Consistently Increase Sales With These 10 Methods
In this article, you’ll learn 10 effective ways to increase sales on a consistent basis.
These tips work best for Sales Professionals and Business Owners who sell by using consultative methods; meaning you’ll speak with your ideal clients face to face or on the phone, before a sale is generally made.
From learning why people buy, to executing on a consistent process – these 10 tips will help you increase sales and make a bigger impact.
Consistently Increase Sales With These 10 Methods
#1 – Know Your Ideal Client
One of the first and effective ways to easily increase sales, is to make sure you’re speaking with people who would be a good fit for what you’re selling.
Many Sales Professionals and Business Owners make the fatal mistake of targeting too broadly; meaning they advertise or reach out to too many people who wouldn’t be classed as their ideal client.
Instead, we recommend getting very clear about exactly who it is that would benefit from your product or service, and secondly – ask who it is you would like to serve, and do business with?
To learn more about how to do this in more detail, read the related article below.
Related article: Sales Targeting Strategy – Your Complete Guide
#2 – Increase Sales By Knowing What You Really Sell
Another important method to increase sales, is to have exact clarity on what it is you’re actually selling.
Many people think they’re selling products and services.
This is not only false, but actually hurts your sales.
Instead, understand that people don’t buy what it is that you’re selling, but instead – they’re buying what it will mean when they own what you’re selling.
People buy the meaning of your product or service. When they invest or buy, what will it mean for them?
Will it be an increase in income?
Perhaps they’ll feel it will be an elevation in status?
Get crystal clear about what it will mean when they own your product or service and use messaging and stories to effectively communicate this message.
Related article: Selling With Stories – Why It’s So Important
#3 – Position Yourself Correctly
Positioning yourself correctly is a quick and fast way to separate yourself from the competition, as well as brand yourself as a trusted advisor.
Positioning in sales means to create a perception with your potential client that you are the best person to speak with, to solve a specific problem and offer a solution to an issue they have.
Successful positioning in sales means to position yourself as a trusted adviser, and as a person who isn’t just there to ‘take an order’.
A person who positions themselves as a specialist and adviser, will win more clients and increase sales compared to a salesperson who merely positions themselves as a commodity.
To learn how to do positioning correctly, we recommend that you read the linked article below.
Further reading: Positioning In Sales – How To Sell Effectively
#4 – Increase Sales By Keeping Yourself Accountable
Accountability, goal setting, and sales forecasting are all excellent activities and tools to increase sales.
In order to achieve consistent sales, you’ll need a sales process, have targets for what you want to achieve, and know your metrics.
Your sales process will help you dramatically increase sales, because it’ll give you a consistent framework to follow, so that you can guide the ideal client to buy.
Without targets, you won’t know what is working, and what isn’t. Only by having clear and measurable goals, will you be able to gauge whether you’re on track or need to pivot.
Finally, to be accountable and increase sales, you need to know your numbers.
Learn your previous metrics and get clarity on the metrics you need to learn to hold you and your team accountable.
Related article: Sales Forecasting – What You Need To Know
#5 – Increase Sales By Saying ‘No’
One of the most important parts of your sales process, is learning the ability to qualify correctly – and qualify often.
Time management is something a lot of Sales Professionals and Business Owners struggle with; so time is something you need to guard carefully.
One way to guard your time wisely, is to make sure you’re only having deep dive conversations with people who qualify for your offer.
When qualifying your potential clients, a really simple yet effective acronym (developed by IBM) is called BANT.
- Budget
- Authority
- Need
- Time frame
Related article: Qualifying Sales Leads – A Step By Step Guide
#6 – Find Pain
People buy for two reasons.
They buy to move towards a desired outcome and state; and they buy to move away from pain.
Speaking generally; there are three types of pain points your potential clients will be dealing with on a regular basis. These are:
- Technical issues
- An impact on their business
- Personal impact
A common mistake made by a lot of Sales Professionals and Business Owners, is that they stay on the surface; or within the technical issues.
Most sales however are made by solving people’s emotional and personal impact.
In The 5% Sales Blueprint; we teach something called a ‘3 x 3’ method; this means going three layers deep on pain points and finding at least three pain points they’re desiring to get rid of.
Read more about finding pain, in the linked article below.
Related article: Pain Points & Sales – Your Ultimate Guide
#7 – Increase Sales By Asking The Right Questions
Asking the right questions during your sales conversations, is one of the fastest ways to increase sales.
The reason being, is when you ask questions with intent – you can help your potential clients sell themselves.
Sales probing questions are questions that get your potential clients to uncover what it is they’re wanting to actually buy.
They can be broken down into the following categories:
- Learning how they buy
- Qualifying questions
- Finding pain
- Handling objections
- Asking for the sale
To learn more about sales probing questions, we’ve linked an article below that goes into more detail.
Further reading: Sales Probing Questions – 20 x To Use Daily
#8 – Handle Objections Early
Many Sales Professionals and Business Owners use sales scripts to overcome sales objections.
Instead of using scripts; we recommend using a framework instead.
Prior to going into your deep dive sales conversation; ensure that the decision maker is present, and that if they’re not comfortable with proceeding at the end of your conversation – that it is more than OK for them to tell you no.
This will prevent the ‘I need to speak with’ objection, and ‘I need to think about’ objection.
The framework we use to increase sales and handle objections, is:
- Listen carefully
- Repeat back and ask them to expand on their area of concern
- Validate the objection
- Re-frame the objection
- Confirm their new belief
Related article: Overcoming Objections In Sales – A Step By Step Guide
#9 – Increase Sales By Not Presenting Too Early
As per our article in Entrepreneur; many Sales Professionals do something we call ‘Premature Presentation’.
This is when they present their product or service too early, and without going into a deep dive of what the potential client is wanting to have solved.
By presenting too early; you’re assuming what they want to buy.
And assuming hurts your sales.
Instead, we recommend only presenting once you completely know what it is they need solved, and then presenting your product or service to bridge the gap from where they are, to where they want to be.
#10 – Ask For Referrals
Finally, another easy to way to increase sales, is by asking your current clients who else would benefit from your product or service.
Your client base will know other people just like them – and because you’ve been able to serve them, you’ll be able to serve people just like them too.
Ask for a list of referrals and people you can call on; and better yet, ask if they can introduce you.
Final Thoughts
These 10 tips will help you increase sales, because they’ll most built on a foundation of consultation, and relationships.
Relationships are crucial to sales success, and consultation is critical if you truly want to have clients for life.
If you’re interested in levelling up your sales, register for our 7 Day Sales Challenge here.
Want To Close Sales Easier?
Are you committed to closing sales a lot easier, and consistently?
If so, you should check out our self-paced and affordable online sales training program; The 5% Sales Blueprint.
It’ll give you everything you need to close sales consistently.
To learn more, simply click on the link below for more information.
