This blog was originally published as a series of posts on our Co-Director, Sarah Downs’ LinkedIn and has been written from her perspective.
Step into the dynamic world of sales, where maintaining momentum emerges as the crucial force of success. Imagine yourself as the master conductor of an orchestra, orchestrating perfect harmony, ensuring each instrument strikes the precise chord at the opportune moment. Sounds like a breeze, right?
From my experience, this task can demand significant effort. The fuel that drives this constant and everchanging pursuit often stems from personal motivation (and some timekeeping).
In this article, I share six helpful ways for gaining and maintaining sales momentum under the following headings:
Encourage Commitment
Gaining commitment from prospects throughout the sales cycle is important.
You need to build trust, establish a connection, and show that you’re in tune with their needs. Actively listen, ask open-ended questions, and empathise with their challenges. Tailor your pitch to their specific requirements, demonstrating how your solution aligns with their goals. Offer trial periods or pilot programmes to reduce risk and build confidence.
Following these simple tips can inspire your prospects to take that leap of faith and commit to your offering.
Manage Stakeholders
Navigating multiple stakeholders can be tough, especially in a complex sales environment. Each stakeholder has different priorities, concerns, and decision-making power. So, what can you do?
Identify key influencers and decision-makers early in the process and understand their individual motivations. Tailor your messaging to address their specific needs and pain points. Build relationships with each stakeholder and strive to create a shared vision that aligns with everyone’s interests. Creating a harmonious environment will increase the likelihood of securing their support and moving the sales process forward.
Keep the Flow Between Meetings
The flow is essential to keep the momentum going for both you and your prospect or client. This is one of the key challenges in maintaining momentum in your sales process.
Follow up promptly after each meeting and demonstrate your commitment. Recap the key discussion points, reiterate the agreed action items, and provide any additional information or resources they may need. Use technology to your advantage by leveraging CRM (Customer Relationship Management) systems, automation, and intelligence tools to track progress and set follow-up reminders.
By consistently staying engaged and providing value, you’ll keep the sales process flowing and prevent stagnation.
Create Urgency
Creating a sense of urgency is often the first hurdle in the sales process. But this is not an excuse to back buyers into a corner!
To instil urgency, highlight your product or service’s value and benefits. Highlight how it can solve their pain points or provide significant opportunities. Utilise compelling statistics and success stories to provide validation.
By painting a vivid picture of the future, they could have, you can ignite the fire of urgency within your prospects.
Re-engage the Customer
Reigniting a relationship with lapsed customers or prospects is like rekindling an old flame. Sometimes, relationships go cold, and customers lose interest.
To reignite their enthusiasm, be sure to personalise your approach. Remind them of the initial excitement they had and the benefits they gained from your product or service. Share updates on new features or improvements that directly address their pain points. Offer exclusive incentives or loyalty programmes to reward their continued partnership.
You can spark renewed interest and re-engage customers effectively by reminding them of your value.
Track and Measure Success
Tracking and measuring your opportunities within the pipeline will also provide insights on how to enhance momentum. Success in sales is not a one-time achievement but an ongoing process of adaptation, refinement, and growth.
Track KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) – It’s essential to establish and track relevant Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to measure the success of your sales momentum efforts. Identify specific metrics that align with your sales goals, such as number of leads, conversion rates, average deal size, sales cycle length, pipeline velocity and customer acquisition costs.
Conduct Post-Meeting Evaluations – After sales meetings or presentations, conduct an evaluation to assess their impact on maintaining momentum. Solicit participant feedback to gain insights into their level of engagement, understanding of key messages, and perceived value of your offering.
Implement a Customer Feedback Loop – To gauge the effectiveness of your efforts in re-engaging customers, you need to establish robust feedback loops. Actively seek feedback from existing customers on their satisfaction levels, perception of value, and any challenges they may face. Analyse the feedback to identify trends, patterns, and opportunities for improvement.
Maintaining momentum in the sales process is really like juggling. It is a precarious balancing act that requires focus, skill, and a touch of audacity. Just as the juggler adjusts their movements to keep the balls in the air, sales professionals must adapt their strategies to keep the sales process moving forward.
If you want to learn more about how Doqaru works with businesses to boost sales performance, please get in touch with me via the link below. I’d be delighted to discuss this over a call.