Top 10 Tips for Agency Sales Team to Close More Deals
Wouldn’t it be nice if customers were reasonable? It seems like it gets harder to close deals every day. There’s more competition than ever, more decision-makers in the loop, and longer buying cycles than ever before. And, there’s always someone willing to sell it cheaper.
Master These Sales Skills
Salespeople and Agency sales teams have to be on top of their game these days if they want to be successful. They need to master these five skills:
1. Know Your Product
When a potential customer asks about your product or service, you need to know it inside and out. That may seem like common sense, but one of the most cited complaints buyers have is that sales reps can’t answer even basic questions about the products they’re selling.
B2B buyers especially are doing more research than ever online before connecting with a salesperson or agency sales team. If you’re not well-informed, they may know more than you do.
2. Know Your Customer
There’s also no excuse for not knowing your target customer and understanding their business. It’s easy to do online research into companies, industries, and individual buyers.
3. Ask Lots Of Questions
There’s a direct correlation between the number of questions salespeople ask and their closing rates. An analysis of more than half a million sales calls demonstrated that the sales reps that did less talking, asked more questions, and listened to what prospects said were more successful.
During your discovery calls, try to ask enough questions to uncover 3-4 business problems or concerns. This helps you focus your attention on the most pressing issues and frame your proposal to ease their pain. Don’t ask them all at once in a shotgun style. Space them evenly throughout your call.
4. Be Resilient
A career in sales is not for the timid. It takes the ability to hear no as many times as it takes to get to yes. Unfortunately, most salespeople give up too quickly. It can take as many as 18 calls to connect with an economic decision-maker. Most salespeople give up after 4 attempts.
5. Stay Top Of Mind
It’s too easy to get lost in the sea of salespeople that approach businesses these days. Creating regular reasons to remain top of mind with customers is crucial. Consider automation to manage your marketing, email, and SMS messaging systems.
Closing Tough Customers
Even when you’ve done your homework, ask the right questions, and stick to it, you’re still going to run into tough customers and difficult situations.
6. Don’t Let Them See You Sweat
Don’t let tough buyers deter you from presenting your case. If they see fear or nervousness, many will push you around. Some will send you packing just to see if you’ll come back again. Stick to your script and make your pitch.
7. Rise To The Challenge
If they get frustrated or challenge you, stay calm. If you get flustered, it may be perceived as a lack of confidence in the product or service you’re selling. Stand your ground and put emotions aside. Continue to move the customer through the buying cycle as you practiced.
8. Help Them Focus On Their Key Problems
Business owners are busy. They’re trying to compete in an increasingly difficult economic environment, and they feel squeezed from all sides. The last thing they want to do is spend time with sales teams. Respect their time by focusing your presentation by demonstrating how you have the solution to their problem.
9. Isolate Objections
You won’t be successful as a salesperson if you can’t overcome buyers’ objections. Throughout your presentation, you should be using trial closes to get buy-in. Get them to say yes to little things before asking them for the close. When objections arise, isolate them and take them one at a time.
10. Deal With The Price Objection
The most common objection you’ll hear is price, but experienced salespeople know price is rarely the real objection. After all, if the customer believed your product or service would solve their problem and provide a positive ROI, the price wouldn’t be an objection. What they’re more likely saying is they don’t believe your product will do what it says. If that’s the case, you’ve got work to do.