The market has changed and your customers have changed as well. Today, trying to convert a prospect to a sale is much more difficult than it used to be. That’s mostly because prospects actually have a lot of information on hand. Selling to customers who love to research products isn’t easy. Between your first call and the next, your prospects might have a list of questions and whatever information they need on hand.
So how do you convert a customer who thinks he knows everything about your product? You change the way you make the sale.
Here are some tips on how you can update your sales tactics.
Stop Wasting Time
Your time and your customers’ time are valuable. People are always busy these days and if they’re not, they want to spend their free time doing something more entertaining than talking to a sale representative from your company. There’s a widespread belief amongst people of the sales community that you need to spend more time with your customers, to engage them and grab their attention. In today’s world, that doesn’t work.
Instead of spending too much time with your customers, plan calls in such a way that you’ll be able to deliver the information convincingly without wasting time. You should stay on the call longer only if you’re absolutely certain that the customer would convert and just needs a little more time.
Discuss Price and Then Discuss Value
This might seem like an antithesis of what you were taught to date. Most sales manuals would say that you need to build value before you even think of stating the price. If you look at the previous point, you’ll realize why stating the price first works. It saves time. The unusual tactic would capture your customer’s attention in the first place; after that, you can work on keeping that attention focused on you.
You might think that this tactic won’t work but it’s surprisingly affective. That’s mostly because the customers get the most relevant information upfront, without having to wait for the long sales call. If the price is within their budget, they’ll be interested enough to hear your sales pitch. This tactic works very well in today’s world where everyone wants the relevant information as quickly as possible and everyone is busy.
Don’t Think You Can’t Sell Over the Phone
Why wait until your customer changes their mind? If you require the prospect to actually log onto your website or visit your store and purchase the product, you might’ve just wasted your call and flushed all that effort down the drain. A million things might distract your customer from purchasing the product. They might also change their mind and decide to not make that purchase.
Selling over the phone has this very odd prejudice against it. If you can carry out transactions over the internet, why can’t you carry out the same transactions over the phone? That way, you won’t give your customers the opportunity to change their mind. If your prospects convert, make sure that they make the purchase as soon as possible.
