May 15, 2019
The Only 3 Ways to Improve Your Sales with Steve Elwell
Steve Elwell and Joe Lynch discuss the only 3 ways to improve your sales.
[00:22] A few weeks ago, I had Steve on the podcast to discuss the buying process. In that interview, Steve said something like “there are only 3 ways to improve sales” which I found very intriguing. In today’s podcast, Steve and I will discuss those 3 ways to improve sales.
[01:16] Steve, I got lots of great feedback on the buying process podcast, but now I want to discuss a new topic, The Only 3 Ways to Improve Your Sales. Before we begin that discussion, please review the buying process with us again as a starting point.
- The buyers (our prospects) have a process for determining if they want to buy our product or service – that is the buying process.
- The buyers control the buying process, as salespeople, we can only attempt to influence the buying process.
- The sales process should always be aligned to the buying process
- Since we don’t control the buying process, salespeople can only do their best to understand how their customers buy.
[02:33] What is the first way we can improve our sales?
- Increase the number of opportunities you have available to you using the following tools and strategies:
- Online presence
- Websites
- Content like blog posts, videos, and podcasts
- Search engine optimization
- Social media
- Youtube
- Advertising
- Magazines
- Websites
- Brand and messaging
- Customer-focused
- Increased credibility / reputation
- Focus on one market segment
- Develop critical mass in a market (retail, distribution, e-commerce, etc.)
- Specialization
- Hire more salespeople
- More lead generation with existing customers and new prospects
- Networking, lead generation, relationship building (offline)
- Promotion
- Conferences
- Industry events
- Feet on the streets
[09:59] What is the second way we can improve our sales?
- Reduce the amount of time that it takes to get to a decision.
- Have a sense of urgency for everything within our control.
- Do not extend the time required by making the customer wait for information from you.
- “Keep the ball in the customer’s court.”
- Standardized processes.
- Systems that improve efficiency.
[13:00] What is the third way we can improve our sales?
- Improve the rate of success at which you can close by
- Better salesmanship.
- The relative strength of the offer.
- Product or service.
- Perceived value.
- Alignment to the buying process.
[16:03] To summarize, the three ways to improve sales are 1.) Increase the number of opportunities you have available to you. 2.) Shorten the amount of time that it takes to get to a decision. 3.) Improve the rate of success at which you can close
- Yes, that’s it, however, there are a few things that are
critically important to improving sales that we didn’t touch on:
- Sales filter.
- A set of criteria or questions that qualifies new opportunities
- Upgrading your people.
- Hiring better people
- Training your people
- Managing your people better
- A good sales manager can positively impact all three areas that we discussed today.
- Sales filter.