Praising an offer louder than competitors no longer works. Traditional sales methods have died out due to increasing customer awareness, ad resistance and attention spans reduced to just 8 seconds! Modern sales techniques, driven by strategic sales processes that experienced salespeople apply to understand and persuade their prospects, now take center stage. However, sales techniques are not suitable for everyone! You need to improve your sales technique through trial and error to ensure that your pitch resonates with your prospects.
However, various sales promotion techniques have proven their effectiveness in today's market. You can use these as general guidelines to implement an effective sales campaign in your company. So this blog brings you a comprehensive list of 25 top selling techniques that you must implement now to increase your sales! Let's start with our list of sales techniques.
So here is the complete list of 25 best sales techniques for the modern consumer market -
1. Be systematic about generating leads
Finding new leads for your sales pipeline can be a very difficult and tedious process if you don't follow a systematic lead generation approach. You need to choose the right combination of time-tested lead generation techniques to target your desired audience instead of sending messages to everyone you meet!
Here are some methods to consider based on your client's personal and business goals:
- Search engine optimization
- Email marketing
- Social media marketing
- Pay-to-click advertising
- Webinars
- Blogging
- Online online
2. Know your sales cycle
The sales cycle includes the chronological steps a salesperson goes through to make a sale. It's the administrative process your sales reps follow to make a sale, from identifying a prospect to closing the sale.
Here are the main stages of the sales cycle –
- Find prospects
- Communication with potential customers
- Eligibility of customers
- Presentation of your product or service
- Overcome customer objections
- Close the sale
- Create referrals
You need to train your sales representatives and explain your company's sales cycle to them to ensure that they are working effectively to meet your company's sales goals. Additionally, you should evaluate the performance of each salesperson at each stage to provide feedback and make improvements.
3. Know your sales quota
Sales quotas are goals that sales representatives must achieve in their territory. They set performance benchmarks that help you organize and improve all your sales activities while minimizing waste. Quota goals also motivate sales representatives to perform at their best and help evaluate and reward their performance. You can set quotas using different standards and methods.
Some popular quota types are:
- Profit Stream - sets achievable profit goals.
- Activity quota - sets standards for activities to be performed.
- Sales Volume Quota - Sets established sales targets.
- Forecast Quota - Sets future targets using sales forecasting techniques.
- Combined quota - combines several methods of quota setting.
Planning and communicating the right sales quota is the first and most important step in the sales cycle process. The sales process is definitely disorganized and unproductive if you are not following the correct sales quota!
4. Do customer research
Before you can convince him to buy your product or service, you need to understand your customer's situation, problems and desires. And the best way to do this is through detailed customer research using surveys, interviews, focus groups and ethnographic research, along with desktop research on online reviews, social media and digital forums.
Based on this research, you must identify the characteristics of your prospects and use them to construct a fictional persona or persona of your ideal customer. The leads you approach are likely to be similar in nature. That way you can better prepare to deal with them.
5. Focus on your opportunity
Your sales approach should focus on understanding the requirements and situations of your prospects and providing valuable and personalized recommendations accordingly. This differs from the traditional technique of praising products and services in front of potential customers.
This prospect-focused sales closing technique increases your persuasiveness when supported by thorough customer research and relevant questions. In addition, the time management of sales representatives is important.
6. Sell the problem instead of the solution
Sales promotion methods have traditionally involved telling people about your product or service and persuading them to buy. However, this approach was overused and people began to ignore such conventional appeals. Now is the time to talk to customers to find their problems and offer suggestions instead of announcing your solutions!
So, you need to speak directly to the customer to find and highlight the problems they are facing and give them customized recommendations based on the situation.
This personal approach ensures that your potential customers feel understood and trust you before making an advertising offer. And it maximizes the impact of sales communications.
7. Be realistic
This is one of the best sales techniques you should learn because the modern customer is well informed and can tolerate conventional advertising. So manipulating them or being dishonest with them will lead to failure.
Your best bet is to try to really help your potential customers, and here are some tips on how to do that.
- Ask relevant questions
- Listen carefully
- Provide personalized recommendations
- Maintain friendly body language
- Don't be rude!
Customers appreciate and recognize genuine efforts to help, increasing your chances of closing the deal in your favor!
8. Think from the buyer's perspective
One of the most effective sales techniques is to focus on the buyer's perspective during the sales process instead of the sales goals. Ask yourself what your customers deal with every day, what their needs and problems are, and why they should consider buying your offering. Then answer these questions using customer research and use those answers to put yourself in the role of the buyer.
Thinking from the buyer's perspective allows you to make more personalized recommendations by covering product aspects and use cases that the buyer directly relates to. And of course, this would multiply the chances of conversion.
9. Set up your story
Building on the previous point, you should focus on designing your sales pitch (persuasion attempts) to reflect your buyer's perspective. A sales pitch should be customer-centric, relatable and focus on the customer's problem rather than the solution. You can ensure this by doing customer research, creating buyers and really trying to help your prospects.
10. Show that your solution is unique
A modern buyer is likely to research similar solutions online before purchasing your offering. And the Internet is full of bargains from your competitors! So your sales pitch should focus on the unique features of your offering that provide more value to your customers than your competition. This is also called a unique selling proposition. And a USP-based sales pitch can exponentially increase your conversion rate, setting you apart from similar offers. In fact, it is one of the most successful sales techniques to date.
11. Use storytelling
Storytelling is time-tested and one of the most effective sales techniques for connecting with customers through relatable stories. This is a great hack and will quickly convince your potential customers. This sales technique involves sharing an idea, experience, or moment related to your product or service. A good story captures your customer's attention, builds relationships and trust, and makes your product memorable. In addition, it helps build a lasting relationship with the customer to ensure increased sales and brand loyalty.
12. Point out pain points
Pain points are persistent problems that harm individual customers or businesses. They are waiting for unmet needs to be satisfied with a suitable product or service that could be yours! So you need to focus on finding the pain points of your target customers through customer research and address them in conversation with them.
Here are some of the most common customer pain points you should identify and address
- Late response from customer support
- Bad customer experience
- Poor quality of products and services
- Complicated purchase process
- Unmeasured needs or wants
13. Show the need for change
Your prospect may be inclined to maintain the status quo, but you need to push them out of their comfort zone by highlighting their problems and benefits they are missing! You must also highlight the implications of the problems and how your solutions can avoid negative outcomes and provide unique benefits. By showing a strong need for change, you are more likely to convince your customer to take the initiative and make a purchase.
14. Pay attention to your body language
The salesperson's body language should convey confidence, ease and reliability. This requires optimizing several factors such as nod, smile, hand gestures, posture, mirror and many other small details! Here are some time-tested guidelines that a sales professional should follow when talking to a prospect. Show confidence through attitude and gestures Reach your potential customers by adjusting your language and tone Keep calm and smile wherever you are Maintain eye contact Use your hands sparingly when speaking Focus on the first impression with a smile, straight posture and a firm handshake
Maintaining good body language is critical for salespeople because the image that salespeople project has a direct impact on a company's image and offerings.
15. Use FOMO
Fear of losing is one of the most popular and time-tested sales techniques. It compels customers to take action by presenting and highlighting a limited time offer that they might miss out on if they don't act now! It creates urgency by offering a special opportunity within a tight deadline, e.g
- Current discounts
- Temporary product sets
- One time offers
- Free shipping for a limited time
- Limited stock special edition products
FOMO can motivate potential customers to buy quickly and increase the net order value, which shortens your sales cycle and increases revenue.
16. Ask relevant questions
To learn about your customer's needs, problems and situations, you need to ask the right questions. The answers will help you adapt your communication and give you the opportunity to effectively convince and satisfy the customer.
Listed chronologically, here are the most important questions you should ask —
- Questions to understand the current situation
- Questions to uncover problems and pain points
- Questions that encourage buyers to understand the implications of problems
- Questions that help potential customers understand the effectiveness of your solutions
You should listen carefully to the answers and note the main points to move the conversation forward.
17. Create a relationship
Don't rush to promote your offer as it can feel overwhelming! Instead, you should build relationships by talking to prospects and exchanging pleasantries. To begin with, try to find common ground with common questions and use it to start a personal conversation in a natural and pleasant style. Finally, you must focus the conversation on the needs of the prospect and present your products or services in a friendly and helpful manner.
Building rapport can turn a boring sales pitch into a useful conversation that convinces the customer of the unique value of your offering.
18. Know your prospect's challenges
Your prospects face challenges every day, creating opportunities for solutions that you can leverage throughout your sales cycle! Responding effectively to customer challenges will help you build trust and convince customers easily.
Here are some common prospect challenges you should address in your sales pitch to quickly engage and convince a prospect
- Unhelpful customer service
- Delivery delay
- Products not available
- Poor product quality
- Long waits
- No company tracking
- Continuous transfer
- Poor communication with customer service
19. Use social media
Using social media for sales or social selling is one of the most modern sales closing techniques that salespeople can use to target and connect with their prospects. This includes all major social media platforms such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, etc. Here are some important steps that will help you leverage social media to reach and convince your potential customers. Strengthen your brand presence on the social platform by creating and sharing valuable content related to your niche. Also share user generated content to maximize persuasion.
Listen to the answers to find potential customers and build relationships with them through personal messages. Also, reach out to other members of their network to expand your reach among potential customers. Optimize your posts and messages based on feedback you receive on and from the platform. Use popular social media sites in your niche. Promote flash sales and special offers on the platform.
In addition to generating new leads, use the platform to retarget existing customers or prospects who have shown strong interest but haven't made a purchase. Be consistent in your efforts and don't get discouraged if you don't see results quickly. When it comes to organic social selling, you have to trust the process! Investing some time in organically growing and promoting your social network will pay major dividends by improving your brand awareness and sales success.
In fact, 78% of salespeople who use social media get better results than their peers who don't use social selling. So you need to leverage the massive reach and reach of social media to find prospects and create lasting connections that ultimately lead to sales.
20. Get referrals
A rule of thumb for all sellers is to get referrals from satisfied customers by asking them to tell their friends about your offer. That's because referrals give you a word-of-mouth benefit at no extra cost! But asking for a direct recommendation can be difficult in some cases. So here is a way to bypass it. To get started, you need to encourage customers to tell people they know who might be interested in your offer. Also, get permission from the satisfied customer to tell the people they referred about your conversation. After that, you can start the recommended prospect conversations with the satisfied customer!
Referrals are the most popular sales technique with a lot of potential. That's because 83% of people are willing to make recommendations. You just need to give them an easy and timely opportunity!
21. Focus on scheduling meetings
Look for the right point to request a meeting so you can take the discussion ahead with the prospective customer. This sales technique is very effective when the customer has shown some interest over email or phone but seems reluctant to make the commitment of a purchase. You can use direct communication and demonstrations to convince the prospects during the meeting, ensuring that they are thoroughly convinced before you ask them to take the final purchase decision.
Also, make sure that you are adequately prepared for the meeting and create a good first impression by following some key tips-
- Find out about your client through customer research in advance
- Locate the right meeting time and place convenient to you and the client through the preliminary discussion.
- Prepare your communication tools for the meeting
- Anticipate objections and prepare appropriate arguments
- Be punctual and take care of your appearance
- Maintain a friendly, respectful and confident demeanor
- Ask meaningful, relevant and non-intrusive questions
- Listen to the customer and make genuine suggestions accordingly
- Tailor your sales pitch to convince your customers
22. Prepare for objections
You must be prepared for common objections from customers, especially when you contact them. Typical objections during the sale are:
- I'm dealing with someone else
- I'm too busy for that
- This is not a good time
- Send me the details first and we'll talk later
You need to practice what you should say in response so you don't get confused and lose the lead!
In general, you need to acknowledge the objections and then redesign your message to address their concerns. Also keep in mind that objections become more common as customers obtain information. So, you need to research the online content offering and branding to prepare for appropriate objections during the interview.
23. Actively listen and follow up
Listening to the customer's requirements, problems and opinions will help you understand and respond to their specific needs when you speak. Proactive sales techniques like these help you build trust and convince your prospects that your offering is perfect for them. Therefore, you should start with a natural conversation, ask questions to understand the situation and requirements of the prospect, and then continue to incorporate this information into your conversation. This approach will make your statements more personalized, helpful, and persuasive for the prospect. And this will raise the chances of conversion or agreement for future meetings. Try using our follow-up email templates.
24. Maintain the bond even after closing the deal
The sales cycle doesn’t end when you close the deal. Maintaining customer relationships is important to keep them loyal to your brand. So you need to observe how your customers are doing and what they currently have. Your sales team should connect with your customers through personalized messages that offer support, updates, greetings and special offers. If you continue to nurture relationships with your customers, you can find great opportunities to upsell or cross sell to them on a regular basis.
And it helps you get the sale without going through the whole expensive sales process. In fact, acquiring new customers is at least 5 times more expensive than keeping existing customers!
25. Look for an opportunity to increase sales
Upselling is the sale of higher-priced versions of an offer that a customer has purchased or expressed interest in purchasing. This is one of the best selling techniques that allows interested prospects or customers to place a larger order by purchasing an improved version of the original product or service! Since the leads are already very interested, upselling is a quick and easy trick to multiply your profits. Therefore, try to look for additional sales opportunities by analyzing your new offers and the needs of interested customers. You can contact such customers regularly and make relevant suggestions for upselling, or encourage them to buy more expensive products by talking to a customer who has shown great interest in cheaper versions.
Get ready to increase your sales with these pro tips!
We have seen the priority of the sales process shift from the seller to the buyer as prospects become more aware and resistant to conventional advertising. Sales techniques now focus on a subtle and personalized approach to identifying, understanding and persuading prospects. And to maintain a competitive edge, it's important that you stay in touch with a modern approach.
To keep up with this revolution in sales techniques, this comprehensive list of the top 25 sales techniques includes everything you need to know to revamp your sales process. These sales tips and techniques will help you easily attract, understand and convince your customers and meet your sales quota at a low cost. Use the tips in this list of sales techniques now to optimize your sales presentation, increase your conversion rate, and shorten your sales cycle.
All the best!