Sales tactics: 15 effective strategies, tips and much more

“Don’t lose your grip on the dreams of the past. You must fight just to keep them alive. It’s the eye of the tiger, the thrill of the fight.”

This motivational lyrics from the classic Rocky is apt for the sales world that is filled with challenges. This level of enthusiasm and an eye of a tiger is needed to overcome the roadblocks in sales. 

Challenges are in every field. All you need to do is, stay determined, and fight. Explore the right tactics and find a way to succeed.

“In the middle of every difficulty lies opportunity” – Albert Einstein.

Even JK Rowling faced rejections, but she didn’t give up. Many publication houses rejected her book 12 times before it became the bestseller. 

Did you know that even IBM faced a significant downfall in the late 90s?

IBM was one of the most profitable companies in the 1980s. It controlled 70% of the market share for the computer mainframe industry. 

However, everything changed in the 1990s with new evolving trends and competition surging in the market. IBM lost approximately $16 billion, and its market share plummeted to 26%. 

Their high-priced machine couldn’t keep up with their competitor’s smaller, cheaper machines. 

But then a few changes and tactics helped them survive and move on the lucrative path again.

They focused on their strengths and used their selling point wisely to increase their profits. 

Just because you’ve faced failure in the path that doesn’t mean you can’t succeed in the future. With a never-give-up attitude and a few sales tactics, even you can change your sales’ future. 

Read on to find some of the most effective sales tactics you can use to drum-up your sales.

Sales tactics to prospect, nurture, and close deals effectively

“67% of all salespeople miss their quota.”

This is because they do not pay enough attention to the sales journey. 

Do not make this mistake. From prospecting to closing, each stage must be given equal importance. 

If you failed in the past, then find out the reason for losing the deals. Learn from your failure and keep yourself motivated to manage and convert deals successfully. 

Here are a few sales tactics to prospect, nurture, and close deals quickly. 

Sales tactic # 1 – Be curious and research about your prospects

Curiosity leads to success in sales. It is essential to be curious and learn about the prospects before connecting with them.

Research is an integral part of the sales process. By understanding a company’s background and the prospect you are trying to reach, you can frame a more meaningful conversation.

No two prospects are the same. So, the interactions will also be different. It is essential to amass information and create a personalized experience from the first touch. 

42% of sales reps feel they don’t have enough information before making a call.

Potential buyers don’t have time to answer the basic questions. If you call without proper research, you might either infuriate the prospect or get hung-up in the middle of a sentence. 

Instead of wasting yours and the prospect’s few minutes, it is better to invest a little time in research. 

So, how to research prospects?

Thanks to the internet, you won’t face much trouble collecting information about a potential buyer.

Here is how you can research a prospect. 

• LinkedIn has a wealth of information for prospect research, so use it smartly. 
• The potential buyer’s company might have a Twitter account, so go through that.
• Scroll through the company’s website and landing pages.
• Spend a few minutes on the company’s press and media releases page.
• Find out if you and the prospect have any mutual connection to become a source for more information.
• Go through various reviews written about the company by their satisfied and unhappy customers. 

Sales tactic #2 – Make cold calls without hesitation and analyze them

Cold calling is one of the most effective sales tactics if done in the right way. Even Travis Kalanick, the CEO of Uber, used this sales tactic to find his first few customers. 

Therefore, be confident and make cold calls without any hesitation. 

Successful cold calling requires proper preparation, structure, and strategy. 

Cold calling is an old yet effective sales tactic. However, the rules of the game have changed.  You can’t be cold calling the way sales reps used to call two decades. So, change your approach. 

Here are a few modern cold calling tips to achieve success. 

• Do not cast the nest wide by calling everyone. Define your target audience and make a strong list for successful cold calls. 
• Ensure your opening statement gives the prospect a reason to stay on the call and listen to you.

Avoid questions like-

Did I catch you at a bad time? 

Using this statement to open a call makes your 40% less likely to book a meeting.

Or 

Do you have a minute to talk? 

Almost 60% of salespeople get a negative response to this question. 

• Practice before you make cold calls. Have mock call sessions with your seniors.
• Avoid distractions while making cold calls. 
• Use a cold calling script but do not read it word to word. 
• Focus on the time duration of the call. Successful cold calls are mostly longer.
• Be clear on the value you offer.
• Maintain a balance in the talk-to-listen ratio

The top sales performers talk for 46% of a call means they listen from at least 54% of it. 

Sales tactics #3 – Use even cold emails and social media to connect with prospects 

A sales call is undoubtedly an effective medium to connect with prospects. However, cold emails and social media are two equally powerful communication channels that can be used to reach the prospect. 

One needs to be extra careful and creative to grab attention while using these two effective channels. 

So how to send cold email effectively?

Well, if you want a positive response, you need to send compelling emails to your prospects, or else your emails might end up in the delete folder.

Here’s how you can do it. 

• First and foremost, pay attention to the subject line. It should be short and interesting to stimulate a response
  “47% of email recipients open an email based on the subject line. Besides, 69% of email recipients report email as spam based solely on a subject line.”

• Include the right words in your subject line
  • Subject lines with ‘soon’ have the highest engagement rates(21.8%)versus those referring ‘now.’
  • Using ‘daily’ or ‘weekly’ in subject lines boost open rates whereas ‘monthly’ hurts them.
  • Sales emails with ‘meeting’ in the subject line opened 7% less than those without.

• Avoid lengthy emails. Try not to exceed five or six sentences while writing an email. 
• Personalize your cold emails 

Personalized emails increased CTR by 14% and conversion by 10%

• Pay attention to the formatting and structuring of your emails.
  • Avoid patterned mail background as it affects the readability.
  •  Ensure the email is in sentence case.
  •  Avoid fancy fonts and colors.
  •  Resize graphics having a width more than 600 pixels before attaching them to your emails.
  • Zip or compress large files before attaching them to your emails. 

• Use statistics in the content of your email to build credibility. 
• Don’t hit send without adding relevant call-to-action to your cold emails.

Like emails, you need to even use social media effectively to capture your potential buyer’s interest. 

• Follow your prospect on different social media sites.
• Interact with your prospect on LinkedIn and Twitter.
• Comment on their post.
• Engage the potential buyer by sharing helpful content on social networking sites. 

75% of b2b buyers are influenced by social media when making purchasing decisions. 

Sales tactic #4 – Deep dive into the prospect’s business needs and problems

Sales reps who show interest in the prospect’s business problems and challenges often get into their good books. 

Besides, you can effectively explain your product’s value when you know the prospect’s pressing needs. 

So try to uncover your prospects’ business needs and challenges by asking relevant questions. 

Below are a few questions that you can ask to determine your prospects’ most pressing needs.

• The [change] in your industry has affected most of our clients. Are you too affected by it?
• Could you tell me a little about your current process?
• What are you looking to improve?
• What’s holding you back from achieving your goals are priorities for this year?
• What will happen if you do not address[specific problem] right now?
• What have you done in the past to solve this problem?
• What worked and what didn’t?
• Have you explored any product so far?
• What are your primary roadblocks in implementing a solution?
• How have decisions like this been made previously in your company?

Sales tactic #5 – Invest time in building rapport 

Making a positive initial connection with the prospect can be very beneficial during the later stages of the sales process. Besides, building a good rapport helps in making the prospect comfortable to share their challenges and aspirations. 

Rapport is the ability to enter someone else’s world, to make him feel that you understand him, that you have a strong bond- Tony Robbins 

Here are a few ways to build rapport in sales 

• Be yourself and approach the prospect with a positive attitude. Avoid adopting a sales-like tone.
• Be friendly and show interest in the prospect’s problem. However, make sure you do not cross the line.
• Find common ground that the prospect can relate to.
• Give genuine compliments. However, make sure you do not fake to impress the prospect.
• Add humor where possible to break the ice. 
• Watch your body language and non-verbal cues. 

Sales tactic 6 # – Develop the habit of active listening 

Besides, sales calls and meetings hold a wealth of information. That information can be very useful in closing a deal. For amassing this information, it is necessary to listen to the prospects. 

So, be attentive and listen to the prospects. 

Here are some helpful tips for active listening:

• Have a clear mind, and do not be distracted. 
• Focus on your prospects rather than thinking about the next sentences.
• Paraphrase what you’ve heard is correct to avoid miscommunication.
• Avoid the temptation to interrupt.
• Take notes. You can use CRM software and directly add notes in it. 
• Listen without jumping to conclusions.
• Show interest by asking questions. 
• Avoid changing the subject abruptly. 
• Be patient while you listen. 

Sales tactic #7 Be a problem solver and guide the prospect 

Prospects aren’t interested in sellers. They are interested in dealing with professionals who can help them address and resolve the ongoing business problem. 

Prospects often don’t highlight their stress points. However, they like it when a company makes their life easier. 

So like a consultant, guide a prospect to solve their problems.

But how would you do that?

Below are a few helpful ways: 

• First, gather valuable insights from the prospect’s world. 
• Understand the pain points of your prospects.
• Connect your product with their problem and present it as a solution.
• Don’t be afraid to educate the prospects. 
• Help prospects visualize a world without the problem, thanks to your solution. 

Sales tactic #8 – Use polite terms while speaking about competitors 

Every business wants to be the front runner. However, bad-mouthing a competitor won’t help in being ahead in the race. Being the face of the company, a sales professional needs to be very careful with the words s/he uses while speaking about the competitors. 

Bad-mouthing a competition creates a bad impression on the prospect. You might not do it deliberately, but the terms you use for your competitors might say a different story.

So, use polite terms for your competitors.

• Speak about your strengths rather than the weakness of the competitors. 
• Say how you are better without pointing to the flaws of your competitors.
• Take the ethical path ahead without using negative terms for the competitors. 

Sales tactic # 9 – Be determined while setting the appointment 

Setting an appointment is undoubtedly not an easy task. However, it isn’t an impossible one as well. All it needs is determination. So do not give up. 

However, ensure you are on the right path while setting appointments, or you might face problems. 

So, how to set successful sales appointments?

• Make sure you’re connecting with the right person from the company.
• Qualify leads before setting appointments. 
• Speak about your value and try to earn the trust of the prospect.
• Make them realize that your product is worth their time and money.
• Understand the level of interest of a prospect in your product before asking for an appointment.
• Be explicit about what the prospect will gain from the meeting. 
• Give them different time slots to choose from for the meeting.

Sales tactic #10- Be prepared to impress during the presentation 

A presentation is almost the last opportunity to impress the prospect. If you fail to capture the interest here, the prospect might not meet again or receive your calls. So, make sure you prepare before giving your sales presentation.

Here are a few tips for giving effective sales presentation:

• Invest time in preparing an effective presentation 
• Collect information about the prospect and use it in the right way in the presentation
• Your presentation should focus on the prospect’s pain points and its solution.
• Add relevant images and make the sales presentation visually appealing. 
• Add charts, graphs, quotes, and testimonials from happy customers. 
• Don’t use the same content for every presentation. Personalize the content. 
• Practice before giving the presentation. Try to get the timing right. 
• Ensure everything works, and you wouldn’t want to meet a prospect with a faulty presentation. 

Sales tactic #11 – Be persistent and follow-up consistently 

You wouldn’t want to miss out on a lucrative opportunity. After putting so much effort in the sales presentation, you would want to convert the deal into sales as soon as possible. 

So for that, persistence is essential. In this busy business world, you won’t easily get a response. You’ll have to follow-up up consistently with the prospect. 

Below are a few tips to follow-up effectively:

• Dedicate an hour or two every day to follow-up with your prospect.
• Use different channels to follow-up, like calls, emails, and text messages. 
• Set reminders to ensure you don’t forget to follow-up.
• Embrace automation by creating email and text sequences to follow-up in real-time. 

Sales tactic #12 Give prospects proof that your product is beneficial 

Many sales reps might have approached the prospect before you. Some might have overpromised. Due to bad experiences with sales reps, prospects don’t easily trust the words of sales professionals.

They want to see proof. So, give them real-life examples:

• Share case studies of satisfied customers.
• Show them the benefits your prospects received on using your product.
• Explain the problems they faced before and changes they could see after using your product.

Sales tactic #13 – Use the right negotiation tactics

Negotiation is the most important stage of the sales process. Most of the deals are often lost at this stage. Several sales reps even make bad decisions in the heat of the moment during this stage and regret later. It is pivotal to be extra careful during this stage. Explore and use the right negotiation tactics during this stage of the sales process. 

• Remember, negotiation is a game played by a calm mind. So, do not get hyper.
• Pause and think before making any commitment.
• Be clear with the concessions you are willing to accept.
• Take charge of the negotiation and lead it in a direction that is beneficial for both.

Sales tactics #14 – Highlight the consequences of not buying right now 

Some prospects use stalling tactics and delay the purchase. Deal smartly with such buyers. The more time a deal stays in a pipeline, the less likely it is to close. So try to create a sense of urgency to stimulate action.

• Make the prospect visualize the consequences of not buying right now.
• For highlighting the consequences, you need to have a good understanding of the prospect’s pressure points.
• Explain the benefits they will receive if they act immediately. 

Sales tactic #15 – Adhere to a strict deadline to close deals quickly  

Prospects will take their own sweet time to make a decision. For a quick closure, you need to push the deal forward. So where you are pursuing any deal, ensure you create a deadline and even make the prospect aware of it. 

• Address all the doubts and concerns of the prospects. 
• Use a sales forecasting tool to get a clear idea of how much time will a deal take to close.
• Based on the forecasting insight, set your deadline and adhere to it.

All set to use these sales tactics? 

Sales are ever-changing. Competitors are trying all the sales tactics to stay ahead in the race. So, you cannot stay behind. Explore various sales tactics to close your deals quickly. 

You can even take the help of a smart CRM software like Salesmate to manage, nurture, and close deals quickly. With this advanced CRM software, you can streamline your sales process, get vital sales insights to improve your sales performance, and use sales automation to save time and effort. There is a lot you can do with this high-end CRM software.