A lot of emphasis these days are being put on getting leads, but leads don’t generate revenue.  Clients do!  In this video, I go through the 3 reasons why clients may not decide to buy your services and what you can do to improve your sales conversion.

You’ve got the lead, they book a call, but what makes them say, “I’ll think about it” and never call again?  Why do they prefer other service providers instead of you?

Let’s start off with confidence.  How confident are you?  I’ve been in sales since 1996 and I must tell you that confidence, not competence, is convincing.  How confident are you in yourself?  Are you discounting your abilities and unconsciously using negative self talk?   How confident are you that you can help them? Are you confident in the value you can offer them?

If you want to improve your sales conversion, first work on your self confidence.

Confidence is affected by several things.

1. Your intention. If your intention in getting clients is to fill up your own wallet, or if you don’t really care about your clients, you will find it difficult to build trust with most clients.  They will feel this invisible energy that makes them postpone their buying decision.  It’s like bad vibes!  We’ve all had them from someone else.  Now let’s make sure we’re not sending them.
2. Your self image. Pretty obvious, but I’ll mention it anyway.  If you have self doubt, it may manifest in your language, your rates, and other forms of non verbal communication.  Get it sorted by working with a coach or someone who can help you overcome your own limiting beliefs about yourself.
3. Your sales pipeline.  If you’re expecting to close 5 clients by working on only 7 prospects, you’re setting yourself up to look desperate.   And desperate people do not look confident.  It will show in your sales conversation, your opening and closing approach.  Trust me!  Have a robust pipeline; just assume a 20% conversion rate.  So if you need 5 clients, work on 25 prospects.  What’s the worst that can happen?   You get more clients than you need?  Ugh, what a first-world problem!

The next thing that affect sales conversion is your sales conversation.  Are you acting like a human brochure or are you actually solving their needs?

We don’t all have lots of selling experience, but we’ve all had experience being sold.  So think about what kind of sales conversations you enjoyed in the past; the ones where you felt comfortable, helped, and cared for.  Think of that process you went through and how it made you feel confident to buy.  What did the sales person do to you, with you, and for you?  What kind of conversation did you have?  Was it a one-way presentation about the products or was it a two-way conversation that used questions to discover your needs?  Who was the sales person for you?  Were they human brochures who just waffled about their features and benefits, or were they solution-providers who listened to you and suggested useful advice?

Now look at how you sell.  No matter what you sell, there is a pattern in your selling conversations.  How do you start?  What do you spend the most time on? What is the ratio between talking and listening? What kinds of questions do you ask, or don’t ask? Here’s my favourite test for aspiring sales people: “Good sales people drink their coffee hot!”  Let’s say you’re doing a zoom meeting with your prospect and you each prepare a cuppa for yourself before the call.  Do you get to drink your coffee hot, or is it already cold by the time you drank it?  If you get to drink it hot, well done!  That means you’re discovering and listening to the prospects first before waffling away about what you can do for them.  If you’re drinking it cold, well, you’ve been talking too much.  And don’t be surprised if they reply with, “Uh-huh… ok… well, great. Let me think about that and I’ll let you know.”  Your sales conversation should make the clients feel that you understand their needs.  You have listened and your solutions are relevant.  They should also feel that they co-created the solutions with you. People are less likely to say No to a solution, if they feel that they’ve co-created it.

And finally, the third thing that affects your sales conversion is follow up.  It’s amazing to meet sales people who are so excited to have a sales meeting with you, but do not follow up afterwards.  They make the proposal, send it off, and then expect the wheel to turn by itself.  Or they end their proposal with, “Let me know if you have questions.” That’s a reactive attitude.  End your proposals by making an appointment for another call to explain the details and to answer their questions. That’s another excuse to talk to them, and another chance to get a decision.

Marketing gets you leads, but leads don’t generate revenue!  Clients do.  So let’s focus now on your sales process, not just your marketing strategies. I hope this blog has helped and if you want to sharpen your sales process and need customised advice to do so, email me at [email protected]

About The Brave Zone / Cynthia Wihardja

I combine psychology and proven business acumen to help self-employed professionals attract their ideal clients.