In business, it's great to have a product that no other company can offer. However, the reality is that most businesses have to differentiate using the following methods: sales, marketing and price. In the B2B game, the skill and talent of your sales team could easily make the difference between a profit and a loss. Here are tips and techniques that you can encourage your sales team to follow in order to lift performance.

Understand The Product

With B2B sales, the client will usually expect a consultative approach. This means that they don't just expect to be given details about the benefits of the product; they want to know how it can be applied in their business to achieve their goals. The client won't necessarily expect the sales person to be impartial, but they will expect them to know their stuff and to be able to answer their questions. This is why the onus, to a large extent, falls on the employer to ensure that the employee is suitably qualified staff, or that they train their staff so that they are able to answer your clients' questions. For a sales person, knowing their stuff is half the battle.

Be Persistent

In sales there is a fine line between being too pushy and being persistent. When you have confidence in what you sell, and you are confident that there are benefits for the client's business, the sales person should ensure that they do not pass up an opportunity through failing to keep in touch with the client. When you are selling an item over a longer sales cycle of three months or more, you should try to touch base with the client once a month at least. This will ensure that you remain at the forefront of their mind, and that they are less likely to put the decision off.

Build A Relationship

In sales it can be easy to forget to build a relationship with your clients. However, although it is unfair, this can play a big role in getting a customer and keeping them. Try to get to know the customer, what the like, what they don't, and cater for their needs. The more the customer considers you to be likeable, the less likely they are to say no. It is important that you do not seem unnatural when building a relationship with your business to business customers. Try to build a relationship in a different way to suit each customer, their confidence levels, and their approach to business.

Ask For The Sale

Too many sales people are scared to ask for the sale, or struggle to do this because they have worked towards building a relationship with the customer first. If the customer does not appear to have any objections, then ask for the sale there and then. If they say no, then ask why not. If they say they are not authorised to make a decision, ask if it is okay to speak with the decision maker. You have to do what it takes with each prospect, or you risk throwing opportunities away.

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