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Sales … some people love it, some almost avoid it!
But sales is a necessary activity that we have to do as business owners and, honestly, it doesn’t have to be or feel as difficult as you might think. So, if getting more customers feels difficult, or maybe even slick or sleazy, I have 5 tips for you (and summarised in the video) about how to increase your sales. Let’s dive in!
Tip 1: Truly understand your customers
This goes beyond the demographics like their age or gender etc. Many entrepreneurs create and define their offers based on what they want to sell. The key thing to understand here is that your service is solving a customer’s problem. So how and where are you helping a customer? What pain or struggle do you help them overcome? How does you offer fit their needs? The better we understand what moves them and drives them, what their desires, ambitions and struggles are, the better we can design our offer and be of value to them.
Tip 2: Make it easy for customer to buy from you
I quite often see that entrepreneurs make it way more difficult for customers to buy from them than is necessary. There are too many steps involved in the buying process or the information required to decide is not at hand. Make sure to direct your potential customers to the information that they need right away. Eliminate steps that aren’t necessary in the buying process. For instance, make sure that customers don’t have to click several links to get to where they need to be on your website.
The more steps your sales process involves, the more hurdles your customer will experience and the more risk you have of losing them.
Tip 3: Be proactive in selling your products and services
A simple rule is that the more offers you make to more people, the more likely it is that you’ll make a sale. So simply offer your products and services more often. This also means that you have to be more proactive when having conversations with people that show interest in your products and services. For instance, if you meet someone at a networking event who shows interest, don’t ask them to send you an email. Instead, ask for their contact details and ask them if you can send them some information and follow up with them.
Tip 4: Focus on the benefits rather than the features
Now this might be something that you already know, but what I quite often see is that when entrepreneurs talk about their offers they talk about the features first: for example, a coach talking about the number of coach calls or the duration of each call; an entrepreneur selling a product talking about the size and colour etc. of the product.
A better approach is to focus on the value that your product or service brings to your customers. Focus on the benefits. What is this product or service is going to help your client to achieve? How will their lives improve by using your product or service?
Tip 5: Be enthusiastic and confident when selling
The final tip is about how you sell. Talk about your offers with enthusiasm and confidence. If you don’t believe in your own products or services, you won’t be able to talk about them enthusiastically. And if you aren’t enthusiastic and excited, what will your potential customer feel when you talk to them about it? So when a potential client comes to you, talk about your product or service enthusiastically and with confidence. Have you ever wanted to buy something from someone who’s grumpy or shy about their products or services? I bet you haven’t!
So, to recap:
1. Understand your customer
2. Make it easy for them to buy from you
3. Be proactive in selling
4. Focus on the benefits rather than the features
5. Sell enthusiastically and confidently
By ZJ Chang
Business Strategist for Entrepreneurs
ZJ Means Business