15 sales tips from Colorado's top hustlers

 

 

Education around your product or service is critical for any start up. It's easy to forgot how complicated or niche your solution might be, when you look through the lens of your potential customer. Making sure that you can explain what/how your product or service can help them daily is important. Never assume your clients know more than you do. Better to over explain, than to leave your potential customers confused.

 

 

I try to stay away from speaking bad about competition. It's okay to highlight how your product may be superior in some facet, but completely bashing a competitor is never a good way to approach a new client.

 

 

Being a tech company gives us the flexibility to approach clients through web demos and web conferencing software like Google Hangouts. I still believe that nothing beats an opportunity to meet a client face to face, but todays web tools are pretty effective to bridge the gap between in person meetings.

 

 

Simple...always follow up. I think having defined  touch points with a client at two weeeks, a month, etc. can be helpful, but never underestimate the power of forwarding a relevant industry article or even reaching out if you know something personal about them. I've had success at building relationships by remembering their kids are into sports and forwarding on interesting articles or news items I feel they'd enjoy reading.

 

 

I think dedicating time to research blind leads before you approach a new customer is imperative. The more knowledgeable you are about someone's potential needs, the more likely you are to close a deal.

 

 

I don't think there is a secret, but I do think there is an advantage to having a sales organization that is knowledgable about their clients and experts in the product/service suite they are selling. The best upsellers are those that think creatively about a customers needs, and try to offer a solution for a challenge they may be facing.

 

 

The prospect should be engaged and collaborative in terms of setting up mutually agreed upon milestones and timelines. If they won't commit to a buying timeline or fail to meet their previous commitments to you, it's time to challenge their sincerity as a potential buyer. A great sales rep and sales manager know when to walk away from a deal, tactfully telling a prospect no.




 

You need a clear understanding of your prospect's needs and pain points. Your presentation should be geared around solving your prospect's problems. Focus, intention, relevance, and brevity - woven together in a story that is valuable and meaningful to the specific prospect. Being confident in the content your presenting as well as offering industry expertise are also important to build trust and call really set you apart from competitors. And, prepare. Prepare. Prepare. Did I mention you should prepare?




 

Use a consistent process. Use leads, opportunities, accounts, tasks - whichever ones fit the best - just be consistent about where you document your next steps with the prospect so that you'll always be able to quickly and easily review where you intend to take the deal next and what stands in your way of closing it.

 

 

"Delivering happiness" to your current customer base so they will repeat buy and give positive referrals in the future.

 

 

Our entire company philosophy is focused around creating exceptional customer experiences. From the marketing and sales side that means creating meaningful and relevant content that helps prospects and customers be successful. Thought leadership, lead generation, and branding are the areas influenced by our content and driving our new customer success; the resulting new contact explosion has been transformational. We are also aggressive with social selling, gorilla research, our referral programs (offering the most aggressive in our industry) and customer advocacy. 

 

 

Listen better. Ask questions addressing their objections and motivate conversations about their pain and process, which enables you to think about and address their actual problems. At Connect First we never strong-arm a conversation, but rather strive for mutually beneficial relationships. And sometimes that means that there simply isn’t a fit and we move onto the next adventure.

 

 

We are here to listen, not convince. We focus squarely on the customers’ pain and needs and try to explore whether there is an opportunity for our technology and expertise to solve their problems. Also, there are some things that we are exceptional at, (such as the customer experience and platform reliability) and sharing our value with prospects allows them to make informed decisions. 

 

 

Have compassion for oneself and the person on the other end of the phone. Cold calling sucks for everyone, and we use it as a tool in conjunction with other communication methods, so you have to be persistent.  And always ask for permission.

 

 

The first thing we did was to combine our marketing and sales teams and get everyone thinking about the same targets. We broke down the stereotypical walls between the departments and now have a unified, incentivized, empowered crew that is hyper-focused on customers needs. Our philosophy has shifted and we are learning to become masters of discovery; and we use technologies such as Salesforce, Pardot and many others to create consistency and efficiency in our organization and for our customers. 

 

We also make sure we are having a really good time, because we know that the happier and healthier our employees are the more love our customers are feeling. When you come to our offices you see puppies, bikes, kids, cool technologies and so forth, because we are living passionately for our customers and each other.