How to Develop a Sales Strategy that Maximizes Conversions

Building a sales strategy that maximizes conversion is crucial for any organization’s growth. But without the right kind of thought processes underlying the whole operation, fruitful changes are not possible.

Think about how much your company spends on generating new leads and trying to convert those leads into customers by being reliant on run-of-the-mill marketing and sales strategies.

In the end, these sales conversions just do not match up with the revenue spent to land the best quality leads.

So how do you create the best and most efficient sales strategy that results in higher conversion rates?

You will find a plethora of advice given out on this topic with the most common one being “have a well-documented plan and process, and you’ll be all right.”

This may hold true to a certain extent.

But the real problem why most companies fail to turn prospects into clients lies in the fact that their efforts are too internally focused.

Let’s start from the very beginning and take a look at what a sales strategy truly means and how we can optimize it to make way for increased conversions.

What is a Sales Strategy?

A sales strategy is a detailed plan for selling a product or service to qualified customers. The main goal of a sales strategy is to provide a solution to your customer’s problem in a way that sets you apart from the competition.

Sales strategies are meant to provide clear objectives and guidelines to your sales team. This includes information such as:

• Key Performance Indicator (KPI)

• Buyer personas

• Sales team structure and individual roles

• Growth goals

• Selling methodologies

• Competitive analysis

Here, many other factors are also taken into account. But the gist of every sales strategy boils down to making sure that your sales team hits their quota.

However, there is a problem with that approach.

Problems with Conventional Sales Strategies

Most of the above-mentioned guidelines and key factors are important in their own right as they keep every member of your sales team on the same page. But this conventional approach falls short due to its main focus being on the internal workings of the organization.

This means that the winning conversations that would actually land and serve a customer rightfully get blurred in the background.

To be truly effective in your sales conversion efforts, every sales strategy needs to put the customer at its center. This is what is going to create a distinctive buying experience for your customer, separating you from the rest.

Research from SiriusDecisions showed that the primary inhibitor to sales achieving quota is the inability to communicate a meaningful message to the customer.

Another study conducted by Forrester Research indicated that only 15 percent of the sales calls added any value for the customer. The same study went to reveal that only 7 percent of the prospective customers were willing to probably schedule a follow-up.

So, what can be done right? What here needs to change? Why are the conversion numbers so low?

If your sales team cannot effectively communicate with the buyer why their solution is unique, better, and worth the investment, you simply will not land more sales.

Let’s have a look at how your company can develop a sales strategy that can turn prospective customers into loyal customers. 

How to Develop a Sales Strategy that Maximizes Conversions

Define Your Ideal Buyer Persona

One of the biggest areas where companies spend money and end up making a considerable dent in their sales budget is by chasing unproductive and time-consuming leads. Those leads that never amount to anything and will never invest in the company’s business no matter how hard one tries to nurture a relationship with them.

To be effective, your sales reps need to recognize the difference between a good profile and a bad one. You need to have a clear picture on the type of customer that most often interacts with your business i.e., your ideal buyer.

This is especially important for business-to-business (B2B) interactions as business-to-customer (B2C) usually move straight to developing the ideal buyer persona outline of the people they aim to work with.

For the sales team, a good practice while creating the perfect buyer persona is to recognize what makes a prospect a good fit for their business. This includes things like demographics, location, buyer income, and much more.

Here are a few best practices to keep in mind while building a buyer profile:

• First thing’s first. Recognize what the company is all about. What is your business’s focus? What is a product or service that you are striving to provide to the customer?

• Create a list of all your existing customers that are currently using your products or services. What patterns emerge about the kind of people you are working with? Moreover, what did the sales cycle look like for these customers?

• List out the characteristics that make your ideal buyer persona a good fit for you. For instance, a medium-sized organization with 100-300 employees might be the best fit for you. This does not mean that you should ignore all other prospects. It just means you should prioritize what you think fits perfectly with your business.   

Be Empathetic: Listen to the Customer 

As mentioned earlier, a typical sales strategy involves focusing on the prospect of hitting a certain sales quota, and that is it.

Sales reps usually follow a set of repeatable steps to lead a prospect into purchasing a service or product. These steps normally consist of:

• Identifying the lead

• Qualifying the lead

• Discovering the prospect’s needs

• Negotiating

• Closing the deal

This is a great checklist to follow. However, in reality, the entire process is not as straightforward as this, especially in today’s ultra-competitive environment.

With so many creators and businesses on the market, consumers have ample choice to choose what suits them best. If a business fails to please them, they will easily move on to another one.

This means that selling today is not as predictable and straightforward to rely entirely on traditional selling strategies.

Now, buyers are actively asking questions to decide whether you are able to provide them a service that is specific to their needs.

This goes to show that a strategy that only revolves around the internal workings of the sales and marketing team of a business is not going to work. A one-size-fits-all approach is bound to fail in today’s marketplace.

Instead of being program-centric, your sales strategy needs to be problem-centric, focusing on providing a solution to the customer in order to maximize conversion from prospect to customer.

Deliver Solutions on a Timetable

Urge your buyer to take action by delivering solutions on a timetable.

Delivering solutions on a timetable not only helps you cut off unnecessary time wasters but also causes your customer to do the same and get back to you on time.

It introduces a “fear of loss” factor that urges them to take action while also helping you be a disciplined seller.  

Nurture a Meaningful Relationship with the Customer

The most important ingredient of a successful conversion strategy is to focus on the customer above all. And what better way to do that than by cultivating a meaningful relationship with them?

The crux of building your relationship with your customer starts with genuinely trying to find out how your services can benefit and solve a problem for them. This way, your interactions are sincere. As a result, not only does your client grow, but you grow as well by landing a loyal customer.

For instance, you can offer your potential client small products or services to get them in the door. From there, you can nurture a relationship with them that is built on trust and mutual value.

Personalize your sales outreach as much as possible. Gain some insights into who your customer is and what their interests are. All of this can be greatly helpful in developing a sales strategy that maximizes conversions.

Illustrate your Vision: Show Them What Sets You Apart   

The truth is, most buyers are not clear on what they want until you show it to them. Many times, they are not able to properly articulate what challenges they are looking to overcome. This runs the risk of the buyer not recognizing the true value of your service as they won’t know what to do with it.

This is why you need to illustrate a buying vision for customers and show them what they need. Instead of talking about what you do, create a vision that defines a set of challenges that your service can solve and the potential that can lead to.

Create a Tailored Marketing Strategy: Show Them How You are Solving Their Problem

One of the biggest challenges of a sales strategy is to convert a prospect or lead into a paying customer.

An effective way to deal with this issue of keeping the prospective buyer interested in you and help them progress toward becoming a satisfied customer is to tailor your service according to the specific solutions they need.

As mentioned above, a problem-centric approach should always be adopted when dealing with the consumer. You need to tailor your content in a way that pushes on their pain points, helping them recognize how your service is going to be valuable for them. 

Align Your Sales and Marketing

Many businesses don't realize the value of aligning their sales and marketing efforts collectively.

Marketing creates the right tools and generates leads for sales. Sales then uses those tools to convert the leads into revenue.

Both efforts must share a mutual purpose and should be aligned to achieve that purpose.

Keep Them Coming Back

Selling to an existing customer is much easier than landing new ones. Your current customers are the ones making you the most money. Therefore, the biggest chunk of that money should be spent on keeping them aboard.

A big mistake many businesses make is to leave their clients hanging once the deal is closed. This is not how this should be.

Serve those who already made an investment in your business by:

• Offering them referral benefits. Every time they recommend your service to a friend, they will get a discount or an additional service for free.

• Reselling the same products to existing customers again.

• Upselling by enticing the customer to purchase more premium options than before.

Practice Gratitude

When all is said and done, your customers are the reason your business exists. They are your biggest asset. And that is something that you should never hesitate to show your clients: just how important they are to you and your business.

Say a simple thank you. Reach out and email them on their birthdays. Offer coupons or freebies to exclusive customers. Show them how much they matter and how grateful you are for their interest in your service.

Gratitude goes a long way in building loyal customers that ultimately result in keeping those conversion rates up, paving the way for long-term growth.