Sales techniques that work

Maccattack

Ive been in a new Business Development role for the last 3 months and today the boss comes in and asks how i hink im going and can he have a report please.

He wants to know what ive been doing and how i am going to improve things.

To date I have done the usual. Trawling the internet, calling up potential clients. email them the relevent info, follow up in a week or two, drop out with demo units where neccessary.

Been to a couple of trade fairs and generally shaking whichever trees i can find.

The orders are coming in fast enough.

Any suggestions on what I can do differently. I need to put it all in writing soon.

Brady

Hey,

what specifically are you trying to sell? a service, product?

i would highly recommend reading these books:

• Persuasion “The art of influencing people” by james borg (This is a MUST read)
  
• The secrets of selling by Geoff King

Maccattack

Thanks for the tip.

Im sellng industry grade wireless remote controls. Ive targeted specific industries with some success but because of the downturn orders are few and far between.

I need to find a new method. to date its all been trawling the net and making calls.

TheCostumeShop.ie: Ronan

Thats an easy one IMO, strategic partnerships with companies that sell to the same clients but have a non competition product. Phrase proposal as follows:

"I believe that are product will benefit your customers in X way, do you agree? (assuming you've done you home work you get a yes). Then in this current climate you will agree that your customers need every advantage possible to (increase sales, cut costs, up output etc). How about the following, i write a letter which you send to your best clients on your company headed paper, offering them a special one time offer and explaining how this would benefit them. In return for this we will give you X% of the sale value."

Wallah, newbie gets a healthy raise.

Brady

Fancy Dresser wrote: »

Thats an easy one IMO, strategic partnerships with companies that sell to the same clients but have a non competition product. Phrase proposal as follows:

"I believe that are product will benefit your customers in X way, do you agree? (assuming you've done you home work you get a yes). Then in this current climate you will agree that your customers need every advantage possible to (increase sales, cut costs, up output etc). How about the following, i write a letter which you send to your best clients on your company headed paper, offering them a special one time offer and explaining how this would benefit them. In return for this we will give you X% of the sale value."

Wallah, newbie gets a healthy raise.

In relation to strategic partnerships i would highly recommend trying to get in touch with a Hilti sales rep, provided you dont already work for Hilti lol

Frank Spencer

Brady wrote: »

In relation to strategic partnerships i would highly recommend trying to get in touch with a Hilti sales rep, provided you dont already work for Hilti lol

Why so?

Maccattack

i need to submit a report ourlining what i plan to do differently.

at present i trawl the net and phone book looking for potental customers.

then i call them and see if they have a need

then i will send them info or go see them.


what other method is there????

TheCostumeShop.ie: Ronan

Maccattack wrote: »

i need to submit a report ourlining what i plan to do differently.

at present i trawl the net and phone book looking for potental customers.

then i call them and see if they have a need

then i will send them info or go see them.


what other method is there????

Essentially what your doing at the moment is cold calling unqualified prospects, fair play that's not such an easy task... unfortunately its also not a very effective one.

I'm guessing you meet the following problems:

People have a tendency to not trust cold callers
Decision makers have sectary's and gate keepers so you can't talk to the people you need to (try calling 8.30 - 9 and 5.30 - 6.30)
Most people genuinely don't need your product
People that do need your product either don't understand the benefit or don't want to risk the investment incase it doesn't work.

So it were me i'd dump that approach right away. Try providing benefit to your customers beyond your product. Do a white paper, offer a lunch and learn, use risk reversal, a money back trial period of your product to show how much they can benefit from it.

Next step is to stop calling unqualified prospects, ask your existing clients for referrals, would it be right to assume that their competitors use the same systems and have the same requirements?

Find trade publications and write articles about various ways of making improvements and position yourself as an advisory consultant rather than the sales man who would sell their product even if its not right for the client (thats what cold callers come across as).

Then test your sales pitch? Do you have a set one? Have you tested openers and headlines, if not make a systematic study of which ones get better reactions untill you have the perfect pitch.

Hope that helps a little, i could go on for hours about this stuff... There is so much to being good at sales.

Maccattack

funnily enough. most are interested. id say about 80%. because the product is useful to them.

the problem is that it takes ages for them to buy if they ever do.

some would already be buying a competitors product and are reluctant to change.

some may really like the product but have no need at the moment but say they will give it a go when they need one.

generally speaking though. pretty much everyone i call are keen to talk.

i have not had one negative reaction yet.

i just need to add another approach to my repetoire i guess. to keep the boss happy.