Improving Your Sales Formula

Part of the formula to grow revenue today still requires sellers to do the basics, but also for sellers to be incredibly knowledgeable on sales automation tools, knowing when to use these tools and when not to use these tools. 

Fully Embrace Technology & Innovation

Sales automation is not just data entry into a CRM platform, but about how individual sellers and sales teams communicate with customers, and manage all steps from quote to collection of a sale with one tool or a suite of tools.

Be Relentless in Your Preparation. Always!

As roles shift in favor of customers buying through systems and not through people it is better to be one of the best sellers than just another seller. The more time you take to prepare for a customer interaction the more successful you will be. By taking time to understand the business problems your customer is looking to solve the better your chances you will be viewed as a potential solution.

With that, the core goal of this article is to help sellers who want to take time to be relentless in their preparation stand out and build a better formula to grow revenue.

Experiment to Find a Sales Formula That is Right for You

The 4 Elements of The Sales Formula to look at are: Customer Interest, Product Demo / Meetings, Test Deals, and Repeat Business. This is true if you are a brand, an ad agency or a media seller.

Increase the volume of any of these 4 items and your revenue will grow. Don’t believe me, try it out. In fact, just spend time improving only 1 sub-element in each of these 4 areas and your revenue production will improve.

Element 1: Customer Interest

Content Marketing + Outbound Prospecting + In-Bound Lead Management = Customer Interest

Element 2: Product Demo / Meetings

Customer Interest + Referrals + A Good Product Story = Product Demo / Meetings

Element 3: Test Deals

Product Demos / Meetings + Lots of Follow-Up = Test Deals

Element 4: Repeat Business

Test Deals + Customer Service + Optimization + Reporting + Good Results = Repeat Business

Gain Customer Interest with Content Marketing

Rarely can a seller just pick up the phone and get a deal done. However, a seller can improve customer interest.  The higher the quality and more frequently you create content for marketing the better your outbound and in-bound efforts will be.

Secure Time for Product Demos / Meetings

It is essential that once you have created customer interest or gained a referral that you are able to tell your product story in a very simple and easy to understand way. Being able to do a product demo over the phone or webinar is critical, especially if you are selling a complicated product. Being able to do the demo in person is even better. 

Get a Test Deal in Place to Show Proof

Your product may be great, but how is your customer service? How quick is your company to respond to and address issues? Test deals can show a buyer how great your company really is. Beyond a great product demo, which is critical to have, is your follow-up.

Follow-Up Really, Really Matters. Really.

92% of sales people give up after four "no's", and only 8% of sales people ask for the order a fifth time. Turns out with non-routine sales it takes at least 5 continuous follow-ups before you will get a customer’s interest according to sales researcher Robert Clay of Marketing Wizdom. 

So continuous follow-up may just be the one thing you can do that has the biggest impact on your sales formula to grow revenue. 

Leverage Customer Success Team to Drive Repeat Business

If your sales organization is set up properly, you have a great customer success team and they handle most, if not all renewing and up-selling. Of course there will be deals you need to stay involved in beyond the initial sale, especially in smaller companies, but getting new business is critical to optimizing your sales formula. 

Gamify Your Prospecting (Its OK to Have Fun Selling!)

Over the years I have found the simplest way to gamify selling is 10 / 3/ 1 (Qualified Prospect / Interested Prospect / Buyer). For every ten highly qualified prospects I reach out to three will become interested prospects in learning more and one of the three will buy.

So I go into every conversation knowing that 90% of people will say no. But 10% will say yes (Even if it takes a few months to convert). 

Utilize "Sales Velocity" to Maximize Pipeline Development

Just as important as quantity of deals is in your pipeline so is working to increase average deal size, increase percentage win rate, and decrease average time to close a deal. The TAS Group created a concept called Sales Velocity that looks at all 4 factors. Check out how just a small increase in either of these items can significantly increase your overall revenue production. 

You Already Know, but Hope is Not a Strategy

As the heading suggests, Hope is… not a strategy. You need a sales formula to stand out among competitors. The more you improve your formula the smarter you will be in learning how prospects and customers want you to communicate with them. And the more you look to improve the more you are being respectful. Respect goes a long way.

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To further enhance your sales formula, check out Developing a Sales Story Customers Respect. 

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