Sales Tactics 101: Prospecting, Qualifying, and Closing Deals

The sales tactics provide the foundations for the success of an integrated sales company. Sales tactics and initiatives enable sales reps to work hard and achieve optimum success.

When you begin your sales journey you can take the reins. Discipline and skill are important. Your desire to exceed expectations makes your job as a sales rep difficult.

An introduction to sales tactics is a great way to learn the sales strategy. During this education, you must also learn marketing and sales strategies to gain new customers. Many salespeople see that sales is evolving rapidly and that sales can quickly become very competitive at this level.

Often leads are unsure of the need for your product or services but with a good sales process in place, sales teams can easily differentiate between leads who need a product or service when the sales environment changes.

If you’ve ever been selling to customers, you need to help them grow your business quickly and effectively through well-planned sales tactics. Qualified leads will be particularly receptive to your sales pitch as soon as the right sales tactics are put in place.

What Is A Sales Strategy?

A sales strategy is the process in which sales teams are positioned in a sales environment in order to attract potential customers and sell a product or service.

A sales strategy is aimed at sales reps and outlines the sales process for product positioning and competitive evaluation. Many strategic decisions involve a thorough process of best practices and processes determined by a company’s management. The most critical element of your sales funnel is your customers. Therefore, implementing sales strategies is not an all-purpose approach. The customer needs are different so companies cannot develop and implement the same sales strategy over time.

What Is Prospecting In B2B?

What exactly is prospecting? Prospecting in business means looking for new customers. Consequently, it is the first and most crucial step in the sales process and establishes the foundation for success in every subsequent phase.

Before you begin prospecting in sales, it is crucial to define your target market and target audience. Create a set of criteria to look for, so you don’t waste time on leads that are unqualified or do not meet your ideal customer profile.

Typically, a qualified sales prospect understands the value of what you are selling, has the budget to purchase what you are offering and can make an informed, decisive purchase decision.

If your sales prospectors are developing your ideal customer profile, it is important to distinguish between those who desire versus those who intend to purchase your product. The fact that someone wants your product does not necessarily mean they are qualified.

Examine your customer relationship management platform (CRM) and historical data to define your ideal prospect. Answer these questions in order to identify patterns:

Which of those have the shortest sales cycles?

Which industries/personas have the highest conversion rates?

Which attributes do they have in common?

Which customers have the highest order value?

It is important to find common themes in these answers in order to develop your prospecting strategy. The more information you have, the better. Even company headcount, industry, job title, and daily work tools can offer valuable insight into your prospecting process.

Benefits of having your sales tactics/ sales strategy right

Devoting time to getting your sales tactics/sales strategy right is vital for B2B companies. Here are the seven greatest benefits of alignment and why they matter:

1. A Clearer Understanding of Your Potential Buyers

Marketing and sales are charged with the responsibility of attracting, nurturing, and closing deals, so they need to be aligned about the potential buyers they need to reach. It’s much easier to create accurate buyer profiles when the teams work as one.

Both the sales and marketing teams are involved in the decision at different points so being aware of who to engage and when is critical from start to finish. This also enables a smooth handoff between marketing and sales teams.

It also helps when both the marketing and sales teams understand what is most likely to influence buyers at various stages of the buyer’s journey.

Proven sales tactics provide a clear and agreed-upon understanding of the customer and promote shared ownership of the customer experience.

As a result, prospects are less likely to feel as though they are suffering the effects of a siloed organization that manifests in a fragmented, confusing engagement and are in the long run, encouraged to transition faster in the buying journey. Check out the related guide, customer lifetime value.

2. More Feedback from Customers

The best sales tactics provide both marketing and sales teams with useful data about potential buyers as they interact with and observe them on their buyer journeys.

By sharing these insights about behaviors, preferences, interests, pains, and even opinions, many salespeople on the sales team are positioned to better identify and engage the most promising potential customers.

In fact, the more detailed the lead record, the more accurately the sales team can route leads – and the less time they spend trying to figure out which ones to prioritize. 

3. Better Implementation of Customer Feedback

There’s a higher chance for sales teams to make implementing customer feedback and reviews a priority when they have a good sales strategy and sales tactics in place.

Enhanced access to customer data makes it easier for the right teams to make the right changes when required by the customers.

For example, say the marketing team provides potential prospects’ records who have indicated that they prefer being contacted via email instead of by phone or Zoom.

With this knowledge, the sales team can reach out appropriately and avoid alienating those potential customers. Likewise, if a sales rep discovers that a late-stage prospect is actually nowhere near ready to purchase, they can easily send the lead back to marketing for further nurturing.

4. Better Support from Business Leaders

When the executive team sees the marketing and sales teams working together to put together a good sales tactic, they will be motivated to help ensure that the strategy is successful.

From clear, ongoing communication about the importance of collaboration to the commitment of resources to ensure and maintain this collaboration, support can be provided in many different ways.

A few examples include initiatives to break down departmental silos, such as integrating all necessary tools and modifying compensation plans to better reflect and reward both departments’ combined efforts.

5. Better Engagement Between Sales and Marketing

This is where many sales teams go wrong.

When the marketing and sales team are separated, each team focuses on its own activities without taking notice of the other. The result is duplication of efforts and, sometimes, confusion for prospects.

This could also cause leads to drop off along the customer journey at unpredictable points, making it extremely difficult to pinpoint where exactly they do. 

On the other hand, interaction and brainstorming between the two teams can amplify their impact when they interact regularly.

When sales and marketing work collaboratively, campaigns can be launched with maximum effect, leads can be handled smoothly, and prospects are engaged in ways that wow potential buyers.

In addition, the synergistic relationship between the marketing and sales team allows them to respond quickly when market dynamics change.

6. Clearer Mapping of the Buyer Journey through the Sales Pipeline

A major challenge faced by B2B organizations is shedding their inside-out perspective to understand the buying process directly from the buyer’s perspective.

This is especially critical for any organization adopting an account-based approach. A well-defined sales strategy will help the sale team gets rid of the doubt and instead leads to a holistic view of the buyer journey from the beginning to the end of the sales pipeline.

This mapping provides a much more realistic understanding of the prospect’s experience, reducing the risk of making the wrong assumptions about who is involved and in what ways from the buyer’s side.

With an accurate view of the customer journey, marketing and sales can more confidently define and execute campaigns designed to trigger and increase engagement.

Top Sales Tactics Every Sales Team Can Use To Close More Deals

1. Pay attention to your existing customers’ pain points and solve them

Pain points are the problems your customers face, problems your products could help them solve.

It’s risky to make assumptions about your customers’ problems as one wrong move can have them running off to your competitors. If you skip this step and jump right into selling, you’ll just be shooting in the dark.

People pay attention to solutions and benefits, not product features. So, how do you explain the benefits of your product?

For example, if you’re working as a sales rep at a bank and your bank has recently launched a mobile app.

Instead of focusing on the app’s features and functions during a sales pitch, tell prospective customers how it can help them.

Customers expect you to provide them with instructions on how to complete tasks such as international bank transfers or pay their bills on the go.

By using this simple sales tactic, you’ll avoid sounding salesy and establish trust with potential customers.

You can use any of these tools to get a deeper understanding of your customers’ pain points;

• Cold calls
• Cold emails
• Customer surveys
• Social media
• Networking events and in-person meetings

2. Teamwork works every time

Sales reps will learn a lot about the existing customers and shorten the sales process when they liaise with other teams within the organization, such as the marketing, customer relationships, and account management teams, for example.

These teams work with the existing clients post-purchase, develop relationships, and have first-hand experience with customer feedback.

Without needing to do any extra research, sales reps can easily relay commonalities between their clients to shed light on their behavior and intent.

3. Warm up your sales phone calls and emails

If done correctly, cold calling is still an effective selling technique sales professionals do not want to miss. However, thorough research needs to be conducted so that personalization and other key elements are not missing during the cold call sessions.

Naturally, this means you have to do your homework first.

Before you phone call a prospective customer, you must first fully understand who your ideal customer is and if they fit the profile of your buyer personas. Find out if there are any common characteristics between your existing customers. This will help you understand what to look for in a prospect.

You should also find out which of your current customers have the highest lifetime value (LTV), and which ones make smaller yet frequent purchases that contribute to your MRR.

Once you’ve identified best-fit B2B customers, do some more research on who you’ll be contacting in the business. Find out who the decision-makers are.

If you’re pitching enterprise accounts, contacting the CEO may not be a very good idea, as the problem you solve is likely to be the priority of other decision-makers.

Reach out to a manager or head of a department instead. Make sure you find out as much as you can about them before making the call. For example, if you’re selling CRM software, identify the sales lead, Chief Revenue Officer (CRO), Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) or other senior marketing professionals from the organization.

Look them up on LinkedIn, dig into any of their published work and peruse their online profiles to uncover their interests. Treat this information as ammunition to help you connect.

In the first 15-20 seconds, introduce yourself and drop a personalized statement that builds up to why you called.

4. Use social media to find and qualify prospects

Social media can be a game-changer for your sales activities.

This is because many of the people involved in business decision-making (millennials) also happen to make up the largest customer base of most social media platforms, especially Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter.

According to Sprout Social, 75% of millennials note they use social media to interact with brands and companies and 85% of brands say they use social media to connect with customers.

This is why using social media to find leads, engage in conversations and educate potential customers about your brand is a foolproof sales tactic that almost never goes wrong.

But social selling tactics are more than simply posting and soliciting engagement. Here are a few ways to use social platforms strategically to increase your sales:

Join LinkedIn and Facebook groups

LinkedIn groups offer a huge networking opportunity. You can participate in conversations, discover industry experts and decision-makers in your industry, or simply listen to and learn from discussions relevant to your business.

For example, if you’re selling marketing software and your ideal customers are small business owners, you can join groups related to small business marketing or growth.

Connect with prospective buyers

Actively look for executives and decision-makers who fit your ideal customer profile and reach out on LinkedIn with a personalized message.

Stay away from the standard messaging when sending a connection request. Instead, add a personalized note introducing yourself and why you would like to connect. Professionals can easily spot bot-like messaging and this could lose you a deal.

Engage in relevant conversations

Social media has the advantage of allowing you to search for relevant conversations through hashtags. Take advantage of this opportunity to find customers looking for answers or advice. Participate in the conversation by offering value and mentioning how your product might help solve their problems.

Let’s say you’re selling an affiliate marketing tool. Try typing “affiliate marketing software suggestions” into Twitter and looking for someone that is asking for suggestions using the social platform.

One of the sales tactics you could try is to contribute to this conversation and shed light on your product and its benefits.

It’s a great way to connect directly with potential buyers and generate qualified leads.

5. Ask for and reward referrals

It is possible to generate some of your most important and profitable leads through word-of-mouth referrals. You can break down barriers and start a conversation by getting a reference from someone you know and trust.

Word of mouth is the most common way people learn about news from their family and friends. In addition, 83% of Americans say their purchasing decisions are influenced by recommendations from friends and family.

Compared to non-referred new customers, referred customers are 18% more loyal, have a 16% higher lifetime value, and spend 13% more. The sales cycle for referral clients is also shorter, and the conversion rate is higher. Referrals are one of the most powerful sales techniques available to sales professionals.

Establishing expectations early on is crucial when it comes to referrals. Whenever you close a deal, let your client know that it may come the time when you ask for a recommendation. The reason for this is that what you offer might be valuable to them.

It is imperative that you set expectations appropriately in order to set yourself up for future success. In addition, your client might already have someone in mind when he hears your question, so he won’t feel surprised or confused.

Consider offering an incentive if you are having trouble generating organic referrals.

However, this is one of the best sales tactics but unfortunately isn’t for everyone. A referral program is only effective when it motivates customers and is strategically implemented. Structure and predictability are key components of great referral programs.

Making sure your product or service is good enough to recommend is the best way to gain referrals. Customers will spread the word about your brand if you provide a high-quality product and a delightful experience.

6. Create sales enablement content

It is imperative to nurture and educate buyers on your product when they are evaluating complex solutions. This is where sales enablement comes in. Using these resources, you’ll be able to nurture leads effectively throughout the buying process using on-brand, data-driven tools.

In order to create the most effective sales enablement content, teams must collaborate across departments. Together, you can share and compile valuable customer insights about problems, pain points, and needs.

Then, you can create compelling content and share it via an effective, collaborative marketing and sales strategy. Sales conversions will be significantly boosted by this content. The greatest salespeople routinely include sales enablement content in their sales presentations.

Listed below are some types of content that are effective:

Case studies

Demonstrate how your business has helped other customers achieve similar goals. Provide social proof by providing data points and quotes.

Whitepapers

You can validate your claims with statistics and research about how your business solved similar problems with these text-heavy informational papers.

Product sheets

It is convenient for potential customers to have a document or web page that explains the specifications, features, and benefits of a product. In addition to being more visually appealing than a simple email, a product sheet also offers the advantage of being more engaging.

Demos

Demos can be a great way to educate prospective buyers about your product. If you’re a SaaS business, you can create video demos or even webinars to help interested prospects learn more about how your software works.

Reviews and testimonials

Customer testimonials and product reviews are miniature versions of case studies in that they provide social proof that can be used to convert prospects.

Comparison charts

Comparing your product with competitors, often in the form of tables that make it easy to understand how your product is superior.

The right sales enablement content will help you and your team nurture prospects through the sales cycle with on-brand, professionally executed content.

Final Words

The current buyers have a choice. Salesforce Research says 84% of customers think customer experiences are more important than the company’s product and service. These experiences include their interactions with sales.

They expect you not only to know their business – you also need to know them as individuals.

Building a solid sales process is vital in all businesses. Selling tactics is an approach that salespeople use to reach lofty objectives. This helps to close the deal, but also helps fill your pipeline with qualified prospects.

In our modern world, you can employ a variety of tactics to sell your products. In this article, we have everything you need to know about building working sale tactics regardless of your industry, company size or business model.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the 4 sales strategies?

Sales tactics differ depending on the sort of relationship between the buyer and seller. Basically, four sales strategies exist; script-based sales, need-satisfied sales consultation and strategic partnerships.

What are selling tactics in business?

A sales tactic is an action taken to execute sales strategies effectively. Tell me the way I communicate with the customer.

The marketing technique of developing brochures or websites is similar. While Strategy describes the purpose of the project, Technique shows the method used to progress the project.