Sales Tips

Daily Sales tip: Sizing up the competition

by Business author Mark Faust

The best lens through which to see your competitors is that of your customers. Regularly asking customers who and what the alternatives to your solutions are may increase selling effectiveness.

The following questions will help you establish positioning points for a product or service:

— What do you offer the customer that no one else offers? (Points of competitive uniqueness.) Unique advantages of a product or service are rare.

— What do you offer that is demonstratively better than the competition? (Points of competitive advantage.) Advantages are most powerful when you have proof of your advantage’s reality and value.

— Where are you equal with your competitors? (Points of equality.) Calling out an equality may help neutralize a competitor who touts it as an advantage.

— What are your weaknesses that may hinder your offering to the customer? (Points of competitive weakness.) This weakness can be re-positioned as a chosen weakness that highlights the competitive advantage of your offering. A higher price may mean better quality and service.

Daily Sales Tip: Establish rapport first

by Sales consultant Dianne Durkin

Being very excited and motivated about sales, salespeople often want potential clients to know all of the wonderful features, facts and benefits about their company, products and services. This leads many salespeople into presentation mode, or as some refer to it, “pitch mode,” when instead, they should launch into a thorough Q&A session that will help them build rapport and gain the potential client’s respect.

Leave barraging the client with facts and figures to your competitors. Smart salespeople will ask questions so they can better understand potential client needs. The clients will tell you how they perceive their situation by answering your questions.

After listening, sales reps can then use the client’s terms and tone of voice to represent their products or services, and use the client’s words to explain how you and your company can best meet their overall needs and objectives.

Daily Sales Tip: Silence can be golden

Don’t be scared of silence.

Allow the prospect time to talk. Most of the time, they will tell you their challenges, which you wouldn’t have come to learn if you rushed into speaking.

Sales executive Christopher Ruhlig

Don’t be scared of silence.

Allow the prospect time to talk. Most of the time, they will tell you their challenges, which you wouldn’t have come to learn if you rushed into speaking.

Listening will give you helpful ideas, allowing you to bring more value to them, and in turn, helping to close that deal faster.

Daily Sales Tip: Get some face time

by Sales executive David Rudnitsky

Sales is about interaction and there’s no better way to interact with your customer than to meet him or her in person. That’s simply the best way to truly understand customer needs and provide a solution that really matches those needs. It’s win-win.

Meeting the customer strengthens the customer’s confidence in you and paves the way for a long-term business relationship. It helps you learn what makes your customers tick and what kinds of challenges they face in their work.

Naturally, that trust has to be earned. You must present your case clearly and with confidence, take note of your customer’s replies (and actually remember them next time!) and after the meeting promptly deliver what the customer expects.

Daily Sales Tip: Selling the relationship

by Business consultant Joe Takash

While it’s true that buyers are a lot more price-conscious these days, some salespeople have been able to parlay that into a way to generate more business.

If all signs point to prices rising, salespeople can explain that buying (or renewing a contract) now – at the existing price – may save customers a great deal of money down the line.

It’s an approach that builds additional trust with buyers, while boosting sales and creating a sense of urgency.