What sales techniques do you use to grow your monthly revenue? These four effective tactics will elevate your confidence and convert you into the kind of seller that gets the job done.
Selling isn’t easy. People don’t like to hear pitches, and they certainly don’t enjoy canned, manipulative approaches. Many entrepreneurs find that the hardest part of doing business is selling your products, your services, and—in many ways—yourself.
But selling doesn’t have to be so difficult!
It’s time to let go of your outdated notions about sales. As a business owner, you need to flip this narrative on its head and embrace a newer, better way to move your products. Forget features and attributes, and let’s turn you into a seller that builds trust, authority, and solves customer problems.
Here are four effective sales techniques that always work. Whether you’re face-to-face with a customer in your store or you’re chatting to customers online, these tactics get results.
Stop Talking, Start Listening
Hard sales tactics conjure up images of the forceful salespeople who spray you with perfume as you walk through the mall without so much as a “hello.”
These old sales strategy gems stopped working at the dawn of social media when people realized they were nothing more than deceitful, largely ineffective tactics.
Instead of the hard sell, you need to talk less and start listening. Good selling isn’t one-sided; it’s a two-way street.
Look at this chart:
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Softer sales methods and techniques work better these days because they’re focused more on the customer—what they need, why they need it, and how you can help them get it.
This is how you gather the information you need to sell.
Look at these two sales pitches:
*Squirts you with unwanted perfume: “Smell like roses every day when you use Delicious perfume. It’s hypoallergenic and only $14.99. Buy it today!”
“Hi, busy day? You on your way home? Here’s a free gift from us to you. Enjoy!” *Customer asks about the perfume. “Yes, it’s the new fragrance by X. Sure, you can smell it here,” *sprays it on.
In the first exchange, the customer was forced into a decision on the spot—that’s hard selling. In the softer approach, a conversation happens without expectation. The seller gives their customer something, which invites questions and facilitates a bond. This often results in a sale.
Stop brainstorming sales pitch ideas and switch to listening first. People will often tell you what they need or give you feedback that will help you sell to the next person.
Choose Connection Through Storytelling
Some of the best soft sales techniques involve the use of storytelling.
When you connect with your customer through stories, you engage them and make the process of purchasing a product or service an exciting experience.
That often means using sales tactics that sell an idea, an experience, or a moment in time related to your product but doesn’t focus directly on its features or benefits.
Experts say that good storytelling beats most types of sales strategies. It captures your customer’s attention, naturally builds rapport and trust, and it makes your product memorable. Most of all, it relates to the first technique—listening to people. Step two is making them want to listen in return!
If it sounds like the start of a good relationship, then you’re catching on! Stories do an excellent job of creating stronger customer-seller relationships.
This is how you respond to information.
When you elevate your sales pitch through storytelling, you learn to use emotions to tap into effective selling methods. Facts and figures are important, but they have no place in the modern selling process. Your customer will ask you directly if they want this information.
Sell a story first, and you’ll never be short of customers.
Website design for small businesses will help you do this on the internet too. Everything from your design to the copy you create for your site is a story that sells your brand.
Know Your Common Queries and Objections
If you know a thing or two about crafting a sales pitch, you’ll know about “overcoming objections.” Don’t do that! It can come across as extremely pushy and leave a negative impression on your customer. Instead, work on knowing common customer queries and objections beforehand.
How, you ask? By being genuinely helpful.
Great sales strategies for small business owners all have one rule—help your customer. The more helpful you are, the more products you’ll sell. It’s that easy.
This is how you should deliver information.
When approaching someone in your store, first you listen, then you share. That’s when you’ll find out what their common questions are and why they may have doubts about your product.
Using this information, you can give them helpful advice—related to your product or not— to solve their problem. All sales start with a problem (or a desire) and end with a solution (or an impulse sale). The most effective sales tactics dial into problem-solving and helping the customer first.
A strong website redesign and web hosting service, for example, will help you communicate with your customers so that sales can happen online. Your website and business email are just products that provide you with these solutions.
Be Willing To Close the Sale
The funny thing about asking for something is that you often get it. In a retail or in-store environment, it’s easy to let buyers move from one product to the next without making any decisions at all. You don’t want to seem desperate, and you don’t want to interfere with their process.
At the same time, you do want them to buy the product that has grabbed their attention.
So, how do you close the sale?
- Tell them it’s the last one.
- Let them know that this is the last day of the sale.
- Mention that they can return it at any time (most never will).
- Ask them if they want to try it.
These are examples of soft closes. Each of them asks for a final decision in an indirect, non-confrontational manner. If you see a customer in the throes of a decision-making process, prompt them with a friendly question or statement that helps them decide.
This is how you ask for the close.
Sales techniques like this one will become second nature after a while, and they work! Sometimes the most successful sales tactics are 100% organic. There’s nothing more natural than checking if your customer needs help and prompting them towards the end of their experience.
Remember:
- Listen to gather the information you need.
- Tell stories to respond to information.
- Be helpful when delivering that information.
- Use indirect prompts to ask for the close.
This can be done on your website by adding a chatbot. It answers questions, and when the time is right—it prompts your customer.
These sales strategies and tactics are timeless and can be used in your store environment and online. All you need is a web design for small businesses that focuses on modern, inbound sales techniques.
With the right website design (or web redesign if your site is still hard selling)—you can use these four efficient sales strategy examples to rapidly grow your business this year!
