Author: Sienna Anderson

7 Effective Strategies to Close Deals Faster (Infographic)

Posted on | by Sienna Anderson

The probability of closing the deal with your prospects always changes based on their current needs and trends in the market. Securing their purchase amidst their ever-changing preferences will require you to update your sales strategy from time to time, and to have a capable sales team that can quickly determine the exact needs and wants of your customers.

Closing the deal in a fast manner sounds very intimidating, but once you master the art of assertiveness without being rude or arrogant, having a closed deal will be like bread and butter. In this infographic, we will discuss the different effective sales strategies that you can use when closing a deal faster. Here 7 critical pointers that you should consider.

7 Effective Strategies to Close Deals Faster - Infographic

Customer Profiling: A Smarter Way to Reach Your Customers

Posted on | by Sienna Anderson
Customers are one of the most invaluable assets that keep businesses up and running. That’s why it is imperative to adapt and develop new strategies that fit their changing preferences and needs, and it is no doubt that certain brands take good credit when they comply with their customer’s needs. In order to do just that, conducting a thorough customer profiling technique is of utmost importance. It allows you to take a closer look with the different aspects that your customers desire about the product or service they need. Having a professional relationship with your prospects is one of the clear bases that you are on the right track of profiling them. Gathering feedback from your customers and prospects, while can be quite challenging, is also a great way to gather information about your customers. But, what to “do” with that information is the next step that often eludes many small-business owners. In this article, we will be discussing specific critical pointers that you should consider when starting customer profiling. Here are a few smart ways on how you can improve your customer profiling:

  • Create Buyer’s Ideal Persona

The first step you should take in assembling your customer persona is to create broad descriptions of each ideal customer. Classifying your customers and prospects will give you time to focus on their specific needs and personal preferences.

  • Gather the Right Data 

Conducting an appropriate strategy to track down your customer’s preference will make it easier for you to assess and create a suitable sales plan for them. When gathering customer data, however, bear in mind the existing data protection regulations in place that you might breach. To ensure that you comply with these regulations, also attach on your profiling a non-disclosure agreement between you and your consumers.

  • Identify Platforms Where Consumers Find You 

If social media plays a huge role in your marketing and sales efforts, it is only wise to identify on which platforms your customers engage you with  the most. Listing down all the available platforms that you have and evaluating their built-in analytics will give you valuable insight on where they live, what time of the day they are most active, and the type of content from your brand they engage the most.  

  • Micro-Target 

The bigger picture of your product advertisement is quite intimidating regarding coming up with a vast number of consumers who are either interested or not interested in your products. While it’s important to understand the behaviour and patterns of broad customer groups, but it’s important to dig deeper into the dynamics of sub-categories, too. Let’s take, for example, toddlers. Toddlers are known for their active moods and impulsive behaviour. To target this niche more effectively, you will adjust your content and products to their preferred needs as perceived by their parents. Contact KONA Customised Training and Consulting on 1300 611 288 or info@KONA.com.au today to learn more on how you can integrate a useful customer profiling to increase more sales. You may also visit our website at kona.com.au if you are interested in keeping on track with articles about sales and management training.

Sales Negotiation Training: Essential Negotiation Skills for Sales Professional (Infographic)

Posted on | by Sienna Anderson
Every salesperson is required to be appropriately qualified and correctly manage their prospect’s expectations through the sales process. And when it comes to finally closing the deal, a seamless and fair negotiation process is warranted.   Negotiation skills are one of the toughest areas to master since it requires the salesperson to really pay attention to the needs of the prospect and be genuinely interested in their views, logic, and beliefs. Being involved in different prospects every single day who are strangers to you is quite intimidating, but with proper training and onsite exposure, one will be able to hone their negotiation skills. To help you get starter, here are the essential sales negotiation skills that you should develop Sales Negotiation Training: Essential Negotiation Skills for Sales Professional - Infographic

Train Your New Members Before You Send Them to The Field (Infographic)

Posted on | by Sienna Anderson
It’s the first day at the office for the newly hired and what did you do? You handed them a welcome bouquet, gave a pat on the back, opened the office door to show them the way out, and told them, effectively in so many words, “Now go, bring me new business”. Without the necessary training your new sales representatives, however, slipped and struggled in the market. Their performance report card too, not surprisingly, looked miserable at the end of the first quarter.Train Your New Members Before You Send Them to The Field - Infographic

Do Your Team’s Presentations Turn Off Your Customers?

Posted on | by Sienna Anderson
In business, some problems are more peculiar than others, and often the cause of such issues is easily fixed, but not always easy to detect. At least this was what one of our sales training specialists found with a client we worked with last year A leading national consumer goods distributor was able to open-up an unfocused problem that a company suffers from their sales team. Their sales team seemed to have success with small clients but were unable to win many big accounts. As a result, most of their sales were from small clients, and their cost of sales was rising. The senior management had completed a cause and effect analysis, but the root cause still eluded them. Based on this they asked our sales training specialists for an ‘outsider’s eye’ to review their whole sales process to get to the root of the problem. This assessment made things crystal clear, and we found that apart from inferior questioning skills, they had missed something elementary: poor presentation skills. As was the norm of this industry, big clients were given a presentation as part of the initial sales pitch. A good impression meant an opportunity to take the bid further; a poor presentation prematurely ended the chance.    With this experience of having dilemmas acquiring sales, we have come up with the prominent outcomes that a company can suffer from.

What happens when this is the case?

  •    Full potentialities cannot be realised – Even if they are 100% loyal to your business, small clients can provide you with only so much activity. If your portfolio doesn’t include a mix of large and small clients, your costs of sales and supply will continue to escalate, and profits diminish.
  •    Poor presentation skills lead to poor conversion rates – Hard as your sales team tries, if they fail to break into big accounts, slowly but surely their confidence starts to erode. So much so that they lose hope of converting a more significant opportunity and continue to spend their time with smaller accounts. This, in turn, becomes a decreasing spiral of missed sales opportunities and declining margins.   
  •    Fewer opportunities to grow – Employees fail to move ahead professionally as career opportunities in a stagnant or slow-growing company become few and far between.
In doing this in-depth study about how sales team acquires sales, detecting the problem is not only the remedy that we can get but also, how to avoid and solve sales problems when they arise.

How to solve this issue?

A turnaround is possible, mainly if you use professional and experienced sales training specialists to guide you. In this case, solving the issue was more comfortable than finding it. We introduced a customised sales training course in Sydney and Melbourne, tailored to their business, customers and products, (not an off the shelf, by the standard course’). These ‘In-house’ professional sales training courses helped their team to learn and master the necessary presentation skills to improve sales, which, while not difficult to determine and master, their importance had been taken far too lightly. Excellent presentation skills not only position your team professionally but also show your customers what you can do for them, relative to their specific needs Contact KONA today on 1300 611 288 or Glenn@KONA.com.au to discuss how Hearts and Minds™ Selling will help your sales team achieve their KPIs.

Acquiring New Clients: The Key Area to Focus Your Sales Training in Australia (Infographic)

Posted on | by Sienna Anderson
Is your business running on the revenue from existing customers and clients? If so, it is easy to assume that things are going smoothly. After all, the current clients are working well with you, and there is an excellent professional relationship. If you are still relying on current customers and clients to sustain your day to day operations, the future for your business could be in danger. At best, you keep providing services to existing clients and keep earning the same revenue, leaving your business stagnant. The worst-case scenario, however, is that your company is unable to keep up with the competition. Your current clients would eventually move on to better service or product providers, and your business surely will draw the short end of the stick. Acquiring New Clients - The Key Area to Focus Your Sales Training in Australia (Infographic)

Is “Always Be Closing” Strategy Still Relevant for Your Business?

Posted on | by Sienna Anderson

Some industry experts believe that the mantra of using ‘Always Be Closing’ concept is becoming unfit to use for sales strategy. ‘Always Be Closing’, or ‘ABC’ is a familiar phrase to salespeople, made iconic by Alec Baldwin in the 1992 film, Glengarry.

Its since become the go-to line for two camps: Those who firmly believe in its power to drive action, and those who feel that it takes sales back to the dark ages.

Today, as fast as how technology can get different consumers, it is genuinely a norm that different unique sales techniques are being made and some old techniques come to old.

Is “ABC” strategy still relevant for your business today?

A study by CSO Insights indicates successful salespeople spend at most, 35% of their time selling or “closing.” In this article, we will review certain points on how relevant “Always Be Closing” can be for different businesses:

  • Confirms Buyer Commitment – Regardless of which stage you are currently in the sales process, continually and respectfully confirming your prospect’s commitment is smart and proactive. The “ABC” strategy starts from setting your first meeting with prospective buyers that gives an interest with your products and services. Even though it is just the first meeting, confirming their interest and willingness to know more about your products and services early on will allow you to determine whether they are actually serious in making business with you. If they show otherwise, then you will be able to move on to your next prospect and start selling again.
  • Mobility to Adapt – Always be closing may seem to deteriorate and become old for some salespeople, but, the idea of “ABC” can take on a new meaning in today’s hyper-connected mobile world. Work is no longer a place, and salespeople no longer have to physically be in their prospect’s office to build, nurture and develop relationships. Mobility for sales is bringing new meaning to “Always Be Closing,” where you can further the sales on any device.
  • Influences Social Selling – With the active use of consumers with different social media platforms in their everyday activity, it seems that “ABC” has its way of bringing a new flair for acquiring more sales. Social media enables sales professionals to build and execute their own variation of ABC but in a more engaging and meaningful way. As such, one salesperson may still consider using “ABC” as a linearised step in creating a new sales strategy for their campaigns.
  • Creates an Interactive Mode of Communication – As mentioned earlier, it is no doubt that modern technology is gradually taking its course to change the view of most salespeople with their strategies. Still, “ABC” serves as the foundation of the new age of interactive sales in which both the customer and salesperson can engage more efficiently and easily. ‘Always Be Closing’ comes to a new way of the collaborative and modern view of what it promotes from the later years; leaving no physical, emotional, and technological barriers to closing deals.

It is truly alarming that change seems to act fast and change the views of every consumer that is loyal to your service; but, always remember that sales are not a flash card game that everyone can efficiently perform. It is still about how you close a deal with assurance and effectiveness of your sales strategy.

‘Always Be Closing’ may seem to wash all down its great skin, but today, salespeople still rely on the effective and sharp usage of this strategy. This strategy did not fade, nor come to the grave of use; rather “ABC” adapts to the modernized needs of today’s consumers.

If you want to learn the modern application of “Always Be Closing” strategy in sales, you may contact KONA Customised Training and Consulting to let your sales team be trained and exposed to different effective plan to close the sale.

Contact Us

Reasons Why Your Sales Team is Not Hitting Their Target (Infographic)

Posted on | by Sienna Anderson

Setting a sales target is one of the most important steps for measuring the sales performance of a business.

In establishing an efficient sales team, being crystal clear about your goals keeps you growing through the years, which keeps your company on track, and drives your future success.

Hitting your Sales Target

Setting a realistic sales target is one thing, but actually hitting them is another.

Increasing competition, changing customers preferences, advancing technology, along with the strategies and tactics you implement – can all affect whether your salespeople achieve the sales goals you’ve set, or not.

Reasons Why Sales Team is Not Hitting Target - Infographic

If your sales team is having a rough time hitting their targets lately – contact KONA to discuss sales training.

Contact Us

Always Be Closing: 7 Strategies to Close the Sale

Posted on | by Sienna Anderson
Closing a sale is considered the most critical step in the sales process. But as mentioned in the previous article about why your sales are dropping, many salespeople often fail at this stage, most often because they follow an ineffective sales pipeline, and because they lack the proper sales training to support their sales objectives. While closing a sale can be quite intimidating, equipping your salespeople with techniques based on deeply invested and well-researched sales plans will significantly increase their chance of closing more deals. To help you get started, we listed seven sales closing techniques that can make sure your sales wins grow more prominent on the long-term process.
  1. Summary Close – Customers like to visualize the benefits they can gain from the purchase long before they actually make a decision. By summarising the different benefits that your customer will be receiving, you are essentially giving them a clear picture of what items and guarantees will they be experiencing to use out of the deal.
  2. Question Close – This technique utilizes probing questions which can help the sales person identify if they are negotiating with a prospect or a suspect. By asking a series of probing questions such as “Am I offering a solution that can address your needs?”, you may be able to discover if that person is sold on your product, or yet, identify any potential objections that they you want to address before they make a final decision.
  3. Now or Never – Aggressive selling tactics are one of the most highly effective sales strategies wherein a sales person makes a time-bound or irresistible offer to close a sale. This technique is effective to use for customers who have not decided yet whether they should purchase or not because this shows the sense of urgency.
  4. Assumptive Close – Assumptive close, as the name implies is a technique where a sales person assumes that the prospect is going to buy the product or avail the service. The trick behind this technique is that it shows your confidence about your offering and its suitability to your customer’s unique needs. When a customer feels that they are being helped with a confident sales professional that understands them, they are more likely to show resistance and follow the lead of that sales professional.
  5. Extra Incentive – Closing a deal is sometimes a matter of giving additional incentives to your potential customers. A free trial or complimentary service will not only give the customer a sense of urgency to avail the free offer when it is near its expiration, but it will also help you gain more leads as people love to receive free items from their purchase – regardless of the product or service it is.
  6. Take Away Close – This particular sales technique adapts to the psychological practice on how children are attached to toys to purchase, but, parents disapprove to be bought. In this technique, a significant feature of the product or service is removed in exchange for a discounted price. By doing so, the customer will think if the discount is really worth getting for that special feature they will be choose not to avail.
  7. Opinion/Suggestion Close – When you’re in the closing stages of a sale, one challenge you might encounter is conveying to your client the value of your product or service. The ability to gauge their interest by showing your personal preference and opinion about the item will ensure trust and good sales interaction and purchase to customers.
Contact KONA Customised Training and Consulting today to let your sales team be trained and exposed to different effective strategies to close the sale.

Brand Positioning: Selecting a Point of Difference (Infographic)

Posted on | by Sienna Anderson
Some marketers only focus on searching more leads and creating different strategic advertisements in order to increase their sales. While these activities are indeed critical, both would be pointless if your target market does not see any point of difference between your brand and your competitors.Brand Positioning Selecting a Point of Difference