15 Tips To Help You Increase Sales, Profitability And Customer Loyalty
Topics: sales training, sales coaching, customer service training, customer service coaching, sales articles
You may find some of these tips to be familiar. Maybe you practice some of them now. Or maybe they have slipped from your memory and your daily routine. Others may even be new to you. Whatever your circumstance, they’re just as valid now as they ever were - and perhaps more relevant today than ever before. Put them to regular use and watch your sales, your profits and your customer loyalty increase to new heights.
1. Employ a consultative approach to selling. Learn about your customer’s business and find out how you can help them achieve their strategic goals. Propose solutions that will alleviate their “pain”, and allow them to realize reduced costs, higher productivity or increased revenues.
2. Offer what you know - not just what you sell. Customers expect more today than ever before. Share your expertise with them. The value you add to your relationship with your customers will come back to you in the form of increased sales and customer loyalty.
3. Find out “what’s in it” for your prospect. How would a successful outcome affect them personally? What do they hope to achieve by doing business with you? Sure, your proposal needs to make good business sense - to be a good business decision for your prospect. But dig deeper. Find out how they’ll personally benefit from doing business with you and make their “dreams come true.”
4. Work with your prospects to prioritize their stated goals. Whatever change to their situation your solution offers, it must align with your prospect’s priorities. Help them identify, rank and place a value on relieving their “pain points.”
5. Remember that you’re selling benefits, solutions and results - not features. Your customer doesn’t care how many bells and whistles your product boasts. They just want to know what it will do for them. Show them how your product or service will streamline operations, foster higher employee retention, increase sales, reduce costs or help them achieve their highest-level strategic priorities.
6. Become a trusted advisor. Demonstrate to your customers that you will serve their best interests by staying informed about their business and their industry, by offering only those products or services that will truly benefit them and by providing relevant, meaningful information to them before and after the sale.
7. Be disciplined. Move yourself to take action - plan your day in writing - use a database of your contacts. Make yourself do the things you know you should do.
8. Systematize your process. Script what you’ll say, when you’ll say it, and how you’ll say it. Practice until it flows naturally. Become the script.
9. Follow up. Implement and support your solution. Don’t become a “one hit wonder.” Stay in touch with your customer. Continue to add value to your relationship. Be in it for the long haul.
10. Adjust your mindset to be customer-focused rather than outcome-focused. This mindset will yield benefits to you during the entire sales process - from the early stages of prospecting to closing the sale - and beyond. It will ease performance pressure and allow you to become a strategic partner with your customers. Can you say “customer loyalty?”
11. Use success stories to illustrate the results your prospect can expect by doing business with you. Customers don’t want to be “guinea pigs.” They don’t usually want to be the “first kid on their block” to try something untested. They just want to know that your product or service will give them the results they want and need.
12. Quality beats quantity when it comes to prospecting. Working backwards, determine the number of prospects you need to talk with to reach your sales goals. Determine what characteristics are common among your best customers. Then contact the number of prospects required to meet your sales goals who also share those characteristics. By doing so you’ll be selling to a very targeted market.
13. Be ready to resolve customer complaints with a cool head. Actively listen. Find a mutually agreeable solution.
14. Selling is a high level of customer service. Customer service, when delivered properly, equals additional sales, higher profits and more loyal customers.
15. Welcome your customers to your business as if you were welcoming friends to your home. Customers are all we have. Treat each of them as if they were your only customer. Don’t be too quick to jump from customer to customer based on which one appears to hold the most promise at any given moment. You’re in it for the long haul. Be sure to bring your customers along for the ride as you travel the road to sales success.
Really knowing your customers, and treating each of them as if they were your only customer; focusing on their highest priority needs and helping them solve their problems; being a trusted advisor to them: these are the “stuff” of great customer service and of successful, professional selling. Practice these tips. Your efforts will result in increased sales, profits and customer loyalty.
© 2005 Patrick A. Hassett. All rights reserved.
Pat Hassett draws on more than 30 years experience in sales, sales management and sales support in a number of industries. He specializes in helping non-traditional salespeople become competent and confident in their sales efforts. Learn more at www.salesnowonline.com and blog.pathassett.com.
Previous Articles Highlighter:
Home Based Customer Service Opportunity (1)
Most companies stress that an independent contractor is expected to maintain a professional manner during every call as if the person is in the actual call center. There are usually company guidelines that the representative must follow at all times.
Trading Platforms - The 3 Important Features Of Trading Platforms (2)
Some of the features of trading platforms 1. You can see live market prices of your assets. This means you can immediately tell even the slightest change in the prices, and make crucial decisions when they matter the most.
Day Trading - 5 Important Factors You Should Know About Before Venturing Into Day Trading (3)
You need a guru who can pass on some of his experience on to you. But it is unwise to rely solely on the judgments on another. Start applying what you learn to make your own decisions.
Website Marketing Lessons From The Nerdiest Websites On The Planet (4)
The answer: Test and see. Try a simple "this is just me" nerdy version but go head-to-head with a more benefit-oriented style. Then you can shrug off the well-intentioned copywriters and web designers who say, "That will never work.
Invoice Factoring- Find Out If It Works For You (5)
Once your sales increase, you can go in for bulk purchases, which will be beneficial since you can negotiate a better price with your suppliers. So, this again can work in your favor.
Factor Vs Invoice Discounting (6)
You will still have to recover the invoice amount on the due date from your customer. The processing charges in factoring are more than that in discounting since the factoring company has more work to do.
How To Get Your Car In Shape For Summer (7)
The greatest cause of summer breakdowns is overheating. Prevent this problem by making sure the cooling system is flushed and refilled as recommended. Have your cars belts, clamps, and hoses checked by a technician.
Real Estate 101: Understanding Mortgages (8)
The same concept is true with the 5 year balloon mortgage. This plan is good if you plan to live at the property for longer than the number of allotted years and are willing to refinance or if you plan to move when the payment becomes due.
Makeup Tips For A Professionally Finished Makeup Look (9)
It should define your eyes. It can also be applied around the contours of your eye to create a variety of appearances. By following these tips you will soon be applying your makeup easily.
Mount Everest Base Camp Trekking In Nepal (10)
The easiest and most effective way to limit the effects of altitude sickness is by ascending the mountain slowly and giving your body time to acclimatise to the height. Above 10,000 feet (Base camp is at 17,500) you should aim not climb more than 1000 feet per day.
Newer Articles Highlighter:
"Hunter" Vs. "Farmer": How Do You Sell? (1)
This would indicate that the customer doesn't have any particular loyalty to the sales organization or representative and that any relationship that exists is very fragile. It probably also means that, for the sales organization, this is just a marginally profitable customer.
Wedding Suit Hire - A Groom's Guide To Selection And Hiring (2)
What next? When should you be hiring these outfits and where are you going to get them from? Well, it's a good idea to start seriously looking about 9 to 12 months in advance of the big day, as this will give you enough time to look around without pressure.
Life Insurance Is Frozen (3)
Scientists are constantly working on brain matter to also find ways of reversing the death of a brain. It has long been accepted that 4 - 6 minutes is the maximum time after the heart stops that a brain can recover if the heart is resuscitated.
What You Should Know Before Riding A Sled (4)
Always wear layers of coat topped with a waterproofed jacket. Exposing oneself to the cold without wearing any thermal wear could be life threatening due to hypothermia. Hypothermia can lead to a rider's unconsciousness and may cause him to faint while riding the sled.
New Homes Quickly Establishing Top Subdivisions (5)
Residing in this city are some of the top subdivisions. In Texas, the city of Houston offers amazing amenities, acreage, and modern features that give you big city living mixed with western appeal.
How Do I Pick The Best Conference Venue In London? (6)
The cost of a conference venue in London is another important factor. However with increasing competition it is usually possible to find a good quality venue priced affordably. Nevertheless to help you narrow your options it is important to have a figure in your head of what you would like to spend and what you would like to include within that price.
MLM Training - What To Say To Get More People To Join Your MLM Business (7)
Invite Invite your prospect to look at some educational material that will help them get what they need or want. Step 4. Handle Any Questions Or Objections Help your prospect past what is stopping them from getting what they need or want.
Things To Consider When Shopping For Furniture (8)
Furniture stores have great sales throughout the year and many homeowners will become conditioned to the fact that the length of a china cabinet will definitely matter and they will make sure it fits before they finalize the sale.
New Homes Are Best New Places To Live (9)
It is a scenic community set apart from the hustle of Houston. Just 30 minutes from Bush Intercontinental Airport. Conroe is becoming a community that is growing fast with a young suburban atmosphere.
8 Reasons Why You Should Start An Online Business (10)
No more waking up early in the morning. You can start at any time of the day for as long as you want. If you have a family, you'll have more free time on your hands to spend with them.
Permalink to 15 Tips To Help You Increase Sales, Profitability And Customer Loyalty