Sales are a vital part of any business. Using systems to sell products/services ensures your team utilizes the best strategies for them, all while increasing their closing rate.
In a recent interview, Adi Klevit of Business Success Consulting Group and Ryan Reilly, Director of Business Development of Sandler, discussed the importance of sales in any business and shared various sales strategies that help company owners increase closing percentages. According to Ryan, one of the main ways to do this is to disrupt the process the buyer wants to follow and opt out of the loop of constantly following up.
Below are strategies for doing just that.
Why qualifying leads is your #1 sales priority
Even if you sell a common foodstuff like bread, 100% of humans are not your target market. Some don’t eat bread for dietary reasons, others don’t like bread, and there are those for whom bread is not a prominent part of their culture.
Suppose you are selling in a niche, like business consulting, bridal hair and makeup, education at a particular college, or another product/service. In that case, your market is much smaller than the world population.
This is why setting up a proper lead qualification system is vital to your sales success. You do not want to talk to 8 billion people. You want to speak to the thousands of people who can afford to buy your product/service and for whom the product/service would be helpful.
You have a marketing strategy to find potential buyers, but once you have reached someone who may want your product/service, it is vital to qualify them and determine their stage in the sales cycle.
This is where a sales funnel comes in. You can utilize automation to inform buyers about your product and ask them questions to see if they want to buy right now, in a few weeks/months, or if they are just looking. You can determine if they can afford what you have to offer, and you can find out if you can help them with their issues. This is all part of the qualification process.
As we continue to discuss below, there are many ways to qualify a lead up-front, both automatically and in a conversation. This method will enable you to kick a prospect out of their predetermined buying process and put them into your sales system. The goal is to provide you with control over the sales process and avoid staying in a “follow-up loop” until the prospect goes with a different company.
Keep reading for suggestions on changing your sales process to ensure you properly qualify your lead and listen to the podcast interview for even more information.
How to change your sales process
1. Set up a lead qualification system
Clearly define who you want to reach and what needs to be in place for them to qualify as a lead. Often, this includes:
- Type of business
- Finances
- Available time
- Company specifications
- and/or capacity to implement your product/service
Then, implement a system to qualify all leads coming through your sales funnel.
Here are a few ideas for lead qualification systems:
- Create an automation in your sales funnel that qualifies your leads.
- Set up a series of questions to ask a new lead.
- Be upfront about the need to qualify them. Say something like, “I want to make sure that our product/service is a good match for you,” or even, “If I tell you that our product costs $___, will you kick me out of your office right now?”
If you are selling a product in a store, you can qualify a lead immediately by running their debit card. But if your product/service is more nuanced, you will need more steps for qualification.
2. Ask earnest questions to discover what the buyer needs. See if their need fits with your offering.
Consider your initial approach to be just as important as closing a sale – because that initial approach builds toward the close. A great way to begin your initial conversation with a prospect is to be clear and open at the outset.
Talk to your potential customer about their problems and their needs. Understanding how you can help will provide you with the best way to present your solution.
For example, let’s say you are selling bridal hair styling services. The questions you want to ask will include discussing how they want to look on the big day, what the schedule is like (for example, is the wedding at dawn or 4 PM?), any special alterations they want to their existing hairstyle, what they like and don’t like about their hair, any issues they’ve had with past stylists for previous important events (like prom or as a bridesmaid in a friend’s wedding), and how they solved those issues. You may also need to know about expectations for the rest of the bridal party and if the styling will happen in your studio or at the location.
All of this information will help you further qualify the client (for example, if she has twelve bridesmaids who also need styling for a dawn wedding on the top of Mt Everest, she may not be the right client for you, but you may have an adventure wedding stylist to whom you’d happily refer her). This information will also help you to understand your prospect’s priorities so that you can highlight specific features in your product/service that solves their problems. For example, if the bride has had a previous bad experience with a stylist who made her hair look thin with a particular hairdo, you can cross that ‘do off your list and talk about styles that will better suit the bride.
3. Present a solution
Now, it is time to share what your product/service can do and how it solves the major problem they’ve presented.
If you are in conversation with your potential client, this should be easy. Share what product or service features would be most interesting to them. Our bridal stylist might want to share past styles that would look great on the bride or even perform a test style that shows the bride the stylist knows their stuff.
For a business-to-business conversation, your salesperson can address the prospect’s two or three main problems/needs and demonstrate how the product/service they are selling can solve these.
There are many, many ways to present a solution. You can provide a sample, show past successes, run a demo, directly solve a problem during the discussion, or provide references.
In the interview, Ryan shared that once you have really listened to the issues presented and focused on relationship-building with that client, you have gotten out of the traditional selling process. If you’ve followed this process then you are no longer subject to the prospect’s timeline and instead are creating next steps that allow you to assume a close.
4. Assume the close
Let the buyer know that you will be working together as early as possible. Don’t just assume this in your own head, but say something like, “Let’s discuss how we are going to do business together.” And then ensure you understand:
- Who needs to be involved in the purchase process,
- When the next meeting will be,
- What needs to happen to turn that meeting into a close.
Getting this information upfront is vital to breaking the loop of sending “just following up” emails and instead having an actual meeting to wrap up the sale. Between the initial meeting and your final closing meeting, you can also provide an overview of the discussion you had, set up a meeting agenda (which may include your proposal), and even have other calls with additional decision-makers. All of this will smooth the way for your final closing meeting.
The concept here is that if the prospect is completely qualified, you can do your job and turn them into clients.
Creating systems like the above sales process is what we do here at Business Success Consulting Group! If you want to document and improve existing systems while building new, effective systems for your business, get in touch. Click here to set up your free initial consultation.
