Sales really can be improved at no cost, people tend to not believe this, but it is true you can improve your sales without spending any money. You will have to commit some time, but the results are worth it. No matter what kind of business you run, online, offline, lots of employees, a few employees, insourced, outsourced, offshore, near-shore or self employed. This concept works for everybody.
The amazing thing is most businesses don't do it and it's guaranteed to increase your sales.
Testing
Testing is pure profit information; lets' think this through for a minute.
For a salesperson, you make phone calls and face-to-face presentations with prospects everyday.
Know it or not, at these meetings are you keeping track of the results. Sales people go on to the next call thinking about what what went right or wrong on the last visit, and that last visit was a test. The client was not an idiot for not buying. The offer was not right, the time was wrong, the pitch needed work. There was some room for improvement/
The first thing you must have when you test is to determine the desired result. The main goal of the sales call. It's the what do you want the prospect to do next.
When you track if you got the desired result, you will at least know if you reached your goal at the end of the call.
Next you need to have a scripted presentation. Not memorized, where you sound like a robot, but know your product, its deeper benefits, and all collateral material. You are holding yourself back if you are not 100% prepared.
You need a script (or at least a mental script) because you need a place to start from to accurately measure your results. You need to know where to go on every reply, be it yes, no or maybe.
If you are saying something different to every prospective client, how are you going to know what works and what doesn't? Do you know why the hamburger joints ask, 'Do you want fries with that'? Because it is a script that works.
The way you get around all of your objections is to have a script down so cold that it doesn't sound like a script. If you get off the script you can easily move your prospect back to it.
With a script it's real easy to test. You have your main points that you want to cover with your prospect. You'll be saying the same thing to every prospect so you can now record how many calls you made and how many times you got your desired result which you can track with a success percentage ratio.
After you have some good solid numbers you can begin to improve your results. You do this by making very small changes to your script as you keep tracking the results.
You may find out as you listen to your prospects that they have the same questions or objections so you start to answer them in your script. If your results increase, leave the change in. If the results drop... go figure what to do.
You need to do this all of the time until you get to the point where you just can't get better results, then just keep using your best script over and over again until something changes your results, and go with the flow.
Changes in the economy can change your results. Seasonal changes are impacting in most businesses.
You can do this with anything written or verbal that your prospect reads or listens to. Web pages will often have multiple home pages or sales pages to track which has a better result for the same sale.
Does your company have a receptionist? How does she answer the phone? How does she handle different call situations? How does she speak to a second client, after the first client was difficult? Have you trained that person what to say and when to say it? If you are just letting her wing it you are losing business.
The bottom line is you need to have a plan and test everything you do in your business. Most things in a business that are not sales and marketing related use a formula or a system to get done. Why don't you use a sales and marketing formula?
Test everything! Heck, test what you are going to say when the police stop you for speeding.
* "Really, I didn't know I was speeding!" is insulting to the police officer and you will get a ticket.
* "Please just write the ticket quickly. My idiot boss just called me in on my day off, and he said I'm already late. Damn MBA thinks he know everything!" worked for me.
Next time you are stopped speeding, which would you try?
