You’re taking a break for lunch in the middle of a busy workday and open your inbox, only to find two new sales emails from unknown senders.

The first one starts with a run-of-the-mill promotional sales pitch. The second email opens with a reference to your recent LinkedIn post, connects it to your pain points, and offers a helpful solution.

No points for guessing which one resonates better. 

That’s what adding personalisation to your sales outreach efforts can do. In this article, we’ll dig deep into the importance of personalisation in sales outreach and outline practical ways to help you get started.

Why personalised messages matter in sales outreach

Every industry is crowded with multiple players offering similar solutions. Whether your small business caters to everyday consumers or C-suite decision-makers, you have to compete for every prospect’s attention. It’s particularly crucial when your sales strategy starts with a cold email or phone call.

How do you ensure that your outreach email or call cuts through the noise? The answer is personalisation. It’s the key to making each prospect feel valued instead of treating them like another sales target you need to tick off your to-do list.

Case in point—a McKinsey report revealed that 71 percent of consumers expected personalisation from brands in 2021. Another 76 percent felt frustrated when a brand didn’t deliver a personalised experience.

Integrating personalised touchpoints into your sales outreach strategy can help you strike a chord with prospects. Also, it can help you lasting relationships with them and drive more revenue through repeat purchases. Ultimately, it translates into a loyal customer base and an improved reputation for your company.

How to personalise your sales outreach strategy

Personalisation is more than just adding a prospect’s name or job title in the greeting or subject line of a cold email. Instead, it’s about delighting them with messaging tailored to their unique challenges and preferences. The key is to make them feel like every piece of communication was created just for them.

Here are a few valuable ways to personalise your sales outreach efforts.

Don’t skimp on research

How do you make a prospect feel that you value them? By showing you invested effort and time in learning about their world.

If you’ve already identified a potential buyer, it’s time for your sales team to search for their personal name and company name and take a closer look at their online presence. Find out which social media platforms they use and what kind of content they share on each platform. Stay on top of the latest news about them, including any recent awards or company milestones.

Take things up a notch by digging deeper into their personal preferences and events. Find out whether they relocated to a new home or added a new pet to their home recently. Even if you’re pitching to a B2B buyer, such personal details can help you build an instant rapport.

Go the extra mile and use a CRM system to collect and organise a prospect’s details in a centralised dashboard. This will ensure that salespeople have access to the latest information whenever for their outreach campaigns.

Build a connection

Before you reach out to a potential customer via a cold email or phone call, it’s a good idea to start a conversation with them. Engaging with their content on social media is one particularly effective way to start a discussion. Drop a comment on one of their LinkedIn posts or retweet their content on X. 

Did you just find out that they host a podcast on their company’s YouTube channel? Share it across your social media profiles, and remember to tag them. Initiating a conversation like this maximises your chances of grabbing the prospect’s attention when you eventually reach out to them with an offer.

Focus on customer-centric messaging

Nothing drives potential customers away faster than going on and on about what an outstanding business or product you’ve built. Instead, put your prospect at the left, right, and center of all your messaging.

If you’re sending a cold email campaign, start by crafting a catchy subject line that generates curiosity or promises value to boost open rates. Next, begin the email with some information that demonstrates how much you know about the prospect. Highlight the current challenges they might be facing and position your product or service as a solution to their problems.

Collecting buyer data in a platform like Act! can come in handy here, too. You get access to detailed buyer profiles, which makes it easier to tailor your communication according to a prospect’s pain points, purchase history, and other attributes. You can even use the search feature to find relevant information quickly.

Take them on a journey

B2B sales outreach doesn’t have to be all about sending cold emails in bulk or making a bunch of phone calls to new leads. Instead, it’s better done by handholding qualified prospects through the buyer’s journey and helping them make the right purchase decisions.

One way of doing that is to nurture active leads through a series of well-timed and tailored follow-ups. You can use Act!’s marketing automation functionalities to trigger a series of personalised emails based on a recipient’s online activity and behaviour.

Let’s say your first email concludes with a call to action (CTA) to download a case study. A prospect clicks the CTA but doesn’t send a reply for a week. You can set up an automated follow-up with an email template to check whether they had a chance to go through the case study. In that email, you can ask them to visit a relevant product page on your website or reach out to your sales reps. 

Similarly, when a customer purchases from you, you can schedule a reminder to follow up with them after a week. Act! lets you assign such tasks to specific team members, too.

Customising your follow-ups based on the recipient’s past actions helps deliver a personalised purchase experience. Ultimately, it improves your chances of closing the deal and building a long-standing relationship.

Personalise your sales outreach with Act!

If you’re looking to up your sales outreach game, personalisation is the way to go. A personalised outreach strategy helps build rapport with prospects and win their trust and loyalty. It also plays a crucial role in making your sales efforts stand out in a crowded market and boosts conversion rates.

With its feature-packed CRM and marketing automation software, Act! offers several tools that make it easier to personalise your outreach efforts at scale. Start your free trial today to see how Act! fits into your sales strategy.

The post Personalisation in Sales Outreach: How to Do It Right appeared first on Act!.

Did you know that by 2025, 80 percent of B2B sales interactions between buyers and sellers are predicted to happen virtually?

That’s how fast the remote sales landscape is evolving.

Virtual sales teams allow organisations to optimise costs, hire the best sales talent worldwide, and engage with prospects in different time zones.

That said, developing and managing successful remote teams comes with several challenges, and resolving them before setting up virtual sales teams is critical for success.

In this article, we’ll discuss some of the main challenges in running remote sales teams and strategies for effectively handling them.

Top challenges for remote sales teams

Remote sales teams have to face several unique challenges compared to in-person teams. 

Let’s discuss some of the major ones here.

It’s harder to build a cohesive sales team

A strong cohesive team culture is critical to the success of an organisation’s sales team. Most sales professionals are extroverts who thrive on personal connection and do their best work when surrounded by people with similar interests and passions.

In a remote or even a hybrid setting, keeping your sales reps engaged and building that team culture can be quite challenging as everyone connects from a different location and environment, potentially resulting in distractions, miscommunication, and low motivation.

It’s difficult to find specialised remote sales professionals

In conventional sales, you leverage both verbal and non-verbal communication to build trust with your prospects and close deals. Remote selling is much more challenging because of limited body language signals and the need for more elaborate communication.

Virtual sales professionals must have the ability to effectively connect with their prospects and overcome communication barriers.

It’s challenging to showcase your performance

How do you stay on top of your manager’s mind and show off your skills and results when you never meet face to face? Remote sales professionals have to go the extra mile to ensure their supervisors notice their performances and appreciate their work.

It can feel like there are no boundaries between work and life

When your laptop becomes your office, the boundaries between official work and personal life can potentially disappear. It’s common for remote workers to work longer than on-site employees because they struggle to switch off at the end of the workday. 

This ultimately results in burnout and demotivation, which hurts team productivity.

It’s harder to control connectivity and tech issues 

There’s a reason why people spend the first five minutes of every Zoom meeting ensuring everyone can see and hear them. When your team connects from different locations, collaboration can become harder without the right, powerful tools in place.

Key sales strategies for remote teams

Despite these challenges, successfully managing remote sales teams is possible when you adopt the right strategies.

1. Set clear goals and KPIs

Clear sales goals and performance metrics add transparency to your management practices and ensure your remote team knows exactly what’s expected of them. A significant part of a remote sales leader’s job is to define goals for their team and develop KPIs to track them.

Effective goal setting is about taking your team on board, setting clear expectations around core sales activities, and ensuring they fully believe in the performance management process. Otherwise, they’ll lack the drive to achieve those goals, ultimately affecting your team’s sales performance.

2. Focus on team building and engagement

It’s critical to encourage team meetings via video conferencing, chat rooms, and other communication channels. For example, you can have a mandatory ten-minute video call every day at a time that suits most of your remote team members

Similarly, give your team the flexibility to engage in virtual water cooler conversations through Slack chat rooms or other communication channels. And most importantly, develop shared goals and incentivise your sales team to collaborate.

Focus on building a collaborative work environment where your remote sales team frequently connects and engages with each other. 

3. Invest in a CRM system for performance tracking

Performance tracking is another major challenge for remote sales teams. Your employees should feel confident that their hard work is being tracked and that the leads they work on are visible to management.

An integrated CRM system like Act! can help you achieve this goal.

WIth Act! you can easily track every sales agent’s leads, their complete communication history, and how they were handled. Act! allows you to see exactly how a prospect came into your sales funnel and what led to their conversion into a customer.

It’s ideal for remote selling as it provides you with a full range of tools like landing pages, email marketing, lead generation, and record management.

A CRM also simplifies your team’s sales activities. For example, you can use it to automate follow-ups, check in with prospects, and organise one-on-one sales meetings.

This not only improves your remote sales management but also adds transparency to your processes, ensuring every remote sales rep’s hard work is tracked and acknowledged.

4. Train and develop employees

Most employees still require guidance and sales training to effectively manage their time and resources in a remote setting. You should have elaborate onboarding training programs to acclimate new employees to your systems and remote sales processes. 

Show them how your top performers manage their time, achieve peak performance, and use various communication tools for virtual selling.

Train them to use the necessary software and collaboration tools, and share clear guidance on battling challenges such as isolation, lack of motivation, and the sense of feeling left out — all too common problems among remote workers.

Similarly, train them to handle customer phone calls, cold calling, in-office meetings, and using various digital tools as sales representatives.

5. Reward and recognise top performers

Acknowledging your best performers and publicly rewarding their hard work are among the best ways to motivate any sales team — especially remote ones. Acknowledging your best performers in a virtual event increases employee motivation, builds a stronger team culture, and acts as an incentive for the whole team to raise their standards.  

Create systems to build a strong remote sales team

Ultimately, the success of your remote sales team largely depends on your systems, workflows, and processes. Whether you’re hiring virtual salespeople, setting goals, enhancing teamwork, or measuring sales performance, scalable and transparent systems will help you at every step.

By investing in remote employee management tools, collaboration software, and a CRM system like Act!, you can reduce communication gaps and build a well-oiled sales machine that drives your company’s growth.

Sign up now for your 14-day free trial of Act!

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A customer passes through multiple stages before finally purchasing your products or services. That means a sale is an outcome, not a sudden event.

To boost sales, you must optimise the sales funnel and ensure every stage feeds the other until the eventual conversion occurs. This is why modern businesses invest in lead generation and nurturing strategies that keep their pipelines full and help them generate consistent sales.

In this article, we’ll define lead generation and nurturing, show why they’re critical to your SMB, and share actionable tactics you can use to fill your pipeline.

What is lead generation?

Lead generation is the process of attracting highly relevant prospects who can benefit from your offer and have the resources to purchase your products or services.

A lead is someone who demonstrates interest in your product by requesting details, sharing their contact information, engaging with your advertisements, or downloading a free marketing resource like an e-book or training. They have a need and are interested in exploring different service providers to solve their problems.

As a sales professional, your job is to convince and persuade your leads to choose your offer and convert them into customers.

Lead generation vs. lead nurturing: What’s the difference?

Lead generation and lead nurturing are critical for generating sales, but they are distinct concepts that require separate strategies. 

As you already know, lead generation is about attracting potential customers. Lead nurturing, however, comes after this initial phase. It’s the process of building a relationship with your leads, understanding their problems, and persuading them to purchase by educating them about your product’s benefits.

Lead-generation strategies aim to attract prospects, collect their information, and establish initial contact. In comparison, lead-nurturing ideas aim to build trust with your leads, answer their objections at different stages of the buyer’s journey, and prepare them for conversion.

Why lead generation and nurturing campaigns are important

According to research, more than 50 percent of marketers consider lead generation the top goal of their marketing campaigns.

Why? Here are a few reasons.

Investing resources in the right prospects

You have limited sales and marketing teams and want them to focus on prospects likely to convert into customers. Generating relevant and high-quality leads helps you cut through the noise for your sales teams. It also enables them to follow up with the most engaged subscribers and invest their energies in nurturing the right relationships.

Answering objections and reducing friction

People don’t buy from you unless they’re convinced your product is the best solution for their problems. It would be best if you had multiple interactions to educate the new leads about your product, highlight its benefits, and persuade them to buy from you. You can only do that when you have a seamless lead generation and nurturing strategy in place.

Understanding the lead’s problems

Generating a lead is the first step toward a sale. But to demonstrate your product’s usefulness, you must first understand your lead’s challenges and problems. Through frequent communication during the nurturing process, you can ask your leads questions to dig deeper into their problems and offer tailored solutions and personalised experiences instead of promoting generic product features.

Building a long-term relationship and generating referrals

Sustainable business growth comes from repeat sales. And that only happens when you build trust with your customers and help them grow their businesses. Targeted lead generation and careful nurturing allow you to build long-term customer relationships that not only result in repeat sales but also drive organic word of mouth.

6 ways to generate and nurture leads for your SMB

How do you generate relevant, high-quality leads and develop a nurturing system to automatically identify the most qualified leads for your business?

Here are proven lead-generation techniques and nurturing strategies to help you.

1. Create problem-solving content

Positioning your brand as an authority by answering your audience’s most burning questions with high-quality and relevant content is the most reliable way to generate sales leads. It provides free value to your audience and turns them into fans who see you as an expert in your industry. As a result, they willingly sign up for your email list and prefer working with you compared to an unknown service provider.

Start by researching your audience needs and develop different buyer personas to simplify targeting in your marketing strategy.

The best places to publish content online? Your blog and social media sites like Twitter, LinkedIn, TikTok, and other platforms your target audience uses.

2. Optimise your content for search results

Did you know that 68 percent of online experiences start with a search engine? If you want your ideal prospects to find you easily, you must optimise your website and content using the best search engine optimisation (SEO) techniques.

Develop a comprehensive SEO strategy that answers your audience’s most frequent questions using relevant, high-volume, and low-competition keywords.

But don’t limit your SEO marketing efforts to Google. Whether you create content for Twitter, Quora, LinkedIn, YouTube, or any other platform, research the right keywords and optimise your content for maximum exposure.

3. Run PPC advertising campaigns

To grow fast, combine organic lead-generation and marketing strategies like SEO and content marketing with targeted pay-per-click (PPC) advertising campaigns. Google, Facebook, TikTok, and most other online platforms have different advertising programs that allow you to push your message to relevant users and drive clicks to your site.

Before you start an ad campaign, be sure to set up a dedicated landing page to convert visitors into leads.

4. Use lead magnets and opt-in forms

Driving traffic to your website or landing pages isn’t enough to generate leads. You must also carefully place engaging opt-in forms to collect visitors’ emails and add them to your lead-nurturing funnel. 

With Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software like Act!, you can quickly create landing pages with lead capture forms or integrate your email marketing software to collect leads.

However, nobody shares their email unless you offer them something valuable like a free webinar, an e-book, training videos, a cheat sheet, or other resources that resolve a specific pain point for your audience. In marketing terms, it’s called a lead magnet.

5. Design automated email campaigns

Once leads sign up for your list, you need automated email marketing sequences to build a relationship with your leads, give them free value, and move them close to conversion.

Email sequences consist of informational emails that educate subscribers about your offer, ask questions to understand their needs, and move them through a lead nurturing process to strengthen your relationship. They’re a critical part of your digital lead-nurturing strategy but far too time-consuming without automated workflows.

The solution? Leverage marketing automation tools. 

Automation allows you to segment your audience based on demographics, interests, engagement, and other critical behavioral parameters so you can run targeted content campaigns with better results.

For example, you can use automation tools to send case studies and pricing details to leads at the bottom of the marketing funnel. In comparison, those at the top of the funnel will get more informational content that builds trust and moves them close to the next stage of the sales cycle.

6. Use an integrated CRM system

To scale your business, streamline your lead-generation process, automate lead nurturing campaigns, and identify the hottest leads through lead scoring, you need an integrated CRM system.

Act! is a CRM + marketing automation software that tracks your leads from the moment they sign up to your list and assigns them a score based on their engagement levels and the likelihood of converting into customers. This helps your sales team shortlist and prioritise the most engaged leads in their outreach campaigns, resulting in higher lead conversion rates.

Do you have a lead generation and nurturing strategy?

Lead generation and lead nurturing are the lifeblood of any SMB. By using a CRM system like Act!, you can seamlessly integrate your lead-generation methods and nurturing strategies and provide your sales representatives with the information and resources to optimise their performance and drive consistent sales.

See it for yourself. Sign up for your free 14-day trial now.

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A sales funnel flooded with tons of leads—it’s a cherished dream that unites marketing and sales teams. It isn’t surprising that 68 percent of marketers use lead scoring and generation as a metric to assess the effectiveness of their campaigns. The more leads in your sales pipeline, the higher the likelihood of closing deals and generating revenue.

But is it enough for your marketing efforts to attract prospects with glitzy marketing campaigns designed to generate leads? During your sales cycle, if you struggle to convert these leads into paying customers, even the most populated sales funnel won’t yield the desired results.

That’s where lead scoring comes in.

Let’s take a closer look at how sales lead scoring works and how it can help you improve conversion rates.

What is lead scoring?

Lead scoring can help you determine the quality or lead qualification of each lead and its readiness to purchase from you. In other words, it can help you identify and nurture the best leads who have the greatest potential to become high-value customers.

This data-driven approach is critical because not every lead who enters your sales funnel is looking to buy from you right away, and lead scoring helps you identify the prospects who deserve your attention. It’s a methodology of assigning points (usually between 0 and 100) to leads based on their likelihood of buying from you. The higher the score, the more likely they are to convert.

You can use various attributes or data points to assign scores to your leads, and we’ll go into this in more detail in the next sections.

Why lead scoring is important

The most obvious advantage of adopting a lead scoring system in your marketing strategy is that it helps you prioritize leads. You can identify prospects with the highest likelihood of converting and use the right strategies to nudge them toward a sale.

It also eliminates the need to engage with low-quality leads who have no intention of buying. When your sales reps aren’t chasing such leads, they can focus on more important tasks, such as refining the sales process.

You can even personalize the customer experience based on lead scores as they help you understand where a potential customer is in their buying journey.

For instance, leads with scores below a specific threshold (but not too low) might be looking at different options. In that case, getting on a phone call and pushing them to close a sale will backfire. However, providing the right educational materials like whitepapers can do the trick.

What’s more? With lead scoring, you can identify marketing channels that generate high-quality leads and adjust your efforts accordingly. It helps boost the return on investment (ROI) of your campaigns and keeps marketing and sales teams on the same page.

Key factors to determine lead quality

The lead scoring process is a way to determine the quality of leads you get from various marketing campaigns. But before you start scoring new leads, it’s a good idea to understand what makes a high-quality lead.

In simple terms, a high-quality lead is one that fits your target audience or buyer persona. You can assess the quality of your leads based on the following parameters:

• Demographic data (geographic location and preferred language)
• Firmographic data (company size, job title, annual revenue, and industry)
• Behavioral data (number of visits to the pricing page, gated content downloads, number of emails opened, attending a webinar, social media engagement, or requesting a demo)

Understanding the defining parameters of a quality lead will help you assign relevant point values and build a more accurate scoring system.

How to get lead scoring right

You need a well-defined strategy to assign scores to leads and analyze their quality. It typically involves the following steps:

Outline an ideal customer profile

Before building your lead scoring system, you need to understand what your ideal customer looks like. Analyzing your existing customer base comes in handy here. You can identify the most common job titles, industries, locations, company size, and other demographic parameters.

This step is especially simple when you use a CRM platform like Act! CRM. Act! provides you with a centralized database to collect and analyze customer data, including their purchase history, customer service interactions, and online behavior.

Many CRMs also support integration with analytics tools to help you monitor customer behavior across different channels. This helps you build a more holistic view of your ideal customer.

Talk to your sales team and customers

CRM data gives you insight into the attributes and behaviors associated with a higher probability of conversion. You can take things up a notch by talking to sales reps and managers.

Sales team members interact with customers and have a better idea of what drives conversions. For instance, they might have realized that leads who read a particular case study on your website purchase within the next two days.

By the end of this step, you should have a complete picture of the various touch points customers go through during their buying journey.

Build your lead-scoring system

It’s now time to select activities, behaviors, and traits that play a crucial role in driving conversion. Once selected, allocate points to each criterion depending on how important it is to your customer journey. You can also assign negative points for attributes that indicate low purchase intent.

Here’s what a simple lead-scoring system might look like:

Measure lead quality

How do you measure the quality of leads that enter the sales funnel? Once you have a lead scoring system in place, the process is pretty straightforward.

All you have to do is rate the potential customers on the different criteria you defined in the previous step. A robust CRM platform like Act! CRM comes in handy here. It provides you with detailed customer profiles, complete with their demographic information, firmographic data, and buying behavior.

Many CRM systems also offer predictive lead-scoring tools that automatically allocate points. These tools use machine learning algorithms to analyze past customer behavior and calculate their likelihood of conversion.

Alternatively, you can use dedicated lead-scoring tools that integrate with your existing CRM solution, removing the trouble of manually scoring every lead.

Define the next steps

Allocating scores based on predefined criteria will give you an idea of the quality of leads. But that doesn’t guarantee conversions. You still have to define the best course of action for each lead based on their score.

For instance, if a lead crosses the threshold of 50 points, you can hand them over to the sales team. But what if a potential customer has an even higher score (>65)? It indicates that they might become a high-value customer who will place large orders or make repeat purchases.

Using your CRM, you can trigger automated workflows based on different lead scores to automate this process. You can even assign specific tasks to sales and marketing team members within each workflow to ensure accountability.

Test and improve

A set-and-forget approach doesn’t work for lead scoring. You have to constantly monitor conversion rates and total sales to understand how your lead-scoring strategy is performing. It’s also crucial to talk to sales reps and determine whether they’re getting more qualified leads after implementing a new scoring system. Use this feedback to optimize your scoring strategy further.

Simplify sales lead scoring with CRM

Lead scoring is a powerful tool for qualifying potential customers, driving more conversions, and boosting revenue. It can also help marketing and sales teams optimize resource allocation and time management. However, you need a CRM system to harness the full benefits of lead scoring.

Act!’ is a feature-packed CRM that offers in-depth customer profiles to help you choose the right lead-scoring model for your business. You can also use automation features in Act! to trigger sales workflows and assign roles based on lead score. Start your 14-day free trial to see how Act! fits into your sales process.

The post What is lead scoring and how can it boost conversions? appeared first on Act!.

In an ideal world, a sales rep from your company would call a prospect, delight them with a pitch, and close a sale. Better yet, a buyer would come across your product on Instagram, visit your website, and make an online purchase.

But if you’re running a company, you already know that sales processes don’t work that way. It takes coordinated outreach and multiple follow-ups before a prospect is ready to purchase from you, and it’s up to you to empower them with the right information and resources to accelerate their decision-making.

And that’s where sales touchpoints step into the picture. They represent various interactions a prospect has with your business before making a purchase. In other words, they’re the contact points that you use to follow up with prospects and nudge them forward in the sales funnel.

In this blog, we’ll take a closer look at different touchpoints and discuss useful tips for closing a sale.

How many touchpoints does your sales pipeline need?

Running a business in the 21st century means you have access to a wide array of touchpoints. While most companies usually use six to eight touchpoints in their sales processes, the exact number depends on various factors. These include your target audience and the segment in which you operate.

For instance, a B2B sales process needs more touchpoints because it involves multiple decision-makers and a complex buyer’s journey. You’ll have to follow up with a prospective buyer multiple times and handhold them through their journey. 

Similarly, selling expensive products, such as jewelry or furniture, requires more touchpoints than affordable products, like clothing or footwear. This is true even if you’re directly selling to consumers.

Therefore, determining the number of sales touchpoints you need requires a deep understanding of your potential customers. Start by identifying key challenges your prospects can face at different stages of the customer journey. Next, choose the best channels to connect with them and resolve each challenge.

A platform like Act! can come in handy here. With Act!, you’ll get a detailed glimpse of the stages that a prospect goes through before you close a sale. That, in turn, will give you a clear idea of their interactions with your brand throughout the sales funnel. 

From this, you can identify interactions that cause prospects to churn or become inactive. Eliminating or modifying those touchpoints will help optimise your sales process and improve conversion rates.

Timing your touchpoints: A closer look

Choosing the right number or type of sales touchpoints isn’t enough. You also have to understand when to use each touchpoint. Plus, you need a clear idea of how often you should interact with prospects before closing a sale.

There isn’t a one-size-fits-all formula to determine the precise timing of each touchpoint. Instead, you must assess your sales pipeline. Identify the pain points prospects face at each stage and determine when they’re likely to emerge.

It’s also crucial to test the frequency of different touchpoints. For instance, track the open rates of two consecutive follow-up emails to determine whether they result in positive responses. If that isn’t the case, try sending a single follow-up email and see if the responses improve. 

By analysing the outcomes, you can figure out how many times you might have to follow up.

Key sales touchpoints for your business

With so many touchpoint options out there, it can be difficult to choose the right ones. Here are a few touchpoints that most businesses use to drive sales.

Phone calls

Phone calls are one of the most popular touchpoints for closing sales. They allow you to talk directly to prospects and convince them to purchase from you. It’s worth noting, however, that buyers are growing increasingly wary of cold calls. They won’t engage in a conversation with your sales reps if they don’t have prior information about your product and brand.

It’s wiser to avoid phone calls as the first touchpoint in your sales funnel. Instead, you can use them in advanced stages where the prospect is on the verge of purchasing but needs one final push.

Emails

Emails are one of the most powerful sales touchpoints. When used properly, they come in handy at every stage of the sales funnel. For instance, you can use emails as part of your email marketing strategy to send relevant content, including product comparison guides and industry reports to prospects and qualified leads in the consideration stage.

When they move to the decision stage, you can send an email with a case study, testimonial, or coupon for a free trial of your product. Or you can ask them to schedule a free demo. The key is to include compelling calls to action (CTAs) in your emails according to the stage of the sales funnel to move the prospect further toward conversion.

Social media platforms

Social media is an excellent tool for brand building and customer acquisition. But it can be just as useful as a sales touchpoint.

Not everyone who visits your website or reaches out to your sales team will buy from you right away. Instead, they’ll take time to learn more about your brand, including its ethics, values, and vision.

That’s where social media platforms come into the picture. Use Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and more to share valuable content showcasing your products and brand. Share feedback surveys, or host live sessions and AMAs (ask-me-anything) to interact with prospects and address their queries. 

You can even connect with leads and points of contact via InMail messages on LinkedIn, especially if you’re dealing with businesses. It’s a clever follow-up tactic that doesn’t involve bombarding them with too many emails and phone calls.

Digital ads

Banner ads on different websites can be an effective touchpoint. Let’s say a buyer browses a product page on your website but doesn’t purchase it. You can use retargeting ads from Google Ads to display banner ads for the product whenever the buyer visits other websites.

Product reviews

Whether buying a sales automation tool or an engagement ring, the modern-day buyer goes through product reviews before finalizing a purchase. In fact, 77 percent of buyers regularly or always see reviews for local businesses before buying from them. That makes them a crucial touchpoint for closing sales.

Product reviews are usually available on various platforms, from your company website and social media platforms to third-party sites. Encourage existing customers to review your products on all these platforms. Also, be sure to respond to negative reviews and rectify the issues to show that you value your current customers’ feedback.

In-person meetings

Even in the post-pandemic world, face-to-face interactions can be instrumental in helping you gain a prospect’s trust and address their queries. That, in turn, will drive conversions faster. Such meetings are particularly helpful for B2B sales involving high-value transactions. If you can’t do an offline, in-person meeting, you could still do it online (via video conferencing).

Start closing more sales

Identifying the right sales touchpoints and mapping them to the buyer’s journey is integral to successfully closing sales. It helps deliver a seamless customer experience tailored to every prospect’s needs.

A thorough understanding of your target audience and sales funnel is necessary for choosing proper touchpoints. Using a platform like Act! makes this process easier. Click here to try it for free. No download or credit card is required.

The post Key Touchpoints to Close a Sale appeared first on Act!.

Every sales rep has been there. You mispronounce a name, botch a detail or go braindead at the worst possible moment. Sales call fails come with the territory. The best sales reps, however, are able to shake them off and jump right back on the phone. 

Best-of-the-best salespeople make a game plan to prevent the biggest sales mistakes. No one’s perfect, but the right amount of preparation and strategy can help you limit common mistakes. Whether you’re a seasoned sales rep or new to the role, learning how to avoid the sales mistakes on this list will help you succeed. 

Talking too much

In the words of Run DMC, “You Talk Too Much.” Limiting how much you say is the cardinal rule of sales. You may have the gift of gab, but sales is all about understanding each potential client’s problems and wants. There’s no way to do that without a healthy dose of active listening. 

Don’t be afraid to let the sales conversation sit in silence for a few seconds longer than usual. Your prospect might have a critical thought that will push things forward. 

Your sales strategy is too specific or too general 

While listening to individual needs is important, it’s not the be-all and end-all. Individualizing too much hinders sales reps. They bounce from call to call without a dedicated strategy. A sales call framework helps reps get the conversation going, and provides talking points based on information the prospect provides. A sales framework usually goes something like this: 

1. Greeting/intro: Friendly banter to set the tone—friendly, courteous, and professional 
2. Discovery call: A series of questions that get to the heart of their prospect’s problem, use case, and goals
3. Value proposition: Delivering the company’s or software’s value proposition and the benefits of your product or service, i.e. why the prospect should care
4. Small steps: Setting up an introduction to another contact, scheduling a personalized demo, or nailing down timelines
5. Follow-up or fallback: Backup plans if a prospect has a plethora of objections, an undetermined budget, or a general disinterest

Act! helps sales representatives execute their sales cycle framework by recording all prospect history and details, allowing sales teams to juggle multiple opportunities at once. If you’re looking beyond the sales call strategy, read about the seven-step sales process here. 

Bells-and-whistles syndrome

Top sales professionals know the ins and outs of their products. They can anticipate customers’ needs and answer questions about features on their own without confirming with a team member. But this strategy can get risky if it’s the core of the pitch. It’s not necessary to discuss every feature during the initial conversation. 

Prospects are going through a sales research process. After multiple demos, seeking referrals, and hours of research, they’re not going to remember what feature X does. They primarily care about solving their specific problems within their budget. Plus, feature-heavy presentations leave little room for conversation, question-asking, and information sharing. 

Not dealing with objections 

Whether you sell cars or perfume, overcoming objections is key to successful sales. Successful salespeople have to prepare for objections and overcome new ones on the fly. This is a mindset as much as it is a science. The sales process is about understanding the prospect’s pain points. Overcoming objections is a natural step along the way. 

Not following up 

Failure to follow up seems like an easy mistake to avoid—just make the call, right? However, not all follow-ups are created equal. Sure, persistence is important. But incessant, meaningless follow-ups make an account go cold. 

Follow-ups should be sent with intention and purpose. Are you adding to the conversation or mentioning a recently discovered piece of information? If not, then don’t expect meaningful results. 

Experienced sales reps also make sure follow-ups are not a gray area, meaning they ensure the call doesn’t end without clear next steps and expectations. No matter how you handle follow-ups, be sure you’re the one directing the action. Letting a prospect “get back to you” is the kiss of death for a sale. 

Avoiding competitors

It’s a bad practice to pretend competitors don’t exist. Google search is leveraged by even the most time-strapped prospects. Do your homework about your competitors, perhaps using a SWAT analysis, and consider creating battle cards so you are prepared to rebut your competitors’ strengths with why they aren’t truly important or walk them through how something plays out in practice. 

Too much company hype 

A company overview is great, but deep-diving into company history is a one-way street to sleep city. Prospects are researching multiple companies, and they can peruse your company website at any time. They care about their own problems, not extra hype about your company. 

Many mistakes sales reps make come down to not having empathy for the prospect. Imagine the level of information you want from a vendor or a business in your daily life and adjust your strategy accordingly.

‘Free solo’ mode

Some see sales as an individual sport, similar to free solo mountain climbing. But the best sales reps rely on the subject matter experts around them. Product managers, sales engineers, product marketers, technical folks—any of these roles can make the difference between a lost opportunity and a closed-won.  

Flirting with NINA

Sometimes sales mistakes don’t have anything to do with the call. The call could be spectacular but still detrimental to the overall sale process. The reason? NINA: no influence, no authority. These are individuals within a company who might say the right things and ask the right questions but not ultimately have the final say when it comes to purchasing. They’re not close to the budget or simply aren’t decision-makers. 

These types of prospects should not be ignored, These conversations might lead to worthwhile connections with the right people. But you have to approach them with the right mindset. Determine a list of questions that help you understand the prospect’s influence within their organisation.

With Act! CRM and marketing automation, salespeople can review, record, and update prospect details on the fly. Sales reps can provide the right amount of information for every call and easily manage their sales funnel. 

Lack of preparation

Bad sales pitches compound mistakes. Several of the mistakes sales reps make can occur on one call or repeatedly throughout the day. Preparation is the most important tool for avoiding this. Ultimately, it comes down to three things:

1. Research: Company info, history, prospect history, personal research—everything is on the table.
2. Structure and goals: Research is great, but without structure, it can be overwhelming and useless. Setting objectives and goals allows salespeople to seize on the most important aspects of their research. Every call then has an informed plan of attack. 
3. Mindset: One of the most common sales mistakes has nothing to do with behavior and everything to do with the mental game. Just as athletes have to visualize success before they compete, sales reps have to stay sharp mentally. Confidence (not cockiness) reaps benefits throughout the sales cycle.

Lastly, good preparation carries over after the call. The best sales reps take copious notes and find a repeatable way to keep those notes organized. They also establish clear next steps for each prospect in the pipeline.

The post 10 Mistakes Every Sales Rep Needs to Avoid! appeared first on Act!.

Did you know that 61 percent of businesses rank sales lead generation as their number one challenge? For small businesses, generating qualified leads is even more challenging because of limited resources and channels.

But is it really that hard to generate new leads?

It is when you don’t know the right lead-generation strategies. But with the right lead generation tools, systems, and strategy, generating sales leads is much simpler. Let’s explore some proven ways to attract sales leads for your small business so that you never have to look for new customers again.

Why sales lead generation matters

A sales lead is an individual or business that can potentially turn into your customer. Sales lead generation is critical for the survival and growth of a small business. A healthy and flourishing business has its sales pipeline filled with leads or potential customers that keep converting into new customers. This not only generates revenue but also allows the business owner to develop expansion plans and think long-term.

In comparison, a business struggling to generate sales leads is always on the brink of disaster. With no clients in sight, it cannot function profitably or make any long-term growth plans.

What to look for in your sales leads

Not all sales leads are an ideal fit for your company. You must carefully evaluate leads and develop a system to qualify the most relevant sales leads for your business.

In general, a high-quality sales lead requires the solutions you offer and shows interest in doing business with you. Plus, it belongs to the industries you serve and has the necessary budget and business volume to make it worth your time.

You can easily develop a sophisticated lead scoring and qualification system using a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system. A sales CRM helps you automate the lead-generation process, organise leads from different sources, and assign lead scores to easily identify high-quality leads that your sales teams should prioritise.

How to generate sales leads for your small business 

Now you know what types of leads you’re looking for and how to evaluate them. But how do you go about finding them? Here are a few ways to do effective B2B lead generation for sales.

1. Optimize your site and landing pages for conversion

Your website and landing pages are critical for converting cold traffic and website visitors from various sources into sales leads. But if you don’t optimise your site for conversions, most of your traffic will bounce away, wasting your marketing, advertising, and traffic generation resources.

So, before anything else, make sure your site and its main landing pages have the following qualities for a high conversion rate.

• Quick load speed
• Responsive website design
• Clutter-free design
• Main promise in the page headline
• A clear connection between benefits and features
• Credibility signals (logos, affiliation, awards)
• Social proof (testimonials, active users, positive reviews)
• Lead magnets to attract subscribers for email marketing (It can be a free training program, case study, webinar, eBook, white paper, or any other valuable resource addressing a customer pain point)
• Opt-in form to collect the user’s phone number, email address, and other contact information for follow-up.
• Call-to-action (CTA) buttons

2. Create brand awareness with content marketing

Content marketing is the practice of creating high-quality, credible, and actionable content that shares free value with your target audience and positions your brand as an authority.

It’s one of the most efficient and affordable ways small businesses can generate high-quality marketing-qualified leads (MQLs) and sales-qualified leads (SQLs). According to research, 67 percent of marketers have successfully generated leads using various content marketing strategies in the last 12 months.

Here are a few ways you can leverage content marketing for lead gen:

• Start a blog that covers the fundamentals of your industry and answers the most burning questions of your audience through detailed blog posts.
• Start a podcast with industry leaders, technical experts, successful customers, marketing partners, and other sources of knowledge for your audience.
• Grow a YouTube channel covering the most common questions your audience has.

However, to make content marketing work, you must combine it with Search Engine Optimization (SEO). 

3. Drive qualified traffic with SEO

Search engine optimisation (SEO) is the practice of understanding what your audience is searching for on Google and creating content that answers their search queries while positioning your brand as the best solution.

SEO and content marketing work hand in hand. The content you create for your blog, podcasts, and YouTube channels must have search demand and be optimized for the right keywords so that your audience can find it.

If your content is helpful and comprehensively answers your audience’s questions, addresses their pain points, and matches their search intent, you can generate high-quality leads for SEO.

4. Ask customers for referrals

According to research, people are four times more likely to buy when referred by a trusted contact. So, the easiest way to find new sales leads is by asking your past and current customers for referrals. 

But not every customer would happily refer your services to their contacts. This is where a customer relationship management (CRM) system like Act! comes in. A CRM helps you track customer satisfaction, build relationships, improve lead nurturing, and identify the users most likely to recommend your services based on their experience of doing business with you.

By running targeted outreach email campaigns for referral requests, you can successfully persuade your customers to spread the word about your products and services and generate new B2B sales leads.

5. Encourage customers to write positive reviews

Did you know that 93 percent of customers say online reviews impact their buying decisions? Positive reviews about your product/service on relevant review sites can play a critical role in generating sales leads for your business.

Here’s how you can encourage your ideal customers to leave positive online reviews for your brand:

• Contact your email list to request reviews.
• Share review templates to make their job easier.
• Ask specific questions about their service experience and turn their feedback into a review that customers can post online.
• Offer discounts and incentives to publish positive reviews.

6. Run targeted advertising and marketing campaigns

Apart from the organic sales lead-generation methods we’ve discussed, you must also invest in advertising to generate leads faster. Here’s how to do it:

• Identify your audience’s favourite social media networks (Facebook, LinkedIn, TikTok, or any other).
• Create multiple optimised ads promoting an attractive offer (free training or valuable resource).
• Start with a small ad budget, analyse the results, and find the best-performing ad.
• Increase your ad reach through better targeting and an increased budget.
• Route your ad traffic to an optimised landing page designed to convert visitors into leads.

Build a lead-generation system for your small business

To generate leads consistently, you must invest in a system that provides the necessary tools to attract, convert, manage, and qualify leads to your sales funnel. 

This is where Act! comes in. Using Act!’s landing pages, marketing automation, and lead-scoring features, you can make your lead-generation process more efficient, focus on the highest-quality leads, and generate a higher ROI on your sales efforts. Try Act! for free today.

The post How to generate sales leads and close deals appeared first on Act!.

When prospecting, you may be ‘actively working’ referrals from your center of influence, marketing qualified lead lists, opportunities with existing customers, or other self-sourced opportunities.  Some of these prospects result in a sales-ready-opportunity (when an opportunity has been qualified and is ready to share financials).  According to our research ² about 25% of sales-ready-opportunities will be won (no problem) and about 25% will be lost (they have no chance) but 50% are at play and could be won if . . .

Sales performance findings

According to our research² less than 22% of salespeople consider time a key performance indicator (KPI) however, more than 25% of sales-ready-opportunities are lost because the sales cycle is too long and, according to CSO Insights, 21.3% result in no decision.  Additionally, at least 60% of salespeople miss their sales goals – 60% of those underperformers are not effective prospectors and don’t find enough sales-ready-opportunities.

The following industry findings³ support our research:

• Only 17% of salespeople can get a second meeting with a prospect who has an identified sales-ready need.
• When prospecting, and without help, only 52% of salespeople can access key players and decision-makers.
• The win rate of an average salesperson is less than 47%, and the win rate for a high performer¹ is over 70%.

How many prospects should you be actively working?

The above data provoke the most-asked question in sales: “How many prospects do I need to be ‘actively working’ to achieve my annual sales goals?”

You can find the answer with the following two-step process:

Step 1 Determine how many sales-ready opportunities are needed to achieve your goal.

Let’s assume you have:

• a sales velocity/goal of $12 million (about $1 million per month)
• a 50% win rate
• a $1 million average deal size
• 45-day (1.5 months) sales cycle

In this scenario, you need to have at least three new Sales-Ready Opportunities (SRO) per month.

Step 2:  Determine how many prospects you will need to be ‘actively working’ ⁴  to achieve your annual sales goal.

Your prospect conversion ratio is a function of your prospecting skills and the source of your prospects. Your conversion ratio for existing customers is going to be the highest (greater than 20%), marketing qualified leads will not be higher than 10%, and cold calls will be less than 2%.

Assuming you need 3 sales-ready-opportunities per month, and you have a 15% conversion ratio, you will need to be ‘actively working’ 20 prospects every month.

How to find or create more high-quality prospects and increase your prospect conversion ratio

Performance Insights has partnered with the industry-leading sales training company St. Meyer & Hubbard to build a program for Act! Premium users to answer this question. The program is called Managing Breakthrough Results ^SM and it integrates sales training with visually compelling sales reports and analytics – and it all works the way you already work in Act!.

Training is virtual or onsite and (optionally) comes with a one-day workshop to tailor the reports and analytics to the way you sell and use Act!  You will acquire the skills to find and close more sales-ready opportunities.

¹   High Performers are those achieving at least 130% of their annual sales goals

²  What Winners Do Different ^SM research by Performance Insights

³  CSO Insights, Gartner, and Forrester

⁴  Actively calling, emailing, and having purpose-driven conversations

About the author

Ron Buck is the Chairman & CEO of Performance Insights – an industry-leading software company serving the financial services industry.  Ron is a recognised industry leader and has taken two companies public prior to Performance Insights.

The post A pragmatic approach to achieving breakthrough sales results appeared first on Act!.

A 5% shift in sales performance by the middle 60% of salespeople yields over 70% more revenue when compared to a 5% shift in performance of high performance. (Source: Sales Executive Council)

An average team is comprised of bottom or underperformers (approx. 20%), middle performers (approx. 60%), and top performers (approx. 20%). Typically, the bottom 20% are there due to job-fit or motivational issues, and addressing their performance is a separate process. The top 20% are already outperforming their peers and pressing them for additional revenue or performance is generally not beneficial to an organisation. The group with the most to gain and provide the greatest impact on your organisational performance, top and bottom line, is the middle 60% of your sales team – your average performers. Imagine the improvement in sales if just 5% of your team started moving to higher performance.

Whom To Move

In the past, sales managers and leaders could only use sales bookings and quota attainment to measure how well their teams were performing.  This didn’t provide insights into how specific salespeople (the top 20%) were able to drive more revenue.  With Act!’s Performance Navigator (by Performance Insights) ‘metrics that matter’, sales managers and leaders gain visibility, at a granular level, of what sales activities and behaviours are truly driving higher performance.

Act!’s New Performance Framework Identifies Whom to Move

Today’s sales managers and leaders can use Act!’s Performance Navigator (by Performance Insights) to Identify Centers of Excellence; top performers and top teams with Performance Navigator analytics (metrics that matter). Sales leaders can use these metrics to identify top performers and what they are doing that sets them apart – including identifying the specific activities and behaviours (best practices) driving each metric.

Sales managers and leaders are also able to use the ‘Metrics That Matter’ in Act!’s Performance Navigator (by Performance Insights) Coaching Scorecard & Team Dashboard to measure the metrics that matter in coaching and organise them in a well-designed set of reports, dashboards, and scorecards.  You can see examples of these coaching reports, dashboards, and scorecards at www.actforfinancialservices.com.

Act!’s Performance Navigator (by Performance Insights) identifies your middle performers and gives you the insights to clone your top 20% performers – and move the entire organisation ‘right and tight’ with Act!’s Performance Framework.

About the author

Ron Buck is the Chairman & CEO of Performance Insights – an industry-leading software company serving the financial services industry.  Ron is a recognised industry leader and has taken two companies public prior to Performance Insights.

The post Improving your middle performers is the secret to improving your top & bottom line appeared first on Act!.

For every salesperson, closing a deal is the ultimate goal, and for obvious reasons. Not only do sales generate revenue and increase market share, there’s also the satisfaction that comes from solving problems and building great customer relationships.  

Although the importance of closing deals hasn’t changed much, how we close sales has evolved a lot. In years past, manipulation and high-pressure tactics were all part of the mythical sales pitch. However, today’s sales strategy is more about listening and solving real customer problems. 

Technology makes closing easier than ever  

Today we have powerful tools, such as customer relationship management (CRM) and marketing automation, that make it easier than ever to attract qualified leads and build lasting customer relationships. These and other tools can take the stress out of closing by simplifying the rest of the sales cycle. 

For instance, some of these technologies excel at helping you qualify leads, personalize communications, and understand customer pain points so you can overcome objections. 

Of course, closing deals is not always that easy. Customer needs can change abruptly, or new stakeholders may come into play at the last minute. For these reasons and more, it’s important to learn a few closing strategies to get the sale over the finish line. So let’s dive in!

Here’s what you’ll take away from this blog:

• 5 powerful sales closing techniques
  • Now or Never Close
  • Summary Close
  • Assumptive Close
  • Sharp Angle Close
  • Question Close
• How to improve your closing skills
• How CRM can help you close more deals

Download our free Guide for 7 Steps to Successful Selling to help your business boost conversions, turn prospective leads into loyal customers, and deliver positive experiences at every stage of the sales lifecycle.

5 powerful sales closing techniques

Not all closing techniques are created equal. Some fit certain businesses or types of sales better than others. That’s why reps need to be ready with a set of proven sales closing techniques they can adapt to any situation on the fly. 

1. The Now or Never Close

This is also known as the scarcity close. As with all closing approaches, you have to accurately gauge the prospect’s sense of urgency. In this scenario, you appeal to the prospect’s fear of missing out (FOMO). Perhaps product inventory is running low or the discounted price will expire after a certain date. Whatever the case, if they don’t close the deal now there are no guarantees your offer will be valid later.

However, if the prospect hasn’t indicated a strong or urgent interest in your offering, this approach can backfire, especially if scarcity isn’t really an issue. So you need to be certain that the prospect definitely wants to purchase but needs a nudge to close the deal now.

Here’s how a Now or Never close could play out for a catering company: “Right now, we have availability to cater your conference on March 1. I understand you may want to look at other companies. However, that date is in high demand, so I can’t guarantee the spot will be open after today. I would love to complete your contract now so we can get you on the schedule.” 

2. The Summary Close

The Summary approach may seem relatively bland at first, but it can be highly effective in situations where the prospect is evaluating offers from multiple vendors. 

In this situation, the prospect might have forgotten some of your key features and pricing. The Summary close is a great opportunity to remind the prospect about the benefits of your product (price, features, service, availability, etc.) and why it is uniquely capable of solving their pain points. In other words, this approach simply repeats the terms of the offer but can help the prospect visualize the entire package. 

A Summary close could look something like this: “For your conference of 200 people, our catering offer includes appetizers, meat and vegetarian entrees, desserts of your choice, a bar serving beer, wine, and a signature cocktail, and full setup and breakdown. Is there anything else you would like to add before we confirm the contract?”

3. The Assumptive Close

This is one of the most popular closing techniques but requires 100% confidence that the prospect is ready to buy. This is because the Assumptive close is exactly that — you assume that the sale is inevitable. Only the details, such as quantity and delivery date, need to be decided. 

In this type of close, the aim is to be assertive without being overly aggressive, which can scare the prospect away. You might want to begin with a brief Summary close in which you reiterate all the terms and benefits of the offer.

You can then shift into the Assumptive close by stating something like: “We’ve agreed that our catering proposal falls well within your conference budget for 200 people. Of course, this also includes free delivery and a guaranteed serving time at 12:00 sharp. What time would you like our team to arrive to set up?”

4. The Sharp Angle Close

At the time of closing, prospects may hold out for additional products or services, or for a steep discount. You should be prepared and ready to negotiate. If you’re in a decision-making position and know what you can reasonably counter-offer, this should be easy. If any add-ons need to be approved by your sales manager, this might delay the closing and risk losing the deal to a competitor.

Here’s how a Sharp Angle close might work. In the catering example, the prospect might ask, “Can you provide discounted centerpieces on all of the tables?” 

You might respond with a closing question such as, “Yes, we can provide those at a 25% discount, but if I include that in the offer, will you sign the contract today?” 

This approach can be incredibly effective because you’ve met the prospect’s request — but only on the terms of closing the deal immediately. While this may seem like a “salesy” approach, it checks the top boxes for a successful close: The prospect agrees that you’ve met all of their needs, so it’s completely appropriate to ask the closing question at this point. 

5. The Question Close

Successful selling almost always results from good listening. The best sales professionals continuously ask questions throughout the engagement and genuinely listen to the prospect’s responses. Even at the last stage of closing, asking questions can be a great technique to finalize the sale.

For instance, you can reiterate all the terms of the offer and then ask the prospect, “Does this contract cover all of the needs for your event? Do we have all of the details correct, including date and time?” 

This approach has several advantages. First, it encourages the prospect to finalize the deal by affirming you’ve met all of their requests. On the other hand, it leaves the door open to additional sales, such as more products and services the prospect may have forgotten to include. You could even sweeten the deal by offering a product sample or a test drive of services for a limited time. 

Best of all, this approach gently yet directly guides the prospect to sign the contract without being overly pushy or aggressive. It’s a win-win for everyone.

Check out these 3 sales funnel templates to help you convert like crazy. 

How can you improve your closing skills?

Although it’s important to have a set of well-honed closing skills, your ability to close more deals depends on how well you’ve guided the potential client to that point. Here are some ways to improve your overall selling skills:

Focus on building relationships — not pushing products. 

The overly aggressive “hard close” has long been replaced by personalized, relationship-building techniques. This low-pressure approach not only creates a better customer experience but also puts the sales rep in a position of helping, not selling.  

Always ask questions. 

Throughout the sales process, you should constantly ask questions to better understand the prospect’s needs and objections. What are their challenges? Are your products and services the right fit for them? How can you make the buying experience as painless as possible? Asking questions (and genuinely listening) is the best way to learn more about the prospect, overcome objections, and hopefully build a lifelong customer relationship. 

Identify key decision-makers. 

Is your contact the person who makes the final purchase decision? If not, how do you get in front of the ultimate decision-maker? If you’re mostly conversing with gatekeepers, you could be wasting valuable time. This is why you’ll want to determine early in the sales process who writes the checks in the prospect’s organization. In other words, you don’t want to spend time negotiating with the sales manager if the chief operating officer is the one who holds the checkbook.

Don’t try to shoehorn a bad fit. 

No matter how powerful or customizable your offering is, it will never be the right solution for everyone. That’s why you need to weed out prospects who have no intention or ability to buy from you. In other words, a strong lead qualification process is critical. This will help you focus your time and energy on the most promising opportunities.

Take an honest look at your sales process.

If your sales process is fully focused on building customer relationships, then the final closing should happen almost naturally. However, if you’re losing prospects long before you get to closing, you’ll want to take a closer look at your entire sales cycle. Here are some good questions to ask:

1. How hard or easy do we make it for customers to buy?
2. What do customers say about our sales process?
3. How can we improve our sales training and effectiveness? Do we need to take a closer look at our sales compensation structure?
4. What can we learn from our sales team’s top performers? How can we implement their sales tips and best practices? 
5. How can we optimize our CRM to streamline our sales pipeline? 
6. How can CRM help us improve the overall sales cycle, including nurture campaigns, lead generation, follow-up, and long-term relationship management?

How CRM can help you close more deals

The more you know about your prospects and customers, the easier it is to sell them the products and services they need. That’s why Act! CRM is designed to capture all of your vital prospect and customer data in one place. 

Thanks to our fully integrated CRM and marketing automation platform, you can create powerful and customized email marketing campaigns using pre-designed templates. Marketing automation tools capture leads right from your website and ensure you always have the latest customer data at your fingertips. Our platform also integrates with the productivity tools you use every day, so you can focus on closing deals and building relationships over the long term.

The post How to Close a Sale: 5 Powerful Closing Techniques appeared first on Act!.