The world of sales and marketing is evolving rapidly, and it’s your job as a business owner to lead your team to adopt the latest and proven sales tactics through professional sales training, attending sales seminars, and so on.
This post will show you how by featuring 5 of the latest sales tactics that will change your business forever.
Responding to trends in sales and marketing
Gary Vaynerchuk, the social media marketing expert, always says that we need to market in the actual year we live in. In other words, using tactics that were effective 10 years ago won’t get you far. Instead, you need to understand how to approach your target market using tactics that are relevant today, not yesterday.
Let’s take Madonna, for example. Her marketing team has done a great work by adapting to the trend, debuting her latest music video, “Living for Love”, on Snapchat, allegedly the most popular app among Millenials. This has disrupt the way music video is promoted and has set the new standard for music marketing.
So, how can we adapt like Madonna did and Gary Vaynerchuk suggested? LDL, the leader in sales and leadership training for over three decades, recommends 5 of many sales tactics you can adopt right away that potentially will hack your business growth for good – for the better, of course:
1. Ask the right questions – and formalize them
An article from Fortune reveals the ‘manual’ that can guide Apple Store employees in selling much-anticipated Apple Watch: Understand what customers know about the product, finding out the compatibility with customers’ phone, and gauging customers’ personal interest – to name a few.
Every Apple Store employee will be given the guide (a set of questionnaires) and he/she will need to improv to close sales. This teaches us one thing: In selling, you need to ask the right questions – and turn those into a formal guide for every salesperson to follow.
2. Banish your selling language and start building a relationship
Cold calling still works – if you know how to do spontaneous, natural conversation. This also applies to any other sales communication methods.
You see, people are getting tired of the ‘same old, same old’ things to come from a salesperson, in such a way that it’s often difficult to distinguish whether he/she is a salesperson or a robot. We want something to relate to and someone to relate with. In other word, we want to trust a salesperson first before we trust our money to go with her/him.
To build trust with a prospect, a salesperson need to find a way to lower a prospect’s guard, so to speak. One way is by building a relationship – without sales agendas and predefined assumptions, and stop using salesy pitch, which is no longer effective today.
3. Step up your storytelling game
Today, your storytelling ability impacts your sales closing more than ever, and it’s scientifically proven.
Experiments performed by Paul Zak, the neuroeconomics pioneer reveals that stories that are highly engaging can trigger the release of Oxytocin – the “trust hormone.” The neurochemical promotes connection and encourages emphatic feeling.
In term of sales, telling stories in the right way will build trust on your brand or product, and in effect, increases sales.
4. Put your sales efforts into analytics
You can use technology to give you a competitive edge and help you sell more. Using CRM tools, big data analysis and/or other analytical tools are particularly powerful if you are selling online.
You can learn much about your prospects from your analytics and take action based on the data you collected. Although analytics in themselves won’t help you boost sales, they can help you make the right selling decisions, e.g. Determining when is the right time to try closing the sales, and how to do it effectively, custom-tailored to every prospects based on the data you have.
5. Don’t discount – add value – plenty of it
This is not cutting edge, by all means. Instead, it’s a best practice: You shouldn’t discount. Instead, you need to focus on adding value in every step of your sales process.
Grant Cardone, the sales expert, explains that offering price reductions in order to close sales is a defensive strategy that will hurt your bottom line. Don’t do it.
Takeaway
From the marketing and sales experts I follow, I learn that the most disruptive action that will impact your bottom line is hustle.
Regardless of your sales tactics and strategy, without the hustle those won’t be effective. If you need to knock every door in your neighborhood to sell door-to-door, do it. If you need to make 100 calls today, do it. If you need to send 100 personalized emails today, do it. These alone will separate you from your competition, simply because… not many want to do the hustle you do.