Growing your sales is a major part of running a small business. If your business doesn’t grow, it stagnates, and well stagnation isn’t good for anything.
One way to work on business growth is through your prospective customers, and the more receptive they are, they more likely they are to become actual, happy customers.
As the following article looks at, when you are looking to create more sales by creating more receptive prospects, you and your sales team can focus in on a few key elements and values.
Let’s take a look…
- Listen – A good sales person is going to listen to prospective customer needs, and therefore the customer may become more receptive. No one wants to talk about what they want/need only to have their desires gone unheard. Whether you work in kitchen remodels, accounting or cupcakes, your customers know more of what they want then you may give them credit for. Listen first and see how receptive they become. Then put your input in and see what develops.
- Show optimism – Make sure your customers (prospective customers) see that you feel you can do whatever it takes to get them what they want. This will create the receptive attitude you’re seeking. However, be careful not to make them believe you can do something that you absolutely can’t with unjust promises. That will go against the next value.
- Demonstrate trustworthiness – Build trust with your customers. Whether you are working for them already or just hope to be, be someone they can trust. Be honest and support their needs while modifying them if necessary to reality. For instance, if you in the remodeling field, you have to stick to a budget. You can’t promise things that your customer just can’t afford. That will only cause problems later.
- Understand – From wherever it may be that your prospect is coming, try to understand. It may not be the same place you’re coming from, but if the end result is something you both want, that’s what matters.
Depending on your small; business, you will have varying degrees of relationships with your customers.
Some may last a single interaction, if you are selling them a dozen cupcakes.
Others may last months, like with a home renovation, and include many meetings, negotiations and problem solving. Others may go on indefinitely, for instance, if you are an accountant or run a yard service.
You want to hold onto these current customers and turn the prospects into valued customers. And whether your relationship continues, it would be great if they referred you as well.
So practice strong values, like trust and understanding, and watch those prospects turn into real customers.
About the Author: Heather Legg is an independent writer who covers topics related to social media, small business and working from home.