Here are 10 of the best sales strategies and plans for your business success. If you must succeed in your business, either big or small, you will need a good sales strategy, to be able to close deals, make sales and increase profit.
A great sales strategy can make or break your business, especially for startups or small businesses. So, whether you are just starting your business, or looking to scale, the sales strategies you apply, have a lot of impact on your business.
There are several sales strategies, such as identifying profitable niche markets, using cold email marketing, leveraging the power of story-telling, getting the perfect pitch, follow-ups, closing, etc. All of this, and lots more, contribute to the success of your business.
However, it is important to note that an effective sales strategy is a combination of several activities and tactics that are strategically used to achieve a specific goal in your business — which is sales.
Before we go into the top 10 sales strategies and plans for your business success, let’s look at what a sales strategy really is.
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What is a Sales Strategy?
Sales strategy is the ultimate-documented plan and method applied by you as a business owner or by your sales representative to strategically close deals and bring in more sales — differentiating you from your competitors.
A complete sales strategy comprises the plan on who your prospective buyers are, how you are going to sell to them, your method of engagement and follow-ups and what the buying process will look like, and how to finally close the deal.
Details of a complete sales strategy:
- Clear buyer personas
- Type of sales pitch and value proposition to use
- A guide that helps you identify qualified leads
- Setting realistic sales goals
- Key Performance Indexes (KPIs)
- The sales processes
- The team structure
- Competitive analysis,
- Product positioning,
- Your specific selling methodologies
Complete sales strategy guidelines are very helpful for communicating goals and keeping your sales reps on the same page. This will ensure that your sale plan is followed to the letter and doesn’t fall short of any sort, and every box is ticked as you progress.
Benefits of Having a Clear Sales Strategy
Here are some reasons and benefits that really make a sale strategy vital to your business’s growth and success.
- A clearer understanding of your target customers
- Easy to find and attract your target customers
- Helps manage customer relationships
- Improve your sales team’s performance.
- Higher conversion rates
- Easy and clear reporting on team performance within the sales strategy
Types of Sales Strategies: Inbound and Outbound
There are basically two types of sales strategies, they are inbound and outbound sales strategies. Knowing how they both operate will help you choose the perfect plan for your business.
The inbound sales strategy is a type of sale strategy that you apply following an organic lead generated from the email form on your website. This type of sales methodology focuses on monitoring qualified leads through the buyer’s journey, — it helps you learn the buyer’s needs and meet them by drafting a personalized proposal that meets their persona. It enables new potential customers to flow easily with your sales funnel and become qualified leads.
This is a very effective approach to acquiring new buyers — you should definitely consider this approach as a new business.
With the outbound sales strategy, the seller gets involved in searching for and reaching out to their potential buyers through cold marketing, either by calls, emails, or social selling. Once a prospective buyer is acquired, the seller strategically communicates with the buyer towards making a purchasing decision. This is done by follow-ups, where negotiations, trials, and deal closing are made.
Here are the top 10 best sales strategies and plans for your business success.
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10 Best Sales Strategies and Plans for Your Business Success.
1. Developing the Right Mindset
Before you start any business, you need to ensure you have the right mindset for business. This is because, no matter how good your products or services are, and no matter the approach you use to reach out to your prospects, there’ll always be those who will are going to say no and even talk negatively about your business. It is a reality in business. And if you must overcome this, you need the right mindset.
Your products or services will appeal to everyone — not even the best sales strategy can help you convert the Nay-Sayers into buyers.
What you need to overcome moments like this is the right mindset, avoid taking rejection and negative critics personally in business, and keep sending your calls and emails with a positive mindset.
According to Tony Robbins, best-selling author, and business strategist, “The most painful mistake I see in entrepreneurs is thinking that just having a good plan or a great product is enough to guarantee success. It’s not. Business success is 80% psychology and 20% mechanics. And, frankly, most people’s psychology is not meant for building a business.” he went further to say that “The biggest thing that will hold you back is your own nature. Few people are emotionally ready for the challenges of building a business.”
2. Create an Exciting and Enticing Sales Pitch
Sales copy or sales pitches are what help you acquire intended buyers. Without a sales pitch, you will struggle to make sales. Your sales pitch helps you capture the attention of your prospect and guides the conversation in the right direction, making them willing to pay for your products or services.
Your sales pitch should include facts and figures, as they are very vital for effective conversion. If your sales pitch is boring and can’t capture or grab the audience’s attention within the first 60 to 90 seconds, you may be losing serious prospects. It should be able to capture their attention and persuade prospects to become paying customers.
Also, ensure that your sales pitch is able to build confidence in the buyer’s mind and make him see the reason to trust your products or services.
3. Use Storytelling
Storytelling in sales strategy has proven to work really well over the years. This is because, — people are captivated by nice stories, and they always relate to them.
Storytelling has a way of capturing your prospects on a deeper level, allowing them to connect with your business, — this finally increases their trust and brings you more customers over time.
According to a business professor, Jennifer Aaker on the power of storytelling, “Research shows our brains are not hard-wired to understand logic or retain facts for very long. Our brains are wired to understand and retain stories. A story is a journey that moves the listener, and when the listener goes on that journey, they feel different. The result is persuasion and sometimes action.”
Your storytelling should always show how customers’ problems can be solved in real life using your products — this is the type of story that is very powerful and easily converts. Find a way to incorporate your customers’ pain points in your story and how using your products or services can help them solve that problem.
Once that is accomplished, persuasion becomes very easy.
4. Always Showcase the End Results
Lots of businesses make the mistake of always trying to sell their products to prospects by showing them all the nitty-gritty of the product. They fail to do the most important thing, — which is showcasing results. People are not interested in your products or services because they are of high quality, are fine, or have all the ingredients you can think of. They want to buy because it produces results.
Results are what people buy, not just products or services. They want to know if buying your product will give them that desired result and end the long search, or if it’s just garbage.
When results are clearly stated with proof, it becomes very easy to persuade and converts your prospects. Buyers what to know what’s in it for them, what they will get, and when can they begin to see visible results. All of this and everything else in between should be showcased in your sales strategy.
5. Be Flexible in Your Sales Conversations
Many start-ups fail in this aspect. — this is why I stated earlier that you must have the right mindset. Sales conversation has lots of hurdles and obstacles. And you won’t be able to avoid this moment, — it happens to even the best sales managers. The only differentiating factor is the mindset.
Your conversation should be articulated and geared toward closing the deal. You will encounter prospects with negative vibes and those with irritating demands, — that may seem difficult to tackle. In all of this, you need to choose your response very carefully, — enabling you to win the conversation in the end.
Words like “I can’t” “We can’t ””You can’t”, “It’s not possible”, or even an outright “NO” should be far from your sales conversation with your prospects. — they are all death sentences, and you should refrain from using them.
Be accommodating enough to tolerate every question and new challenges that will arise from your prospects.
Here is what Grant Cardone a sales strategy coach says about flexibility in sales, “In selling, you are seeking an agreement. Your customer is almost always distrustful and uncertain, not about you, but about themselves. Most salespeople think selling is about gaining trust, but in reality, selling is about getting the customer to trust themselves enough to take action and close—which often takes flexibility.”
6. Provide Prospect with Solutions
A great way to improve your sales and close more deals is by providing your prospects with solutions to their problem. People looking to buy your product or services are looking for solutions. This means your product should be a solution to a problem.
In your sales strategy, clearly and visibly state the challenges that your products or services will help the prospect solve. Remember, your prospect doesn’t know how your product will help them with their challenges, — it is your duty to research what their pain point is and clearly state how the product will help them solve it in your sales strategy.
Starting your sales copy or pitch with what your prospect stands to benefit from your product is a good approach that will eventually turn them into loyal customers.
7. Utilize Email Automation
If you want to achieve more in your business, you need to find a way to automate some processes. Email automation is one of the processes you really need to automate, to speed up marketing and improve sales.
Using manual means for outreach will slow down a lot of processes, reduce your marketing ability, and impede your business growth.
With email automation, you speed up your marketing process, and you are able to acquire lots of prospects within a short period of time.
While applying email automation, always ensure to put your prospects and the persona in mind, this will help you create an email outreach for every prospect. If possible, get feedback from loyal customers and find out what prompts them to sign up and buy your product or service.
Use that feedback to create a series of automated emails that are designed to get you new subscribers and prospects.
Your email automation should include 70 percent of educational content and 30 percent of product content.
8. Follow Up Until You Get a Definitive Answer
Follow-up is an essential part of every successful business, and it is also the backbone of closing sales. It is a very good sales strategy that every existing and new business owner shouldn’t overlook.
Strategically map out your follow-up schedule and this should include phone calls, emails, and chat messages. Do not do this anytime you wish, it should be deliberate.
Follow up as much as you could until you get a definitive response, especially from those “I would get back to you” prospects/clients. Don’t allow a negative response put you off, remember that response is what it is, whether positive or negative. It is more important you get one than have nothing.
This will enable you to cut off the “maybe” from your plans and work with a more defining figure. This alone can eliminate unforeseen risks and help you save your business
Quick Note: Never fail to meet an appointment time agree upon with your prospect. Do everything possible to meet up with your appointments. — Set a reminder so you don’t forget.
9. Create Urgency and Scarcity
Lots of people will always take their time before making the decision to buy. — this happens because most businesses don’t create the desired urgency required for prospects to take immediate action.
Of course, if your prospects don’t see the need to take action now, they will just wave it off till next time. And this is an indefinite action from the prospect.
You need to create a real sense of urgency and scarcity in your products or services, — this will help your prospects realize why they need your products now, and make them feel like they may be missing out if they don’t take action.
In general, this method of sales strategy is usually a booster to your business and usually has a positive impact on your business’s success.
According to Small business coach Tara Gentile: “Urgency is about need. If you want people to feel a sense of urgency for buying your product, you need to know why they need it now.”
Here are some ways to create urgency in your business:
- Use the limited program method. This may be in the form of offering a limited number of people a premium service for less amount
- Use the price increase/price slash model.
- Use the limited number or running out-of-stock method
- Apply the custom offer method.
10. Sell More to Your Existing Customers
Did you know that it is easier to sell to an existing customer than to try to acquire new ones and sell to them? Well, according to statistics, it is 5 times more expensive to acquire new customers than it is to retain and continue to provide value to existing customers and sell to them.
As much as you would love to grow your customer base and increase your sales, which is essential for a growing business, don’t neglect the importance of always selling more to the already existing customers.
While acquiring new customers will help expand your business growth, the existing customers are the foundation upon which you build your business growth.
The existing customers provide you with quality data and feedback that will save as proof and testimonials, — which are very essential for converting new prospects.
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Final Note
The best sales strategy and plan is one that truly converts and boost your business growth, — however, it is important to know that it best sale strategy does not come from copy-and-paste templates.
Following what works for business A may not give you the desired result. While it is important to look for and model successful sales strategies, especially from your competitors, you need to truly figure out what works best for your own business.
All of this takes research and personal interaction with your existing customers.
Following all the steps listed above, you will be able to build a sales strategy that will be successful for your business.
