Four Tactics that will Change the way you Sell

You’ve worked hard to reach prospective customer meetings—don’t let the deal slip away due to avoidable pitfalls.

tl;dr

• Always guide the customer through the sales process, propose the next step, and ask closing questions early to understand their internal buying process.

• Focus on solving the customer's pain points rather than showcasing features, and engage multiple buyers to ensure you're speaking with decision-makers.

1. Lead the Customer

Guide the customer through the sales process. As an experienced seller, you know the next steps because you've sold to many customers before. Prospective customers don't know how to buy from you, so don't leave things open-ended. If you're asking a customer what the next steps should be, it's game over for the timing of this deal. Always lead them to your desired next step. This customer journey ensures you cover everything necessary for them to buy. Don't assume they know how to buy from you; come to every call with a proposed next step ready.

2. Ask Closing Questions Early

Start asking steps-to-close questions earlier than you think. Prospective customers are not technologists and do not buy your product often. They may not know their internal buying process the first time you ask, but if you keep asking (perhaps switching it up into different forms), they will eventually get the answers. This will uncover potential steps you weren’t aware of and help you plan accordingly. Ask questions like: Are there steering committees or partner approvals needed? If so, when do they meet? When in the process do we talk to the legal team? Who has final sign-off? Are there any timelines to be aware of? Do you foresee anything impacting your timeline?

3. Sell Solutions, Not Features

Focus on solving the customer's pain points, not just showcasing features. This common mistake in early-stage companies can be detrimental. Imagine you're at the end of a deal with multiple presentations and demos, and the client can't match your solution to their workflow. It happens all the time. They are looking at solutions because there's something that could be done better, but they know what they know and are resistant to change. If you've been selling features, the deal won't close. Keep bringing them back to how you'll solve their main pain points to close the deal.

4. Engage Multiple Buyers

Ensure you're not only dealing with one potential buyer. There are many well-meaning gatekeepers along the sales journey. The worst scenario is spending months talking to someone without authority who hasn't relayed information internally. Salespeople fear reaching out beyond their contact, worrying it will annoy them or lose their champion. However, if you're not talking to multiple people in a deal, of which someone must have authority, the deal doesn't really exist yet. Many times, we discover that the buyer has never heard of us, and the deal was never real.