10 Sales Tips To Kick Start 2019!

It's 2019, a BRAND NEW year and a year full of opportunities to sell!

Some of you will have had successful 2018's, some of you may not have. Now is the time to reflect back on what did work and what didn't to sculpt a plan for this year. Learn from the lessons you need to learn from, repeat what worked well and make 2019 your best year yet.

To help kick this year off with a BANG, here are 10 sales tips that should help you fill up your pipeline, overcome more objections and become closing masters!

1) Talk a WHOLE LOT less and listen a WHOLE LOT more!

Sounds simple but I guarantee you there are so many lost sales opportunities because salespeople just didn't listen properly. Make this the year you make more of an effort to talk less on sales calls and during sales meetings and listen more. By doing so you'll identify loads more sales opportunities, build far better relationships with your prospects and increase your chances of winning the sale.

TIP: Put a post it note up to remind yourself to LISTEN more!

2) Fall in love with the PRICE of your product

Another big reason a lot of salespeople lose sales is because they clam up when talking about the price. They do this because deep down they're not confident about it and fear the prospect reacting to it. This year you need to fall in love with your price!! Learn why it costs what it costs, learn about the VALUE it delivers your prospects and be confident in the fact the price is FAR lower than that value. You should then be excited when discussing the price helping the customer feel confident about it.

TIP: Write a chart with the cost on one side and then write as many values as possible on the other.

3) Start selling EARLIER in the morning and finishing LATER

This might not be such a popular tip, and I'm not suggesting you work MORE hours. However lets face some facts, decision makers are busy and they are most busy between 09:00 - 17:00 which is when I lot of salespeople try to get hold of them! Some of the best prospecting times are between 06:00 - 09:00 in the morning and 17:00 - 20:00 in the evening when most decision makers are actually at their desk or on their emails. Discuss with your manager about starting early on some days and leaving early, or starting later and working later. Or if you want to just work more.

TIP: Use social media, like LinkedIn, to see what times your prospects are active across the day!

4) Eat & drink healthy, keep fit and take breaks

Whilst this may not seem like a sales tip, all of those things will have a far bigger impact on your sales success than you'll probably like to admit. For example, drinking tonnes of coffee may give you short caffeine boosts, but you'll then crash after. Avoiding lunch may make you think like you're working more, but you won't be working as hard as you would if you had eaten. Taking breaks may seem like wasting time, but those breaks recharge your batteries and come back more motivated and more effective.

TIP: Tie in your New Years resolution of eating better and getting fit with your sales targets and success!

5) Use ALL of the tools that are available to you

We all now use so many communication tools and there are plenty of platforms out there making it easier than ever before to find and communicate with our prospects. Make 2019 the year you take advantage of this. Use the phone, use email, use social media, use video, use networking events, use post, use fax, use ANYTHING and EVERYTHING that your prospects are using. Some of your prospects won't answer your calls, so use other methods to connect and talk to them.

TIP: Read COMBO Prospecting by Tony J Hughes!

6) WANT the sale, but don't NEED it

This is a tough balance, but such a powerful one if you get it right. It's super important to WANT the sale, you need to be motivated and determined to win. HOWEVER, when that scale tips and you start to NEED the sale it then often makes salespeople lose control of the sales process. They start to put excessive pressure on their prospects, they stop selling smart and they end up chasing their tails and losing sales. Work hard to build bigger pipelines to take avoid being desperate for individual sales.

TIP: Add an extra 20-30% more opportunities into your pipeline.

7) Invest in your own LEARNING this year

There are, unfortunately, a lot of companies that don't provide or invest in the right training for their salespeople. However that doesn't mean you should go without. Invest in your OWN learning this year. That doesn't always have to mean with money, it could be by simply investing your time in reading more blogs, listening to more podcasts and watching more videos. If you have the opportunity, buy more sales books, book more sales courses and invest in proper sales coaching.

TIP: Follow Gong.io for the best sales blog out there packed full of data backed tips!

8) Ask for recommendations AND referrals after every sale

These are possibly 2 of the most powerful ways you can sell more this year. Over 90% of prospects would be happy to give referrals yet just 11% of salespeople actually ask for them. Think of the amount of extra sales you could generate if you asked each customer for a referral? If you then ask for a recommendation at the same time you'll build a powerful bank of case studies that you can also then use to win more sales!

TIP: Create a template email that you can send that asks for both recommendations and referrals at the same time.

9) Be PREPARED for as many possible objections

Too many sales people lose opportunities because they fall at an early hurdle. Often this is because they simply weren't prepared for it. Spend some time writing down as many common objections as possible and prepare notes on the best ways to overcome them. Have them pinned to your wall or on your desk somewhere you can easily access it. Just by overcoming 1-2 more objections could win you a significant amount of more sales in 2019!

TIP: Read Objections by Jeb Blount!

10) Set your OWN sales targets for this year

It's one thing to work towards a work set sales target, but when you set your OWN target you'll have real reasons and motivations behind it to really push you to achieve it. Look at what YOU want to achieve each month and year. What do YOU want or need to earn, what do YOU want to earn in commission. Now this doesn't mean you should set targets that are lower than your company set ones! For a lot of the most successful salespeople the targets they set are usually a lot higher.

TIP: Sit down and work out what you want this year, then reverse engineer that into what you'd need to earn or do to achieve that!

And there they are, 10 tips that will hopefully help YOU sell more in 2019!

What would you add to that list? Add your top tip in the comments box below, it may help someone have their best year yet!

If you enjoyed this blog please click LIKE and click SHARE to share it with your network, thank you!

If you enjoyed this post please take time to read some of my other recent posts.

Stop Micro-Managing Salespeople

The MUST-HAVE Sales Books of 2018

The 10 Things That Will NEVER Change In Sales

How To Make Cold Calling Fun!

Successful Salespeople SELL With Why...

The 10 Films You MUST Watch If You Work In Sales!

About the author: 

Daniel Disney is one of the world's leading sales, social selling and LinkedIn experts. With over 15 years sales experience, Daniel has mastered how to use social media to generate exceptional results, both in social engagement and in revenue generated.

Daniel is a highly in-demand international keynote sales speaker, is the UK's leading sales blogger and is also the Founder and Owner of LinkedIn's most popular sales publication, The Daily Sales. With an audience of over 450,000+ followers and growing by thousands each week, his content reaches millions of salespeople far and wide.

For more information on booking Daniel to speak at your event or bringing in the Social Selling/LinkedIn Masterclass to your sales team, email [email protected].

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