Small businesses waste a lot of time selling to the wrong people. As a result, the company either does not grow or sales drop. Below are 3 ways to improve your sales yield:
1. Focus on the Right Prospects
People only buy when they are in pain and have money to solve that pain. Every prospect should be asked:
- What pain does your company need to solve?
- What is the cost of that pain to your company? (or What will it cost your company if the pain is not solved?)
- Who in your company can make the decision to solve that pain? (or Who has the money in their budget to solve the pain?)
Many sales people make the mistake of not getting these questions answered up front and waste time with non-buyers masquerading as prospects.
2. Be There When Prospects are Ready to Buy
Companies actually don’t sell their products or services, but rather customers buy from them. As a result, companies need to be there when prospects are ready to buy. They need to be found and put into the “maybe pile” when a customer is making a decision.
In order to achieve this, every small business owners needs to establish long term relationships with clients by offering them valuable knowledge at least monthly that showcases the company’s brand.
For example, a dentist may send information on how patients should floss their teeth or a comparison of toothbrushes. Remember, this is not marketing communication that sells product, but a friendly offer of knowledgeable help.
3. Practice the Rapid Release Strategy
Any company can reduce their selling time by 90% and improve their sales yield by only focusing on customers that are ready to buy. Many prospects say yes to a company and then never respond to complete the sale. These people should be contacted a few more times and then put back into the marketing funnel.
Sales people waste a lot of time “hoping” these “closed” prospects will contact them and get started. They get stuck here and stop looking for new prospects to meet their sales targets. If they have not heard from the prospects after several calls or contacts, they need to be let go and move on.
How does your company improve its sales yield?
This article, provided by Nextiva, is republished through a content distribution agreement. The original can be found here.
Sales Photo via Shutterstock
“People only buy when they are in pain and have money to solve that pain.”
Hi Barry. I’m sorry, but that line threw me. I don’t agree pain is the only motivator for someone making a purchase. For some people, yes, sometimes it is, and sometimes it isn’t. But the only motivator?
Quan
Ebele, the pain Barry is referring to is not actual physical pain, but some sort of discomfort or discontent that the owner might be experiencing with their current business. the goal of the sales rep is to identity that “pain/ discomfort” and offer a solution.
Hi Quan. My point is there isn’t always pain/discomfort attached to someone’s desire to make a purchase. To make that assumption is to miss out on other reasons one may choose to buy something and therefore potentially miss out on connecting with and filling that need.
Aira Bongco
It’s true. It is better to sell something to someone who needs the item rather than to hard sell something on a very cold prospect. This will save you the time and effort in convincing another person to buy. plus, you can get to close the deal quite fast.