Who couldn’t use an arsenal of effective selling techniques? If you truly want to improve how you sell, look no further than this research-backed collection of the very best B2B sales techniques, as well as four ineffective (but popular) ideas for how to sell.
Sales Prospecting Techniques
Grabbing your buyer’s attention and opening the door to more fruitful sales conversations is the key to effective sales prospecting. Use these three sales prospecting techniques to build your pipeline and have more productive conversations with your prospects.
1. Make Your Customer The Hero
There’s a large body of research about the cognitive effects of stories for motivating behaviour change. And in a selling context, stories are a powerful way to illustrate the value of your solution to your prospect.
Every story needs a hero—someone you relate to as they overcome obstacles on their journey toward happily ever after. But who’s the hero of your story? If it’s your company or your solution, you need to rework your story and make the customer the hero.
A typical hero’s journey goes something like this:
- The hero is a character who struggles with a problem
- The hero meets a wise mentor who understands their problem
- This mentor gives the hero new insight, provides a plan, and drives them to action
- Armed with newfound confidence and a plan, the hero faces their problem
- The hero overcomes the problem, realizes their potential, and reaches their goal
In your story, the customer is the one who needs to save the day, not you. Your role is that of the mentor. You’re there to help your customers see what has changed in their world and how they can adapt to better survive and thrive.
2. Don’t Over-Personalize Your Campaigns
Most marketers and salespeople believe the more personalized your outreach, the better your results. But you may be surprised to discover that highly personalized outreach isn’t as effective as less time-intensive personalization.
In a recent B2B personalization study, it was tested the effectiveness of four different email personalization methods with 7000 prospects to determine which treatment worked best. We used four different personalization conditions—industry only, the company only, industry + personal details, and company + personal details.
The results? While open rates were higher when using more personal details, the opposite was true for click-throughs. Personalizing by industry (without personal details) returned a 24 per cent higher click-through rate than the company + personal details treatment.
People may initially open an email that appears to speak directly to them. But they’ll feel let down when they discover it’s only a clever gimmick to grab their attention. On the other hand, when you share a story about how a similar company struggled and solved a common industry concern, your prospect is better able to project themselves into the story. They may even be eager to find out what happened next.
3. Use “You” Phrasing, Not “We” Phrasing
It seems well-intentioned and inherently logical: Show your customers you understand their world by positioning yourself as a member of their tribe, hoping to establish a collaborative experience. The word “we” implies the supplier and the buyer are “in it together.” The problem is, when you use this type of we-phrasing, you’re actually hurting your ability to move your prospect to take action.
Studies found that you-phrasing is exponentially more effective at moving prospects to take personal responsibility and feel like they must take action. You-phrasing compels your prospect to question their status quo, paints an achievable buying vision, and holds your prospect’s attention in a way that separates your marketing message from the competition.
So, the next time you’re talking to a potential buyer, use you-phrasing. It’s a small change. But it makes a big difference.
Source: Corporate Visions