Most of the time, being an expert in your profession pays off wonderfully. But sometimes, the best answer lies in thinking like a beginner and returning to the passions, talents and experiences that led you to a sales position in the first place.
At Acquirent, we think a refreshed perspective is a great starting point for success as well as an excellent tactic for calling upon all of the sales experience you may not even realize you have gained. As such, here are five tips to get you thinking like a beginner again.
- Don’t just try to make a sale – try to make a difference. When you think about your sales offering from the buyer’s perspective, the most desirable qualities are not your products or services, but the overall impact they can have on a person or organization in need. Thinking this way will show off your product in a light that resonates with the buyer.
- Evaluate your sales tactics from the buyer’s standpoint. After all, potential customers won’t always get a printout of your sales pitch or even a copy of your presentation. You must anticipate the key points of your conversation that are most likely to stick with buyers and build them into the bulk of your pitch. Try to present yourself as the kind of person you’d want to work with if you were a buyer, and be sure to reevaluate this approach regularly to keep it fresh and relevant.
- Invest in personalized pitches. Whether you rely on an outsourced sales team or sales growth lies in your very hands, it’s common knowledge that the customers everyone is trying to reach have never been more inundated with information and offers. In fact, many are likely to ignore or even delete introductory messages before listening to completion. So, make sure you engage in research of their business and its needs in order to extend a personalized greeting and invitation to meet.
- Plan your route to the person you actually need to reach. In most cases, the shortest distance between two points is a straight line, but not so in sales. Typically, it can take up to 10 contacts to get you on the radar of a corporate account, and if you don’t plan ahead you may hit several dead ends. Instead, begin your approach by laying out the contacts you will need as touch points to get you to the decision maker you are searching for.
- Take it easy to make it big. No matter how eager you may be to close a sale and begin a partnership, you are certain to find over time that many customers will be put off by a salesperson rushing to close a deal. Instead, plan to release relevant information over multiple meetings to ensure their comfort with your product or service offering, and you will see greater success in the long run.
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