Buyers have taken control of the sales process. Here’s how inbound sales will ensure that you continue closing those deals and hitting your targets. Plus, some habits you can adopt to close more leads.
Buyer behaviour has changed.
With the boom in information available online, customers are more educated than ever - and they’ve taken control of the sales process, and they know how to voice their objections.
Objections are a natural part of the sales process, and with a sea of educated buyers to contend with, knowing how to effectively anticipate and address these objections is vital if you’re going to be successful in closing deals.
There are three main grounds for potential buyer objections, namely
- pricing “it costs too much”
- timing “we’re just not ready to buy”
- competitor objections “we’re happy with our current provider”
Inbound sales is all about educating, listening to, and adding value for your customers.Sales staff who haven’t adopted an inbound strategy will soon find their pool of prospects drying up. Inbound sales is the key to continued success, helping you close more deals and hit your targets.
Have a look at what these HubSpot sales experts have to say about overcoming your prospect’s common objections - the inbound way.
The Pricing Objection
HubSpot’s Inbound Growth Specialists, Blake Bomier and Mary Burbridge, discuss how to sell your product by adding value and how to overcome any objections to price during the sales process. Blake and Mary provide some helpful tips on how to respond when your potential buyer says “your product costs too much”.
The Timing Objection
Don’t give up when you hear a potential buyer say “we’re just not ready to buy right now”. In this episode, Blake and Mary discuss how you can create urgency by showing a potential buyer “the cost of inaction” in order to move the deal along and overcome common timing objections.
The Competitor Objection
This is every sales person’s worst objection - but it doesn’t need to be. According to Blake and Mary, the competitor objection is in fact the easiest objection to overcome when you know how to effectively differentiate your brand from your competitors. In this episode Blake and Mary teach us how to turn this objection into an opportunity, stay on your prospect’s radar and stand out from the competition.
HubSpot writes, “Objections are part of every sales process, and whether you make the sale often comes down to being able to handle them effectively.”
Here are five simple habits that you can share with you sales team which help your sales team close not only more deals, but the right kind of deals.
- Start positioning yourself as a thought leader.
By positioning yourself as a thought leader, you’re confirming that you know your industry backwards. This will help you build trust and rapport with prospects. In an age where buyers do their homework, they are likely to check you out online before making any decisions. Make sure that you have updated all your social media platforms, get referrals from existing customers and publish helpful content which shows off your skills and knowledge.
- Learn to listen effectively.
This is probably the most important step in any inbound methodology - be it sales or marketing. Listen carefully, with the intent of understanding all of your prospective customer’s needs. A salesperson who knows which questions to ask, makes an effort to understand needs and is able to show genuine interest in helping their prospects succeed will triumph over the sleazy, all talk no action stereotype.
- Get your team up to speed with mobile technology.
In the digital age, your customers are guaranteed to be online - so meet them where they are. Make sure your sales team have access to and proficient knowledge of smartphones, tablets and laptops. This will help them stay connected and allow for instant communication, be it via email, LinkedIn or Twitter. Responsiveness will impress your prospects and help your sales team to build their networks.
- Grow your networks.
Speaking of networks… Make sure that your sales team are actively growing their networks and making contact with people online. This means keeping up to date with various social media platforms (if they are relevant to your buyer persona) and starting conversations - for example, commenting with helpful tips in an online forum. Just make sure that when you’re building these networks you’re adding value and not just adding spam.
- Always show up prepared.
Before meeting with a prospect, make sure you’ve done your homework. Research their company and try to predict what data or information they’ll need to be able to make an informed decision. Don’t show up with a generic presentation - tailor your pitch to their specific industry and buyer persona.
At the end of this process, if your prospect has doubts about your product or service, you’ll need to address their concerns to help move the sales process forward.
Marketing has already shifted to the inbound methodology. We now need to align our sales teams so that they can leverage the trust gained through the inbound process. To succeed in today’s business environment, salespeople need to be social, solutions-oriented, and armed with the context buyers need (and expect) at every stage of their buyer’s journey.
