Fail-safe Techniques to Boost Sales! Articles | Sales

By: Darren Williger

Being in the consulting field and carrying out campaigns for my clients, I have spent a considerable number of years learning the selling craft. The methods contained herein are quite easy, but they need practice and determination.

Salesmanship is your principal skill as a businessman. Producing top products or providing the finest service comes to naught if there is nobody to purchase it, and therefore to guarantee that your business is successful you need to acquire the ability to produce revenue – “salesman-ship”.

The following is a brief sketch of thirteen techniques I have come up with to boost sales:

1. Pick Up The Phone - Unquestionably the most cost-effective, most efficient and resourceful way to locate customers is via the phone. Of course, we are referring to “cold-calling”.  Prepare a script for doing this prior to making a call, so that you don’t appear ambiguous. Introduce yourself, your firm, the reason for calling, and provide a short “benefit” of your service/product to the client. “How can it contribute to his business?” Be succinct, short and snappy, and have answers to ten likely objections you might receive, written in your script. In this fashion you’re ready for the expected “rebuff.” Always endeavor to obtain a definite appointment.  This call isn’t to “sell” anything but to fix a one-on-one meeting to build trustworthiness – and after that to sell your product/service. Do you think you would purchase something by a mere phone call? Definitely not. You wish to see the seller and take note of his offer.
2. Let Your Voice Be Heard – You should at all times be on the look out for potential customers, and I’ve discovered that conducting seminars, teaching, being a guest speaker at business and trade events, or penning an article for a trade journal or business magazine makes you be known as an “authority” in your line of work. People prefer purchasing from experts as it eases their apprehension of making an awful choice. It is possible for anyone to get over their dread of public speaking, and hence identify the method that suits you best and go ahead with it. As a last resort, enlist in a Toastmaster’s group close by or attend night classes at the local Adult School.
3. Pose Questions – The majority of salespersons are of the opinion that the initial appointment with the client is the one opportunity to close a sale. Totally incorrect! Prior to starting your sales “pitch” pose questions, jot down notes, what exactly are your aims, prospects, challenges, and so on. Assisting a client to resolve a business issue results in a “win-win” association and leads to more sales than ever imagined.
4. Don’t Dump Products – Informing your client everything regarding your product/service even before you understand what they want is an error committed by over a majority of sales makers. This is an incompetent way of selling and as a result, your client may not trust you. I’ve interacted with clients numerous times and always left them with quite a few suggestions and feeling good, but without a sale and that’s okay. Since at some point I’m likely to obtain from them some good referrals, which will offset what I could have made if I had just “sold” them a product/service that was not going to solve their problem. Bear in mind – you cannot get a more positive feedback than a referral coming from a happy client.
5. Learn Your Figures – Selling is all about numbers, and you have to know your “selling ratios.” You need to know the number of prospecting calls that translate into a meeting, and the number of meetings to close a sale. This permits you to handle cash flows by sales forecasting. It also lets you know the number of calls required to boost your sales revenue.

These tips will be continued in the following week’s column.  Happy selling!