The x 10 Best Practices For Sales Success
The difference between general Salespeople and Sales Professionals that seem to excel in sales; no matter what they’re selling – is their ability to follow the best practices for sales.
As the famous saying goes, “How you do anything, is how you do everything”.
This demonstrates that the principles we follow daily behind the scenes when nobody is watching, is the key to sales success.
In this article we’ll look at the 10 best practices for sales, so that you can incorporate it into your own life; and you too can succeed in business and selling.
The x 10 Best Practices For Sales Success
Best Practices For Sales Success #1 – Have A Sales Targeting Strategy
One of the first tasks required in your best practices for sales strategy, is putting together your sales targeting plan.
Your sales targeting strategy (or plan) is your road map to understanding what tasks you need to focus on to win more sales consistently.
The sales targeting strategy includes, and is not limited to:
- Finding your ideal prospects
- Understanding what prospecting method to use
- Setting targets
To learn more about setting up your sales targeting strategy, see the related article below.
Related article: Sales Targeting Strategy – Your Complete Guide
Best Practices For Sales Success #2 – Align With The Marketing Department
Common feedback organisations give us when training their Sales Professionals, is that they find that their marketing and sales teams aren’t aligned.
When both teams aren’t aligned, they both move in different directions which creates friction and negative outcomes for all involved.
It’s important to ensure that marketing is aware of what the sales team is doing, and vice versa – so that their individual strategies are aligned and they both move forward in the same direction; and with the same strategies.
Does your organisation have a Marketing Strategy?
If so, become familiar with what it is, and ensure your sales team is across it too.
Related article: Marketing Strategy 101 – What You Need To Know
Tip #3 – Hold Yourself Accountable
Another one of the best practices for sales, is holding yourself accountable.
And when we say accountable – we mean with data driven results and clearly focused outcomes and tasks.
KPI’s and Metrics are a great way to visually see and record what’s working, what isn’t; and what needs to be done to improve your situation.
They can include:
- How many sales required per month
- Leads required to make the sales
- Calls, or inbound leads required to get in touch with prospects
- Training needed to achieve those outcomes
- And much more
Best Practices For Sales Success #4 – Focus On Prospecting
Prospecting; also known as lead generation, is an important task for any business or Sales Professional, because a pipeline of leads is the lifeblood of your business.
It doesn’t matter if you’re selling business to business or business to consumer; daily prospecting is imperative for your sales success.
As per the sales targeting strategy, your prospecting activities should be focused around where your potential clients are hanging out.
When prospecting, your best practice for sales lead generation success should be centred around two activities:
- Outbound prospecting: This is the activity of proactively finding your targets, and reaching out to them.
- Inbound prospecting: This is the process of putting together a sales funnel, and then automating much of the lead generation process so that your prospects come to you.
To learn more about prospecting, check out the related article below.
Related article: Two Types Of Sales Prospecting Methods For More Sales
Sales Success Tip #5 – Have A Consistent Process
The biggest reason why people fail at their sales, is that they don’t have a system for consistently closing clients.
One of the most important and best practices for sales, is to have a step by step system that gives you certainty of exactly where you are in the sales cycle.
A sales process does the following:
- Is systematised in a way, that gives you some kind of clear outcome
- Something you can follow consistently; a road map you can keep using
- Creates certainty for both you and your potential client
- Allows you to control the process
To learn more about the sales process; including why you need one and the exact steps to follow, read the article below for more details.
Related article: The Sales Process – A Step By Step Guide
Best Practices For Sales Success # 6 – Ask Good Questions
Many people think that the art of being a great Sales Professional, is knowing how to close.
Although asking for the order and closing is important, more importantly – is knowing how to ask the right questions.
Open-ended questions are crucial in sales, because it allows you to get in deep and learn about what it is in fact that your potential client is wanting to buy.
Getting under the surface and learning about your prospects situation, pain, desires, and the gap to get there is what will land you sales; versus trying to use old-school closing strategies that should have been left in the 1980’s.
Get great at asking open-ended questions, and you’ll be well on your way towards sales success.
Tip #7 – Don’t Present Too Early
Probably one of my biggest frustrations to date with Salespeople, is when they get lazy and present way too early. We have no right to present an offer – if we don’t know what it is in fact that they truly want to buy.
As per our article on Entrepreneur, premature presentation is one of the leading killers for your sales success. It robs you the chance to truly serve your prospects, because it is a ‘spray and pray’ approach; hoping that something you say will stick.
Instead, truly find out what it is they need, and leave the presentation for later when they’re ready to hear how you will close the gap from where they are, to where they need to be.
Best Practices For Sales Success #8 – They Eliminate Objections Early
One of the best practices for sales that you should master, is eliminating the potential of objections coming up before you even start your sales dialogue with potential clients.
The way you do this, is setting up a pre-frame. A pre-frame is putting boundaries (like a frame) around how the conversation will go, which creates certainty for both you and the prospect.
A pre-frame ensures:
- Decision makers are present
- Permission to ask deep diving questions
- A decision, or next step will be made clear
We teach how to use pre-frames in The 5% Sales Blueprint.
You can register for your 7 day sales challenge here to learn how to use it.
Tip # 9 – Be Consistent
If we all did something here and there, we wouldn’t get anywhere. Consistency is important, because things won’t always go to plan.
You will have rough days, and that is normal. We all go through sales slumps.
What’s more important though, is getting back up and being consistent; because you have to be in it to win it.
Best Practices For Sales Success # 10 – Invest In Yourself
Would you allow a Lawyer to defend you, who last did their study or kept up to date with new laws 20 years ago?
Perhaps you require a medical procedure – would you allow a Medical Specialist to operate on you who only did any study whilst in medical school?
In order to excel at sales, you need to train yourself fin best practices, asking questions, building rapport, handling objections – and of course, asking for the sale in a non-pushy way.
Sales training is crucial for your sales success, because it’ll give you an exact road map you need to follow to win more sales.
To learn more about how you can consistently close more clients, check out the 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.
Our Online Sales Training Program – The 5% Sales Blueprint.
