1. Ignore the news and grow your sales in 2023
Let’s face it 2023 doesn’t look like the most amazing year for the economy but really what difference does that make? Your market is always highly contested and new clients don’t generally fall from the sky – even in the good times. Competition is fierce and whether or not the economy is going up or going down really makes no difference at all, does it?
As the brilliant sales trainer, Jeffey Gitomer, says: ‘the best hedge against rising inflation is rising income’
2. Stop forgetting about your value
Prospects will more than ever be looking for value in 2023 and so the key to growing your sales is to demonstrate that value.
Ready for a surprise?
Take 10 minutes to note everything that goes into your product or service.
Think of every time a client has been stunned by the level of support or detail.
Now look at that list against what you charged. Was the price high enough?
Most people suddenly understand the huge value they are adding and wonder why their prices are so low!
Communicating this value is key
For help on really discovering the value you add ( and don’t worry most companies have no real idea) this Harvard Business Review Article is great.
3. Stop shouting sales nonsense
The truth is that nobody cares about your features and benefits so adding a few more to your homepage or pepping up your sales presenter with more stats is not going to persuade anyone. We’ve all seen it all before.
Can we just agree to pause all that for one moment?
For one thing, if you’re speaking, you’re not listening. If you’re not listening, you’re unlikely to uncover their real pain.
The prospect needs to relax and have complete trust in you. That removes the indecision. The next tip will help build trust.
4. Stop ignoring price and cost on your website
Your first job is to educate your prospects in the factors that affect the prices in your marketplace.
This point is so important it is worth repeating:
The first step in demonstrating your value is to educate your prospect in how your market works with clear unbiased information that doesn’t reference you at all.
> Teach them factors that drive different prices in your market – it could be location, type of service, people involved or a million other factors.
> Explain to them why certain tools, methods, approaches or materials are more expensive than others.
To really understand the power of this see our ‘They Ask You Answer’ page
The top 3 reasons people give me for not discussing price or cost on their website
1. ‘The competition will find out.’
Here’s the exchange that follows that:
I say: ‘Ok, I understand that. Just one question: Do you know how much your competitors are charging, roughly speaking?’
They say: ‘ Errm… oh yeah, I’m pretty clear on what they charge’. ( all good salespeople know the competitor prices)
I say: ‘Ok so do you think that they might know your price range?’
Silence. Sheepish grin.
‘I guess’
ACTION: Be the leader in your market. Open up and be transparent and helpful around pricing.
2. ‘It depends.’
Of course it does. Unless you are an eCommerce store then your service may well be bespoke or customised.
I’m not expecting you to create an online price for every single prospect.
BUT
I am saying that a series of articles that help me understand the factors that drive my final cost will build a huge degree of trust and ensure that nobody arrives with wildly wrong ideas.
The golden moment here: When you mention the actual price in a sales call and the prospect says:
‘ Oh yes, that’s roughly what I was expecting’
3. ‘Sticker shock may frighten prospects away’
Let me absolutely assure you that the only truly weird and scary thing a business can do is hide their truth about costs. Again, this is not to say you must publish precise costs for everything – that is likely impossible.
It is to say that hiding any sense of what your service is likely to cost until 28 minutes into a sales call is a sure fire way to lose the trust of the prospect and the sale.
Action: Write 5 articles that are an unbiased guide to all the factors affecting the prices in your industry. These articles are not about you, they are to educate someone about your industry.
5. Stop avoiding One to One Video to humanise your sales process.
Anyone I meet with in the sales process will receive at least one video from me. I use Vidyard but others such as Loom are around.
By the time we get face to face or on Zoom they already ‘know’ me. They don’t spend the first 10 minutes of our call figuring out what I’m like and if they trust me or not – they’ve already done tha and we’re off to the races, getting stuck in to the important stuff.
We’ll cover these tools a lot more in other blogs but for now: simply jump in and try them out. You’ll stand out a mile and your prospects will love it.
Action: Send someone an email with a video embedded.
Get all the training and support you need to make 2023 your year to shine.
Here at The Ambitions Agency we are certified sales and marketing trainers and we also have a team that can resolve any website problems and guide you to Google SEO success. Is today the day to get started?
Of course it is – today is the best day to do anything!
