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Selling can be a challenging and sometimes intimidating task for newcomers. Finding quality leads and having meaningful conversations can be a stumbling block. A feeling of being stuck often arises, especially when you compare yourself to the top salespeople within your organisation who achieve seemingly effortless success. During my sales training sessions, I share the methodologies that these top salespeople have developed and refined in practice. By applying the same sales tips, you too can develop step by step into an outstanding salesperson. This is why our training courses focus on learning and applying a proven sales methodology that guarantees results.

Sales tip 1: be consistent

One of the biggest secrets to long-term sales success is consistency. This is why it is so important to develop good habits. Stick to your own planning. Keep making those cold calls on a weekly basis, keep up the visit frequency with existing customers rigorously. This will keep you focused. Focus always leads to results.

Sales tip 2: set goals

Setting ambitious but achievable goals and pursuing them consistently significantly increases the chances of success. An annual sales plan drafting is an essential tool in this respect. It provides direction for your efforts and helps keep your motivation up throughout the year.

During my sales training courses, I pay extensive attention to this subject. Experience shows that salespeople who have their concrete sales goals clearly set out on paper are invariably among the best in their field.

Sales tip 3: measure everything

I build on the previous sales tip. People who succeed in sales measure everything they do. They measure their lead conversion, their closing conversion rate and how many new customers they made. Besides quantitative figures, they also measure the quality of their interactions with customers such as length of sales conversation or number of targeted open-ended questions.

These statistics provide you with valuable insights into what is going well, where possible obstacles lie and how your tools and techniques are performing. Objectively evaluating your performance provides a solid foundation for sustainable growth and excellent long-term results. After all, self-reflection and self-criticism are the most valuable teachers.

Sales tip 4: selling is a team sport

Exchange experiences with your fellow salespeople so that you can constantly learn from each other. Spend time sharing sales tips and tricks, for example on how to handle objections or how to tackle large projects. I cannot stress it enough: involve your inside sales staff in your daily activities as well. Inform them about what you are working on. Involving your back office colleagues creates an incredibly positive snowball effect.

Sales tip 5: define the ideal customer

Ask yourself what your ideal customer looks like. Does geographical location play a role? Does the prospect need to be a certain size to get optimal results from your solutions? What do your customers value? How do they think? The better you know your customers, the better you can serve them. Valuable advice, but one that is often overlooked, is to focus only on customers with whom there is a good match. Therefore, avoid less qualified leads. Even the best salesperson would not be able to achieve excellent results if they spend most of their time on low-quality leads.

Sales tip 6: listen actively

This sales tip relates directly to the sales pitch. Excellent salespeople believe in the value of active listening. According to a recent study, the most successful salespeople speak only 54 per cent of the time during the sales pitch. Instead of firing a torrent of arguments at the customer, they first investigate what the customer's needs, pain points and expectations are. Only then can they make the perfect pitch and successfully close the sale. Those who argue without first asking targeted questions are committing a crucial mistake.

Sales tip 7: discover the power of follow-through

Too many salespeople neglect the art of follow-up. At least half of all B2B salespeople never follow up on their sales calls. A staggering finding, indeed. It is important to spend time on follow-up appointments, follow-up phone calls, sending additional emails and so on. Make sure to alternate between these different media. At Reachers, we pay very close attention to this topic during our sales training courses.

That said, it is also possible to spend too much time on sales pitches that go nowhere. Therefore, it is important to assess your chances of success during the sales call as soon as possible. Voilà, another reason to ask well (prepared) questions!

Sales tip 8: focus on building relationships

Instead of focusing solely on closing deals (which is obviously an important activity in itself), focus on building long-term relationships with customers as well. This way, you will get to know them better, allowing you to address their concerns with more empathy and relevance. Moreover, generating more sales from existing customers is usually a cheaper and faster way to get results. However, this is often overlooked.

The Pareto rule helps with this. One strategy could be to focus your attention on the 20% key accounts in your customer portfolio that can generate 80% of your sales. Focus on the right target audience, give them the necessary attention and maintain a long-term relationship. This advice will pay off in multiples.

Moreover, also build a professional network of satisfied customers who recommend you. They are your company's ambassadors. This will lead to more sales in the medium and long term anyway because the probability of selling after a recommendation is at least 50% higher than cold calling.

Do you also want to sell more? Bring in more new customers? Sell more to existing customers? Contact us no obligation, we will be happy to guide you through our range of sales training courses.

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