Sales have dwindled over the past financial year for many businesses. It’s not just the lockdown followed by the snap lockdowns and the declining economy.
People are nervous about interacting with one another.
Raimond Volpe, CEO of Dynamo Selling is an expert at sales and implementing systems that help individuals and businesses improve their sales figures.
Raimond has also overcome major mental health breakdowns and shares his best tips for making sales in the current state of the world, following the pandemic.
Pick up the phone
It’s becoming a rare strategy, using the telephone to close deals. The newer generation of workers is used to newer forms of contact, like email and instant messaging.
Telephone calls feel confrontational but its an effective way to seal a deal and close a sale.
During challenging times like the global pandemic and its aftermath, employing these old-fashioned strategies gives you a clear path forward with little or no competition.
So, go on, pick up the phone, don’t send an email. Make direct contact.
Have something of value to offer
Ask yourself a simple question: what is YOUR value right now? Don’t calculate that in monetary terms, the true commodity you are selling is time.
Whether it is a product or service, you’re giving your buyers a solution that saves them time. The currency that sells is not money but time. Hours or skills. How do you save people’s time?
By making it easier for people to achieve their goals fast, efficiently and easily, you define your value which helps you to sell your service. Value equals time and then money.
End the conversation with a concrete commitment
A subtle change in your phrasing can take a loose interest and turn it into a concrete sale without manipulating, twisting, or convincing a person to do something they’re not sold on.
The trick lies in setting a concrete agreement, and getting a commitment from your lead.
How do the top salespeople get a commitment? Instead of finishing a call with “Let’s touch base next week”, lock it in with a definite arrangement, “let’s meet on Tuesday at 9AM ”.
Visit your leads in person
There’s something uniquely personal about an in-person meeting. As the salesperson, it is easier to gauge the reaction of your lead when you talk about what you’re offering.
You can read the situation better and build a better connection with the other person.
Talk less and listen more. People don’t want all the facts and the science. They want to know how you are going to make certain aspects easier, less time consuming, more enjoyable.
Allow the other person to vent, don’t try to sell by talking, sell by listening and using as few words as possible to offer a remedy for the problems you’re hearing about.
Keep your meetings brief and schedule them sparsely
Faster interactions that are more impactful. With time being a major commodity, it is imperative to keep your meetings brief, to the point, otherwise, people get anxious.
We all have busy lives. Lingering on a topic or task for long makes people restless and nervous. The solution you’re offering is supposed to save people time and energy.
Don’t undo that with many meetings that are lengthy. In fact, fewer meetings make people more likely to want to commit to you because time is a valuable commodity.
Raimond Volpe CEO and Founder at Dynamo Selling is an award-winning author and one of Australia’s premier sales trainers, coaching sales teams and managers for Australia’s leading organisations.
