Are your sales numbers flat this year? Are you struggling to get to hit your sales quotas? Do you need something extra to get the team motivated and meeting aggressive goals?
I asked a few sales experts about their current favorite techniques for increasing sales — and threw in a few tips of my own. Finish the year strong and find your new favorite technique in this list.
1. “Define the mission and get everyone motivated to help more people.” –Dan Tyre, Director of Sales, HubSpot
Let’s face it. Sales is repetitive, and it’s easy to fall into a rut and simply go through the motions of pitching a product. Regularly remind yourself and your team of the company mission, who you serve, and why your customers benefit from your product/service.
It’s also smart to speak about the consequences for your reps and the business if they don’t move deals forward. This can give your team an extra level of motivation and urgency to meet and exceed their quota.
Start all your meetings with your company and sales team mission statement or M-SPOT (HubSpot acronym for Mission, Strategy, Plays, Omission, and Targets).
Download the free MSPOT template here
People don’t always need a promotion or discount. What they need is a reminder of the value of making a decision; the pain you will alleviate, and the benefit they’ll receive.
Coming up with three bullet points that redefine your business’ value — from the customer perspective — can put people back into the right mindset of helping not selling.
2. “Practice smarketing.” –Jen Spencer, Vice President of Sales, Smartbug Media
Spencer recommends marketers track their traffic and corresponding conversions. This allows them to see where they might be experiencing a dip in their inbound volume.
She explains, “If sales leadership has this data, they can expand upon it with deal-related data. Looking at the numbers like this, it should be clear where marketing and sales need to increase their activity volume to ensure goals are met.”
Spencer believes it’s marketing and sales leadership’s job to help ensure reps have more at bats during these quieter months.
3. “Remember that ‘time of purchase’ doesn’t mean ‘time of impact.'” –Michelle Benefer, Vice President of Sales, HubSpot
How long does it take for your customers to extract value from your product? One day? One month? One quarter? HubSpot VP of Sales Michelle Benefer recommends reps use the summer months to sell to “time of impact” rather than “time of purchase.”
Benefer explains, “Loads of businesses have their busy season at back-to-school time, fall, or pre-holiday season. Set them up for success now to ensure they get the most from your partnership when they need the impact most.”
4. “Use summer to get more ‘at-bats.'” –Michelle Benefer, Vice President of Sales, HubSpot
Take me out to the ballgame! Benefer advises, “Salespeople should constantly hone, improve, and iterate on their craft. And summer is a great time to simply get more ‘at-bats’ and practice getting better.”
Could you start your meetings with a tighter agenda? Do you sync calendars for next steps on the end of each call? Are you following up with your prospects with value-add content that matters to them?
Could you get better email open and response rates by sending a more bespoke, personalized message? Get more at-bats and improve your craft. You might learn and improve something.
5. “Know your stats.” –Michelle Benefer, Vice President of Sales, HubSpot
Speaking of baseball, know your stats. Analyze your personal business and commit to improving one KPI over eight weeks.
Could you improve your deal size? Number of deals closed? Depth of touches on your leads? How about shortening your sales cycle length? Benefer says, “Know your stats, own ’em, love ’em, improve ’em.”
6. “Have fun.” –Michelle Benefer, Vice President of Sales, HubSpot
For some people, sales can be Groundhog Day. For others, every deal is a fresh opportunity to help a business or person solve a challenging problem.
Benefer recommends, “Practice empathy. Practice being in your buyers’ shoes. Improve your business acumen and better assist your clients in achieving their goals. And don’t forget to smile. Your prospects can feel it.”
7. “Increase your closing percentage with team selling.” –Dan Tyre, Director of Sales, HubSpot
When our team gets in a rut, we shake things up by trying something innovative, like pairing people up.
There are many great variations to this technique. Have two reps work together on one deal, or connect a senior person with a junior person. You can even split the team into pairs for a contest. Or have someone listen to another rep’s calls to give effective feedback.
Team selling makes sales fun, instructional, and different. Plus, customers typically like the extra attention.
8. “Run a solid promotion that gives great value to the onboarding process.” –Dan Tyre, Director of Sales, HubSpot
Instead of offering a discount on your product, offer more value from the purchase. Customers like additional attention, help, and support after they’ve made the purchasing commitment.
Offering a 90-day check-in or providing labor to run a campaign that saves the client time and effort can really move the dial.
Bonus Technique: “Call current customers and ask for referrals” -Dan Tyre, Director Sales, HubSpot
When was the last time you got a call from a vendor who thanked you for your business? Never? Exactly. Wouldn’t you be impressed if you got a call? Here’s what that might look like:
Ms. Prater, this is Dan from HubSpot. I am calling you to thank you for being a great customer. You started with us in March 2019 and over the last few months, you’ve seen some solid growth. I’m calling to thank you for your business, give you my cell phone number, and let you know that if you ever have a question, you can call me directly. We hope to be a great partner for years to come. By the way, do you know anyone else who might be a good fit for our product or services?
Don’t let stale selling sour your quarter or year. Infuse new life into your sales process by regularly trying out new techniques like these.
SOURCE: Sales – Read entire story here.