HOW TO INCREASE SALES: 10 IMPORTANT TIPS

It often happens that there is an excellent product, but no buyers are found. This situation can be corrected, since increasing sales is a completely achievable, although not easy, goal. The solar sales coach gave 10 invaluable tips that will help increase sales and improve relationships with clients.

No. 1. Always close deals

First, let’s state the main rule of increasing sales: always close deals. This refers to the agreement reached during the purchasing process. “Closing” means bringing it to its logical conclusion, where you either make a deal (sale) or don’t (reject).

Many sales managers don’t do this. They perfectly identify motives and needs, work wonderfully with objections, know how to build a personalized presentation for the client, but do not take it to its logical stage. Most often, due to fear of being rejected. Therefore, the client never receives an offer to complete or pay for the purchase, and ultimately does not buy.

No. 2. Always answer the call

Many clients drop out due to lack of communication with the company. Employees often do not answer the phone or respond to emails. I see this every day and it hasn’t gone away.

I insist: “Just pick up the phone from clients. A very effective method, I recommend it to everyone!” In companies that have a CRM system, IP telephony, and other sales automation, it is very noticeable how 5-6% of customers are lost at this stage. In companies where there is no automation, this percentage is even higher.

I advise businesses one thing: take your best friend and try to buy something from your own company. As a rule, no one succeeds.

Just a week ago there was an incident: I was standing on stage, there were about 70 people in the hall, mostly business owners or top managers. I say: “Gentlemen, who can I call at the company to buy something? I’m just warning you, without any subterfuge. Put your mobile phones on the table, don’t alert anyone.” Do you know what the statistics were? I called one company, but couldn’t buy anything. And the second time they didn’t pick up the phone.

No. 3. Create a customer relationship management system

“CRM system” is translated as a customer relationship management system. If you don’t have this system in 2023, it means you’re guessing with tea leaves and won’t sell anything. In this case, you allow them to buy from you. Because you don’t know who buys from you, what they buy, you don’t know the number of touches with the client.

The system allows you to track the average time that a manager communicates with a client before the first transaction, the number of transactions, the quality and quantity of communications that the “sales person” makes to achieve results.

No. 4. Write goals for each type of contact

For each type of contact, it is necessary to write down the main goal and the minimum goal of the contact.

What is the main purpose of the contact? This is exactly why I communicate with the client. The purpose of contact cannot be consultation. This is an absolute waste of the sales manager’s and the client’s time. There is no need to advise the client. Consultation is a substage in sales that allows you to “close” a client on a specific date.

But the agreement that you will meet or call on a specific day and time to agree or conclude a deal is the main purpose of the contact. That is, the main purpose of the contact is why the manager needs this touch.

The minimum purpose of contact is something without which we cannot hang up the phone or end the communication. This may be an agreement on certain conditions under which repeated contact is possible.

Let’s imagine a real estate sales department, which was approached by a client who was unable to buy more than a three-room apartment. But it is not available now. You need to agree with the client that if you have three-room apartments, you will immediately get in touch with him. This is the closure of the minimum contact goal.

It is best to keep a table of the main and minimum contact goals. The main goal of a contact can be one, but there can be several minimum goals. This table allows you to increase sales in almost any department by 10% from the very next day. Simply and easily.

No. 5. The more initiative the better

Why don’t managers close deals and violate the main rule of sales? Because they do not have the initiative in a conversation, they do not conduct a dialogue according to their structure, understanding, according to their own line. When they don’t have the initiative in a conversation, they let the deal slide.

For example, if the client says: “Thank you very much, I’ll think about it,” the manager should take the initiative and ask: “Tell me, maybe I overloaded you with information that you will think about? Or did I leave something unsaid?”, or: “Please tell me, what does “think” mean? How long will it take you to make the positive decision I hope for?”

No. 6. Remember the law 15 minutes

All customer requests that are not processed within 15 minutes are considered lost. When the manager tries to explain that he couldn’t reach the incoming customer for 40 minutes, my eyes roll back and I start to twitch.

Why? Because it’s a lost lead. If you cannot process it, then you must quickly pass it on to someone else.

Many companies do not have these rules written down, so such things are left to chance. One manager called the client after 20 minutes, the second after 25, the third after 30. Again, this problem arises due to the lack of banal automation in the sales department. There is no customer relationship management system or CRM.

I had cases when I came to the sales department in the morning, took money out of my pocket and started burning it, explaining: “Guys, our cost for an incoming lead is $50. I just counted how many incoming leads we just took and ate yesterday. I’m burning this money in front of you.” The visualization is very powerful, it immediately becomes clear to everyone what a lost client is.

No. 7. Always know what to spend your earned money on

To sell more, you need to know what you’ll spend a thousand, ten thousand, and a hundred thousand dollars on. You need to write this down in three written A4 papers. The numbers can be changed, but the point is that it should be 80% of earnings. A person who does not know what he spends money on does not know how to earn it.

In my departments, I often start by teaching people how to spend money. I instill in them a desire to spend. Why? When a person’s spending increases, he is forced to earn more. And there are two logics: the first is to save (which is absolutely wrong), the second is to think about how to earn more.

No. 8. Take objection as joy

Many sales managers perceive objections as something negative. Therefore, we hear from them, for example, that objections need to be fought. And I sincerely struggle with this formulation. We don’t fight objections. We work with objections.

An objection is a simple emotional reaction of a person to the unknown. He shows us: “Look, dear manager, I’m not indifferent to you, I just don’t understand why and for what. Or something doesn’t suit me.” That is, he exhibits an emotional reaction that can be worked with.

When a person doesn’t respond to you, this is the worst thing that can happen in sales. And if we go into the CRM systems of many companies, we will see that 80% of clients have the status “Offer under consideration.” Most of these leads should have said no, but the manager is afraid of outright rejection. Why? Because this is a psychologically uncomfortable form. People are afraid of failure until they experience professional deformation.

Sometimes objections need to be provoked, because in this case there is an exchange of emotions. Here is an absolutely typical situation: a manager has been calling a client for 3.5 months. And the client says every week: “Let’s do it next week.” Pulls gum. I explain to the manager: “You need to call and say: “Leonid Evgenievich, I’ve been calling you for three months, you tell me “no” every week.” If you want to refuse me, I will accept your refusal. Just tell me why, and I will accept it.” And you know, when a manager says such a phrase, he then comes running and says: “Oh, how could that be possible? The client told me this and that, and we agreed.” Right! Because the client was brought into dialogue.

That is, when you ask a person: “Do you, as a client, want to refuse us? Refuse, we don’t mind!” We will enter such refusals into CRM, and we will have complete statistics on why we were refused. And we will provide proposals for them.

No. 9. Collect feedback

To gain the trust of a new client, you need to take a simple action: pick up the phone. And call those who have already bought something from you, even if there are five of them. And ask a simple question: “Why did you buy from us?” Record each answer, then collect everything and evaluate what people say.

What’s the logic? People vote for businesses with their money. That is, the person who bought something will answer why he did this and whether he will do it again in the future. And you will be able to understand what your real value to the client is. After all, a business owner may think about some benefits of his product, but customers actually buy from him for a completely different reason.

No. 10. Watch what they say about you

It’s bad when they don’t talk about you at all. It’s good when broadcasters talk about you, those who have gathered a horde of 15 thousand active subscribers.

If a company is trying to get human broadcasters to talk about it, it will obviously be in the black. Modern man has learned to react to human broadcasters. Each of us is present on the social network and is subscribed to a broadcaster who is broadcasting something.

But the negative is remembered better than the positive. Always keep this in mind. The one who knows how to play with negative emotions wins social networks.