Improve Sales Conversion Rates

Drive your sales conversion rates higher...

When it comes to making the most of a business and ensuring you land the right side of the line between success and failure, your ability to sell on a consistent basis is surely one of the pivotal factors.

Despite this, many do not adopt a particularly scientific approach to your sales, and regularly review how they are selling, how they could sell better, and get feedback on their process. If you want to increase your business sales, how should you go about it?

Improving Sales - 1 - Customer Feedback

Critical to any business is its customers. If you have no customers, then you have no business. So ask them what they thought of your process. What worked well for them and what bits did they not like? Do they have any suggestions as to what you could do different?

Customer feedback is like gold dust and may reveal some real strengths in your sales pitch you can accentuate together with some weaknesses that are letting you down and maybe having a real impact on your percentages.

Take a look at all the feedback and see what it is telling you, and make sure you do act on it.

Improving Sales - 2 - Change Slowly

When you have a list of changes, you will be excited and want to change everything at once. But by doing that it can disguise what is working well and what not so well. Rather be patient and make one change at a time. Then measure any impact on sales over the course of a month and see if they have improved or not. And so on for each change.

You should always be evolving and developing your sales pitch but at a steady rate so you can clearly track what is working well and what is not working quite so well.

More Follow Ups Means More Sales

Depending how pushy you are as a person, you may find this easy or hard. But the reality is that to get a good sales ratio with potential customers, you need to make several calls. Most people make the initial call and one follow up, then leave it there.

However if you speak to those who get the highest sales, they usually say it takes between four and seven contacts to convert someone into a customer. If you stop at two, then you are leaving lots of potential sales on the table. The key is to keep that contact going with leads without appearing pushy or invasive, which is where the next part comes in...

Great sales levels needs great Rapport

People buy from people, and you need to be able to develop a great rapport with people that you come into contact with when selling. Partly you need to be professional, courteous and respectful at all times, the hard sell is not expected nor desired any more and will not do you any favours.

Develop your people skills and listening skills and learn to pick up on clues and key words that can lead you in to talking about the benefits of your products, and not just the features. Attend a sales course and learn how to help improve your sales and negotation techniques. Be polite on the phone but always ask open questions and wait for an answer; and explore for information that may lead to a sale or an open door to call again in the future and try again to get a sale.

If you understand the needs of the customer, and really understand them, and show that you understand them, then they will at least feel an affinity with you and may recommend you to others who they feel may need your product even if they don't directly.

Good luck with your sales! Any other tips on improving sales conversions? Let me know and I will add them!

Improve Sales Conversion Rates

Author: Job Expert

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Last Updated: Oct 27th 2006

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