In the competitive world of sales, finding effective strategies to maximize every prospect is crucial for success. Sales hacks provide top sales professionals with innovative techniques and tactics to enhance prospect conversion rates and overall sales performance. These hacks leverage psychological principles, effective communication and strategic planning to influence potential customers positively.
Here, Forbes Business Development Council members dive into the realm of sales hacks and explore some tried-and-true techniques that can help sales teams make the most of every prospect they encounter.
1. Understand The Industry And Potential Challenges
The key is going into the conversation with an awareness of industry trends and the broader challenges that the prospect’s organization may be facing. Prospects often like discussing their industry opinions, so having the base of knowledge to have a discussion on macro challenges and how they are impacting the prospect’s specific business is the first key step in maximizing value to the prospect. – Greynier Fuentes, Veritran
2. Know The Politics And Strategize Accordingly
During discovery, spend time getting to know the goals of your contact as well as how they work with their teams and supervisors. Not only does this help each part of the deal stage, but it will make renewals and expansion easier. Knowing the motivations and politics of an organization and person is as important as their business goals. – Laura Kegley, Revuze
3. Utilize Sales Multithreading To Form Relationships
Leverage “sales multithreading” where you develop relationships with multiple contacts within a prospect account (i.e., champions, influencers and decision-makers) of your deal. Track this on an account planning template and maximize every interaction with the prospect through multiple cadence touches. People buy from people, and this helps deal with slippages and avoid last-minute surprises. – Pradeepa Kolli, LHH (The Adecco Group)
4. Tell Stories
Stories are like psychological air for a prospect. Stories humanize you, build credibility and rapport, capture attention, communicate details, relieve buying pressure and transfer emotions. Studies show that stories can cause the brain to release chemicals that aid in the sales process. Whatever you’ve got to say during your pitch, find a way to say it with stories! – Adam Webb, ION Solar
5. Listen To The Client
Too many salespeople speak at their clients and do not take the time to listen to what the client is looking to achieve to be successful. Once you unlock that knowledge, your client will be open to discussions and understand you have their best interest at heart — and sometimes, they will become a great client and potential friend. – Donald O’Sullivan, Evonsys
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6. Personalize The Sales Approach
Personalized engagement involves leveraging data to tailor your sales approach based on the prospect’s preferences and needs. It works because it makes the prospect feel valued, understood and more likely to engage positively with your offering. – James Mull, htmull
7. Analyze Your Prospects Thoroughly
The most important aspect is to understand the needs of the customer. Though it appears to be simple, it is overlooked oftentimes. It’s advisable to do a complete, thorough analysis of the prospects—this is valuable to find out if the opportunity is the right fit for your organization, and if yes, to understand the challenge they are facing and figure out a way to win their business. – Ashu Goel, WinWire
8. Implement A Close Plan
Have the customer align and agree on a buying schedule and milestones that culminate in a final signature. Document it and review it somewhat frequently with the client. It’s amazing how much this helps with forecasting and driving predictable closed opportunities. – Ryan Northington, Simplus
9. Focus On Business Outcomes
We’re well past the age of selling features and functions, and today’s buyers are under more scrutiny than ever. Help them connect the dots with your product or service and how it will achieve positive outcomes for their business. This will also help you and your customer gain buy-in from the C-suite, who are increasingly involved in deals at earlier stages. – Hayden Stafford, Seismic
10. Form A Strong Relationship
If one was to dissect the anatomy of a transaction, good, bad or ugly, the underlying key is the relationship between the purchaser and the brand, salesperson and product. If you focus on the relationship, often the product strengths and weaknesses fade into the background, and sometimes even your competitors lose their luster when compared with the strength of a client-sales relationship. – Peter Schravemade, REACH ASEA
11. Get To The Pain Points And Tailor What You Say
At the basic level, it’s important to remember that when people look to buy from you, they’re looking to address a pain point. After doing your homework, encourage them to talk, but ask non-sales or leading questions since no one likes to get sold to. By getting people to speak in a conversation and listening, you’ll discover what’s essential for them. – Wayne Elsey, The Funds2Orgs Group
12. Practice Active Listening
Taking the time to make sure you’re aware of, understand and emphasize the paint points of any sales prospect is mission critical. Using this information, you can better illustrate the efficiency at which your product or service resolves various pain points. – Ray Schultz, Liquid Rubber
13. Grab Their Attention With Facts
I found that starting with a fascinating fact related to your product or service captures your prospect’s attention. This works because it piques the curiosity of the listener and immediately highlights your offering’s value. – Abdulaziz Alnaghmoosh, Manga Productions
14. Convert Inquiries Into Referrals
Every person who reaches out to a sales professional to inquire about a certain product or service needs to be converted into a client or a referral source. If the salesperson cannot convert the prospect into a client then, at a minimum, ask the prospective client for the name and number of someone they know who would be a better fit for the particular product or service being offered. – Dustin Owen, The Loan Officer Podcast
15. Show Empathy Through Questions
Understand the prospect’s business and present your solution in the context of your learning. Use it as an opportunity to ask many questions about their priorities and needs and they will likely understand the empathy this approach creates. Empathy leads to trust, trust leads to understanding, understanding leads to interest, and interest leads to sales. – Manoj Tandon, Dark Rhino Security
16. Determine What Is Driving The Prospect For Discussion
No two organizations, nor two decision-makers, are the same; therefore, understanding why they are interested is critical. Prospect “A” at organization “Y” could be looking to control costs whereas prospect “B” at organization “Z” is looking to grow; both have the same roles yet both are targeting different outcomes. The pre-work aspect is as important as any in the sales cycle. – Mustansir Paliwala, EQUANS
17. Leave With An Action Plan
Always leave the discussion with at least one action for both the prospect and yourself. For your action, follow up within the same day or within 24 hours. Make sure the response is personalized and leverage video and other engaging collateral where possible. – Michael Smith, Sonendo
18. Keep The Prospect’s Best Interest In Mind
There is no “one-size-fits-all” in discovering the most effective sales technique. However, one common technique for businesses is working in the best interest of their clients. The best product on the market is not ideal for everyone. Earn your prospect’s attention by offering trials and helping them understand their users’ behavior and needs. – Iva Maric, viahub
19. Don’t Be Afraid To Get Personal
Think like a marketer and play the long game. Prospects need time for nurturing, and connecting through social channels allows a non-invasive way of keeping communication alive even when normal outreach becomes unreasonable. The more personal the better: LinkedIn is great for day-to-day networking, but a Facebook connection—and new shared interest—often closes sales. – Jack Borie, Ubix
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