20 Unconventional Sales Strategies to Increase Your Sales Revenues

6 Sales Solutions

What are the solutions to these 6 sales problems?

Solution number 1 is a full sales pipeline.

Solution number 2 is the high quality of opportunities in a sales pipeline.

Solution number 3 is a high closing ratio.

Solution number 4 is pricing cooperation, instead of pricing pressures.

Solution number 5 is short sales cycles instead of the long sales cycles.

So what's the solution to being trapped in a sales process?

Well, solution number 6 is that we are freed by the sales process.

Now, pay attention to the words here.

It's not freed from the sales process. It's freed by the sales process.

What I mean by this is that the process is there, but it's a kind of process that allows us to not just be two machines having a scripted conversation with each other, but two human beings having a true, meaningful conversation where the salesperson is truly listening to the problems, concerns, aspirations, goals, dreams and objectives of the prospect and hopefully coming up with the right kinds of solutions, maybe with the help of their products and services.

And then that becomes a part of the solution that they offer to the customer.

So when we are freed by the sales process, the steps are there; the process is there.

But it also allows enough space for the salesperson to become more in-the-moment so they can have a true heart-to-heart conversation when they are listening and responding to what the potential customer is saying in the moment.

So this is not rocket science, is it?

If I have a full sales pipeline with a large number of opportunities waiting for me to be closed, most, if not all, of those opportunities, are high quality, meaning that they have shared their problems with me that I can solve, there are enough budget and money allocated and it's there on the table, and I'm talking to either the decision-makers themselves or someone who has access to the decision-makers...

If all my opportunities are high-quality opportunities like that, if my closing ratio is high, if my sales cycles are short, and instead of being trapped in a sales process that traps and confines me into doing things in a certain way, in a certain scripted fashion, I'm freed by the sales process, where I have steps I follow, but, I'm also allowed, I'm also finding my space within that system to do the things that I need to do - truly listen to my client's needs and concerns - if I have all these things in place, what do you think the results are going to be?

I'm going to have six sales solutions and they are obviously going to increase my sales revenues.

And when I have healthy sales revenues, my business, either the business that I own or operate or manage or the business that I work for and also my sales career, is going to thrive and grow.

Sales Problem and Solution #1: Quantity of Opportunities in Your Sales Pipeline

Sales Problem #1: Inadequate Quantity

The first problem that we have is the inadequate quantity of opportunities in our sales pipeline.

There are 3 reasons the quantity of opportunities in our sales pipeline is lower than what they need to be. 

Reason #1: Weak WIIFM

Well, the first reason is that we have a weak W-I-I-F-M.

What's a W-I-I-F-M?

Let me ask you this question: What is one frequency, one thing that almost everyone on this planet, all seven billion of us, we're all tuned into permanently?

Well, it's called WIIFM, What's In It For Me?

You see, all of us, all seven billion of us on this planet, we're facing some challenges and issues and pains and sometimes suffering.

We are always scanning our environment and our horizons to look for some kind of resolution or solution to those pains, challenges and problems we're facing.

If a product or service is to get the attention from the target market, they need to know - we need to know as providers of our products and services - what those challenges are that they are looking for the solutions to.

And if we're not targeting their needs, their pains, and their aspirations and what they're trying to resolve and solve...

If we're not doing an adequate job getting their attention addressing those issues, we will not get the attention that we should get from our marketplace.

And because of that, they'll tune us out.

If they tune us out, we don't get the incoming inquiries, engagement and interest from our marketplace that we should get.

Reason #2: Ineffective Sales Action Plan

The second reason we don't have enough opportunities in our sales pipeline is because we have an ineffective Sales Action Plan.

Basically, there are three aspects to this.

The first aspect is that we don't even have a sales action plan, meaning that we are just winging it.

The second aspect is that we have an action plan, but it's not the right set of actions.

And the third aspect is that we have a plan, it's the right set of actions, but our sales team is not doing what it needs to do to execute that sales plan.

Reason #3: Disengaged

The third reason we don't have enough number of opportunities in our sales pipeline is that we, as a sales team, as a sales organization, as a business, as a company, all the people in the company, we're not engaged with our sales message and with our sales action plan. 

How would you answer the question at the end of the story above? 

Here's my take: The reason this business president did not remember his company's new slogan was because he was not involved in the creation of their marketing message.

When we are not engaged in creating our marketing message, we are not as enthusiastic and as passionate about our market and about our message as we could be. 

And when we are not engaged with our message, we cannot execute our Sales Action Plan very well.

As a result, our marketing, our selling, and our prospecting activities are not as effective as they could be.

Sales Solution #1: Full Sales Pipeline

So how do we fix this problem?

How do we put enough number of opportunities in our sales pipeline so it's always a little fuller than we can handle comfortably?

Well, let's look at the first cause, the first reason we have this problem in the first place, which is that we have a weak WIIFM.

Well, what do I do with it? I turn it into a strong What's In It For Me.

Sales Problem and Solution #2: Quality of Opportunities in Your Sales Pipeline

Sales Problem #2: Low Quality of Sales Pipeline

The second problem we have in professional selling, as in selling in which we are perceived more as a professional than as a salesperson, is that the quality of opportunities in our sales pipeline is low.

Now, what do I mean when I say the quality of opportunities in the sales pipeline?

Well, let me put it this way.

If I have a high quality of opportunities in my sales pipeline, they are more likely to buy from me. And if I have a low quality of opportunities in my sales pipeline, they are less likely to buy from me.

What are some reasons this problem exists in the first place? Why do I have a low quality of sales pipeline in the first place?

There are 4 reasons the quality of opportunities in our sales pipeline is lower than ideal. 

Please note, these 4 reasons are numbered 4 through 7 below to continue from the previous 3 reasons, or causes, of sales problems.

Reason #4: Unclear Target

Here's a point of the story above: The first reason the quality of opportunities in our sales pipeline is low is that we're not crystal clear about what makes an ideal client for us.

If I'm not crystal clear about what makes an ideal client for me and my business, if I'm not clear about what my bullseye is, I will not hit that bullseye.

I'm going to end up putting the wrong kinds of prospects in my sales pipeline.

And if I have wrong prospects in my sales pipeline, I'm going to waste my time, energy and effort chasing the wrong kinds of prospects whose problems I probably cannot solve.

Reason #5: Unclear Message

The second reason the quality of our sales pipeline is low is that our message is not clear.

When we define an ideal client or an ideal customer avatar, one aspect of that definition needs to be which problems we help them solve and which goals and objectives we help them achieve.

And our message must talk about them in emotional terms, or at least in a way that brings out some emotions in them. 

There also needs to be a strategic match between the kinds of problems we solve and the kinds of problems they face.

If I have prospects whose problems I can solve very well, they are more likely to buy from me.

And in my sales and marketing message, I need to be crystal clear about the kinds of problems we solve for our ideal client.

If our sales and marketing message is not clear, we may attract prospects who are not your ideal potential clients.

So you will end up wasting time, energy, and effort with prospects who are not likely to buy from you.

Reason #6: Unqualified Potentials

The third reason we have a low quality of opportunities in our sales pipeline is that we're putting unqualified prospects in our sales pipeline and calling them qualified.

What's the definition of an unqualified prospect?

Well, there are certain things that we should be checking off to call a prospect qualified.

There are three criteria.

The first one is that they have a problem, an objective or a goal that they want to achieve or a problem they want to solve.

And there is an emotional charge to that, an emotional urgency in wanting to fix a problem.

Number two is that they have the money and the budget to pay for it. If they don't have the money, they may have to go to someone else and get that money, and we need to identify that clearly. 

It could be some other department within the organization or someone else on their team. 

Number three is that they have either the decision-making authority themselves or have access to someone who is in the decision-making authority.

If we don't have these three criteria checked off, we end up putting opportunities in our sales pipeline that are not fully qualified. Such opportunities tend to not pan out in the long run.

Because of that, we end up losing sales.

There are two reasons we put unqualified prospects in our sales pipeline and call them qualified.

The first one is that many organizations are not familiar with these three criteria.

If we don't know about them, obviously we have no way of qualifying against them.

The second reason we do it is curious. It has to do with psychology.

In sales, whether it's professional selling or any other type of selling, we are often under a tremendous amount of pressure from the people to whom we are accountable for producing results and bringing in sales revenues.

It could be a boss, or it could be a formal body of people, maybe a board or a committee, to whom we report our results and revenue numbers.

It could even be a spouse.

Sometimes it's our children to whom we are accountable.

We need to tell them that, "Hey, I have this much money coming in next month or next quarter or next two quarters."

To do that, we need to tell them we've got some things going.

So we have some opportunities in our pipeline and sometimes we fake or fudge those numbers a little.

The motivational industry probably had something to do with this, positive thinking and things like that, where we are trained to paint a positive picture, even though it may not be very positive.

So instead of telling the numbers the way they are to other people, we kind of put a positive spin on it.

And we say that "Hey, you know, I have some great qualified opportunities in my pipeline," even though some of those opportunities are not that great or maybe all of those opportunities are not that great.

When we tell others and ourselves a story that our sales pipeline is a high quality, even though it's not, we end up putting prospects in our sales pipeline and then we chase those opportunities. In the end, we end up wasting our time, effort, money and energy in chasing opportunities that ultimately don't pan out.

Sales Problem and Solution # 3: Your Closing Ratio

Sales Problem #3: Low Closing Ratio

The third problem that we have that contributes to not having enough sales revenues in our business is the fact that we have a closing ratio that is too low.

What's a closing ratio?

Well, the closing ratio is a percentage of opportunities we end up turning into real, closed business.

So, if you have 10 prospects in your sales pipeline and three of them buy from you, your closing ratio is three out of 10 or 30 percent.

What are the reasons that cause this problem to exist in the first place?

Well, there are five causes - five reasons - that contribute to a low closing ratio.

Please note, these 5 reasons are numbered 8 through 12 below to continue from the previous 7 reasons, or causes, of sales problems.

Reason #8: No Pain

The first cause for a low closing ratio is that we don't take the time to uncover the prospect's pain.

The term pain has been used quite a bit lately. It has become a very common term in sales literature.

But what does it really mean when we say that we haven't uncovered their pain?

What it means is that we have not uncovered the emotional reasons that make them want to do something, either solve a problem or achieve a goal that causes a sense of urgency.

I have a question for you.

Let's pretend there is a child in your family who is about five years old.

It could be your child or it could be someone else's. It doesn't matter. 

And this little person, this boy or a girl, wants something. 

Let's pretend it's early in the morning and you are getting ready for school and she says she wants some ice-cream.

And you as a good parent, an aunt, a good uncle or big brother or sister, you say, "Sure honey, but listen, right now is time for breakfast. How about you go to school now? And when you get back in the afternoon, you can have some ice-cream."

The question I have for you is this: What are the chances that this kid will say, "Sure, mom or dad. That's OK, I understand. I'll wait until I get back from school to have my ice cream."

If you ever dealt with a five-year-old, you know that this never happens.

When a kid says they want something, they want it when?

They want it now. 

So there's this sense of urgency that they have in wanting what they want.

A child does not yet understand the concept of time, because their rational mind hasn't developed yet.

One thing they say in psychology is that the child in us never goes away, even when we grow up. 

When our prospects and potential clients get older, they develop many rational characteristics. 

But the child in them never goes away.

It is still there, sitting underneath the surface.

So when we talk about pain, what it really is is that if the potential client doesn't have the sense of urgency, as in "I want this now," what they'll do is they'll just play games and make their buying activity a very intellectual process and not an emotional process.

Because of that, they will not be able to make decisions quickly.

The faculty in us that allows us to make decisions is not the intellectual faculty.

It's actually the emotional faculty. The emotion in us basically tells us, "Hey, I want something and I want it now."

So one reason we have a low closing ratio, meaning that we don't close enough business, is because we have not uncovered the emotional reason that the prospect has that causes them to buy something or make a buying decision.

Sometimes we call this pain.

Pain is something that is hurting us, something that is not right in our life. 

And we have a sense of urgency, an emotional charge, to want to fix a problem and fix it now.

If we're to close more sales, we need to find a way to get our prospects in touch with their sense of urgency in fixing their problems or attaining their goals.

Reason #9: No Money

The second reason our closing ratio is low is that our potential clients don't either have the money to pay for our products or services, or they don't have access to that money.

More specifically, we have not asked them whether they have a budget set aside or have access to money to pay for our products or services before presenting to them our features, benefits, and solutions.

Reason #10: Can't Decide

The third reason for a low closing ratio is that we have not qualified them for having a decision-making authority before we present to them our products, services, and solutions.

You may have realized that in many selling situations, our prospective clients don't really have the final buying authority for the purchase.

If you're working in the corporate world, they may have to go to someone else to make the buying decision.

So you need to be speaking with someone else in that case who has the authority to say both a yes or no to wanting to buy something. 

And if they don't have that buying authority, you need to get them to a point where they'll say, "OK, fine, I'll take you to that person" or together we'll go to that person who does have that buying authority.

This other person or persons that they have to go through could be their boss, for example, or sometimes even a committee. 

This may also happen in a buying situation where a husband and a wife both have to make a buying decision. 

For example, you may be speaking to the husband. But just because the husband is ready to buy doesn't necessarily mean that the wife is also on-board with it. So you need to have both of them on-board and sometimes in the same room before you can close the sale.

So if we end up presenting our solutions, our products, and our services to these folks who do not have the buying or the decision-making authority, who don't have the emotional reasons to buy or who don't have the money to pay for, we will waste our time, effort and energy working with them.

In the end, even if we present to them our best solutions, they will not be able to buy. And we will not be able to close a sale with them.

Reason #11: Proposals

The fourth reason our closing ratio is low is that we are giving them our expertise and knowledge in the forms of proposals, product demos and presentations prematurely.

Don't get me wrong, there is a time to give proposals and free information.

But the issue here is that we do it prematurely before making sure that we have qualified the prospect.

A qualified prospect is someone who has checked off on three boxes.

Number one, we've uncovered their emotional reasons for buying.

Number two, we've verified their access to money.

And number three, we have confirmed their decision-making ability or their access to the decision-makers.

When we give our proposals to them without qualifying them, what we are doing is free consulting.

As a salesperson, it's in our self-interest to be not giving out too many free proposals or not too many detailed proposals, where we're just solving the problems for them and we're giving away our expertise to them.

What they'll often do with that expertise is that they'll take it, go somewhere else and shop us around. This will just make the sales cycle longer and more drawn out.

And because of that, it'll be more difficult to close that sale.

Reason #12: Thinking About It

The fifth reason our closing ratio is low is that we accept think-it-over as a positive buying signal instead of seeing it for what it is, which is what I call passive rejection or a passive no.

When you're speaking with someone who doesn't have an emotional reason to buy, an urgency, they cannot make a decision, they do not have the money, they just take our proposals and shop us around, what they'll do often is they will say, "I'll think about it" or "Let me think this over."

They'll be nice to you and send you away. They'll also go away for a while. 

This kind of interaction just makes the selling process ineffective for both the buyer and the seller.

With a buying process like that, you're not able to get them to make quick decisions. As a result, you close fewer sales, and that brings down your closing ratio.

So how do we fix this? How do we improve our closing ratio?

Sales Solution #3: High Closing Ratio

Sales Strategy #8: Pain

Strategy number eight is: Ask gentle, nurturing questions to draw out the child in your potential client.

Let me explain what that means. The word pain has become very popular in sales methodologies lately.

But there is a bit of misunderstanding here, which is that when we say pain, we're not causing pain as a salesperson.

If we cause pain, if we induce pain in a prospect, they are likely to run from us. 

Prospects don't want to be in front of someone who's causing pain.

What we need to do instead is a little different.

If they've entered in a buying cycle with you, if they have gotten to a point where they're saying, "maybe I need to buy something from you," there's almost always a very high chance that there is an emotional reason which is already there to buy something.

So a professional salesperson will uncover that emotional reason for buying, which is already there.

How do we do it? Well, what we need to do is ask a ton of questions.

One thing that we really need to get good at is asking questions and figure out what is the reason - the emotional reason - that is felt strongly within them that is causing them to consider buying something.

By the way, a bit of an aside, it's also a great way to build a powerful bond with prospects.

Meaning that when we do this right, when we do it with a level of authenticity, concern and care, and we ask certain questions that bring out such emotional reasons for them to buy, they bond with us.

And that will set us apart from our competition - if we do this well.

Sales Strategy #9: Have Money

Strategy number nine is: Gauge your potential's money tolerance before presenting your features, benefits, and solutions, not after.

Once we know what their emotional reason is for buying, we need to figure out whether they have the money to pay for the problems that we're talking about or the products or services that they're considering buying from us.

And if they don't have the money, we need to have a good conversation, a solid, honest conversation about where they're going to get the money from.

Are they going to go to their boss and get the money?

Are they going to go to another department and get the money?

Are they going to put it on a credit card?

Are they going to take a loan?

These are all valid questions to ask.

We need to get into all of that, make sure that they have enough money or they have access to that money to pay for our products and services.

Sales Strategy #10: Can Decide

Strategy number 10 is: Uncover the process by which your potentials will make a buying decision before you present to them your products or services.

How do we do this?

Well, by continuing to ask them a ton of questions. 

If they can't decide, we need to ask them who gets involved or who else gets involved in making the buying decision and whether we can talk to that person or persons directly.

Sales Strategy #11: Qualification

Strategy number 11 is: Only give expertise and knowledge to those potentials who are qualified to work with you.

The fourth reason for a low closing ratio is that as much as possible, we should not be throwing proposals out there.

Asking for a proposal is an inevitable thing that people will do.

And the first thing, the first instinct that we should develop as professionals is not to be giving out proposals when we don't need to.

Now, I'm not saying that you need to create some kind of animosity or aggravate them.

There are ways to do this in a way that doesn't make them upset.

So we need to find a way to not be giving our proposals while also allowing there to be a good, strong dialogue and communication with them and bring the conversation back to the emotional reasons for them to buy a product or service. 

Sales Strategy #12: Now

Strategy number 12 is: Give your potential clients permission to tell you a no at the start of a sales process.

The last reason for a low closing ratio is think-it-over.

We need to get to a point where the think-it-over is now.

Something that we need to get clear in our heads is that it's OK if the prospect says no.

So somewhere along the line, our posture, our body language, the way we speak, we should be giving them permission, consciously and subconsciously, to just make a decision. 

No is OK and yes is fine.

One thing we do as salespeople, or the salespeople are trained to do, is to never take no for an answer.

Never, ever, ever, ever go there or never let them go there.

Basically, don't ever lead a prospect down the rabbit hole where they might end up saying no. This is a very dangerous mindset, because what that does is that it just irritates them, and it creates a huge distance between us and them.

We need to get them to the point by asking questions, by asking gentle, probing questions where they're saying, "OK, I need this now."

And they actually tell you that, and they feel that. You can see that in their body language.

You can see in their facial expressions that they want this now. 

And that's how you turn your low closing ratio into a high closing ratio.

This is common sense, isn't it?

If there is no pain, if there is no money on the table, if they can't decide and we're leaving a lot of proposals out there, and if they're saying, "I'm going to think about it," we will not close a lot of sales, right?

If this is happening, you will not have a very high closing ratio because you are just going to have lots of people out there who are "thinking about it" and not buying from you.

So if you turn that into an emotional reason to buy, which is shared, which is felt and we know what it is, if we get them to a point where they're sharing their money requirements with us, if they have the buying authority to make that purchase, if we're not leaving a lot of proposals out there on the table, if they're not giving us think-it-over's as answers, if they're making the decision to either say yes or no now, if we're doing all these things, we're going to have a very high closing ratio, correct?

It's going to be a higher closing ratio.

I'm not saying that you're going to close 100 percent of all the deals you get in front of. It can happen and it does happen. But I'm not saying that it will always happen.

However, you will improve your closing ratio.

Let's pretend that you're closing 2 out of 10 of the people in your sales pipeline, meaning that you have 10 opportunities sitting in your sales pipeline, and 8 of them either say no or just kind of wither away and go somewhere else.

And you only close 2 of those 10. That's a 20 percent close ratio. You can improve that if you do these things consistently, over time. You can get it to maybe 30 percent or 40 percent. If you get to a 40 percent closing ratio from 20 percent, that's a 100 percent improvement in your closing ratio.

That's the power of some of these small changes that you can make in your selling approach.

Sales Problem and Solution # 4: Pricing of Your Services and Products

Sales Problem #4: Pricing Pressures

Problem number four is pricing pressures.

Pricing pressures happen in two places. The first time that they give you a price objection is before they even see you face to face.

And the second time is in their buying process when they are talking to you in a sales dialogue.

Please note, these 2 causes for pricing pressures are numbered 13 and 14 below to continue from the previous 12 reasons, or causes, of sales problems.

Reason #13: Commodity

The reason our price becomes an issue in the first place is because we are seen - our products, services and company - as a commodity by the marketplace.

A commodity is a product or a service that is indistinguishable from other similar products and services.

This first pricing objection happens because they can't tell the difference between what you offer and what your competition does.

Again, this happens before they even see a salesperson face to face.

It happens when they see your marketing message somewhere in some kind of public forum, maybe on your website, in your advertisement, on social media, on your YouTube channel, or what have you.

So, in your marketing material, maybe you are saying things that just will kind of bundle you with other people.

In other words, you are not highlighting distinguishing features in your products or services that make you stand out as the only place that does something and does that really well.

So you are perceived as a commodity, as in you are doing something that everybody else is doing or a lot of other people are doing. 

Because of that, you're not standing out. 

Reason #14: Intellectual

The second place where the pricing objection happens is when we engage with them in a one-on-one dialogue.

When we engage with them in a one-on-one dialogue, at some point they'll bring up the price.

The reason this second pricing objection happens is that, perhaps, you are appealing to the intellectual side of your prospects when making a selling argument.

So the reason we get pricing pressures when we are in a sales cycle with them is because you let their buying decision become an intellectual decision.

I would like for you to think about a buying decision that you made.

Let's pretend that you bought a car.

When you bought the car, was it an intellectual decision, 100 percent, or was it an emotional one?

If you really thought hard about this, you would probably agree that you had more of an emotional reason to buy than an intellectual one.

You may not have shared that emotional reason with the salesperson you bought it from, but the reason was there.

So we don't buy intellectually. The faculty that allows us to make decisions, including buying decisions, is not our intellect.

It's actually our emotions.

When the buying process becomes overly intellectual, prospects will object to our price.

A professional can change that by getting them to talk about their emotional reasons for making a purchasing decision. 

Sales Solution #4: Pricing Cooperation

Sales Strategy #13: Monopoly

Strategy number 13 is: Set yourself up to be perceived by your marketplace as meaningfully different.

So how do we fix this?

One way we can fix it is by going back to our Sales and Marketing Message.

In our Sales and Marketing Message, we need to spell out what makes us different, what makes us stand out in the marketplace.

What is it we do that no one else can do as well as we do, in some way, shape, or form that is important to the prospects, that is meaningful to our marketplace in their terms?

When we do that, we stand out as a monopoly. Monopoly in the marketplace is when you are doing something that they perceive that only you can do as well as you do, and no one else can do it as well as you do.

When you stand out like that, at some level, they are less likely to give you a pricing fight later on.

Sales Strategy #14: Emotional

Strategy number 14 is: Engage the emotional side of the potentials before talking about money. 

The pricing objection in the second phase, when we are talking to them face to face, happens because we're not engaging their emotional side, their psychological child.

When we're not addressing their psychological child, we are not bringing out the emotional reasons for them to buy. When they feel and share with you the emotional reasons to buy, they are likely to forget about price and just talk about what their needs are.

So the pricing issue doesn't become an intellectual issue.

It becomes more of an emotional issue.

And they're willing to pay a fair price to get rid of the problem they're facing.

When you have a message that sets you apart as a monopoly, and when you begin to talk more about the emotional reasons for them to buy, their pricing pressures will turn into price cooperation.

When you do this right, you and them would come on the same side of the table and the conversation now becomes, "How are you going to pay for this, and what is it that I can do to help you find the money?"

So the pricing pressures become pricing cooperation where the two parties are talking about it as an issue that they both need to resolve together.

Sales Problem and Solution # 5: Length of Your Sales Cycles

Sales Problem #5: Long Sales Cycles

The fifth reason our sales revenues are not where we want them to be is that our deals are taking too long to close.

In sales methodology terms, what this means is that our sales cycles are too long.

The length of a sales cycle is the time that elapses from the point that someone shows an interest in your product or service to the point when they have completed buying and the money's in the bank, or you have lost a sale where you shake hands and part friends and say, "Well, we're not going to do business."

Long sales cycles happen for four reasons.

A side note here, you may now have started to see some common themes and common ideas.

So I will not spend too much time going into the things that we've already talked about.

I'm just going to spend more time on the strategies and less time on the problems. 

Please note, these 4 reasons are numbered 15 through 18 below to continue from the previous 14 reasons, or causes, of sales problems.

Reason #15: Wrong Potentials

The first reason our sales cycles are too long is because we have wrong potential clients in our sales pipeline.

Reason #16: Unemotional

The second reason is your approach to selling is overly intellectual, so the potential clients are also engaging with you intellectually.

Reason #17: No Is Not OK

The third reason is that you're avoiding a no and refusing to go down the road to potentially getting a no as an answer, and the attitude, the persona, the presence that you have is "I will not take no for an answer."

Reason #18: Reactive Negotiations

And the fourth reason for long sales cycles is what I call reactive negotiations. I'll explain this more when we talk about the strategy.

Sales Solution #5: Short Sales Cycles

Sales Strategy #15: Right Potentials

Strategy number 15 is: Craft your company's Sales and Marketing Message to attract your ideal clients.

Obviously, we need to put the right potentials in our sales pipeline.

The right potential is someone who benefits the most from the products and services we offer.

The most important aspect of this definition is that they have an important problem we can fix with our products or services, or they have an important objective that we can help them achieve, obviously with our products and services.

So if you have the wrong potentials in your sales pipeline, they will not make the buying decisions quickly.

So it'll take a very long time to close the sale with them.

So a sale that can close in two meetings, for example, will take three or four or five meetings.

Sales Strategy #16: Emotional Response

Strategy number 16 is: Design your selling process or method to address the emotional side of your prospects.

What this means is that the selling approach you employ can evoke an emotional response from your prospects.

It's important to remember that when we talk about emotions in selling, what that means is that it's not necessarily the salesperson who is emotionally involved in the selling process, but it's the prospect who is emotionally involved in their buying process.

This means that we talk less and listen more, and we ask a lot of questions.

When the prospects are emotionally involved, they are more likely to buy now than putting off the decision until later, so your sales cycles will be shorter.

Sales Strategy #17: No is Okay

Strategy number seventeen is: Make it clear to your prospects that they're expected to make a decision at some point, and that either a no or a yes is OK.

This means that somewhere towards the beginning of your selling cycle, you have a conversation where you say, "Hey, I have a question to ask. If you get to a point, sir, Mr. Prospect or Mrs. Prospect, where you feel like this is not the right thing for you to be doing, meaning that you don't want to buy from me, if that happens or when that happens, would you stop everything and say that? Will you tell me you're not going to buy from me?"

When you have a conversation like that with them, they will be surprised.

They'll look at you funny sometimes, but if you're sincere, they'll be pleasantly surprised because they've never seen or heard a salesperson talk like that before.

They'll say, "Sure, I'll tell you no if I'm not going to buy from you."

When you have a conversation like that, you take a tremendous amount of pressure from their buying process. 

And you also take a tremendous amount of pressure from your selling process because you're not trying to get them to do one thing or the other. You're just trying to help them fix a problem.

The idea here is that if you give them the permission to say no, you can also have this other conversation at some point, which is something like, "OK, Mr. and Mrs. Prospect, if it's not a no, is it also OK if we have some kind of discussion to figure out what it looks like moving forward, and what is it that we would do next?"

What you are really going for is some kind of conversation where you tell them that you expect them to make a decision at some point. 

That decision can be a yes or no, but you would like for them to make a decision. Even better, you would like for us, both of you, to make a decision.

So, here's the thing, the mindset that we need to show up with is not "I'm here to sell you something and you must not tell me no and you must say yes."

That's what the traditional salesperson or a pushy salesperson does.

As a professional, I would like for you to show up and say, my job is not to sell you stuff.

My job is to help you make a decision, the right decision, whatever that decision is for you, Mr. and Mrs. Prospect, for your situation. 

And if it's a no, I'm OK with that. If it's a yes, I would love to work with you and figure out what that looks like. 

Sales Strategy #18: Proactive Negotiations

Strategy number eighteen is: Uncover your prospects' pricing and other objections early in your selling process through proactive negotiations.

One thing that I get asked a lot is, "Hey, do you have a class on negotiations?"

Well, I don't have a class on negotiations.

The reason is that when you do this right, you shouldn't have to negotiate.

When I say negotiate, I mean what's known as positional bargaining in the business, which I think is so unpleasant on both sides. 

This is the kind of negotiating where you say, "This is going to be ten thousand dollars" and they say, "Well, no, I can't pay ten thousand dollars. Maybe five thousand dollars."

So you come down a little and you say, "OK, well, fine, eight thousand dollars."

This is a very dispiriting, demotivating conversation, in my opinion. 

So I call such negotiations reactive negotiations because you're talking about something after you no longer have a leverage on that something.

So your leverage is lost.

I would rather have a conversation like this beforehand.

What I would like for you to try is proactive negotiation. Don't negotiate the price after you've given away your proposals, your time, your energy, and your expertise.

You spend all this time and now you're going to close the deal and then you negotiate.

That's not the best time to negotiate - for either party, really, but especially for the salesperson.

The place and the time when I would negotiate is before you get into all of that.

What can you negotiate in a proactive negotiation?

Well, you can negotiate about how you're going to help them make a buying decision. 

Yes is OK. No is fine. 

You can negotiate where they're going to find the money if they need to go looking for the money to pay for the product or service that they're about to buy.

How are they going to get to the person who can make a buying decision if the prospect that you're talking to cannot make a decision?

These are the kinds of things that I would talk about before it's too late to talk about them.

I call it proactive negotiation.

Here's a secret.

When you think about it, there are only 3 reasons people don't buy from you.

And those 3 reasons are: they don't have an emotionally compelling reason to buy, they don't have the money, and they can't make a decision on their own.

So if you take away those three reasons early in proactive negotiations, at the beginning of the process, then you're more likely to close your sales quicker.

By the way, you can also proactively negotiate about other things, such as how much time you are going to spend in the buying and selling process and which process they'll use to make a buying decision.

In a nutshell, proactive negotiation is a negotiation about the process as to how they are going to buy and how you're going to help them make a buying decision, where yes is OK and no is fine.

So this is common sense, right?

Think about this.

If I'm talking to the wrong prospects in the first place, if my prospects are not emotionally motivated about solving their problems, if they have not committed to making a decision, and if we leave the most important things to negotiate, like money, until the end of the buying process, obviously it's going to take me a long time to close sales.

The opposite is also true if I'm talking to the right prospects whose problems I can solve in some unique way, if my prospects are emotionally motivated to fix those problems, if they've committed to making a buying decision, either yes or no, and we negotiate the important aspects of the deal towards the beginning of the process, we're going to have prospects who make quick decisions.

And if they do, I'll have shorter sales cycles, which will allow me to free up my time, effort and energies in pursuing more opportunities, which then will allow me to increase my sales revenues.

Sales Problem and Solution # 6: Sales Process

Sales Problem #6: Trapped in a Sales Process

The sixth problem that we have in sales that results in inadequate sales revenues is the fact that we get trapped in a sales process.

What are some reasons that cause this problem to exist in the first place?

Well, there are 2 reasons. 

Please note, these 2 reasons are numbered 19 and 20 below to continue from the previous 18 reasons, or causes, of sales problems.

Reason #19: Someone Else

The first reason is that the sales process that you may be using is probably someone else's.

When a sales process is designed by someone else, for someone else, it works great for them. But what if it doesn't work for you?

A sales process is designed for a certain personality of people and with certain types of value systems. 

A lot of factors go into why someone will have a certain type of sales process.

When you just kind of take it out of the box, whether you're buying it from a skills trainer or a sales consulting firm, it is their sales process that you're buying into.

Even if you buy that, even if you pay the money to get access to it, you must put yourself in a situation where you actually get to own it psychologically. 

So make your own process out of that.

If you don't do that, it is someone else's process. You're buying into someone else's value system, their objectives, and their goals. 

You end up owning their values and their goals and objectives and their ways of doing things. This may not be a bad thing, but what if your values and your objectives are not the same as those whose selling system you're adopting?

So being trapped in a selling process is being trapped in someone else's values and someone else's goals and objectives.

One side-effect of this is that the people who work from such a selling process or a selling system won't feel very good deep inside.

If you don't feel good working from a sales process, it may be a sign that the sales process is not designed for you and by you, but for someone else, by someone else.

Reason #20: Machine to Machine

The second reason we may feel trapped in a selling process is when it's designed to be a machine-to-machine process, not a human-to-human process.

The assumption we make when we design a sales process is that we can expect the prospect to behave in a certain way all the time or most of the time.

This is helpful up to a point, but when we make the process into some kind of mechanical system where we expect all our prospects to behave in a certain way all the time, this will create problems in our selling.

This is the kind of a selling process that sees the prospect as a predictable machine.

And if they are a predictable machine, I, the salesperson, am going to make A, B, C, X, Y, Z kinds of moves to get them to buy whatever I'm selling.

When we design a mechanical selling process, we're making two assumptions.

The first assumption is that the prospect is a machine, that they're a predictable robotic thing. And the second assumption is that the salespeople are machines. 

So in that case, you see yourself or your salespeople also as machines.

When the sales process doesn't consider the humanity, the humanness, of the people on both sides of the table, the selling party and the buying party, talking, asking questions, listening, understanding - those kinds of things - that sales process will not be effective.

Sales Solution #6: Freed by the Sales Process

Sales Strategy #19: Your Own

Strategy number 19 is: Build your sales process from the ground up when possible.

And if you buy an off-the-shelf process, make sure that you take the time to reinvent it so it's the right fit for the personality and the value system of your sales organization.

Sales Strategy #20: Human to Human

Strategy number 20 is: Build or adopt a sales process that allows you to be human in front of the prospect and treat your prospects as humans.

So make sure that the sales process is designed for a human to human contact, not for a machine to machine interaction.

It sounds like an oxymoron, right? 

How do you have a process, but it's a human-to-human process?

Well, think about what it means to be human.

The main thing that we as humans have is emotions.

So instead of trying to take all the emotions out of your selling process, make sure that you design a process that allows your prospects to not just have emotions, but also express those emotions.

Another aspect of being human is to be in the moment.

We love being in the moment and being spontaneous.

So allow for your salespeople to go off script and do what they need to do to truly help a prospect and connect with them.

So think about this. This is common sense, right?

If I have a sales process that is designed for me and by me, as in for my organization and by my sales organization, if it is designed to promote a human-to-human dialogue where we truly understand each other and we are truly trying to help them with their issues and concerns with our products and services, when it allows us a level of spontaneity in our dialogue so we can do in the moment what we need to do to truly help them, that process will not tie us down and strait-jacket us.

Instead, it will free us up to do what we need to do to help a client and make a sale.