Don’t Confuse Your Clients

Is your sales process long and convoluted? If it is, you’re doing your clients a disservice that may make them turn to your competitor.

Email inboxes can give you an idea of how much everyone has to juggle every day, and your client doesn’t need you to add the challenge of buying and implementing your solution to the mix of plates they have spinning in the air.

Most people aren’t interested in how many gigabytes their tablets or smartphones have or what the speed of the processor is. Apple latched onto this from the very start. That’s why most people only know how many songs their iPhones and iPads hold.

That’s what’s important to them, and that’s what Apple gives them.

And that’s what makes Apple products such hot items.

“That’s been one of my mantras – focus and simplicity. Simple can be harder than complex: You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it’s worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains”

Steve Jobs

The simpler you can make the process and decision for your client, the more business you will win and the faster you’ll close deals.

A study reported in the Harvard Business Review found that when the decision-making process is made simple, brands are 86% more likely to be purchased, 9% more likely to be repurchased, and 115% more likely to be recommended to others.

The following steps can help you create a simple process that will appeal to your customers and make their decision process as easy as saying “Yes!”

1. Streamline all communications

If you communicate clearly and succinctly on a consistent basis, your clients will thank you. Cut all buzz words and annoying clichés out of your correspondence. Keep emails down to 6 sentences or fewer, and never make a phone call when an email or text message will work. In the same vein, never schedule a meeting when a phone call will work just fine.

If you’re planning a presentation, try to chop it in half. This will help you focus only on what’s truly important to your client.

Save all the boasting and awards you’ve won for your website or your company brochure.

2. Research, research, research

You should never ask a client a question that you could have found out through research. When you do away with those simple questions, you have the time to focus on what the client really wants and needs and how your product or service can best meet those requirements.

You can use free tools like Google Alerts to stay abreast of your client’s business and industry, and you should definitely follow them on Twitter and LinkedIn.

Checking for regular updates on a daily basis will help you shorten your sales process.

3. Create a road map

If you map out your sales process with a timeline for each and every step, you’ll know exactly where you are in the funnel and what needs to be done at every touch point.

You can also identify what steps drain your energy and efforts and work to further simplify them. This includes mapping out each one of your conversations and what the results should be to keep you on track and on topic, shortening the conversation down to its essentials.

You could even share this roadmap with your clients to help them better understand the process.

4. Make it memorable

Leave your clients with a simple picture of success. This could be a picture you’ve drawn in their minds through telling a story or by presenting an illustration or diagram.

Make yourself and your product memorable, and you’ll stay on the tip of their tongues. Dare to be different. You may not remember every sandwich you’ve eaten, but you do remember the ones that combined ingredients in a new and exciting way or was presented differently. Be that sandwich!

Too often, we try to complicate things because we think it makes us sound more intelligent or more worthy somehow. And you end up pushing people away and ultimately losing credibility and the sale.

Keep it simple. It’s the best route.

If you’d like help unpacking and simplifying your sales process, get in touch. We excel at creating sales transformation programmes tailored to your company’s goals and your sales team’s strengths and weaknesses.

Let us show you how to enhance your performance in ways you didn’t think were possible.

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