Developing effective sales techniques is a huge challenge. Today, potential customers are bombarded with constant attempts to make them buy from many angles. Sales is a constant priority for almost every business.

The good news? You can close more deals effortlessly with the right strategy, knowledge, skills, and experience.

Closing more deals takes more than just product knowledge and basic pitches. This comprehensive sales guide dives into 10 powerful advanced techniques to upgrade your sales game.

Backed by science-based research and leveraging the latest technology, these cutting-edge tactics will help convert more prospects, win against competitors, and grow your B2B revenue. Whether you’re looking to optimize your sales process, emails, objection handling, or retention, this guide shares actionable steps to deploy each technique for sales excellence.

Sales techniques
SALES HAVEN – Sales Training Program, Sales Training Course Techniques and Ideas

What Makes Effective Sales Techniques?

In any field or industry, there are always those who stand out. These are people who make it look easier than it is. The difference between them and the average person is that they have a method.

Effective sales techniques featured image

They also dedicate a larger proportion of their lives to the job.

Sales are no different. Sales savants are bred, not born. Even the most effective sales techniques can be learned by just about anyone.

Effective sales techniques performance metrics
Effective sales techniques focus on both quality and quantity. Image credit: 99Firms

No matter what you’re trying to achieve, it’s been proven that having a plan is much more efficient than going in blind and winging it. An agenda or a game plan, especially in sales, has many advantages.

Here are three of the most important ones.

1. It’s Easier

Mapping your responses and talking points makes the process more systematic. This means it takes much less mental effort than thinking on the spot every time.

2. More Efficient

Systematizing your sales techniques doesn’t eliminate creativity. It only eliminates impracticality. You can mix up your responses as long as it’s part of a larger plan. That way, you guarantee you don’t have to think all over each time you make the same sales pitch.

3. More Control

When you go into a sales call without any script or guidelines, you’re walking into the unknown. In other words, you’ll always be on the defence. All you can do is react to the customer.

However, by applying previously thought-out sales techniques, you control the conversation.
Ultimately, these benefits amount to a higher chance of closing the deal.

What Is a Unique Selling Point? The Key to More Sales

Our Top Six Effective Sales Techniques

Whether you’re selling over the phone, email, or in person, it’s important to have working sales techniques up your sleeve. The following techniques have been tried and rely on psychological studies and consumer behaviour patterns.

A Harvard study suggests that nearly 95% of purchasing decisions are subconscious. That means most of your decision to buy things is vulnerable to psychological persuasion.

1. Appealing to Emotions

Have you ever wondered how it can’t be that your name or your son’s or mother’s name is the same as the salesperson’s all that often? If the answer is yes, it’s probably because it’s not a coincidence.

You might not notice it, but a simple remark like that or a compliment disarms your buyer’s scepticism. We all have the same emotions, and we are all people before we are consumers.

The goal is establishing a personal relationship with the customer early in the conversation. If you have that kind of detail, this can be achieved by relating to their profession or personal life. Another way that works is to give them a simple compliment.

Studies show that even when the recipient knows your compliment is fake, it is equally effective.

This sales technique works best in face-to-face interactions but can still be used over the phone or email. Ultimately, there’s no harm in being a little extra nice, right?

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Purchasing decisions are often more emotional than rational. Image credit: RevenueGrid

2. Pattern Interruption

The truth is the customer is tired of hearing the same sales templates over and over again. This familiarity with conventional approaches gives them an unconscious defence mechanism.

That reflex is triggered whenever the customer hears the signs of a sales pitch, like:
Hi, I’m Jim, from Dunder Mifflin paper, and I was wondering if I could have a moment of your time?

The customer here will probably be too busy trying to end the conversation to even listen to what you have to say.

However, the pattern interruption technique means interrupting the customer’s thought pattern completely by saying something unexpected, making his defences fail to launch. For instance: “Hi, Jim here. Did we talk earlier this week?

Asking a question right away will confuse the customer and direct his thoughts towards answering the question.

Interruption can be done at any moment throughout the conversation. For example, you don’t want to answer if the customer asks a question. The rule is to interrupt with something to provoke the customer’s thoughts, not the customers themselves.

You don’t want to seem rude or dismissive.

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3. Give Them Options

This one has been proven to work the most among the many sales techniques. No one likes to be forced to do anything. The mere idea that someone is giving you an ultimatum, even if you want to do it, is repulsive.

This is why we are more keen to entertain people that give us options. You can use this to your advantage by giving your contact a few options instead of asking closed-end questions. For example: “Would you be interested in placing paper orders?

As opposed to: “Would you be interested more in our A4 paper packages or the A5 premium plan?”

Although the first gives the customer more options virtually, it allows room for an easy no. However, the second approach makes the customer think which is better.

Making them assume they are a buying customer, even for a second, makes your job easier. A study on creative success suggests that limited options allow you to make better choices.

4. Don’t Take Our Word for it

This is one of the most used sales techniques when using a fixed message on a website or an ad. To use this method, you’ll need a credible reference. You can use a name that’s either known to your customer or has a similar job title.

Ultimately, what makes clients turned off the most is that all of this is hypothetical. Using testimonials shifts the sales call from just words in space to reality. It’s like shopping online. You can only trust the vendor so much.

On the other hand, if you read a positive review, you may be encouraged, especially if you trust the reviewer.

Effective sales techniques social proof trust stats
People generally trust their peers more than salespeople. Image credit: Zety

5. Three is The Magic Number!

This sales technique depends on creating a pattern in the conversation. A pattern of threes, to be specific. Humans like to look for patterns, even when there aren’t any. This trick has been used for centuries.

Even Shakespeare knew about the power of threes.

Our minds look for anything resembling consistency to counteract all the chaos surrounding us. As a salesperson, you can use this to your advantage.

Studies have shown that patterns are easier to accept and have a sort of visual comfort. A recent study in UCLA also showed that there is the most effective pattern in sales.

You can merge this with any sales technique by dissecting your pitch into sets of threes. For example, stating three uses for your product or service, three problems the client might have and three solutions.

6. Humor Them to Humor You

The main problem facing any salesperson is that the consumer immediately assumes you’re a spam bot. Can you blame them? Your spam box on your email probably has the most number of emails.

How do you let the customer not flag you as spam like all the rest? The answer is in humour. Humour to humans is like the “not a robot” checkbox.

You can do this in many ways, like dropping a funny comment at the end or using a pun on something you said. Watch not to be too cheesy, or it will seem forced. Appealing to their humour registers you as not spam but also gives a sense of intimacy.

If you can make them laugh, then you must be trustworthy.

You Must Have an Effective Sales Strategy

Different sales techniques work and increase your chances of closing a deal significantly. But before applying any method, you’ll need a proper sales strategy and a guideline to apply these techniques.

There are two main strategies in sales, and choosing between them depends on what you’re selling. These are:

  1. Product-driven sales techniques,
  2. Consumer-driven sales techniques.

Let’s take a look at each of these in turn.

Product-Driven Sales Techniques

As the name suggests, this strategy is focused on your product or service’s strong points.

This strategy works best with novel products. It depends mainly on the fact that what you’re selling solves a problem that the customer didn’t even know could be solved.

In this strategy, you’ll need to do two things simultaneously. Firstly, you need to create awareness of your product. At the same time, you have to apply the proper sales techniques to close the deal.

This means having an awareness of the product itself and how everything works.
The goal here is to introduce a wow factor but using simple familiar words to avoid customer scepticism.

Consumer-Driven Sales Techniques

This strategy is usually applied to products and services familiar to the customer. Contrary to the previous strategy, you must study the customer more closely than the product.

Who is the customer? What are their interests and problems? How do they align with what I have to offer? And most importantly, who are my competitors?

You must focus on your competitive edge when applying any of the sales techniques above. You can use numbers to show how your product or service can better solve your customer’s problems than the competition.

The goal here is to talk to the customer in terms he/she can relate to and add value by solving their problem.

Utilising the Most Effective Sales Techniques

Knowing all the games and sales techniques, sadly, isn’t enough. You must customize, mix, match, and try different ones to find the best.

That means no matter how well it may sound on paper or, like now on a screen, in real life, it might not work. In the end, not any one method is a skeleton key. Sometimes, your field may require a quick call because the client is always busy, like in B2B sales.

Other times, you might need to talk in great length and detail. The only way to become the salesperson of the year and go further in your career is to have your method.

Conversation Intelligence

  • Uses AI to analyze sales calls for insights to improve win rates
  • Identify high-performing rep behaviours to share across teams.
  • Uncover language patterns that create rapport and trust
  • Benchmark call performance against competitors
  • Practice implementing techniques from top reps’ calls

Leveraging Testimonials and Reviews

  • Compile recent positive client reviews and testimonials
  • Spotlight customers who achieved specific outcomes
  • Create case studies detailing implementation and ROI
  • Prominently display social proof on the website and in sales collateral.
  • Use during calls and demos to build credibility

Intent Data

  • Identify accounts researching competitor keywords.
  • Take action when companies download related content
  • Monitor web activity spikes to reach out at peak interest
  • Use intent insights to personalize and prioritize outreach.

Outcomes-Based Selling

  • Map prospect’s desired business outcomes
  • Illustrate exactly how you can drive those outcomes
  • Quantify value delivered through metrics like increased revenue
  • Focus on ROI, not just product features/benefits
  • Provide rock-solid guarantees tied to concrete outcomes

Statistics and data that could be added to support the sales techniques:

  • Personalized emails have open rates up to 202% higher and click rates up to 50% higher than generic emails. (Campaign Monitor)
  • Companies that use intent data see lead conversion rates improve by 2.7x compared to untargeted outreach. (Demandbase)
  • Cold calls have just a 3% success rate, while calls to prospects actively researching have a 55% success rate. (G2)
  • 79% of customers say testimonials increase their trust in a business. (Brightlocal)
  • Multi-touch campaigns across channels like email, social ads, calls, etc., generate 7x more conversions than single-channel approaches. (MarketingSherpa)
  • Reps using conversation intelligence and coaching have sales quota attainment 23% higher than the average. (Gong)
  • Customers who engage with personalized content convert at a rate 6x higher than those who only engage with generic content. (Aberdeen Group)
  • 73% of customers point to case studies and success stories as significantly influencing purchase decisions. (Demand Metric)

Providing relevant data points and statistics helps quantify the impact of each advanced technique.

Sales Techniques FAQ

Q: What are the most important sales metrics to track?

A: Lead response rate, sales cycle length, win rate, deal size, customer retention rate.

Q: How can I demonstrate value to prospects?

A: Leverage customer success stories, quantify potential ROI, and emphasize outcomes achieved.

Q: What sales techniques work best for cold outreach?

A: Personalization, researching the prospect’s needs and pain points, offering valuable content.

Q: How do I stay up-to-date on the latest sales techniques?

A: Follow sales thought leaders, take courses, and continually test new approaches.

Q: Should sales reps specialize in specific techniques?

A: Master a few techniques but maintain versatility across approaches tailored to each prospect.

Sales Techniques Conclusion:

Cutting-edge sales techniques and strategies elevate the entire sales process when applied effectively. Take time to understand each approach and how specifically it can be deployed for your business. Focus on adapting your process, having the right tools, and committing reps to continual improvement.

With the right foundation of training and data-driven optimization, advanced techniques unlock new potential in your sales organization. Stay at the forefront of the evolving sales landscape by doubling down on what works today and exploring the next innovations on the horizon.

If you want to learn more about supercharging your sales efforts, contact ProfileTree today.

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