As a sales representative or manager, you certainly have first-hand knowledge of how competitive business is today. While you realize the importance of offering new products or services and value the name-recognition for a firm, you know more is needed.
Even with a good company reputation and a steady flow of referrals, it takes much more to gain a competitive advantage and increase sales. Here are a few strategies to help put you in the best position.
* Be armed with research before you approach customers and prospects. Research your market. The more knowledge you have on your prospects and the products/programs that fit their needs, the better prepared you’ll be. Some experts go as far as to say that you have to know your customer’s business as well as you knows your own. Position your product as a clear solution to a customer’s problem, and it will increase the perceived value of that product.
Research the competition. Be aware of what they are doing. Stay in tune with how they present their firm and their sales approach. Use that information to compare your strengths and weaknesses to theirs. During presentations, you can field questions and address key points without ever mentioning the competitors’ names.
Be persistent in obtaining this information from your firm. If it’s not available, find ways to do it yourself.
* View the new technology as an innovative way to be more efficient.Technology isn’t buzz words and gigabytes. While many salespeople are looking for excuses to avoid tapping into the new technology, others take advantage of it by realizing how it will benefit their marketing efforts and customers.
It is an impressive fact that a CD-ROM disk has 400 times more storage space than a 3.5-inch disk. CD-ROMs are marketing tools that support your efforts and help you better serve customers’ needs. New programs give you prospecting products such as demographic data on businesses and U.S. Census information that can be used in conjunction with spreadsheets, data bases and other applications. Training in software can help you practice sales techniques (as you sit in front of your computer screen, you interact with a hypothetical prospect).
Prospect correspondence and postcall, follow-up word processing saves you valuable time. For time management, prospecting, follow-up and sales strategies, contact management software helps you plan each step in the marketing process. Inventory management systems and transportation software provide valuable information at your fingertips on shipping schedules and delivery dates.
Twenty-four hour technical support systems provide customers access to information when they need it.
New computer hardware speeds up order processing. Voice mail systems, when used properly, save customers time and create more efficiency.
Once these customer service enhancements are in place, familiarize yourself with them and most importantly, make your prospects and customers aware of these value-added services.
* Have a mission statement for yourself. Successful salespeople need a purpose, a plan and a clear understanding of whey they are in business. Few people are successful when they are just going through the motions. A salesperson can benefit from developing his or her own mission statement, similar to a company mission statement. Spend time putting this information on paper. In developing a clear “mission” statement and direction for top performance, here’s an example from
Brian Azar, author of the Sales Catalyst, Inc. His service creed reads: “My purpose in sales and business is to find out specifically, exactly what it is people want or need, and help them get it quickly and elegantly (even if I can’t give it to them) and have them feel good about it, my company and me.”
* Learning a lesson from advertising on selling value and emotional appeal. Develop a compelling statement on the emotional benefit of your service or product. Differentiate the features from the benefits in your mind and in your presentations and keep the focus on the immediate benefits.
Here are some underlying motives for what consumers need and want: They don’t want to buy insurance, they need peace of mind. They don’t want to buy a house, they want to hear about good neighbors and a great location. A consumer doesn’t ask the salesperson to sell them clothes; that person wants to hear how great he or she looks in them. Effective advertising directs its messages to the immediate needs and wants of the customer. Successful salespeople who are focused on satisfying their customers will do the same.
* Out-perform by working harder and longer. Those who work harder, think harder an work more efficiently get more of the business. It’s that simple. The extra time you spend analyzing a prospect’s problem/challenge and determining the right approach will increase the likelihood of converting the prospect into a customer. Studies indicate that the buying cycle is longer and continues to get longer. Make the extra phone call and have the patience to accept that decisions are not made as quickly as you would like.