Sales Techniques and Tips to Sell like a Pro
May 24, 2023 | Read: 12 minutes
Spend even a little time Googling “sales techniques” and you’ll find all sorts of advice that’s supposed to help you.
But what if you’re a plumbing, gas & heating, or electrical business that’s completely new to the idea of “sales”?
It’s true that some of the advice out there might not work for you; that’s because it’s not given with a business like yours in mind!
That’s why we’ve compiled our very own list of sales tips to help you out.
Alongside Commusoft’s very own Sales software, we’ll discuss The 3 Ps of Selling and highlighting the tools that can help your field service businesses to transform the way you sell
The Sales Techniques and Tips You Need to Know:
We’re covering over 10 sales techniques you’ll want to use in your business, so let’s dive in:
1. List the problems you can solve for your customers
“Why should a customer choose our services over a competitors?”
It’s an important question to have the answer. But, simply put, the answer should be:
“Because our service is the clear option to solve a customer’s problem.”
What these problems can be, of course, will vary from business to business, but that’s why it’s helpful to start by list your strengths.
From there you can focus on creating a sales strategy to highlights these strengths to help you win over prospects.
For example, a client of ours: Premier Heating Surrey, have specialist oil engineers and it’s this that gives them the edge over a lot of their competition in the area. By showcasing their expertise with a niche problem, they position themselves as the best choice.
Take action in a similar way and think about all the things you specialise in. How could you use that to your advantage?
From the quality of your customer service to the speed at which you can safely install a new boiler: they could be one of many things that help your business to stand out.
If you’re confident in what it is that makes your business stand out, you’ll win more customers over in no time.
2. Develop a sales process
This is something that every sales team needs to function: An A to Z sales strategy.
This will help guide every team member as they attempt to make a successful sale. Whether you have two people or over fifty, a guide can help everyone in your business.
A simple process could look like this:
- Have a conversation to find out what the customer needs.
- Book a survey or on-site assessment.
- Before the survey, send a confirmation email. It’s a good idea to send a few service reminders to keep customers informed.
- After the survey, send a final proposal. (This includes pricing, agreed dates, and other details).
- The customer can accept the proposal, pay, and receive confirmation.
- With the job confirmed and sale complete, all that’s left is to do the job!
It’s up to you to flesh out these steps, but this standard outline can help you get started. You’ll learn to adapt to meet the needs of different customers and situations, too.
Overall, the main thing is to have these steps in place so that your team have something to work from. The structure will help your team, give customers confidence, and help sales progress smoothly!
3. Focus on building a great sales team
Getting the right people on your team is really important. You want to try and find people with the right mindset from day one.
This way, whether you’re training old or new staff, you can be more confident that a positive mindset is helping them to learn new skills.
In this way, you’re able to provide motivated people with the knowledge they need to help them sell more successfully.
They’ll be able to interact with decision-makers more effectively, and increase the odds of closing more deals.
4. Know your numbers, so you can know your limits
It’s simple: selling is a numbers game. And the goal is to sell your goods and services so that you make a profit.
When you know your numbers, you’ll have a clearer idea of what’s feasible and what’s not. With more information, you can be more confident that you’re making a profit.
“You don’t need technology for this, You need a bit of time and a spreadsheet. You need to know what you’re currently doing, what’s your conversion rate now from your inquiry all the way through to the sale being made.”
Jason Morjaria
When everyone’s aware of the numbers, they can help guide your team to see when they may need to push a deal, when it’s okay to break even, or even when upselling customers could be lucrative.
To take things further, you can look at the seasonal impact of your sales successes, too. This way you can better understand your sales cycle throughout the year.
If you don’t know those numbers then any change that you make to your business (whether it’s hiring more staff, new technology, or buying up new stock & inventory) can have a big impact.
Without properly tracking these details, you won’t know if they’re positively or negatively having an impact. This makes managing your business and managing a sales strategy that much riskier.
For instance, let’s say you’re in the HVAC industry which is known to ebb and flow with the seasons. It’d be interesting to know your conversion rate at different points of the year and develop strategies to handle the quieter periods of work.
5. Understand a customer’s needs
We touched on the problems you can solve for your customers already, but one of the best ways to sell to your customers is to really listen to them.
If you’re asking questions, you need to really listen to their responses. With their feedback you’ll find you’re better equipped to solve their problems with more care.
It’s about learning what their decision making criteria is:
- Maybe they care most about price.
- Perhaps they need a job done urgently.
- Sustainability and being eco-friendly matters to them.
- Maybe they really don’t understand their options.
To get answers, you need to ask useful questions.
So, if you’re on a sales call, make sure you’re having a conversation with the customer. The better the conversation, the more likely you’ll find the right answers that will help the customer, and so help close a sale.
Don’t be afraid to investigate with open, consultative questions.
For instance:
- “What’s most important for you on this job?”
- “Why don’t you explain what you’re after in a little more detail?
- And ask them to elaborate: “Oh, what do you mean by that?
- Or sympathise with them: “That sounds really frustrating. Are you having other issues you think we can help with?
- And don’t be afraid to ask for clarification: “Can you just explain that to me a bit more?”
It’s these kinds of questions that give the customer the confidence to open up and give you more information. With that, you’re more likely to build a genuine rapport with them, which will help lead to an amicable solution and maybe even an enjoyable sales process.
6. Make life easy for your customers
The most successful salespeople are the ones who connect to customers and put them at ease. This is more likely to reduce friction and increases the odds you’ll find success.
From making it easy to interact with you on their own terms (as with self-service solutions like an online booking portal, email, or even text messaging) to open conversations and questions (like those listed above). There’s a lot you can do to make life easy for your customers.
For any action you take, be sure to frame it from the perspective of the customer. Ask yourself: “Does this like my customer’s life easier?” if not, think about how you can change that.
After all, if you make things easy for your customers by using software tools or improving interactive experiences, then you’re much more likely to win them over again and again.
7. Always follow up with your customers and prospects
It should go without saying that if a customer makes an enquiry with your business you should be prepared to follow-up.
Whether it’s a more personalised phone call or even an automated text or email, some form of follow-up goes a long way to give customers peace of mind.
Acknowledging their inquiry can be enough to encourage them that you’ll be in touch.
8. Objection handling is one of the best sales techniques
As competition increases, it’s more important than ever to understand why a job opportunity didn’t go your way.
When you understand why, you can take action to avoid more disappointment down the line. This is where objection-handling techniques come in and using these effectively can have a dramatic impact on your sales.
Techniques include:
- Active Listening: Rather than speaking, take the time to try and truly understand customer concerns by listening carefully and asking thoughtful, clarifying questions.
- Empathy: Acknowledge their feelings and show you genuinely care about solving their problems. Give them time to speak and show you’re taking their comments to heart.
- Demonstrate Value: Highlight how your service delivers clear benefits, such as cost-savings or efficiency.
- Use Testimonials: Share success stories and reviews to build trust and confidence in your offering.
- Offer Flexible Solutions: Provide options like payment plans or phased projects to meet customers’ specific needs.
To help your team practice, you might consider role-playing scenarios, where one colleague plays the part of a customer and another practices these techniques. This can help them when it comes to a live interaction. Preparing scripts or canned email responses can help here, too, so that staff have useful resources to refer to.
With a bit of patience, practice, and preparation, your team can transform all sorts of opportunities (and even turn losses) into even bigger wins.
9. Consider how to upsell as part of your sales strategy
Upselling customers isn’t anything new, but it can work well for your business when done right. For instance, when money is tight, using finance solutions could be one way to help customers afford a more effective, expensive solution that they pay over a period of time, rather than in one lump sum.
While finance isn’t right for every service business to offer, it’s worth exploring.
With the right tools, your service business can provide customers with great advice to get the products they really need and it gives them access to a secure method of paying that makes expensive purchases more affordable.
For yourself, those can positively impact your bottom line with higher-priced jobs that benefit you and the customer. After all, when premium products are made more affordable, it means your customers can rest easier knowing they won’t have to foot the bill for an expensive replacement down the line.
10. Show customers what you’re really worth
A good salesperson won’t just tell the customer why they should buy from you, they’ll show them.
Use reviews, videos, and testimonials to highlight during the sales conversation that you’re the best choice for them.
The biggest impact that these things can have is online. Whether they appear on your website or on-site review sites like Checkatrade, they’ll give customers a chance to see your work for themselves.
Customers will do their research before choosing you and if they see evidence of your handiwork, it can play a bit role in convincing them to choose you.
11. Use a Sales CRM to manage customers and generate opportunities
Much like with job management, a sales management tool can be transformative.
Why aimlessly send quote after quote when there’s a better way to track sales from start to finish?
Don’t rely on phone calls, emails, and notes, but instead on an opportunity management software that’s been designed from the ground up to back your business.
Combining all the tips you’ll be putting into use, you can stand out from the competition and create experiences that dramatically improve your business.
The Commusoft Sales CRM is available now!
12. Sales techniques and tips and methods you can watch online
We’ve prepared four videos you can find even more advice, sales methods, and ideas to sink your teeth into.
From a quick look at basic tips, to further insight into the 3 Ps of selling, as well as Commusoft’s own Sales CRM software, we’ve created content to help you can discover useful strategies.
Explore our YouTube channel to access these videos, and don’t forget to subscribe so you never new videos when they go live!
Discover the full Sales Tips and CRM Playlist, here!
Sales Techniques to Transform the Way You Sell:
These tips will put you in great stead to elevate your success with sales.
But that’s not all we’ve got for you:
For even more great advice, be sure to download your free guide: Stop Quoting & Start Selling.
You can also explore our Ultimate Sales Strategy Guide, or go ahead and find out more about how Commusoft Sales can change things, too:
