3 Empowering Techniques to Help Your Sales Team Sell More

Whether you have a sales process in place or you are simply looking for a way to improve your sales team’s performance, there is always room for growth.

Many struggling teams use the same sales techniques over and over again and expect different results.

But if you really want to break out from a sluggish sales streak, you may want to consider shaking things up.

Here are a few ways to accomplish that while empowering your sales team to sell more.

3 Ways to Increase Your Team’s Sales

1.   Warm Calling

Though it may be effective under certain conditions, cold calling can be a dreadful experience for your salespeople and the people they are trying to sell to.

Instead of asking your reps to call someone whom they have never interacted with before, have them reach out to leads that have been properly nurtured.

Why is proper nurturing important? Because research shows that sales reps have a 20% higher sales rate when dealing with nurtured leads, as opposed to non-nurtured leads.

Here are two effective methods for nurturing leads before warm calling:

1.Use social media. You can improve your chances of selling your products or services by contacting someone who has followed you and shown interest in your company through social media. Working closely with your marketing team can really help you maximize your results.

2.Email marketing. Email marketing is much more than creating a generic email campaign that goes out to all of your subscribers. It includes segmenting your email lists and targeting the right segments with relevant content to ensure a more personalized sales process. Again, working with your marketing team is crucial here.

Once a lead is properly nurtured, calling them is no longer a cold and impersonal experience. Your salespeople can now truly connect with your customers and show them the value that your company can provide to them, thus improving their chances of making a sale.

2. Utilization of Visuals

When it comes to making a purchase, people are highly visual creatures. In fact, visual appearance is the key factor in purchasing decisions for 93% of consumers. With that in mind, you and your reps definitely want to provide a visual experience for your leads before trying to close a sale.

Here are a few visual tools to help improve the sales process:

• Product samples. If your sales reps have samples they can give out or have a way to demo your service, make sure that they do. According to one survey, 53% of people who interact with a product or service beforehand end up making purchasing it.
• Product or service catalogs. One report explains that customers who receive a catalog spend up to 150% more than those who do not receive a catalog first.
• Short product or service videos. According to Invodo, 52 percent of consumers say that watching a quick product video can influence them to make a purchase.
• Visual presentations. Presentations (think PowerPoint) offer your reps a way to share product or service information as well as compelling visuals with your leads. When combined, they can help tell a story that shows how your company can provide value to a customer.

3. The Art of Storytelling

Storytelling is not just for children or around the campfire—it is one of the most powerful sales techniques available to salespeople.

Why are stories so effective? Incorporating storytelling into a sales pitch is important because:

1.People forget facts and statistics, but they remember stories

Whether it is a story your parents used to tell you as a child, or your favorite book or television show, you probably still remember the story.

And when your reps incorporate a story into their sales pitch, they can develop a connection with prospects and motivate them to make a purchase.

One reason this works is because stories allow a listener to retain more information.

In fact, after a presentation, 63% of attendees remember stories, while only 5% remember the statistics that are shared.

If your customers remember the stories that your reps are telling, that means they are keeping your company in mind.

This is especially important since your sales reps may have to repeatedly be in contact with a lead before they make a final purchasing decision.

2.Stories pair logic with emotion

Numbers and statistics are great to have on hand when your sales team is pitching leads.

But just having the facts and figures is not usually enough to close a sale.

When your reps pair storytelling with those numbers and features, they can appeal to both a customer’s logical side and emotional side.

This is significant because emotions play a huge role in a customer’s purchasing decisions.

Stories have the ability to stir memories and emotions, which can build a connection with your brand.

If a rep can paint a story that takes customers on a journey in which they see how your products or services can help improve their lives, your customers are more likely make a purchase.

3.Stories can be molded to each customer’s needs

Stories are a powerful sales technique, but the sales process is not finished at the emotional connection.

A story must be relatable and appeal to a customer’s needs to be truly effective.

Here are a few storytelling tips that will help your salespeople retain a customer’s interest:

Keep the story concise. Time is money for you and your customers, thus your reps should not bore the lead with a long-winded story. Keep it short, sweet and directed toward the value of your company’s products or services.

Return to the customer. Whether it is a personal story or a story about how your products or services helped another customer, make sure it ties back to the lead. Throughout the story, a lead needs to feel like they can relate and see why they need to buy from your company.

Add some humor. No one wants to hear a dry-as-dirt story about something mundane that happened in your rep’s life. The story should have some personality and even a little humor to lighten up the mood. But make sure they do not go overboard with the jokes.

Paint a picture. Your sales reps should focus on painting an image with words. It does not have to be flowery by any means, but it helps if a lead can imagine what is happening in a story. If a customer can see themselves in a similar experience, they may feel a connection that will help influence their decision to make a purchase from your company.

Final Thoughts

There are countless methods for selling a product or service but at the end of the day, some of the most effective techniques involve appealing to the emotions of a customer.

Further, a sales rep should be able to focus on a customer’s needs and show how your company can help solve the customer’s pain points.

Whether it is through warm calling, visuals or storytelling, your sales reps should try to form a genuine connection with a customer in order to successfully reach their sales goals.