming back. By being empathetic to your client’s needs and being genuine and honest with how they can benefit from your product, you will be successful in finding the right people to sell too.

Testimonials serve as evidence of the impact of your product. Using these to show potential customers how your product could also serve them. They are an unbiased way to show success in your product and service in an honest and authentic way.

Being genuine and transparent with your clients will go a long way in building trust, which will make for reliable and consistent clients. This in combination with taking your customers point of view will help you understand what is important to them and help you truly meet their needs with your product.

7. Build Strong Relationships

Having the right tools to build mutually beneficial relationships with your customers will have a direct impact on how many sales you can close. Be an active listener by remaining focused and concentrating on what your customers are saying. Watch for body language or tone when you have the opportunity, and avoid interrupting. You should provide consistent communication to express your interest in helping them meet their needs. This can be through follow ups, phone calls/emails, or sending them the latest promotion. Another great sales tool to build relationships is through rewards. This could be providing and upgrade or shipping at a discounted rate, coupons, or promotional product. Hand written notes are also a great way to show that you appreciate your customer’s business. Be sure as you create new relationships, you continue to grow them. Going the extra mile to reach out to everyone will increase the likelihood of making more sales.

8. Communication is Key

Having strong communication skills will help in many aspects of your professional life. Taking a conversational focused approach to your sales can increase the odds of you making a sale. Avoid being overly scripted and genuinely listen to your customer. Don’t be afraid to use a little bit of humor to break the ice with your client when appropriate to add some personability to your pitch. Being authentically yourself will resonate with your client and allow them to open up to you more to clearly express their needs. This in combination with graciousness and politeness will take you far in your sales.

9. Self-Motivation = Success

Keeping yourself motivated can be intimidating, especially when working on daunting tasks. Motivation is a trait that all sales people need to have to meet their objections. This can be done by acknowledging the value of the work that your previous accomplishments. Make a list of the wins you have had recently and use those as motivation to continue your momentum. Be open and ready to using mistakes as learning opportunities to enhance your skillset. Your motivation can also be improved by finding strategies to avoid procrastination. Break your large projects into smaller tasks and scheduling your more challenging tasks at the times of the day your work best.

10. Set Strategic Goals

Setting goals in sales is crucial to measuring your success. Learning to set “SMART” goals in the long and short term will allow you to analyze your performance and make modifications accordingly. Long-term goals are generally completed more than a year from now and are slowly built-up overtime to meet larger objections within the organization. Short-term goals are goals achieved in less than a year. These goals are usually easier to attain, and can be a stepping stone to the long-term goal. Writing down your goals and ensuring they are SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Results focused, and Timely) Goals will set the intention to complete your goals. It is important to keep in mind that goals are not laws, and they can be modified at any time to better suit your organizational needs.

Conclusion

Our Top Ten Sales Secrets Training Workshop covers more information on how to can better equip your sales team to meet your organizational goals. Learn more about this course or download a free course sample today to get started on providing quality, professional training to your team.

Posted by Seth Rozee on January 21, 2021