How to Increase Your Sales Without Being Salesy
Most of the business owners that my team and I speak with face one of two problems when it comes to sales. Either they just plain don’t have the time to keep up (which can be fixed by building the right systems and hiring the right people), or they aren’t sure how to train their teams to sell without being “salesy”.
Both are real issues that need to be addressed. If you find yourself in the first group, let me know – my team and I can help! If you’re looking for ways to increase your sales without leaning on the hard sell, keep reading – I’m sharing a lot of great tips to help you increase your sales conversion rates without resorting to slimy tactics.
Make It Easy for Your Prospects to Contact You
All too often, we tend to take a “build it and they will come” mindset toward sales; if we offer the services they’re looking for, they’ll flock to our doors, right?
Not so much.
In today’s market, buyers have a LOT of options and a lot of companies competing for their attention. More often than not, the company that makes it easy for them to get in touch gets their business.
Think about it: when you’re scrolling your emails or social media and see something you want, what do you do? You click in to purchase it – and if you can’t do that easily, you probably click right back out.
With a service-based purchase, you’ll probably do some research and if that’s easy to find, you’ll fill out a contact form or schedule a free consult call. If you can’t easily do that…well, chances are you’ll move on.
Your buyers do the same thing. They’re busy too. They don’t want to hunt and peck to research your company or contact you. Putting the right information and calls to action in the right places will almost automatically increase your sales!
Understand Their Needs
This one is equally as important. Often, Sales Team members will try to diagnose a prospect’s needs, which makes sense. This is what is often taught in sales trainings, and for years, it worked.
That was before buyers learned how to research online. Now, many prospects do their research before they decide to call. They already have an idea of what you offer; what they’re most often looking for is help deciding on the right purchase for them.
This doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t try to understand what brought them to you, as this is a necessary step. What it means is that instead of trying to lead them down a scripted path, your time would be better spent answering their questions and guiding them to the right solution.
Recently, the research team at Tethr dug into what’s working and what’s not in the world of Sales – and what they found is fascinating. Buyers today aren’t looking to be sold, they’re looking for personalized guidance. Instead of diagnosing what they’ve already figured out through their research, Sales Team members often find better results with a prescriptive approach – i.e., “here’s the plan I would go with.”
Making this switch isn’t difficult, but it is effective – and if done intentionally, it can significantly increase your conversion rates.
Support Them Through the Buyer’s Journey
While most people will have done some sort of research before they get to you, it’s essential that your Sales Team understands which phase of the buyer’s journey your prospect is in.
This can be challenging to do, but taking the time to map out your customer journey will make it a lot simpler. This will not only allow you to put the right information and touch points in the right places, it will also give your Sales Team a better idea of how to communicate with the person on the other end of the phone or Zoom chat.
By doing this, you can also equip your Sales Team to build the right systems and processes to help them follow up at the right times, track their conversion rates, and improve the process so they can increase your sales without being salesy.
At the end of the day, sales isn’t just about convincing someone to buy from you; it’s about helping your prospects and clients find the solutions that are right for them. This is what will create a win-win for both parties!