They say that there are only three ways to grow your business: increase sales, increase your price or increase your sales conversion. The funny thing is that most business owners focus only on increasing sales which really means more work and more hustle. Increasing your prices and increasing your sales conversions are by far much less work and will give you long-term growth.
Since I’ve already talked about raising your prices (here), let’s talk about increasing your sales conversion rate! For me, during the growth of my business, this was by far the most difficult strategy but the one that has led to the most sustainable change in my business.
So in my early days of coaching, my sales conversations were BAD with a very low conversion rate! They lasted about 60 minutes. I tried convincing people they needed my services. I gave out free advice (coaching). Then rarely did the prospect purchase. I remember one day my coach suggested to me that I propose a program to two women who, she was sure, would become my clients. I made the presentation, but no sale!
Here’s what I did wrong and what I had to fix:
First – I was missing a rinse-and-repeat process for my conversations. You might think – that’s silly, why do you need a process? You need a repeatable process that you use every single time in your sales calls so that you can figure out what’s working and what’s not working!!! If you keep changing your process or God forbid, you’re winging your calls – you can’t possibly compare them and tweak them to improve.
Second – I was missing the right mindset – YUP, if you keep saying you’re bad at something – you become bad at that very thing!! So I switched my mindset – I’m getting better and better at sales calls!
Third – I was missing the CONVICTION – the conviction that my program, product or services were THE only answer to their problem. It was my job to instill confidence in their minds and I couldn’t do that if they didn’t hear the confidence in my voice or see it in my posture!
Four – I was coaching during my calls (and presentations) i.e. giving them the answer to their problems! Coaching on calls or trying to convince or educate prospects on calls is time-consuming. They should come to your call, already convinced they need your services! (This is where your marketing does the heavy lifting for you).
Five – I wasn’t clear on the PROMISE of my sales calls, discovery calls, etc. The promise to prospects is NOT that you are going to sell them your program but that you will help them!!! Once I wrote out the promise – i.e. to identify their roadblocks and make a recommendation – then it was easy to stop coaching. Notice the words – identify and recommendation.
Okay – those were the things I was missing from my sales conversations and things that I was doing wrong.
Are you missing one or more of those elements?
But that still wasn’t my biggest lesson when it came to improving my sales conversions.
In this week’s episode of Work Less PROFIT More business podcast, I’ll share my biggest mistake, how I fixed it AND a resource for you. It is simple to increase your sales conversion rates, save yourself a lot of time, and make more money! It doesn’t have to be complicated!
Be sure to listen, share and subscribe here!
YOU CAN DO THIS!
Diana
P.S. My sister and brother-in-law will be visiting for a week along with their 2 dogs! It will be the first time that all of them have come to the farm together. This could be a very interesting week as we truly test out this co-living arrangement. What’s happening in your world this week?
