This seems like a given, but I talk to business owners every single day who don’t have a good grasp on what their customers want and need. To get ahead, you want to find out what a customer’s hopes, fears, dreams, frustrations, and aspirations are.
Once you get a good idea of how they feel, you should keep asking on a regular basis. If you skip this step, your customers will always be asking: “Do you even care about me?” Remember, it’s not about you, it’s about your customer. The most powerful words are the words that your prospect speaks in his or her own heart.
2. Always Speak From the Perspective and Needs of Your Prospect
My second tip has to do with the way that you structure your sales copy, calls, and approach. Many businesses sell their product by explaining why they are great. They focus on why they are better than their competition and why they think you should buy from them.
But from a customer perspective, none of those reasons may be valid. Oftentimes the reasons that your customer buys from you are completely different. So, by looking at the process and your copy from your prospect’s point of view, you will be able to capture more leads and close more sales.
3. Sell to the Right “List”
Lists are the unsung heroes or villains in most marketing campaigns. Since the start of your business, you have likely accumulated a list of prospects, some good and some not so good. Some may be interested in a certain product or service, while others have no interest in that particular product line. Some need more information before they make a buying decision while others are waiting until their situation changes before they make a decision.
How you sell to each bucket of prospects can make a huge difference in your bottom line, so don’t be afraid to segment your marketing message to match the needs of your prospects.
4. Map Out Your Sales Pipeline and Systematize Your Follow-Up Efforts
Another important element of your selling process is your “sales pipeline”: This is the sales process you take your customers through from the point they are identified as leads and started in the front end of your sales process to the point in time they become paying customers. After you take into consideration the above steps, the next step is to map it out and automate or systematize the process as much as possible. That way you can handle your lead flow, whether it’s 10 new customers a week or 10,000.
These four selling strategies will help you create a great foundation on which to build. Over time, you will learn more about your customers, and these processes and systems will naturally change over time to meet the needs of your prospects.