This is not a new concept, and the creation of an integrated innovation framework within the corporate institution is widely accepted, although not that widely practised! The key question is does the sales function and process fit within the integrated innovation framework?

What is a ‘Good’ Sale?

Part of the “growing pains” of a business (especially of that from small to medium and onwards) is the recognition that not all sales are good sales. An immature business grabs all business that is on offer, with all thoughts of margin and opportunity cost temporarily suspended, whereas once the business is overloaded with work, some thought needs to be given to the Strategy of the business.

Part of this strategic evaluation of potential sales should be given over to “innovation”. The sales function (and all other customer facing teams) should take into account whether a potential sale is “innovative”. But what does this actually mean? Asking some of the following questions might open up the business to a different type of sale:

• Will this sale lead to a new product or service range for the business? Does the product or service need a degree of “product/service modification”?
• How will this differentiate our business from the competition? Either in terms of the client or the product/service being sold? Will this make us stand out in the market or is it just a “me too” sale?
• What are the opportunities for on or up-selling new or trial products/services? How likely are we to be able to showcase our NPD (New Product Development) approach through this client?
• What will we gain in terms of corporate knowledge and insight from this sale? Do we have the systems and processes in place to learn from this successful sale?
• What is different, odd, peculiar, unique or special about the sales process in this instance? Have we used MarComms (Marketing & Communications) and the sales resources in a novel or different way? Was this new process key to the success of the sale?
• Can we use this sale as an “exemplar” of an innovative sale? Can we learn and reproduce the sale in future?

Market Intelligence and the Innovation Process

There are several ways in which a business can gather useful market insights to assist in the innovation process.

Market Segmentation and Customer Profiling

By understanding the different types of customers and markets it serves, a business can deploy its salespeople and other resources to ensure that each type is dealt with appropriately and this, in turn, will improve the insight the business gains on its customers. In other words, the salespeople servicing each sector become more expert in those sectors and subsequently develop a deeper understanding of their customer needs in those markets.

Alongside the segmentation of the market should be considered how the resources are allocated to each sector. So the segments themselves need to be clearly “marked” and understood. Questions to ponder are:

• a. Are salespeople spending an appropriate amount of their time with the most important customers?
• b. What defines the “most important customers”? For example, high spend, high profit, or strategically important?

Consultative Selling Process

Assuming that salespeople are spending time with the right type of customer, how they deal with those customers during their contacts is vital to ensuring that a valuable market insight is obtained. So what are the key steps in the sale that a salesperson must take to achieve this?

• a. In-depth pre-call planning to ensure that the customer can be engaged:
  • a. Factually (“Can I trust this salesperson’s expertise?”); and
  • b. Emotionally (“Do I trust the salesperson to work in my interests?”).
• b. Asking “thoughtful questions” which go beyond a list of questions based on pure facts and help to gain a genuine understanding of the customer’s motivation and specific needs. Examples of supplementary “thoughtful questions” might include phrases such as:
  • a. “Tell me about how that came about…”;
  • b. “What would be the consequences of that for your business?”;
  • c. “What are your hopes and aspirations for your business?”; and
  • d. “What are your biggest challenges facing the business at the moment?”.
• c. Active Listening to ensure that all useful information is captured and that salespeople demonstrate to the customer that they are listening, which helps to build rapport and understanding between them and the customer. This is achieved by asking supplementary questions to delve more deeply into subjects and funnelling the discussion down so that some tangible information (specific needs) is identified.
• d. Summarising the main needs identified with the customer, to check understanding and of course to ensure that the most important needs will be addressed with an appropriate and compelling solution. The customer is more inclined to give more information if there is a belief that there is a genuine interest in them by the salesperson!
• e. It is vital that the salesperson records all the genuine needs that have been identified with the customer and not just those that can be met with the current range of products or services. Whilst it may not result in a sale now, it is another rich source of ideas that can drive innovation in the organisation. It is important therefore, that there is a formally recognised process to capture this information so that they may be reviewed at a later time.

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) System

A system for recording useful information pertaining to individual customers is vital in a business, and a CRM system is often at the heart of this process. However, for it to be of any use, it needs to be properly used. Salespeople who are encouraged to look beyond the “here and now” can really add value to this process by completing data fields on a CRM system even when there may be nothing gained from this in the short term. One piece of information from one customer could become a vital source of market intelligence when considered alongside inputs from hundreds of other customers. Therefore, it is important that salespeople are aware of the significance of this role and that their performance in this area is regularly appraised.

Assuming that information is diligently captured, there needs to be a process in place to ensure that it is used effectively by marketeers and others who need to know what is going on in the market place. Secondly, there needs to be a feedback loop in place to show to salespeople that their efforts in collecting the data have made a real difference, for example, in developing a product enhancement. Without a positive affirmation, the salespeople may not collect the information as diligently and the opportunity to gain market insight will have been lost.

Mystery Shoppers

There will always be differences in the capabilities between salespeople, be they based on differing levels of experience, capability or individual personality. Therefore, the quality of the market insight information they generate will vary, and one highly effective way to gain accurate feedback on the salesperson and the wider business is to deploy a mystery shopper service.

A mystery shopper service can:

• a. Highlight strengths (for recognition purposes) as well as opportunities for improvement in all areas of the business and not just sales;
• b. Lead to highly relevant training and development programmes; and
• c. Identify and correct any systemic failures in the sales process – is the process giving the business information that it needs to understand the changing market and thus innovate?

The role of Inbound Customer Service (CS)

Complaints and questions to a CS team from customers should be a catalyst for innovation. By understanding the problems and issues of customers and how they relate to the sales process, the sales process can be improved to prevent those issue recurring. Furthermore, improvements are not restricted to the sales process as a valuable market insight can be gained across a wide range of activities in the business. For example:

• a. Does the product work (Production/Operations)?
• b. Does the advertising reflect reality (Marketing)?
• c. Are the instructions/manuals good enough (Product/Operations)?
• d. Does the product/service compare favourably with the competition (Product/Operations)?
• e. Is the product/service reliable (Product/Operations)?
• f. Did the salesperson describe the product/service accurately (Sales/Training)?
• g. Was it easy for the customer to make contact with CS or was this in itself a source of irritation (Marketing)?
• h. Was the customer dealt with properly and promptly or did the issue need to be escalated (CS/Training)?

If “chatbots” form part of the customer contact process then these should be programmed to ensure that trends are categorised and logged. Indeed, it is important that all information gleaned by CS is captured systematically and a mechanism established to review it by all stakeholders.

Finance, Billing and Credit Control – the Ignored Innovators!

Whilst CS staff can be an important source of customer insight, an often-neglected source of wisdom is the team responsible for managing the customers’ financial accounts including functions such as collections and credit control.

No sales process is completed until the finance team have been involved and completed their function. Oft derided as a “sales-prevention” function, if included in an integrated innovation framework, their effect can be truly transformative!

On occasions, a customer’s complaint may by-pass the CS team and go directly to the finance team, particularly if there is an intention by the customer to withhold payment until a problem is resolved. Another example of customer input to the finance team could relate to the suitability of the standard payment terms set up by the business. Would the customer prefer to pay in full in return for a discount or perhaps to pay via quarterly instalments?

How many sales directors have actually sat down with the finance director and examined the innovative ways in which T&Cs and contractual terms can be tweaked and changed to make them more attractive to clients? Can the invoicing process become more innovative in terms of how clients are billed and when, money transferred or even discounts given?

To capture this input, it is important that as well as being included in the customer insight process within the business, the finance team work with the sales team to share information and ideas. This would normally be via a meeting or conference call but how much more engaged in the process would the finance team be if they occasionally joined salespeople on important visits? They might also pick up on financial details mentioned by a customer that a salesperson might gloss over or ignore.

If a business is said to be truly innovative then the oft ignored finance team must be involved and asked for their ideas on innovative ways to deploy their essential skills and function and not just as an afterthought!

Managing the Catalogue – Dynamic Product Updates

In closing the “loop” of corporate innovation it is the responsibility of the sales function to ensure that any product “catalogue” should be updated with any information from the latest sale or customer insight. So what does this actually mean? Well, in the first instance static, traditional catalogues have had their day. They can point people to a web site and an online catalogue but any listing needs to be flexible and dynamic enough to cope with frequent updates and changes.

The flexibility of products and services and how things can be amended and changed to meet the specific needs of clients is a key feature, and a business needs to find a way of innovating in this way. Easy to say, difficult to do!

In Summary – A Filtering Process

In order to make the sales process truly innovative the sales function needs to sit within an integrated innovative framework above all. This requires representation at the highest level within the organisation but also a recognition that the function needs to be innovative in order for the whole business to thrive and service in these competitive times.

• Identify what a “good” sale looks like. Innovation in the sale and in the customer needs to be a factor taken into account.
• Customer and market insight is central to innovation in the sales process. This includes such skills as market segmentation, customer profiling, consultative selling, effective CRM systems and the use of mystery shoppers.
• The Inbound customer service function needs to see itself as part of the wider sales process. Any “touch point” with the customer is an opportunity to identify areas for innovation and be innovative in itself.
• Don’t ignore the finance team! Great innovations can be made in the finance team but they are rarely seen as a source of innovation and should be seen within the wider sales process.

The Integrated Innovation Framework

The model below shows the component parts of an fully integrated innovation process. The challenge is to link the sales and customer facing functions with this process at every point. For example:

• Planning = Innovation Strategy. How does your sales activities link to corporate strategy and innovation?
• Pipeline = R&D Plan. Where does sales as function and process fit with your pipeline of new ideas?
• Process = Ideation to Launch. Where does a salesperson go with their next great idea?
• Platform = Technology. How does your CRM system link to your innovation database?
• People = Culture. Are all the right people and teams engaged with innovation?
• Performance = Recognition. Does your recognition process work for or against your innovation process?

Simon Derry is Director of Project Leaders International, a professional services company based in Henley on Thames, Oxon, UK. PLI provide innovation consultancy services and help companies with incubator schemes, training, consulting, coaching and software.

Richard Claessens is a Director of Sales Tec, a management consultancy based in Buckinghamshire, UK, specialising in sales performance improvement, training and development.

For more information on how these process could be used within your business please contact us.

If you or your team require a more structured approach to increasing sales, we offer a number of professional sales training courses, including Telesales & Telemarketing, Presentation Skills and Key Account Management. We also offer a full sales consultancy service if you would like us to guide you through the sales process.

Want our blog posts delivered straight to your inbox? Enter your email address below and receive top tips for boosting sales performance!

This is not a new concept, and the creation of an integrated innovation framework within the corporate institution is widely accepted, although not that widely practised! The key question is does the sales function and process fit within the integrated innovation framework?

What is a ‘Good’ Sale?

Part of the “growing pains” of a business (especially of that from small to medium and onwards) is the recognition that not all sales are good sales. An immature business grabs all business that is on offer, with all thoughts of margin and opportunity cost temporarily suspended, whereas once the business is overloaded with work, some thought needs to be given to the Strategy of the business.

Part of this strategic evaluation of potential sales should be given over to “innovation”. The sales function (and all other customer facing teams) should take into account whether a potential sale is “innovative”. But what does this actually mean? Asking some of the following questions might open up the business to a different type of sale:

• Will this sale lead to a new product or service range for the business? Does the product or service need a degree of “product/service modification”?
• How will this differentiate our business from the competition? Either in terms of the client or the product/service being sold? Will this make us stand out in the market or is it just a “me too” sale?
• What are the opportunities for on or up-selling new or trial products/services? How likely are we to be able to showcase our NPD (New Product Development) approach through this client?
• What will we gain in terms of corporate knowledge and insight from this sale? Do we have the systems and processes in place to learn from this successful sale?
• What is different, odd, peculiar, unique or special about the sales process in this instance? Have we used MarComms (Marketing & Communications) and the sales resources in a novel or different way? Was this new process key to the success of the sale?
• Can we use this sale as an “exemplar” of an innovative sale? Can we learn and reproduce the sale in future?

Market Intelligence and the Innovation Process

There are several ways in which a business can gather useful market insights to assist in the innovation process.

Market Segmentation and Customer Profiling

By understanding the different types of customers and markets it serves, a business can deploy its salespeople and other resources to ensure that each type is dealt with appropriately and this, in turn, will improve the insight the business gains on its customers. In other words, the salespeople servicing each sector become more expert in those sectors and subsequently develop a deeper understanding of their customer needs in those markets.

Alongside the segmentation of the market should be considered how the resources are allocated to each sector. So the segments themselves need to be clearly “marked” and understood. Questions to ponder are:

• a. Are salespeople spending an appropriate amount of their time with the most important customers?
• b. What defines the “most important customers”? For example, high spend, high profit, or strategically important?

Consultative Selling Process

Assuming that salespeople are spending time with the right type of customer, how they deal with those customers during their contacts is vital to ensuring that a valuable market insight is obtained. So what are the key steps in the sale that a salesperson must take to achieve this?

• a. In-depth pre-call planning to ensure that the customer can be engaged:
  • a. Factually (“Can I trust this salesperson’s expertise?”); and
  • b. Emotionally (“Do I trust the salesperson to work in my interests?”).
• b. Asking “thoughtful questions” which go beyond a list of questions based on pure facts and help to gain a genuine understanding of the customer’s motivation and specific needs. Examples of supplementary “thoughtful questions” might include phrases such as:
  • a. “Tell me about how that came about…”;
  • b. “What would be the consequences of that for your business?”;
  • c. “What are your hopes and aspirations for your business?”; and
  • d. “What are your biggest challenges facing the business at the moment?”.
• c. Active Listening to ensure that all useful information is captured and that salespeople demonstrate to the customer that they are listening, which helps to build rapport and understanding between them and the customer. This is achieved by asking supplementary questions to delve more deeply into subjects and funnelling the discussion down so that some tangible information (specific needs) is identified.
• d. Summarising the main needs identified with the customer, to check understanding and of course to ensure that the most important needs will be addressed with an appropriate and compelling solution. The customer is more inclined to give more information if there is a belief that there is a genuine interest in them by the salesperson!
• e. It is vital that the salesperson records all the genuine needs that have been identified with the customer and not just those that can be met with the current range of products or services. Whilst it may not result in a sale now, it is another rich source of ideas that can drive innovation in the organisation. It is important therefore, that there is a formally recognised process to capture this information so that they may be reviewed at a later time.

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) System

A system for recording useful information pertaining to individual customers is vital in a business, and a CRM system is often at the heart of this process. However, for it to be of any use, it needs to be properly used. Salespeople who are encouraged to look beyond the “here and now” can really add value to this process by completing data fields on a CRM system even when there may be nothing gained from this in the short term. One piece of information from one customer could become a vital source of market intelligence when considered alongside inputs from hundreds of other customers. Therefore, it is important that salespeople are aware of the significance of this role and that their performance in this area is regularly appraised.

Assuming that information is diligently captured, there needs to be a process in place to ensure that it is used effectively by marketeers and others who need to know what is going on in the market place. Secondly, there needs to be a feedback loop in place to show to salespeople that their efforts in collecting the data have made a real difference, for example, in developing a product enhancement. Without a positive affirmation, the salespeople may not collect the information as diligently and the opportunity to gain market insight will have been lost.

Mystery Shoppers

There will always be differences in the capabilities between salespeople, be they based on differing levels of experience, capability or individual personality. Therefore, the quality of the market insight information they generate will vary, and one highly effective way to gain accurate feedback on the salesperson and the wider business is to deploy a mystery shopper service.

A mystery shopper service can:

• a. Highlight strengths (for recognition purposes) as well as opportunities for improvement in all areas of the business and not just sales;
• b. Lead to highly relevant training and development programmes; and
• c. Identify and correct any systemic failures in the sales process – is the process giving the business information that it needs to understand the changing market and thus innovate?

The role of Inbound Customer Service (CS)

Complaints and questions to a CS team from customers should be a catalyst for innovation. By understanding the problems and issues of customers and how they relate to the sales process, the sales process can be improved to prevent those issue recurring. Furthermore, improvements are not restricted to the sales process as a valuable market insight can be gained across a wide range of activities in the business. For example:

• a. Does the product work (Production/Operations)?
• b. Does the advertising reflect reality (Marketing)?
• c. Are the instructions/manuals good enough (Product/Operations)?
• d. Does the product/service compare favourably with the competition (Product/Operations)?
• e. Is the product/service reliable (Product/Operations)?
• f. Did the salesperson describe the product/service accurately (Sales/Training)?
• g. Was it easy for the customer to make contact with CS or was this in itself a source of irritation (Marketing)?
• h. Was the customer dealt with properly and promptly or did the issue need to be escalated (CS/Training)?

If “chatbots” form part of the customer contact process then these should be programmed to ensure that trends are categorised and logged. Indeed, it is important that all information gleaned by CS is captured systematically and a mechanism established to review it by all stakeholders.

Finance, Billing and Credit Control – the Ignored Innovators!

Whilst CS staff can be an important source of customer insight, an often-neglected source of wisdom is the team responsible for managing the customers’ financial accounts including functions such as collections and credit control.

No sales process is completed until the finance team have been involved and completed their function. Oft derided as a “sales-prevention” function, if included in an integrated innovation framework, their effect can be truly transformative!

On occasions, a customer’s complaint may by-pass the CS team and go directly to the finance team, particularly if there is an intention by the customer to withhold payment until a problem is resolved. Another example of customer input to the finance team could relate to the suitability of the standard payment terms set up by the business. Would the customer prefer to pay in full in return for a discount or perhaps to pay via quarterly instalments?

How many sales directors have actually sat down with the finance director and examined the innovative ways in which T&Cs and contractual terms can be tweaked and changed to make them more attractive to clients? Can the invoicing process become more innovative in terms of how clients are billed and when, money transferred or even discounts given?

To capture this input, it is important that as well as being included in the customer insight process within the business, the finance team work with the sales team to share information and ideas. This would normally be via a meeting or conference call but how much more engaged in the process would the finance team be if they occasionally joined salespeople on important visits? They might also pick up on financial details mentioned by a customer that a salesperson might gloss over or ignore.

If a business is said to be truly innovative then the oft ignored finance team must be involved and asked for their ideas on innovative ways to deploy their essential skills and function and not just as an afterthought!

Managing the Catalogue – Dynamic Product Updates

In closing the “loop” of corporate innovation it is the responsibility of the sales function to ensure that any product “catalogue” should be updated with any information from the latest sale or customer insight. So what does this actually mean? Well, in the first instance static, traditional catalogues have had their day. They can point people to a web site and an online catalogue but any listing needs to be flexible and dynamic enough to cope with frequent updates and changes.

The flexibility of products and services and how things can be amended and changed to meet the specific needs of clients is a key feature, and a business needs to find a way of innovating in this way. Easy to say, difficult to do!

In Summary – A Filtering Process

In order to make the sales process truly innovative the sales function needs to sit within an integrated innovative framework above all. This requires representation at the highest level within the organisation but also a recognition that the function needs to be innovative in order for the whole business to thrive and service in these competitive times.

• Identify what a “good” sale looks like. Innovation in the sale and in the customer needs to be a factor taken into account.
• Customer and market insight is central to innovation in the sales process. This includes such skills as market segmentation, customer profiling, consultative selling, effective CRM systems and the use of mystery shoppers.
• The Inbound customer service function needs to see itself as part of the wider sales process. Any “touch point” with the customer is an opportunity to identify areas for innovation and be innovative in itself.
• Don’t ignore the finance team! Great innovations can be made in the finance team but they are rarely seen as a source of innovation and should be seen within the wider sales process.

The Integrated Innovation Framework

The model below shows the component parts of an fully integrated innovation process. The challenge is to link the sales and customer facing functions with this process at every point. For example:

• Planning = Innovation Strategy. How does your sales activities link to corporate strategy and innovation?
• Pipeline = R&D Plan. Where does sales as function and process fit with your pipeline of new ideas?
• Process = Ideation to Launch. Where does a salesperson go with their next great idea?
• Platform = Technology. How does your CRM system link to your innovation database?
• People = Culture. Are all the right people and teams engaged with innovation?
• Performance = Recognition. Does your recognition process work for or against your innovation process?

Simon Derry is Director of Project Leaders International, a professional services company based in Henley on Thames, Oxon, UK. PLI provide innovation consultancy services and help companies with incubator schemes, training, consulting, coaching and software.

Richard Claessens is a Director of Sales Tec, a management consultancy based in Buckinghamshire, UK, specialising in sales performance improvement, training and development.

For more information on how these process could be used within your business please contact us.

If you or your team require a more structured approach to increasing sales, we offer a number of professional sales training courses, including Telesales & Telemarketing, Presentation Skills and Key Account Management. We also offer a full sales consultancy service if you would like us to guide you through the sales process.

Want our blog posts delivered straight to your inbox? Enter your email address below and receive top tips for boosting sales performance!

There is no single, sure-fire way to generate revenue for your business. There are, however, many strategies that you can experiment with to drive sales and grow your customer base. The sales strategies you employ to generate sales will ultimately depend on many factors, such as your business, industry, location, and, of course, budget.

The methods for increasing sales outlined in this article revolve around building lasting customer relationships. Our sales techniques have helped us grow our business, and they could do the same for you.

Proven Ways to Boost Sales for Small Businesses

The following section details some of the proven strategies that successful small business use to boost sales. They’re relatively quick and easy to implement, and can be applied to almost any business in any niche.

Unique Value Proposition (UVP)

Before you begin planning a strategy to boost sales, it’s important to understand what your business has to offer that your competitors don’t. That way, you can tailor your marketing campaign for maximum exposure. If your product or service provides customers with specific benefits, make sure you emphasise them in your promotional materials.

Ask yourself these three questions:

• What does your business offer that the competition doesn’t?
• Why should customers buy from you instead of your competitors?
• What guarantee can you make that other businesses in your niche can’t?

Once you know the answers to these questions you’ll be in a better position to formulate a marketing campaign that helps your business stand out from the competition.

Sales Funnels

Before launching a new campaign, make sure you’ve defined a clear and solid path for converting leads into paying customers. A well-planned sales funnel is one of the most effective ways to increase conversions and boost sales. If you haven’t given much consideration to how you’re going to convert leads into prospects and prospects into customers, you risk wasting time and money on ineffective advertising and marketing campaigns.

Qualify Leads

When your budget is tight, it’s even more important to ensure that your time and money is spent on marketing activities that stand a good chance of achieving results. When it comes to qualifying prospects, the faster you can distinguish genuine potential customers from tire kickers and time wasters, the better.

This is one of the most overlooked but most important stages of the entire sales process. When it comes to qualifying leads, there are a few questions you should ask yourself:

• Is the lead the decision maker?
• Are your products or services a good fit for their needs?
• Are they ready to buy now? If not, when?
• Can they afford you?

Once you have a solid understanding of the challenges your potential customers are facing, it will be easier to target your marketing efforts and create sales funnels that pre-qualify leads and prospects. This will help you avoid wasting time and money on ineffective marketing campaigns.

If you have multiple lead generation campaigns across many different platforms, a lead management service such as OhMyLead may make qualifying your leads much easier. Essentially, it captures your leads from a number of different sources, such as LinkedIn Ads, Facebook Lead Ads, WordPress, Unbounce and even your own spreadsheets. It then centralises that data in one place before sending it to your preferred CRM.

Build Trust

While price and product benefits are the most obvious buying factors, trust-based factors such as intuition, impressions and relationships are just as powerful. After all, prospects are just as likely to buy for emotional reasons as they are for practical ones.

The challenge is to prove to your prospects that you’re sincere, honest and that you value your business arrangement. This can be achieved by offering quality products, providing outstanding customer service and by never making a promise you can’t keep. Managing customer expectations plays a key role in building customer trust; if they expect something from you and you’re unable to meet their expectations, their trust in you and your business is likely to waiver.

Content builds relationships. Relationships are built on trust. Trust drives revenue.

Andrew Davis

Customer Experience, Communication and Benefits

There are so many ways to boost sales for small businesses that it can seem overwhelming. In fact, if you perform a search online for the term “ways to boost sales” you’ll find hundreds of thousands of results filled with tips and information that claim to be the “secret sauce” to help you achieve your goals. Most of the time, this just leads to more confusion.

The customer relationship techniques outlined below will hopefully help you cut through the clutter and boost sales for your business. Although they may seem simple, when used properly they’re extremely effective and can have a genuine impact on your bottom line.

Customer Experience

One of the most important steps in the entire sales process is to make the buying experience as easy and painless as possible. Don’t make your customers jump through hoops to buy your products. They’ll only get frustrated and walk away. While there may be a lot of data that you want to collect from your leads, it’s important not to ask for too much information up front.

Instead, ask for the bare minimum amount of information so they can complete their purchase as quickly as possible. If you want to gather additional demographic data from them later on, follow-up by sending a thank you note, asking them to fill out warranty information or requesting their feedback. You may be surprised to find out how many sales you’re losing out on due to a lengthy and convoluted checkout process.

Communication

Good communication is the key to closing more sales. It’s important to follow-up with new prospects and customers in a timely manner. Keeping lines of communication open allows you to gain more trust and credibility, which in turn will result in more sales.

Always do your best to put them at ease and let them know they’re not bothering you or wasting your time by asking a question. Answer each question promptly and honestly. Remember, most customers can tell when you’re being untruthful. If you don’t know the answer to one of their questions, don’t make something up; be open and upfront, and tell them you’ll find out for them as soon as possible and let them know.

Surveys

One of the best ways to find out what’s on the mind of your customers is to create a survey. This can help you find out what motivates them to buy, and can provide you with valuable insights into their wants and needs. This is valuable information that will enable you to reach your target audience more effectively. If you find that people aren’t interested in taking your survey, try offering an incentive for providing feedback, such as a free gift, discount or access to exclusive content.

When it comes to finding out what your customers want, there are many free and affordable services that make creating a survey quick and easy. Most of them will even help you track your results. A few of the most popular survey tools are listed below:

• Survey Monkey
• Survey Gizmo
• Zoomerang

Benefits

When it comes to closing a sale, it’s important that you talk about the benefits of your product or service. More often than not, your customers don’t want to know the technical details about your product or service; they just want to know what it can do for them.

Benefits show off the value of your product much better than features. Let your prospect know exactly what your product can do for them. Will it help them make more money? Save time? Improve their health? This is the kind of information they want to know, and providing that information is one of the most effective ways to boost sales for small businesses.

Strong customer relationships drive sales, sustainability, and growth.

Tom Cates

Put Yourself in Your Customers’ Shoes

Most people have a built-in instinct when it comes to sales pitches. It makes them feel uncomfortable and puts them on guard almost immediately. It’s your job to put their mind at ease and alleviate any doubt they may have about your product or service.

One way you can do that is to put yourself in your customers’ shoes. Don’t assume that just because something is important to you that it’s important to them. Try to see what your business has to offer from your customers’ perspective.

Price Increases

Did you know that people often associate premium products with higher prices? Quite often, you can increase sales by simply raising prices. A price increase can set you apart from the competition and often creates the impression that your product or service is superior. If you do decide to raise your prices, it’s important that you communicate this to your existing customers as early as possible in order to reinforce the value proposition of your offerings. It’s all about perception.

Branding

When it comes to boosting sales, public perception of your business brand is what will put you ahead of the competition. Conveying a strong brand message that resonates with your target audience can have a huge impact on the success of your business.

Here’s a great example of how a winery used branding to boost sales: https://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/how-a-winery-uses-social-media-to-increase-sales-and-brand-loyalty/.

Time Limits

This sales tactic has been used for decades and is still as effective as it ever was. The next time you’re planning on running a sale, try adding a time limit to your promotional materials. Creating time-limited offers causes people to take action right away, as the fear of missing out (FOMO) is often too powerful to ignore. They don’t have time to think about your offer, change their minds or wait to make a purchase. If they want to take advantage of your special offer, they’re forced to act fast, which can lead to more sales for you.

Scarcity

Scarcity marketing tactics use the fear of product shortage to sell more. It’s one of the reasons why limited edition products sell so well. Scarcity can also help to increase the perceived value of the item you’re selling. Your products can become that much more valuable in the eyes of a customer. The fear that there’s only a limited supply available will often push the customer into purchasing, with less consideration given to the purchase.

There’s an argument that scarcity tactics are manipulative and, in some circumstances, exploitative. However, if scarcity tactics are used sparingly, and there’s full transparency about how much stock is left of a particular item, scarcity can be a very helpful, positive sales tool.

If you want to build a great, lasting business, never stop thinking about the world from your customer’s perspective.

Scott Axcell

What Motivates People to Buy?

Once upon a time, the number one tip to boost sales was simply to “give people what they need”. While that may well have been the case a few decades ago, things are a little different now.

A recent study on UK spending priorities by Hitachi Capital revealed that UK individuals spend almost 50% of what they pay out for necessities on luxury items such as smart TVs, electronic gadgets and leisure activities.

If you have a product or service to sell, you need to present it to your prospects as something they want. Focus on what’s in it for them, emphasise the benefits and make them feel as though your product or service is something they absolutely must have. The trick is not to sell your product or service; it’s to make people want to buy it.

People buy because they get pleasure from their purchase. They don’t walk into a car dealership and buy the latest model because they need it; they do it because driving it makes them feel good. Whether it’s the comfort of the plush leather seats, the retractable roof or the symbol of status, their decision to purchase was most likely based on want, rather than necessity.

Want isn’t the only thing that motivates people to make a purchase. While it’s the leading factor, many other triggers can motivate them to buy, such as:

• Making more money;
• Saving more time;
• Being more comfortable;
• Being happier and healthier;
• Being more popular;
• Increasing their enjoyment;
• Attracting the opposite sex;
• Escaping pain and sadness;
• Avoiding trouble; and
• Making their life easier.

These are just a few of the emotional triggers that can motivate people to buy and help boost sales for small businesses. Here’s an interesting article that talks more about effective emotional triggers and how you can use them to your advantage: http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/205240.

You can’t just place a few “Buy” buttons on your website and expect your visitors to buy.

Neil Patel

The Power of Testimonials

If you’ve ever made a purchase from a website like Amazon, QVC or HSN, product reviews probably played a big part in your decision making process.

Customer reviews and testimonials have the power to boost your sales significantly. A glowing recommendation from a happy customer is a powerful emotional trigger that can create a level of trust that no other form of marketing can match.

Typically, when someone begins shopping for a product or service, one of the first things they take into consideration is the recommendations of others. They seek advice from family, friends and other people who have purchased your products or services. They do this because they want to make an informed choice. Testimonials and reviews give them insight into how other people feel about their purchase (and purchasing experience).

One of the most effective ways to encourage people to make a purchase is to introduce them to other satisfied customers. Since taking your customers with you to every business meeting isn’t practical, you should set up a process for collecting testimonials and displaying these as case studies on your website and in your marketing materials. You would then be able to share them with your prospects and leads as “social proof” of the value of your offering.

Word-of-mouth marketing (WOMM) is arguably the most powerful sales strategy of them all, and yet many small businesses fail to capitalise on the opportunities it presents. WOMM is widely regarded as the most valuable form of marketing – the one that consumers trust above all others and the one that is most likely to boost sales for your company – and it’s a marketing strategy that no business should ignore.

According to a study by Nielsen, 92% of consumers believe word-of-mouth and recommendations from family and friends over all other forms of advertising. In a recent study conducted by the American Marketing Association (AMA), 64% of marketing executives believe word-of-mouth is the most effective form of marketing. However, only 6% believe they’ve mastered it.

But if consumers value word-of-mouth and “earned media” above all other forms of marketing, and marketers agree that it’s the most effective of all sales strategies, why aren’t more small businesses using it to drive revenue?

The problem is that many businesses are focused on “collecting” rather than “connecting”. How many likes, followers, fans and shares a product, service or piece of content has received has become more important than connecting with the people behind the numbers. Having 100 passionate brand advocates is exponentially more effective than having 10,000 “fans” who interacted with your content in order to win a prize.

Building relationships with your customers is the key to harnessing the power of WOMM. After all, relationships are built on trust, and trust drives revenue more effectively than even the largest paid advertising budget.

Word of mouth can be as important, if not more important, for neighborhood businesses as traditional advertising.

Ekaterina Walter

More Ways to Boost Sales for Small Businesses

There are many other strategies to boost sales available to small businesses, such as:

• Bundling your products and services;
• Creating social media competitions;
• Creating one-time-offers to increase impulse buys; and
• Creating upsells to encourage people to purchase addons and extras.

The Next Steps to Increasing Sales

Hopefully this article has provided you with lots of practical and actionable ideas on ways to boost sales for your small business. Many of the tips and tricks outlined in this article are very quick and easy to implement, but if you need any help or have any questions at all, please get in touch.

If you or your team require a more structured approach to increasing sales, we offer a number of professional sales training courses, including Telesales & Telemarketing, Presentation Skills and Key Account Management. We also offer a full sales consultancy service if you would like us to guide you through the sales process.

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For example, what might be an effective approach to one sales situation could be perceived as aggressive and inappropriate in another. Most people would agree that a good sales person is one who can pick-up on all the signals a customer may give, be that body language, voice tone or eye contact. The question is: have your salespeople been trained to interpret these signals correctly?

Social Style training helps to improve our understanding of ourselves and others. There are four Social Styles: Amiable, Analytical, Expressive and Driving, and the training shows what happens to us when we are put under pressure or something is not going as we had hoped. In this type of scenario, “back-up behaviours” are then exhibited. These are like a default behaviour which could be badly received by the recipient.

For example, a “driving style” person will have a strong need to achieve results and they will try to satisfy this need by taking action. These people are seen by others as active, forceful, determined and direct, and they will often initiate social contact. However, when under pressure, their back-up behaviour is to become autocratic, perhaps by dominating situations, meetings and conversations, sometimes “steam-rolling” over others’ ideas in the process.

Taking a further example from a sales environment, imagine that your salesperson is selling to a customer who is slower-paced but very detail focused. The customer avoids eye contact, and any attempt at small talk by the salesperson is not reciprocated. This customer is an Analytical Style customer. Whilst some customers might appreciate the “look and feel” of your product, an Analytical Style person is more interested in reducing any risk to them associated with buying your product. They will be more concerned with guarantees, delivery dates and comparing the specification of your product with others. Any attempt by the salesperson to rush the Analytical Style customer into a decision would make that customer very uncomfortable: even if they did buy, they might never buy from you again.

A salesperson, or anyone else, who can read these types of situations correctly and adjust their approach accordingly, is seen as having high Versatility. Salespeople with a high Versatility score are typically the most successful salespeople.

The Advanced Communication Skills course from Ontrac Training uses the Social Style and Versatility Model from TRACOM to help salespeople improve their performance by giving them a better insight into how they appear to others. It will also give them a better understanding of what their customers’ behaviours are really telling them. Of course, these social intelligence skills are not exclusive to salespeople. They can be applied to any interaction between people, particularly in teams where there is a requirement for people with different communication styles to collaborate effectively.

We use TRACOM-Certified Social Styles Practitioners to deliver our Advanced Communication Skills training course. For more information, please get in touch.

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1. Prioritising tasks

How you prioritise your work has a direct impact on the effectiveness of your sales team and your role as a leader, so it’s important to take the time to get it right. Only by focusing on the tasks which are most likely to lead to success will you and your sales team be successful.

When evaluating the tasks on your todo list, ask yourself: “Will this action have a positive impact on sales performance?”. Speak to your line manager for guidance, critique your job description and ask your sales team what support they need from you. Also consider using task prioritisation systems such as the Eisenhower Matrix or productivity expert David Allen’s Getting Things Done system.

2. Time management

Once you’ve identified your key tasks, the next challenge is to manage your time effectively so that these tasks get done on time.

Effective time management requires you to regularly analyse your workload and focus your energy and resources on completing important tasks before less important ones. Sales managers who are excellent time managers are generally more successful at building effective sales teams and, as such, it’s a vital skill to master.

3. Deciding on a leadership style

Different workplace environments demand different leadership styles. However, whilst being adaptable is often seen as a virtue, so is “being yourself”. Nobody likes a fraud, so don’t try to be something you’re not. Newly promoted sales managers who are trying to assert their authority over a team they were once part of often fall into this trap.

4. Motivating your sales team

Highly motivated sales teams tend to be successful sales teams, and good leaders know how to keep morale high whether a company is profitable or struggling to stay in business. Motivating salespeople – and keeping them motivated – requires strong communication skills and a tailored approach to staff development.

Motivating people to build client relationships and close sales is a complex and challenging tasks, and can require advanced communication skills and an in-depth understanding of the key motivational drivers in your team. Different people will have different motivations: recognition, being part of a team or managing prestigious accounts. Whilst financial reward is an important factor for most people when they take on a new job, it’s rarely important in the day-to-day business of “doing the job”. So, take the time to find out what motivates and drives your salespeople.

5. Developing your sales team

A sales team can just be a group of individual salespeople that goes out to visit their customers each day, prepare quotations and close deals. However, the most successful sales teams do so much more, and the challenge for any sales manager is to get the most out of their team.

Individuals might share sales strategies and insights with other members of the team, help solve problems or take responsibility for finding out about a competitor and reporting back to the team. This makes the team a much more powerful entity, and a good sales manager should, wherever possible, seek to encourage activities that facilitate collaboration and knowledge sharing.

6. Managing sales meetings

One of the less obvious challenges faced by sales managers is how to make the most of sales meetings.

A poorly-managed, disorganised sales meeting isn’t just a waste of everyone’s time – it’s a missed opportunity for improving the sales team. A well-organised sales meeting, on the other hand, offers a great opportunity for your team to collaborate, communicate, solve problems and celebrate individual and team success.

Some of our top tips for running a successful sales meeting include:

• Restrict the meeting to a maximum of one hour;
• Inform people of your agenda beforehand;
• Allocate time for sharing success stories;
• Only address items that apply to everyone; and
• Include skills-building or educational content

7. Coaching your salespeople

To leverage the power of a sales team, it’s important that a culture of constant improvement is established and bought into by the group. Coaching is a key skill for a sales manager because it allows you to support sales people in order to produce better results and, when implemented correctly, can be highly motivating for the salesperson.

8. Managing individual and team performance

Managing sales team performance is one of the biggest challenges faced by sales managers. In fact, according to a survey carried out by Hubspot, approximately 66% of salespeople are not achieving their sales targets.

There are a number of reasons why your sales team may not be performing, such as:

• Lack of professional sales training;
• Lack of motivation and drive;
• Your company’s service or product is not clearly understood;
• Poor communication skills; and
• Poor customer service.

So how do you help your sales team find success?

There are numerous strategies that can be employed to help salespeople reach their full potential and meet their sales objectives, such as:

• Encouraging continued learning
• Streamlining the sales process;
• Understanding the personality differences within your sales team;
• Promoting internal competition;
• Cultivating a winning mentality;
• Identifying and removing barriers to success;
• Creating effective sales strategies;
• Providing detailed performance feedback;
• Identifying team and individual goals; and
• Staying abreast of competitor developments.

9. Appraisal and assessment

Of all the challenges faced by sales managers, carrying out appraisals that lead to meaningful and positive improvements in your salespeople is one of the most difficult to achieve.

Managers and employees tend to complain about appraisals and their value, but sometimes, putting in a little bit of extra effort can yield much better results.

Investing the time to develop a formal process for assessing an individual’s progress against agreed objectives allows you to accurately monitor progress and prevent any nasty surprises down the line! It allows training needs to be identified, forecasts to be discussed and activities prioritised. In nearly all cases, appraisals and assessments should be a useful motivator for the salesperson.

10. Recruitment of salespeople

Although HR staff are increasingly involved in the recruiting process, a good sales manager should know exactly what type of experience or key skills they are looking for in their sales executives. When interviewing candidates, the questions asked should reveal specific evidence in support of (or against) the candidate’s suitability for the role.

Recruiting and appointing your own sales team makes it easier to establish a loyal bond with the salesperson from the start. Because of that, it’s highly recommended that you invest as much time in the recruitment process as possible.

Ontrac Training offers a variety of sales training courses for sales professionals, including Telesales & Telemarketing, Presentation Skills and Key Account Management courses.

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1. Know your audience

One of the best ways to improve your presentation skills is to prepare beforehand. Find out as much as you can about your audience before you arrive for the presentation. What departments do they represent? Are they likely to be supportive of your proposal or against it? What are their key issues?

If you already have a contact in the business, they should be able to provide this background information. After all, if they are sponsoring your presentation, it is in their interests for it to be successful.

2. Tailor your sales presentation to your audience

Armed with the appropriate background information, pick out pieces of your presentation to highlight to your audience. You should take the opportunity to relate particular product/service benefits to the needs of an individual in the audience.

Individuals in the audience are likely to be far more engaged with your presentation if it is relevant to them.

3. Familiarise yourself with your presentation

• a. Don’t read out what is on a slide for your audience – they they can do that for themselves!  Instead, put each point into your own words and elaborate where necessary (with an example) to reinforce the point.
• b. If using printed handouts, be able to refer to a specific page without having to check.
• c. Check your sales presentation materials for typos and factual errors – and then check again!
• d. Prepare answers to the questions and objections you think you will receive during the presentation.

4. Arrive early for your presentation

• a. Plan your journey and find out where to park.
• b. Allow enough time to sign-in at reception and walk to the meeting room.
• c. Ensure that you know how all the presentation equipment works. There is nothing worse than spending the first 10 minutes of a sales presentation trying to get a projector working that you are not familiar with, whilst the audience watches you “corpse”!
• d. Try to meet any friendly contacts in advance of your presentation and make small talk. This will relax you and give you the opportunity to find out the “latest news” on your customer.

5. Use relevant presentation aids

• a. Keep PowerPoint slides to a minimum and edit the presentation in advance to ensure that you only show relevant slides.
• b. Vary the sales aids during the presentation by using a flip chart or whiteboard to make a particular point…but rehearse it first!

6. Opening the presentation

• a. Introduce yourself and tell the audience briefly about your relevant experience.
• b. Explain the aim of your sales presentation and check with the audience that this is what they are expecting and if they would like information on any other sales topics.
• c. Consider using humour (self-deprecating is always safe) if appropriate to the occasion, but avoid the usual pitfalls such as politics or religion. Humour can help to relax both the audience and you.

7. During the presentation

• a. If practical, move around the room – don’t stand rigidly behind a lectern.
• b. Maintain eye contact with your audience. Focus on individuals around the room but take care not to “stare” at the same individual.
• c. Adopt a nice open stance with relaxed hands.
• d. Vary the tone of your voice and the speed at which you talk.
• e. Watch your audience for signs of unease or disinterest. If you notice signs that your audience are agitated or bored, ask them if they have a concern or a question.

8. Take questions at the end of your presentation

• a. Thank the audience for giving you the opportunity to present to them.
• b. Ask the audience if there is anything you have missed or anything they would disagree with.
• c. If appropriate, check what happens next or if there is anything more that you can do.

9. Leave behind presentation/promotional materials

Consider leaving your audience with some presentation/promotional materials, such as a copy of your slides along with your contact information and hand it to them as they leave the room.

10. Request feedback

Ask your sponsor how they thought the presentation went and for any feedback they might have for you. This is one of the most effective tips for improving your presentation skills.

Ontrac Training provide a variety of sales training courses for sales professionals, including a workshop on presentation skills, sales negotiation courses and telesales training courses.

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In short, this is a reflection of salespeople not taking the steps to find out about their customer. This can be because of:

• A lack of preparation before the call (“homework”);
• A conflict between salesperson and customer;
• A failure to ask the right questions in the call;
• A failure to listen to the customer and fully comprehend their goals and objectives;
• A failure to ask important follow-up/supplementary questions.

In other words, failing to have a conversation with the customer!

What are the consequences of this for the business?

Failure to understand the client’s business and objectives will prevent the salesperson from being able to recommend the ideal solution to meet those objectives – disastrous for both the business and the salesperson!

What are the consequences of this for the salesperson?

Not gaining a full picture of the customer’s business and their requirements will lead to missed opportunities to maximise the client’s return on investment (ROI). A recommendation, based on incomplete business information, results in an unsuitable product or service being supplied. And there follows the inevitable complaint about a lack of results.

What can a salesperson do to genuinely understand their customers?

• a) Find out whatever you can about the customer before you make contact or visit. The internet is full of tools to help you do this so there is no excuse for not doing it! CRM systems will also give an insight into existing or lapsed customers to provide a “full picture”.
• b) Ask great questions – this should be a conversation, not an interrogation. There is nothing more irritating for a customer than running through a list of irrelevant questions.
• c) Listen to the answers and demonstrate to the customer that you have listened and understood them.

What help is available to salespeople?

You could trawl the internet for all the hints and tips you need or…you could attend a sales training course followed by some “on the job coaching” to embed the learning. Ontrac Training provides a wide range of sales training courses for people that are new to sales (either telesales or field sales) or those that have never received any formal sales training.

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