Sales 101: Get The Ultimate Guide to Sales

‘Always Be Selling’. I still remember these words from my manager on the first day of my sales training. I was doing an internship in a SaaS company that specialized in restaurant billing solutions. It sounded easy when the manager briefed me on the sales process:

1. Find local restaurants and arrange meetings
2. Understand their requirement
3. Show a demo and get them on board
4. Close and get your commission

That was my introduction to the sales world. Though it sounded easy, the first door being slammed on my face was good enough for a reality check. The job wasn’t easy and the training seemed just average. But when I look back I know that it was one of the most valuable experiences in life.

Sales give you the ability to face rejection, fight back and succeed. If you are in sales you would be aware of this process - find, qualify, prospect and close. The importance of sales in business can’t be emphasized enough. With sales being the basis for sustainability and growth of the business we need to make it our priority.

With digital innovations customers are more aware than ever, making sales a demanding process altogether. According to SalesForce, 79% of all marketing leads are never closed to paying customers. The increasing challenge calls for an innovative approach to sales.

Get your copy of the 'Ultimate Guide to Sales' and leverage the best strategies for 15 different stages of the sales process:

What is Sales 101?

By covering the best tips and essentials we have brought together a guide that will guide you through the process of dealing with every modern complexity in the sale. You can go through each of these chapters to get distilled lessons from the sales world:

1. Identify Target Market

The sales process begins with identifying the target audience for your product. This chapter will help you find your most profitable customer segment and will be the basis of all the sales activities that follow.

2. Preparing Brand Messages

Brand messages help you define what you are and the values of the company. These messages may not be directly announced in a sales conversation but they influence its flow and tone. They help you influence the prospect's perception of the company.

3. Filtered List of Target Market

Preparing a filtered list of your target market helps you strategize the sales approach by prioritizing leads that would convert easily and result in high profit. We have summarized the most rewarding ways to collect leads for businesses.

4. Lead Nurturing

Lead nurturing is the process of generating market demand and communicating the importance of your service to the contact. This helps the customer understand your company and the reason for which he should choose your solution.

5. Qualifying:

Qualifying is the process where we judge whether or not the prospect will be a right fit for our business. This step of the process aims at creating an ideal match between buyer and seller.

6. Collateral:

Collaterals are documents that you used throughout the sales process to communicate information. Companies visualize their offerings using various types of print and digital communications.

7. Introduction:

The way you introduce yourself holds a lasting impression on the prospect. Hence, it is important to know the exact phrase that catches the attention and moves the sales conversation further.

8. Objections Handling:

Prospective customers are almost never fully satisfied with the solution. They have certain objections that hinder their purchase. Know how to cross these hurdles while maintaining a good client relationship.

9. High Impact Meetings:

A sales meeting is the part where all the critical discussion happens. Thus, the dos and don’ts of a meeting are a must know for every sales professional. Understand how to set agendas and pivot conversations to influence purchases.

10. Writing eMails:

Emails are still the most used method of business communication. These come in handy at every stage of the sales process and thus require a great deal of precision. These tips will help you write better cold emails to get prospects to respond.

11. Sending Proposals:

The proposal is a document that summarizes the offering in writing. These are sent to the clients to define the pricing, deliverables, work area, etc. Often proposals are converted into contracts to solidify the decision.

12. Closing (resetting expectations):

Closing is the point where we get the reward for hard work. This is the point where you handle last-minute objections (if any) and move further to get the client to purchase. Know the approaches you can take to close a lead.

13. Story Matrix:

Our behavior is influenced by stories around us. Stories bring emotion and context to otherwise dull information. For every salesperson, it is important to learn the art of telling the right stories and creating influence with it.

14. Retention:

As you can see a lot of work is involved in bringing one customer. Hence, the cost of acquiring is 5 to 25 times more than retaining a customer. Often businesses neglect this step of the process which leads to constant losses.

15. Hiring Your Sales Rep:

This is a bonus chapter for entrepreneurs who have recently started their business and are looking for people to sell the solution. This chapter will guide you through the process of hiring your very first salesperson (if you need one).

Hope this guide helps you excel in sales and achieve targets that seemed too far-fetched before. You can also download the entire guide as eBook here.

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