One of the questions established business owners often ask themselves is, "What are small, but substantial tweaks that I can make to my sales process to increase sales?"
Here are a few strategies that might help! Let's call them, "The Three R's." Once I started to implement these small strategies in my business more, I definitely noticed an increase in leads that converted to sales, whether those leads came from new or repeat business.
1) Recap
As soon as possible, and definitely within 24 hours after a sales call or sales meeting(if that time-frame is possible within your industry), send an email to recap what you spoke about in your sales conversation and include any estimate or proposal as well if you usually send that to prospects. I used to wait 1 or 2 weeks to send this recap email, because I didn't prioritize it. Once I did prioritize it, my conversion rates skyrocketed! One of my Business Accountability Coaching clients also credited her revenues growing by 5x partly to drastically decreasing the amount of time it took her to provide quotes to her prospects. The psychology of sales is that people are more likely to take action when their interest and excitement about your product is at its highest--during or soon after a sales conversation. If you know that your product or service would truly be a blessing to your prospect, share that recap email with the prospect while your product or service is still a hot topic, even if you've already closed the sale within the sales conversation.
PRO TIP: If it's possible, draft the email you'll be sending the prospect after your sales call at some point before your sales call and schedule the time for when you'll be sending your recap email before you have the sales conversation, so that recap email is definitely sent within 24 hours after the sales conversation. If you do in-person sales meetings, you can even complete and send your sales email before you even get home, stopping somewhere to work after you get just a few blocks away from the prospect (Do this especially if you feel like you get caught up in other priorities once you get home or to your office).
2) Resources
Every client acquisition phase is different, but you might be able to shorten the timeline of someone becoming your client to 3 months after you talk versus 7 months or to 1 year after you talk versus 3 years by sending that prospect resources that might be helpful for them from what you know about the prospect. Some examples of resources are:
- a link to an event that might be of interest to them
- connecting them to a contact that might be helpful for them
- a book
- an email, text, or call with a thought you had about a challenge they might be experiencing
- "serve calls" instead of "sales calls" where you simply call to check in, see how things are going, and offer quick encouragement or advice
Your being in service to your prospects (including previous customers) will not only keep you top-of-mind for that individual for when they're thinking about using your service, but also will keep you top-of-mind for prospective referrals they might send your way, and it's an added benefit that you get to be a blessing to that individual in the process.
PRO TIP: The greatest business people know that people buy from who they trust, know, and like. Great customer service when you're serving your clients also contributes to repeat business and referrals (and makes you an awesome social change agent if you're like me, trying to make a positive impact on the world around you!).
3) Remembering
Find ways to remember those things that are significant to your prospect that they share with you. Think beyond birthdays to things that they mention are important to them like: weddings, baby births, graduations, trips, birthdays of those they love, big events happening in their business, and more. You can include content about a personal interest or anecdote from your conversation with the prospect in your recap email, but also reach out to your prospect long after your sales conversation to let them know that you're thinking of them when it comes to the things they've mentioned to you are important to them. There have definitely been times when I have reached out to individuals with resources or to show them I'm thinking of them and in addition to showing genuine care for the individual, have also gained a client in the process. PRO TIP: You could even send something in the mail or via email that shows care, acknowledgment, encouragement, or thoughtfulness. Some simple yet meaningful examples of this are:
- greeting cards
- a business card holder for a college graduate in their family
- a suitcase tag
- flowers
I hope you see from above the trend of great sales strategies also allowing you to really be a blessing to your prospects whether they choose to work with you or not. Great business strategies are often also in alignment with simply being amazing to the people you serve.
So, go be amazing!
And definitely comment below to let me know if you think these strategies will be helpful to you and your business, and if you implement any of the above as a result of this post, let me know how it goes!
P.S. *If you're looking for consistent accountability on the way to growing your client base, feel free to book a free consultation and sample coaching call with me to learn more about how I can help by sending me a quick email at daphne@daphnevalcin.com so that we. can coordinate a time to chat.
Photo credit: Blake Wisz on Unsplash