7 Simple Sales Techniques That Work

Every business sells something – it is the fact that you can exchange your goods or services and get paid for them that makes you a business. But this core everyday requirement of being a business has proved hard for many small business owners in Nigeria especially in view of the current economic conditions in the country.

The issue here is not that they don’t sell at all, it is more like, they don’t sell enough to sustain their business over time. This can be as a result of the fact that they lack a sales strategy less an effective one.
You can’t just expect to get customers for your products and services consistently if you don’t have a definite way to ensure that your leads and target audience buy from you.

To help solve this, we are sharing 7 top sales techniques to help you boost your sales:

1. Prioritise Relationships

Always prioritise the long term value you can enjoy from a customer than trying to get all you can in the short term at the risk of losing them. This means you should be flexible in your negotiations, offer free trials or samples and do what you can to help your leads even beyond what you’re selling if possible.

2. Score Your Leads

Every day business owners and salespeople go after hundreds of leads to make a sale. But with a limited time and other resources, there is only so much leads a business can pursue. This is why it makes sense to rank your leads by the value they offer. Scoring the leads generated on a scale of 1 – 10 is an excellent way to increase your sales by devoting your energy appropriately.

3. Upsell And Cross-sell

Upselling is an excellent sales technique where the seller persuades the customer to buy a more expensive product or service. While cross-selling entails persuading the customer to buy a complementary product/service. While these techniques can be effective, they can make you seem too aggressive and desperate to customers if it is not done right and with the customer’s interest at heart.

4. Speak With The Person In Charge

Always speak with someone who can authorise a purchase. If you’re a b2b business always ensure you speech the manager or the CEO or any other person that can make purchases without seeking additional permission. This saves you time and energy negotiating over and over again.

5. Create A Sales Pitch

A sales pitch is a documented conversation that a salesperson used to get a customer to buy. It highlights the problems of the customer and systematically persuades the customer to use a proposed solution. The sales pitch is an effective technique because it helps the salesperson stay focused on what matters most and effectively close the sale through tried and tested methods that work while providing answers to objections that may arise.

6. Listen To Your Customers

When you’re solving the same problem for more than one person, it is easy to get complacent and disregard the peculiarity of individual customers but this is very important. Moreover, your customers know when you’re not paying attention to them and it sends a signal that they are not important to your business. When speaking to a customer give them your full attention.

7. Offer More Value

If you are honest, you know that your leads would most likely survey the market and entertain offers. They would compare your offering in terms of price and value to your competitors. So, if you want to increase your odds of making sales, you do better than what your competitors are offering. Add an after-sales service, a bonus etc. to make your offer more valuable.

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