1. Stop Focusing On Quantity Over Quality

One of the best ways to increase revenue and productivity combined is to stop focusing on the sheer volume of leads you’re pursuing and instead focus on nurturing quality leads.

Generating quality leads requires sales professionals to better understand their prospects. When you have a deep understanding your prospects’ demographics, psychographics, and behaviors you can recognize their needs, what pains you can relieve, and how to best communicate with them. Knowing what stage of the buying cycle your leads are in puts you in a stronger position to close the sale.

Focusing on quality over quantity will allow you to ultimately generate more profits from fewer leads while lowering your acquisition costs.

2. Stop Focusing On The What & Not The Why

You believe in your product and that’s why you sell it, right? That’s a good thing. However, your prospects aren’t there yet. Too often we focus our attention on what our product is and how it works. Too little do we address our prospect’s need for the product and why our solution will make a difference in their life.

When we stop focusing on what we’re selling and start focusing on what the customer is buying and why, we’re better able to satisfy customer needs and build meaningful relationships. Focusing on the client forces us to discuss what our customers care about and what value we can provide.

3. Stop Ignoring The Power Of A Story

No matter our age, people love stories. Stories allow us to relate to ideas, characters, and fantasies. Stories allow us to dream and imagine.

A story can be an effective way to engage your prospects by creating emotional responses and building a captive audience that can easily bond with your brand.

A good story can even increase a prospect’s desire to buy what you’re selling.

When developing stories for your brand, ensure they’re engaging, creative, and relatable by following these three tips:

Be concise and focus only on one idea.

Be concrete and create an experience by using details and sensory words.

Tell fresh, unexpected, and delightful stories by presenting unusual information, leaning on pop-culture references or current events, or by telling fascinating tales.

4. Stop Hesitating When Asked About Pricing

Buyers understand that nothing comes without a price. After all, nothing in life is free, right? The key to having a comfortable conversation about price is first understanding and discussing the value that’s attached to the price.

Without a thorough understanding of our customer’s needs we can’t effectively inform customers of the value in our solutions.

Don’t hesitate when you’re asked to discuss pricing, instead re-direct the conversation to value. This way, you’re able to remove your customer’s resistance to price because they first understand the value and expect to pay for it.

5. Stop Blaming Your Manager For Your Results

When we’re children and we make a mistake or do something we aren’t suppose to, we tend to first react to these situations by blaming our sibling, the dog, or anyone else in our direct line of vision.

The thing is, this behavior often follows us into adulthood. However, it’s a behavior that can damage our professional success.

We blame others to protect our self-confidence and self-image but we soon realize that blaming others is counterproductive and actually weakens it.

To thrive in sales we must never blame our manager, the product itself, or other extenuating circumstances for our failures. When we own our blame we’re able to move forward and focus on solutions. If you find yourself struggling to meet quota look for new opportunities, get creative, and try something outside of your comfort zone. Focusing on blame is unproductive. When we practice a solution-driven attitude we find ourselves producing results and improving our sales outcomes.

What’s your number one focus area for sales success?