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A Powerful Sales Approach To Boost Closing Rates

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No matter how slick you think your marketing campaign may be, the truth is simple: buyers buy for their own reasons. Now, unless you’re an actual mindreader there’s no way to actually decipher the intricacies of those reasons. Often, motivating factors lie in people’s personal lives, their goals, their fears, or their bad habits. While we can’t identify each and every detail, we can group these reasons in to categories. There are certain people who look specifically toward the actionable, identifiable ROI that your product offers, for example. Others buy for an emotional uplift.

Based on these categories, it’s helpful to internally identify buyers as “personas.” Spend an entire day figuring out all the different reasons that people buy your product. Ask each sales person to review his/her data of the past few months to determine what the “clinching” factor was. This could be anything from a deal you were offering to a story about your kids that resonated with the person on the other end of the phone. No matter what the reason, ask them to bring them to the meeting. Put them all on the white boards and figure out themes. Tally up the highest themes and you’ve got your “categories.”

Next , it’s time to turn these “categories” into full-fledged personas. For example, if you have a multitude of folks who bought your product because it promised something aspirational toward the next phase in their careers, you’re looking at so-called ladder climbers. Let’s call this persona “Climber Carla.” Once you’ve established the name of the persona, dive deep into what this person is all about. Perhaps she’s been in the work force for approximately eight years and has put her family planning on hold to put her career first. She’s been a shining star in all her entry-level and low-level-managerial roles thus far, and she’s ready to take the leap to the next level. She’s determined but needs a little push. And that’s where you come in.

By identifying a lot of information within this persona, you can zero in on “why” people buy, not just the fact that they do/don’t. Once you’ve got a good handle on Climber Carla, return to your white board of tallied popular categories. Who else can you identify? I’d challenge you to create four or five very different personas, each with a different motivation toward a purchase from the others.

Once you’ve identified them all, now it’s time to put these personas into action with your sales team. Make sure they are fundamentally aware of the nuances of each category so that when they’re on a sales call, they’re quickly able to assess which “persona” the potential client represents. Oh, you’ve got a “ROI Roy” on the line? Talk to him about the data – the specific metrics you provide to every client so they can measure their increased volume every step of the way. Oh, you’re chatting up a “Branding Betty”? It’s time to talk with her about your pristine design aesthetic and how crisply your service would integrate into her product line already, to further promote her company’s strong image. So a “Safety Sam” reached out with an inbound inquiry? Calm his nerves and explain that it’s a low-risk purchase, working in the fact that your return policy is lenient and convenient for clients.

Since buyers choose to buy (or not) for their own reasons, knowing who they are is paramount. If you create different personas and train your sales team to identify WHO you are selling to and then sell in the way they want to buy, closing rates will skyrocket.

For an inside view into my world as a VC, entrepreneur, author, and keynote speaker, visit JoshLinkner.com and order my new book, “The Road to Reinvention,” on Amazon.