Tried-and-tested sales techniques to move leads down the sales funnel quicker (2/3)

We’ve gone over how to establish your initial contact with a prospect, let’s get into the most important part of the sales cycle—how to convince them and close a sale.

Mirror your prospects

People often buy products / services from people they like. Obviously, a sales cycle is such a short period to create a genuine relationship. Therefore, there are two alternatives that usually work.

1. A short alternative is mirroring your prospects. Mirroring is subtly imitating the body language, communication style, and energy level of the person you’re talking to. This will create a sense of comfort and confidence to blur the lines between business / personal. Performing it excessively can give the impression that you’re mocking their behavior, you have to be careful.
2. Make commercial agreements with influential people for your audience. They can present your product / service and offer benefits in them. The more genuine the relationship / admiration that your audience has with this person, the easier the purchase since they transmit their personality to the brand.

According to the American psychological association, mirror neurons are responsible for the instant connection we feel when we see our behavior mirrored.

Zoho SalesIQ lets you know their buying behavior.How many times they investigated your website, what pages they have viewed and what information they have. In addition, if they have made inquiries, they will also be reflected, along with the score for activity on the website. In this way, when leads go to the commercial area, they are correctly segmented and it is easier to treat them as they wish.

Experience vs purchase

People don’t want to be sold to, but they love to buy. Trying to catch them and convince them is a mistake, as you may seem only bothered about your business goals.

So Instead of trying to sell a product, be consultative and present yourself as someone with expert knowledge trying to help them through their buying journey.

Listen, listen, listen

We can say that in most cases, and especially in B2B sales, without listening to the prospect it is impossible to close the sale.

Even if you think you have a better idea about the solution they are looking for or that your product may be more useful than they think, let them lead the discussion and tell you exactly what they want. This will tell you which way to go with your sales pitch.

Another important point of special attention is knowing how to ask the right questions that investigate the processes of the prospects carefully considering your answers while you lead the conversation.

People are not interested in your brand, product or service. They are interested in how your product or service solves their problems or makes life easier for them. So instead of simply promoting all of your features in hopes of impressing the prospect, focus your sales pitch on their needs or pain points and how your offer addresses them.

By collecting complete customer data and being able to send it directly to a CRM, the information to continue the business process is complete and unified. This can be accomplished with Zoho SalesIQ and Zoho CRM.

Furthermore, if all sales representatives can access to the information and follow a standard sales process, confusion and errors that could cost the sale are avoided. Zoho CRM allows you to deny going to the next stage (creating an opportunity) without first having the necessary lead data.

Master the art of storytelling

Although data is important, studies suggest that only 5% of people remember statistics after a presentation. 63% remember stories.

How do you do this in sales? With success stories! This can work wonders as prospects are motivated by social proof.

It is always good to share references and testimonials with new prospects. It is easier to buy something when you see visible proof.

Primacy effect on your sales pitch

According to Primacy Effect, when people are given a sequence of information, the data at the end of the sequence is remembered the most and then the details at the beginning. The information in the middle of the list is usually the least remembered. Use this in your argument by putting in the information you want prospects to remember at the beginning and end of the conversation.

By visualizing previous conversations with the lead, and defining which area of ​​the buying company they belong to, it is easier to know what data will be important to present.

In this post, we’ve covered the most important part of the sales process — getting potential customers to buy from you. Would you add any other tips? The next and final part of this series will focus on how to respond to customers who seem like they won’t close the sale without having to redo the entire sales cycle multiple times. We’ll also talk about how Zoho SalesIQ, a complete customer engagement software solution for marketing, sales, and customer service, helps at this stage.