1. 'Eat your own Dogfood' - don't propose a product/service that you do not use yourself!

2. 'Sell' rather than 'Tell' - don't become a walking brochure and sell through effective questions to understand your client needs

3. Accept that you are a sales professional and ask yourself what it takes to be as effective a sales person that you can possible be

4. After every sales meeting send a personalised diagnosis and proposed prescription

5. Always be asking - never leave a meeting without asking for an order, the next meeting, the path forward, etc.

6. Always maintain solid eye contact

7. Ask for referrals/testimonials in the letter accompanying every invoice

8. At the end of every appointment put a date in the diary with your client for the next appointment even if it's for a review/update meeting

9. Avoid talking price to early - sell first, provide the value that your product/service offers

10. Be convinced - be convinced and proud that your product/service adds value

11. Be realistic with what your product/service will achieve - always be honest

12. Be yourself and remember the 3 'li's - i) Profit - how will my product/service improve efficiency, decrease cost, provide return on investment, etc. ii) Peace of Mind - what peace of mind will my product/service offer my client and iii) Purpose

13. Before every sales appointment have a good night's sleep - go into every meeting full of energy, enthusiasm and a fresh face!

14. Build a portfolio of testimonials and referrals to build trust and rapport

15. Build rapport before you get to an appointment, establish empathy

16. Buying cycles are 40% longer in tough economic times - make sure that you have the pipeline to cover this.

17. Call after completing every piece of business to check satisfaction and gain referrals

18. Check daily your attitude and belief systems to be as successful in selling as you can possibly be

19. Don't be desperate - be there to help.  If your advice helps you might not get the sale today but as you've been helpful and given solid advice this will hold you in good stead to win business at a future point

20. Don't chase every opportunity - thoroughly qualify beforehand and focus on the best opportunities.  Save time by chasing everything and pour that time, effort and resource into the sales that you really want to win.

21. Enjoy the sales process - enjoy the ride and the journey where it takes you. Learn something from every sales process

22. Ensure all ongoing contracts, like maintenance contracts., have a review date.  Increase prices gradually in line with your own service providers - maintain your bottom line.

23. Focus on putting your clients first and the sales will come

24. Focus on winning bigger accounts (and then keep them by consistent delivery) remember that 60% of IT spending comes from the top 2% of global 2000 companies

25. Get repeat business and always get referrals - get more business from fewer clients - have rich relationships

26. Go to the University of the Car!  You spend more time in your car than the average university undergraduate spends at lectures.  Spend this time wisely by listening to audio books rather than the radio.  For £7.49 a month you can download any book from audible.co.uk (even those that cost £80) AND you'll get a free ipod!  Listen to sales tips on the way to every sales meeting.

27. Have a sales process and follow the sales process to achieve systematic consistency

28. Have professional paperwork - make sure that the branding and message is consistent throughout

29. Have scripts and guidelines - you don't have to follow that but it will help you achieve consistency in your sales performance

30. Keep abreast of the latest news and technologies.  Know your client's market - cut out articles and send article links to your clients

31. Keep in contact - Xmas cards, thank you cards - always keep your brand alive in your client's mind.

32. Know your numbers - keep a record of calls to appointments, appointments to quote and quote to margin (sale).  If your ratio is 4 appointments to a sale then you can cope with 3 successive rejections easier as statistically your next meeting will be a sale!

33. Let your client speak - don't tell.  Let your client identify and articulate the problem before you start to prescribe the solution

34. Listen effectively - see if they are using 'see', 'feel' or 'hear' phrases and correspond with their language

35. Make sure that your premises and car are clean and tidy - first impressions count and good buyers will check the state of your car as you pull into their car park!

36. Map out your customer experience and have feedback points along the entire path of your service delivery

37. Monitor your sales pipeline and cash flow daily

38. Never , ever make price your Unique Selling Point

39. Never launch straight into your sales pitch at an appointment - build rapport and be interested in them, their business and what they are looking to achieve

40. Never negotiate too early and never negotiate on price - always try to persuade to reach agreement without varying the margin

41. Never promise anything that you might not be able to deliver

42. Offer 100% transparency

43. Offer 24/7 contact to your clients

44. Offer incentives and freebies that add value to your client

45. People buy from people that they'd like to buy from over price

46. Persevere - always keep going but more importantly make every call as fresh as your first.

47. Personalise every sales correspondence that you send - email, letters, etc.   If you send standard mails personalise them around the conversations that you've had.

48. Provide price versus cost comparisons

49. Quote with trust.  Put yourself in your client's shoes - does what you are proposing offer value?

50. Record your sales calls and as a manager record your sales staff

51. Remember that the person that 'orders' the work isn't always the one that 'authorises' the work.  

52. Research the business and the person that you're meeting beforehand.  You'll find the career histories of many directors on thinks like LinkedIn and Ecademy - 'gen' up beforehand

53. Respect every customer - make them aware of potential obstacles and hiccups

54. Review your sales process on a regular basis - is it as successful as it can possibly be

55. Run a seminar - invest in the seminar by getting good speakers that will add value to your clients

56. See the dream not the product - what the product/service will achieve for your client rather than the product/service itself

57. Sell more to existing clients.  Look after your major clients - 80/20 rule

58. Sell safety and reliability - sell the financial stability of your business , offer guarantees and detail your product reliability - sell on safety.  In tough economic times buying decisions are more frequently made by committee and wrong buying decisions are scrutinised more carefully.  4 out of 5 will pay more if the chances of a successful result are higher (or the risks are deemed lower).  Remember the famous advert "Nobody ever got fired for choosing IBM"

59. Sell yourself first - then your products and services

60. Send a thank you card with every invoice

61. Use mirroring at every opportunity both on the phone and face-to-face

62. Use your personality to be the difference - people still buy from people

63. Work your pipeline, know your pipeline, pipeline is key

64. You're judged by what you do rather than what you say.  How frustrating is the phrase "your call is important to us, please hold" when you've been holding for 30 minutes!

For more advice, visit our page on Sales Training.

We hope that you find these tips useful.  Happy selling!

Published: 16th August 2018

About The Author

Darren Dewrance

Founding Director at Aaron Wallis Recruitment

Darren is a Founding Director of Aaron Wallis, a national recruitment agency specialising in sourcing sales and marketing staff. Prior to setting up Aaron Wallis, Darren spent 6 highly successful years in sales and field sales, before joining a £0.5BN recruitment group where in his first year he set the record for the highest performing consultant by billings.

With a wealth of experience both as a sales professional and a sales recruiter, Darren knows first hand what top sales staff look like, as well as how to help sales professionals advance in their career. Darren specialises in large-scale recruitment projects as well as business development.

Find out more about Darren here.