Sales Techniques

Sales Techniques: Sales techniques are many as they are varied. They can be as much psychological as functional when it comes to engaging customers. In a heavily influenced digital sales world where inbound leads seem to rule the roost, lots of valid sales techniques have been overlooked.

Collaborate to uncover sales opportunities.

Successful selling is about 54% listening to 46% talking. On a sales call or in a sales meeting, measure the switch rate, this is the rate at which each party takes turns listening and then talking. This sales technique allows for the flow of information to be two-way. Become skilled at active listening so each side can work together to help find the solution that best meets their needs. To ensure the switch rate runs smoothly, a list of discovery type questions should be deployed with the added benefit of finding out if any sales opportunity does exist.

To ensure collaboration, they discovery questions should be prepared in advance.

Examples include:

Where are you experiencing challenges (role or product)?

What has been your past experience in choosing solutions?

How often would you review your current vendor/products?

In which area are you seeing most challenges (personalized to the solution/product)?

How have you gone about solving these issues? 

What type of solutions or options would you consider?

When do you need to have found some options for consideration?

What is the normal decision-making process for my type of solutions?

The discovery phase (which shouldn’t be rushed) is about receiving answers that will give a good indication of whether there is a sales opportunity or not. If the switch rate is right, the questions and answers should reveal the prospects main pain points. This allows for a progression in the sales process, however if no opportunity exists or can’t be crystalized then move on.

Help the buyer to buy.

Whether selling a commodity item or an enterprise solution, it has become a buyer’s world of more – more information, more options, and more people involved in a buying decision.

Salespeople need to focus on clarity in the sales process. To collaborate and help customers simplify the buying process, to make it easier to buy. Research shows customers who experience a high level of “buying ease,” the vendor helping to supply this ease are nearly 62% more likely to win the deal. This is why salespeople need to focus on moving the buyer out of their status quo, to open up new possibilities, that the cost of change is manageable, to master their sales performance, to collaborate on how to sell the solution internally and make buying easier.

To wrap up, every business should map out their sales process and sales strategy. To create a sales playbook that contains the most relevant sales techniques (social selling, sales prospecting, business development and sales model) for their product to help the sales team to stay in control of the sales process and acquire more profitable customers.