10 Sales Tips for Every Salesperson - The Digital Sales Institute

10 sales tips as a guide on selling to the modern customer. We all need some sales tips every now and again, to help keep our sales activity sharp and focused. Selling today can be a complex process that requires a unique set of sales skills. The savvy salesperson knows that to sell successfully they need to have a deep understanding of their customers’ needs and provide them with a solution that meets those needs. In this article, we’ll explore some sales tips and the key selling skills that salespeople need to succeed.

1.Product to Market Fit

First up on our 10 sales tips is to understand how the product fits and what it delivers is the basis of any successful sales conversation to a customer and is the first of our sales tips. Salespeople need to have a real understanding of “product to market fit” in order to target the right customer set plus FAB (features, advantages, benefits). They should be able to clearly communicate the value proposition of their product to potential customers in a way that is relatable to the challenges that buyer is facing.

Once a salesperson understands the customer’s needs, they then must be able is to communicate the unique value proposition of the product. A clear and compelling statement that explains how the  product solves the customer’s specific challenges and helps them get to a better place.

To communicate a value proposition effectively, it’s vital to focus on the outcomes of the product and not just benefits. Also, salespeople need to blend in case studies and testimonials from other customers who have achieved success with the product.

Buyers are also more likely to engage with a salesperson who is able to demonstrate the product’s potential and answer any product related  questions that customer may have. They should also be able to address the product’s unique advantages and how to differentiation themselves from other solutions.

2. Customer Profiling

Before ever picking up the phone or approaching a potential customer, salespeople should be fully versed in understanding the customer’s needs and pain points as it related to their offering. They must be able to outline the specific challenges that their customers are facing and then create sales conversations that address those challenges.

They also need to know what future state the customer wants to get to, how to make their lives easier and the outcomes the buyer will receive upon purchasing the solution. To do this, the salesperson needs to ask thoughtful discovery questions and actively listen to the customer’s replies. They should also be able to present themselves as market experts and how their product is helping to solve challenges in the customers industry.

To do this effectively, salespeople need to ask open-ended questions that encourage the customer to open up about their challenges and goals. What challenges are they currently facing in their business. How do they measure the success of their current solutions. What are their top priorities for the year ahead. Asking these types of questions helps salespeople understand the customer’s needs but if an opportunity to sell really exists.

3. Verbal and Non Verbal Communication Skills

Point 3 of our 10 sales tips is how both verbal and nonverbal communication are critical in the sales process. Salespeople are required  to explain data and technical details in a way that is easy for a customer to understand. They should be able to adapt their communication style to the personality type of each individual customer. Competent in all the different communication channels, such as video, email, phone, and in person meetings.

In remote selling, the customer can gather information from the salespersons statements in terms of the content (i.e., words used) and delivery (i.e., rate of speech, loudness, tone, number of pauses, and disruptive words such as “umms” and “aahs” used). In addition, the customer is subjected to a host of information from the visual channel. These cues can hail from the salespersons facial expressions as well as their head and body movements. The audio and the visual channels, respectively, give rise to the verbal and nonverbal cues in a communication.

Sales tips insight. As a given, salespeople should be skilled at building relationships with potential customers. They should be credible, personable, insightful plus be able to establish trust and rapport quickly.

4. Time Management

“Time management” is really about salespeople improving their overall work performance in order to make them capable of completing the various sales tasks in a timely manner. Time management comprises three components: Structuring, Protecting, and Adapting time. Well-established time management measures reflect these concepts.

Structuring time, for instance, is captured in such items as “Does the salesperson have a daily routine which they follow?” and “Does their main activities during the day fit together in a structured way?”

Protecting time is reflected in items such as “How often does the salesperson find themselves doing things which interfere with their sales role simply because they dislike saying ‘No’ to people?”

And adapting time to changing conditions is seen in such items as “They use wait time to consider answers or next actions” and “Evaluates daily schedule to optimize sales activities”.

5. Creativity Sales Tips

The fifth of our 10 sales tips is that salespeople who are able to develop new ideas for satisfying customer needs and who can generate as well as evaluate multiple alternatives for novel customer problems are more likely to be successful than those who approach their customers in a conventional way. Sellers who are creative are more likely to think divergently about their products and can therefore persuade their customers by citing a wider and more attractive range of benefits. Furthermore, creative sellers can also apply their divergent thinking skills by devising novel procedures to acquire new clients.

Sales creativity is characterized by the ability to perceive the sales role and customer interactions in new ways, to find hidden patterns, to make connections between seemingly unrelated topics, and to generate solutions. It is salespeople’s ability to tap into their ‘inner’ pool of resources – knowledge, insight, information, inspiration and all the fragments populating our minds. To use all the sales skills that they have accumulated so far and to combine them in impactful new ways.

A big part of using creative thinking skills productively in a sales career is creating solutions to arising or nagging problems either with the sales role or with customers. In the face of issues at in the sales process or in customer engagement, a creative thinker’s mind jumps to new methods of resolution. Employers seek salespeople with these proven problem-solving abilities because they want to bring this energy to their company. When issues present themselves, sales management need to count on their salespeople to handle it effectively and perhaps even turn a problem into a positive situation.

6. Confidence

We know that the selling process consists of collecting information about a prospective customer, developing a sales plan based on research, transmitting messages to implement the plan, evaluating the impact of these messages, and making adjustments based on this evaluation .Research into purchasing emotions shows that buyers are reluctant to back a proposal that’s being pitched by a salesperson who is nervous, fumbling, and even overly confident. On the other hand, they are likely to be persuaded by a salesperson who speaks clearly, who holds his or her head high, who answers questions assuredly, and who readily admits when he or she does not know something.

Confident and assertive salespeople inspire confidence in others: their customers, their audience, their peers, their bosses, and their friends. The ability to gain the confidence of others is one of the key methods in which a self-confident salesperson finds success. When people express themselves with assurance, we tend to believe them. This is the “confidence bias”.  When listening to a confident salesperson, psychology proves that customers believe “If that salesperson seems to believe in what they’re saying, they’re probably right,”

7. Growth Mindset

One of our favorite sales tips is that a growth mind-set enables salespeople to believe that their most basic abilities can be developed through dedication and hard work. That brains and talent are just the starting point. This view creates a love of learning, sales training and a resilience that is essential for great accomplishment. The growth mindset is based on the belief that your qualities are things that you can cultivate and change through your own efforts. Essentially, the growth mindset allows individuals to change and grow through application, effort, and experience.

Building rapport with customers is an essential selling skill for SaaS companies. When you build rapport, you establish a connection with the customer, which makes them more likely to trust you and your product. This can be done in a variety of ways, such as finding common ground, using humor, or simply being friendly and approachable.

Building rapport can also involve active listening, which means paying attention to what the customer is saying and responding in a way that shows you understand and care about their needs. By building rapport with customers, you can create a positive relationship that can lead to more sales and even referrals.

8. Handling Sales Objections

Selling is about creating value in the minds of a customer, this is tip 8 out of 10 sales tips. So, when they throw out sales objections or indicate a reluctance to buy, it’s mainly because the value proposition of the offering and the value to the customer is out of balance. The key to handling objections is to listen carefully to the customer’s concerns and address them directly. This means reframing objections as questions and providing thoughtful, well-reasoned responses.

Values are the mental models of what the customer believes is important to them. Although none of us can see them, their impact in the sales process is as real as any tangible object. Values include achievement of outcomes, efficiency, effectiveness, trust, security, and convenience, to name a few. 

To overcome sales objections, salespeople need to understand that customers usually have five “Value Enablers” with one as their front-runner in deciding if to or not to buy. They are: 1) Speed 2) Innovation 3) Quality 4) Price or 5) Service. 

When overcoming objections, know your value propositions and clarify which ones match that of  the personal and organizational values of the customer.

9. Closing the Sale

There are lots of sales tips on how to close a sales. It is not an event but a process, meaning that closing any sale is the end result or ultimate goal of a salespersons sales conversations. Closing or confirming the sale can involve a variety of sales techniques, such as the agreement staircase, asking for the sale directly, FOMO (urgency – fear of missing out) or offering special incentives or discounts.

Remember, closing a sale is not a one-size-fits-all process. Every customer and sales situation is unique, and success may depend on how the salesperson uses the various closing techniques, so it’s important to be flexible and adaptive in this sales stage.

Also, think about the difference between the words, “close” and “confirm.” If a salesperson closes the sale, the mind thinks something has just ended, as in closing a door. If they confirm the sale however, the door opens the beginning of a long-term relationship and referrals. Changing the language from closing to confirming is a more positive approach not only when beginning the sales process, but also when gaining agreement on the smaller  decisions that  eventually lead to  “Yes.” 

10. Keep in contact

The last of our 10 sales tips is that keeping in contact and following up with customers can be easily overlooked once the sale is complete. However, this sales stage (and it should be mapped into the sales process) can be just as important as the initial sales conversation. Keeping in contact with customers can help with referrals, building credibility, opening doors to new contacts, and obtaining recommendations or case studies.

10 SALES TIPS

So, there are our 10 sales tips for the savvy salesperson. Click here for more free sales training, Thanks for reading.