Why Tonality Matters in Sales

Ever been in a situation when you're caught in a heated debate, when you reflect back it's often the way you say something is often more important than what you intended to say. This principle applies to sales as well. 

It's true; the tone of your voice might actually be jeopardising your sales success. You may have put hundreds of hours into researching your market, learning your product and crafting your pitch, but if you aren't aware of what your voice conveys to your potential customers, all the effort you've put in may be for nothing.

Here's the good news. If you're consciously aware of this aspect of communication, you can make a conscious effort to improve it (and your sales) in the process.

What is tonality?

Tonality refers to the way your voice sounds when you speak. If you notice how many miscommunications happen during text conversations or email exchanges it's often caused by a misinterpretation as the receiving person can't her the tone of your voice.

Although tonality can be influenced by your mood, your surroundings and even your upbringing you have the opportunity to consciously control how your words are presented. Think you already know how you sound? Record yourself during a mock sales pitch and then prepare to be surprised. Chances are you don't even realise how you're coming across.

Why is tonality important?

Sales is the art of communicating with another person. And in business, the first sale is always to yourself, if you don't believe in what you are offering, why would anyone else believe in it?

Even if you have perfected the words for your sales pitch, your tone may and will betray you. You should sound like you care about their problems and your prospects might actually give you a chance.

Mastering your tone is an essential part of your sales pitch and once you learn to control it, you'll be on your way to better sales.

How to use the right tone in your sales presentations?

Ever attended a presentation where the presenter presented his materials in the same monotonous tone through the conversation, you'd possibly passed out from boredom. Remember you will need to vary your tone through the conversation to keep your audience engaged and hanging your every word.

Conclusion

Some people are born with perfect tonality, they naturally know how to just talk to people to achieve their goals. But for the majority of us practice will only make us better. Be aware of your tonality and you've already made major strides to improving your sales presentation. This is an invaluable skill that you can practice and eventually master.

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How to Anchor During a Negotiation to Close 100% More Sales

Negotiation is a critical skill for anyone and especially for salespeople. Although there's no single perfect approach, it's in your ability to effectively negotiate a deal through being able to read the situation and act accordingly than it is about talking a prospect into doing what you want them to do.

When buyers make a purchase it's natural for them to experience a phenomenon called an anchoring bias which is the tendency to focus heavily on the first price they see in the context of a sale. By understanding how anchoring can impact the decision-making process, salespeople can be better equipped to handle different challenging situations during a negotiation with potential customers.

How anchoring works

Don't dive in without your diving gear. It's important that you determine what information to share with prospects. Keep in mind that the first value they hear has a high likelihood to influence their decision, and after your initial conversations with the prospect you feel you can present a package that is financially feasible for them and profitable for you, you can get ahead of anchoring bias by presenting a mutually beneficial first offer.

Challenges of Anchoring in Negotiation

Anchoring can also create challenges in the negotiation process when there is misalignment between two parties on the value of the offer.

Conclusion

The more experience you have at negotiating the more comfortable you will be working through these scenarios. To hone in your negotiation skills, hop on a video call with a colleague and try an exercise together.

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How to Get Your Sales Back on Track

More sales can mean more revenue and a bigger profit for your business, however, as your sales numbers continue to grow companies pass the point of being able to fulfils every order as soon as it's made. This is a sales backlog. This is often unavoidable, no matter how good your inventory management processes that have been set in place.

This isn't necessarily a bad position to be in. Although it is ideal to fill customer orders as quickly as possible, a healthy backlog shows that your product/service is highly in demand. 

The importance of a sales backlog

This could mean your product is high in demand, or it could mean that your fulfilment techniques are inefficient. Measuring your backlog helps you assess if your company is in a strong position for growth or this will continue to be a problem as you grow.

Best way to calculate your sales backlog

The best way to calculate your backlog is typically expressed as a ratio. Compare a period of time of your total orders with your ordering processing capacity. The rule of thumb is to have a larger number as this would mean that your backlog is larger. Here's an example of what the formula looks like:

Sales backlog = backlog of orders/total sales

For example if you make 110 sales per week but have a 10 order backlog (inability to fulfil sales) you would have a sales backlog of 0.09.

10/110=0.09

What this means is that for every order 0.09 (or 9%) orders are actually backlogged. Check in to see if this trends up over time or if this is repetitive in a cycle.

How to manage your sales backlog

To manage your sales backlog means effectively understanding what the ratio represents and how it actually impacts or effects your business operations. Check in frequently and implement a faster turnaround time for your suppliers or find ways to be able to deliver your service more efficiently.

Conclusion

The best-case management for your backlog means to find a sweet spot between demand and your available capacity, until you are able to solve either side of the issue. There are many tactics which include new physical processing capacities or increasing efficiency with the inclusion of specific processes.

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8 Different Tonal Patterns Which Will Help You Close More Sales

Tonality is broken up into 8 generally different patterns. Which you use will depend on the relationship you've managed to build with the other receiver. Look at it as where they are currently in the sales process and what you hope to gain in that moment of the conversation.

1. Scarcity/Urgency

This is used to convey the need to make a decision quickly.

2. Reasonable

You are on the same side as them, speaking to them as if you're one of them or you can relate from their point of view to build a positive relationship with the buyer.

3. Absolute Certainty

You know you can help them and you want them to understand that as well.

4. I Care

Empathy is important in everything you do including sales. Customers want to know that their problems really matter to you.

5. Using a question to be declarative

Ending your statement with a raised voice suggesting a question mark, to infer an agreement.

6. Series of 3 Up Tones

This micro-agreements can encourage others to agree with you.

7. The Presupposing Tone

You know the outcome they can expect and is especially helpful when emphasising the benefits which can be expected when using your product/service.

8. I really want to know

Customers yearn to be heard. Use this tone to allow you to communicate that you want to hear them and their problems.

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7 Steps on How to Execute Productive Cold Calling in Sales

Two words that strike fear to any salesperson is to "cold call". As challenging as this may be the ability to pick up the phone and create a relationship is a critical skill for any successful salesperson. It's normal for the first few phone calls to cause anxiety but a calling campaign can be incredibly lucrative for those who know how to navigate it and are brave enough to master it.

This task gets even easier when you know how to properly plan and execute a calling campaign for your sales task.

What is a cold calling campaign?

Through the life of sales you are collecting contact information and buyer data from your potential customers. There are companies which will sell you lists of potential customers that fit your desired criteria. A cold calling campaign is a structured plan for contacting these individuals for one-on-one conversations. It's the oldest form of marketing and when done properly can yield unexpected results.

Benefits of a cold calling campaign

• You learn more about your customers. Having a personal connection allows you to learn about their pain points and understand the lengths which they have tried to solve their own problems in the past, and what they are looking for going forward.
• Improving brand awareness in the marketplace.
• Keep your sales database up-to-date.
• Generate leads.
• Close sales.

Outcomes may differ depending on your goals and tactics but this remains to be a great investment for your business.

How to Execute a Productive Calling Campaign

1. Understand your goals

Before taking any action decide what you are looking to get out of this time. Are you reconnecting or announcing a new product or cold calling potential customers?

2. Decide who you will contact

Your database should be solid to be able to provide you with all the information you need to reach out to existing or lapsed customers. If you're cold calling make sure the contact information you have includes people who may need your product and have the ability to buy it.

3. Decide how you will contact people

4. Decide when you'll call

This will be based on who is on your list, if your ideal customers are businesses, make sure to call during business hours.

5. Arm your salespeople or agents properly

You should have your pitch ready and easy to follow, but you'll also want to have answers ready for any questions that may be asked.

6. Record data

Manage your contact database using a CRM system. This information can help you better serve or sell in the future.

7. Evaluate your plan and switch if needed be.

If you find that you are having absolutely no success it may be time to make changes. Know that not all strategies are fixed.

Conclusion

Don't waste your time, energy and money on a jump in first mentality. Identify your goals, have a strong database (purchase one if you don't) and factor in follow-up calls. Be sure to speak to them in the right language, and preparing to answer any questions that they may have.

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5 Questions That Can Identify a Customer's Pain Points

As you're performing sales qualification with a prospect, here are 5 questions to help you discover some of the pains that can create a great conversation with your prospects:

1. What's the biggest hindrance to your customers' growth?

This is a classic. It cuts right to the chase and goes right to the heart of the matter. Every customer is in the customer of growth and the biggest obstacle to it is a serious pain.

Here are some great ways you can get to the meat of the conversation quickly:

1. What's your plan to tackle this?
2. When is your deadline to solve this problem?
3. Do you think it'll be easy or hard to solve this problem?
4. Who is your customer is working to fix this right now?

These questions although simple in its outlook has many layers of complexity to it and will blow any conversation with the prospect wide open.

2. What is your biggest problem?

This is a more fun question. This is a casual question and has its own personality, is funny and creates unusual chaos. It acts to stir up emotion and gets to your prospect's core needs.

3. What does your boss obsess about?

When doing sales you don't always speak to the top and sometimes you will have to manage with someone who is 2 or 3 levels below them.

1. They usually control the budget for B2B
2. A manager usually filters down to her direct reports
3. This signals inexperience. 

4. What takes up the most time in your day?

This focuses on your direct point of contact and you can help them to focus more about the value than the features.

5. What's been repeatedly discussed at company meetings by senior management?

1. This focuses on what keeps the CEO up at night. It has to be addressed for the company for them to continue operating at full capacity. Some examples include:
2. What do senior managers put on their quarterly planning agendas?
3. What do they talk about all the time?
4. What do they send all-company emails about?

These are the customer pains you are looking for and could be life changing for your sales objectives and target.

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4 Ways to Create Customer Focused Content for Growth

This is the million dollar question that all both small and big businesses ask. Is there a way to win brand visibility in an ever crowded market without overspending on resources? For many companies embracing the web, content marketing is, in many ways, the most powerful opportunity to achieve growth and outshine competitors. Also new startups don't have the luxury of being unique anymore. They must be better - not just different - from competitors if they want attention and sales.

The answer is actually straightforward. Focus on customer based content for growth.

Although the concept is straightforward, gaining thought leadership in a crowded market of experts isn't easy. What's more ranking for major keywords can be challenging. For anyone embarking on this journey understand that there needs to be a level of commitment to the craft. With authority, relevance, and warmth everyone can carve their own space in the content space.

Start here.
Your customer should always be the hero of any story that you tell.

Here's how we're practicing the 4 methods during the implementation of a customer focused content.

1. Establish a voice

This is often missed out on, but the voice is everything. All successful brand voices:

• Resonate instantly with the target audience
• Is consistent across all channels

2. The Flywheel Effect

The best way to illustrate this is through an example. Just like a wheel would spin create a repeatable method for success.

Increase traffic to the website > Generated traffic creates demos and trials > Demos and Trials converts to sales > Sales earns brand recognition > Recognition generates more web traffic > And the cycle repeats.

3. Rank-to-Win Strategy

Here's the biggest mistake everyone makes. Don't just strive for the nuances in every blog post, but focus on filling a gap with authority and dedication. Do this knowing that it isn't the uniqueness in the content but rather the thought leadership which is focused on authority and quality content.

4. Content strategy for blog traffic.

Content marketing delivers conversions with persistence and quality - it isn't luck. Going back to the Flywheel Effect, if increasing website traffic was the goal, we knew we had to focus on producing quality and consistent content.

Conclusion

Creating content is the secret to unlocking customer focused growth in saturated markets. These can also be part of your greater marketing strategy as you are able to focus on buyers' needs and make prospects and customers the hero of all of your stories.

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