Sales strategies are meant to provide clear objectives and guidance to your sales organization. They typically include key information like growth goals, KPIs, buyer personas, sales processes, team structure, competitive analysis, product positioning, and specific selling methodologies.
Most of these guidelines are helpful for communicating goals and keeping your sales reps on the same page. Where most sales strategies fall short, however, is that they’re too focused on the internal workings of your organization. The actual skills needed to have winning conversations with buyers—along with the messages reps need to be successful—are merely an afterthought.
When you boil it down, the goal of every sales strategy is to make sure your salespeople hit their quota, right? And it’s the messaging element—what salespeople say, do, and write in order to create perceived value—that wins or loses the deal.
To truly be effective, your organization’s sales strategy needs to focus on customer conversations. These skillfully delivered conversations are what creates a distinctive purchase experience, demonstrates value for your buyers, and separates your company from the competition.
How do you create the best and most effective sales strategy? You can’t just hope someone will stumble upon your product and purchase it, though. But the only way a business succeeds is by earning customers and growing sales from that service, product, or information.
The problem is, most sales strategies are too internally focused. They succeed in documenting internal procedures but lose sight of the messages and skills your reps need to communicate value to your prospects and customers.
Consider the following insights when creating a sales strategy:
Consider the following insights when creating a sales strategy:
- Research from SiriusDecisions shows that the number-one inhibitor to sales achieving quota is an “inability to communicate a value message.”
- In corresponding research in which SiriusDecisions asked executive customers about the quality of interactions with salespeople, only 10 percent said sales calls provide enough value to warrant the time they spent on them.
- A Forrester Research study revealed that only 15 percent of sales calls add enough value, according to executives surveyed.
- The Forrester study also showed that just seven percent of surveyed executives say they would probably schedule a follow-up.
In this guide, we'll dig into some sales strategies and initiatives that can help you generate more leads and close more deals. If you can improve every step of your sales process by even a little, you can increase sales by a lot.
1. Clearly Define Your Customer
First, you need to know who you’re targeting. Who is the person who would most likely buy your product and buy it immediately?
Create an avatar of that customer. Ask yourself specific questions about them:How old are they?
Identify The Problem You’re Trying To Solve
When you’re sure you have a clear understanding of your ideal customer, their pain points, and their desires, then you can understand how you can help. This is commonly referred to as consultative selling, where you consult with the customer and find out what they need.
What problem does your product or service solve? How does it address the pain point of your customer?
If you have identified your customer correctly, and know how your product helps solve their problem, they’ll buy it from you. If, however, the customer you have defined doesn’t have this problem, they won’t buy your product.
All great success and all great fortunes come from serving people with what they want and are willing to pay for better than someone else. By adopting a “help” rather than “sell” mindset, you can understand how to serve people better and provide incredible customer service.
1. Clearly Define Your Customer
First, you need to know who you’re targeting. Who is the person who would most likely buy your product and buy it immediately?
Create an avatar of that customer. Ask yourself specific questions about them:How old are they?
- Are they male or female?
- Do they have children?
- How much money do they make?
- What are they interested in?
- What are their priorities?
Identify The Problem You’re Trying To Solve
When you’re sure you have a clear understanding of your ideal customer, their pain points, and their desires, then you can understand how you can help. This is commonly referred to as consultative selling, where you consult with the customer and find out what they need.
What problem does your product or service solve? How does it address the pain point of your customer?
If you have identified your customer correctly, and know how your product helps solve their problem, they’ll buy it from you. If, however, the customer you have defined doesn’t have this problem, they won’t buy your product.
All great success and all great fortunes come from serving people with what they want and are willing to pay for better than someone else. By adopting a “help” rather than “sell” mindset, you can understand how to serve people better and provide incredible customer service.
Try The 100-Calls Method
If fear of rejection is what’s keeping you from starting sales conversations, I have an exercise that will help you gain more confidence and generate more leads called the 100-call method. Reach out to 100 customers as fast as possible, either by phone call or personalized email.
The goal is to practice talking to people, not necessarily to see results — though that may happen!
When you do this, you’ll not only become fearless of picking up the phone but you’ll also learn how people respond to your pitch and become a better salesperson because of it. Just be sure not to sacrifice the quality of the call just to check it off your list.
You never know who could turn into a paying customer.
Utilize Ads
Sometimes it makes sense to spend money in order to make money, but it doesn’t have to take a lot. With the right ad, even a small budget can be effective and increase leads. You just have to know who your audience is, where you want to reach them, and for how long. Consider Google, Facebook, and Instagram ads, depending on where your customer is at.
When utilizing ads as part of your strategy to increase sales, it’s a good idea to run tests. Ad tests will help you learn the process of creating ads, help you better understand your audience, and ensure your budget is put to good use.
2. Speak to the customer deciding journey, not your sales process
A sales process is a set of repeatable steps that a salesperson uses to lead a prospect to purchase. Typically, the sales process involves several steps like prospecting, qualifying, discovering needs, negotiating, and closing. This would be an ideal checklist to follow if all your buyers were robots being taken through an assembly line. But that’s just not the reality.
Selling today isn’t a predictable progression that you’ve decided is how your prospects and customers should buy. What you’re really up against today is a Customer Deciding Journey—a series of key questions your buyers are asking as they look to address specific business goals.
Instead of being “program-centric” with a one-size-fits-all sales strategy, you need to be problem-centric, addressing the specific needs of your buyers as they arise with situationally relevant messages, content, and the skills to deliver them.
3. Implement a free trial.
Offering a free trial or freemium version of your product is a highly effective way to convert prospects. HubSpot’s sales strategy report found that free trials were 76% effective followed by a freemium option with 69% effective in turning prospects into paying customers.
Free trials give potential customers the opportunity to test your product out before committing. You can place restrictions on your free version like limited features or usage caps. In addition to providing prospects a risk-free chance to try your product, free trials also help build brand loyalty and expand your customer base. Prospects that have a positive experience using the free version will be more likely to convert to the paid version.
4. Increase Sales By Presenting The Product Effectively
Presenting your product effectively will help you increase sales by increasing conversion rates, the rate at which you convert leads into paying customers.
Your conversion rate is the measure of the effectiveness of your sales efforts. In order to help drive conversion rates, you need to work on developing your pitch in a clear, effective way. Here’s how to do that.
Develop Your Competitive Advantage
The odds are good that you’re not the only one selling your specific product or service. So it’s critical to be able to explain the benefits or results your customers will receive from purchasing your product or service that they will not get when purchasing the product or service of your competitor.
In order to develop your competitive advantage, you need to know what else is out there.
What are your competitors’ claims? What are the benefits they’re selling? How is what you’re offering different?
You should be able to express why people should choose your product or service over others on the market if you want to be growing sales.
Pick The Right Price
The price you set for your product or service is important. Not only does it affect your profits, but it also affects the perceived value of what you’re offering.
Before you determine it, you need to fully understand the costs associated with producing the product and get a feel for what your ideal customer would be willing to pay for it. You also need to know what your competitors are charging for similar products or services.
One of the best sales strategies is to beat your competitor’s price, however, you also have to make money. If you can make your product seem superior to your competitors, you may be able to charge a higher price. Keep this in mind and use it to help you set the perfect price.
Make Sure Your Messaging Is Clear
When it comes to learning how to market a product or service, clarity is critical. Pick one to two key benefits that your product offers and state them clearly in all the content that is part of your sales and marketing strategy. This will ensure the story you’re telling about your product is aligned across all of your marketing channels and your customers know exactly what it is you’re selling.
Market Content On Multiple Channels
As part of your ongoing strategy to increase sales, you should be continually seeking creative ways to improve your advertising and promotional efforts to reach new customers.
There are so many mediums out there including Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, TikTok, Youtube, email, blogs, podcasts — even traditional print materials such as magazines and newspapers — that can get your message and product out to the right audience.
5. Provide a personalized, clear end result.
When customers come to your business, they aren’t necessarily looking for a product or service, they’re looking for their desired end result. These customers want to purchase a means to improve their own operation, or simply improve their strategies with the help of your offering.
After you explain your product or service offering, you have to personalize the benefits to each client in a way that’s valuable to them. If you’re selling customer service software to a small business that has no experience with one, it’s your job to educate them on its use in the setting of a small business, not to manage hundreds of employees in larger ones. By doing so they will have an easier time seeing how they can use it and spend less time debating what they’ll use it for.
By painting a clear picture of the end result, your customer will be able to see the value of the purchase and feel more inclined to accept the offer.
6. Be willing to adapt your offering.
In sales conversations, you should expect to come across clients with unique demands. It’s only natural when working with companies of different structures and needs.
Instead of saying “you won’t” or “you can’t” — make sure your sales strategy is adaptable to accommodate the customer’s desire.
7. Tailor your sales strategy for customer expansion
Most sales and marketing teams spend the majority of their budgets and effort on customer acquisition and demand generation. Meanwhile, the majority of your annual revenue likely comes from your existing customers, through renewals and upsells.
Nearly half of the companies surveyed by Corporate Visions invest less than 10 percent of their marketing budgets in customer retention and expansion. Clearly, your customers are highly underrated yet powerful growth engines within your company. And you shouldn’t overlook the potential of this untapped revenue stream.
The challenge is, retention and expansion require a distinct messaging and customer conversation approach. Existing customers are in a different position than your prospects—one that carries a unique buying psychology.
While customer acquisition is all about challenging the status quo to highlight the benefits of switching to your solution, customer retention and expansion require you to reinforce your position as their status quo. In fact, research shows that using a provocative, challenging message when you’re trying to renew or expand business with your customers will increase the likelihood that they’ll shop around by at least 10-16 percent.
8. Increase Sales By Investing In Yourself
Improving your ability to sell and convert interested prospects into paying customers is one of the most important things you can do to boost sales. There are many parts of the selling process and improving in even one of them can have a dramatic impact on your results.
Attend Sales Trainings
Some people are naturally good at selling; they can easily connect with a customer, find common ground, understand their desires, and persuade them to purchase their product. These skills don’t come easily to everyone, though.
In fact, the majority of salespeople have to learn, practice, and hone these skills over time to become successful. Even if you’ve worked hard to become the salesperson you are today, you’re never done learning.
Sales training can open your mind to new opportunities others have seen success with, allow you a chance to network with other creative salespeople, and even generate new leads or partnerships.
Learn How To Negotiate
At some point in your sales journey, you’re going to run into someone who wants a lower price or additional benefit, or a situation where you’ll have to compromise.
Learning how to negotiate can not only help you improve your relationship with your customers but can also help you drive more sales. The best negotiators look out for their customer’s best interests and find a solution that works for both parties.
At some point in your sales journey, you’re going to run into someone who wants a lower price or additional benefit, or a situation where you’ll have to compromise.
Learning how to negotiate can not only help you improve your relationship with your customers but can also help you drive more sales. The best negotiators look out for their customer’s best interests and find a solution that works for both parties.
Develop A Prospecting Strategy
The best salespeople have a plan to develop the highest quality and quantity of prospects that can and will buy within a reasonable period of time.
Prospecting is an essential part of successful sales strategies and something you need to prioritize if you want to increase sales.
If your sales strategy is lacking this critical component, or your prospecting tactics are falling short, I’ve created an essential prospecting checklist that will help you focus your attention on the prospects that will have the maximum return.
9. Enable ongoing situational training
Most training and learning efforts are based on a collection of competencies, supported by a curriculum and catalog that gets scheduled on calendar-based interest and availability. But what does that have to do with helping the company’s business strategy, responding to shifting market demands, and intervening to fix emergent needs when they arise?
To be as effective and efficient as you need to be today, your sales training has to rise to a new level of flexibility, customization, and situational relevance. Using a flexible, on-demand training model enables you to deploy it at a moment’s notice to solve problems as they occur, and tackle initiatives as they arise. Training your sales team for situational agility equips them with the messaging and skills they need relative to the customer conversations they’re having.
10. Increase Sales By Connecting With Your Customers
Establishing trust with your customers is key to ultimately persuading them to purchase what you’re selling. Even in an increasingly virtual world, there are many ways to connect with your customers, establish trust, and gain influence.
Here are three ways to improve sales by connecting with your customers.
Establishing trust with your customers is key to ultimately persuading them to purchase what you’re selling. Even in an increasingly virtual world, there are many ways to connect with your customers, establish trust, and gain influence.
Here are three ways to improve sales by connecting with your customers.
Utilize Social Media
Social media is a free space where you can connect with your customers daily. If your customer is using social media, you need to be using social media. This will keep you top of mind when they consider what they want or need to buy.
As you use social media posts, such as photos, videos, and captions, be sure to provide valuable information; avoid talking “at” your customers and instead try to teach them or explain something to them that is in line with what your product or service is all about.
You can also use social media as a space to show proof that your product or service actually works, such as before and after stats, photos, or testimonials as well as videos of the product or service at work.
Don’t forget to respond to comments and answer questions. This is an amazing way to help sell to new leads.
Remember to be friendly and conversational as you approach your customers and potential customers in this space. If you use it correctly, you can establish trust and increase your leads.
Social media is a free space where you can connect with your customers daily. If your customer is using social media, you need to be using social media. This will keep you top of mind when they consider what they want or need to buy.
As you use social media posts, such as photos, videos, and captions, be sure to provide valuable information; avoid talking “at” your customers and instead try to teach them or explain something to them that is in line with what your product or service is all about.
You can also use social media as a space to show proof that your product or service actually works, such as before and after stats, photos, or testimonials as well as videos of the product or service at work.
Don’t forget to respond to comments and answer questions. This is an amazing way to help sell to new leads.
Remember to be friendly and conversational as you approach your customers and potential customers in this space. If you use it correctly, you can establish trust and increase your leads.
Promote “Insider Information”
Everyone loves a good deal, and when they feel like they have the inside scoop on an upcoming sale, or receive early access, your customers will develop greater trust in and loyalty to your business. They may even buy more because of it.
This doesn’t only go for sales and special offers. Keep current and repeat customers in the loop with upcoming launches and business news too, and soon, they’ll develop a vested interest in the business.
Everyone loves a good deal, and when they feel like they have the inside scoop on an upcoming sale, or receive early access, your customers will develop greater trust in and loyalty to your business. They may even buy more because of it.
This doesn’t only go for sales and special offers. Keep current and repeat customers in the loop with upcoming launches and business news too, and soon, they’ll develop a vested interest in the business.
Maintain Relationships
“Once a customer, always a customer” — this should be your motto if you want to learn how to increase sales in business.
Once a customer has purchased your product, it should not be the end of your interaction with them.
Focus on maintaining a strong relationship with your customer by making them feel valued so that they stick around, and get others to become customers as well. A forever customer will do more for your business than 10 one-time customers.
“Once a customer, always a customer” — this should be your motto if you want to learn how to increase sales in business.
Once a customer has purchased your product, it should not be the end of your interaction with them.
Focus on maintaining a strong relationship with your customer by making them feel valued so that they stick around, and get others to become customers as well. A forever customer will do more for your business than 10 one-time customers.
Implement A Referral Program
Everyone wants to feel appreciated, and a great way to make your customers feel valued is to reward them for referring their friends and family members.
Use future discounts, rewards points, freebies, special access, etc. to incentivize current customers to hold the flag for you.
Not only will this help maintain your relationship with your customers but it will also help you gain new leads who are more likely to purchase because they received a direct referral, all without any additional effort on your part.
Maintain a high-quality pipeline by eliminating unqualified leads.
Shopify uses the 4/5 Threshold to filter out unqualified leads, thereby allowing its sales reps to focus on selling to leads who have a higher probability of becoming customers.
When evaluating whether a lead is qualified, a rep must have a concrete answer to four of the following five variables:
Pain: Is the prospective customer experiencing a prominent business issue or challenge that requires them to make a change?
Power: Is the prospective customer directly involved with the decision-making process? If not, who is?
Money: Does our offering fall within their budget constraints?
Process: What's their buying process?
Timeline: What stage are they in the buyer’s journey? Will they purchase within a reasonable time frame?
With these sales strategies, you will be well on your way to growing sales and increasing profits. Let me know what you think and what your best sales strategy is in the comments below.
