If you want to Increase sales, you need more than a great product or service.

Have you ever heard someone say “This product is so good it sells itself?”.

Chances are we all have at some point in our careers, the truth of it, however, is never that simple.

Nothing sells itself, no matter how good it is.

That’s the secret to successful sales though, make it seem like you haven’t done anything, and make it seem like a necessity.

The line “the product is so good it sells itself” is based on witnessing an outcome, and not understanding the work that goes into making a product or service in that fashion.

The same way an overnight success always takes five years of work (at least, and we’ll talk about this one further in a later post I promise). It takes more than simply having a great product or service to have high sales.

So if a product can’t sell itself, how do increase sales while growing your business?

Here are five techniques we use at BIG for multi million dollar companies that build a strong foundation.

The first way to increase sales: Know what you are selling

The first way to increase sales is to know what you are selling.

Seems obvious right?

You’d be surprised how tricky this one can be.

It’s why in interviews for sales jobs you get asked the ‘tried and true’ “Can you sell me this pen?” question.

In that instance you aren’t selling the pen itself, it’s incredible features and amazing ballpoint action.

You’re selling the needs that the pen represents.

What you’re selling is almost never the product itself, it’s why people need the product.

Knowing what you are selling isn’t about understanding the features of your product, but more about knowing how the product matters. Knowing how the product or service is going to make the customer’s life better.

The second way to increase sales: Ask probing questions & establish a relationship

Increasing sales boils down to making a meaningful connection with another human being. That means understanding why they need something, or why they’re looking for something new.

Whatever questions you ask should be about building a relationship, rather than closing the sale.

Take buying a car, for example, if you’re helping someone decide what car to buy, you wouldn’t ask them “So, do you drive a lot?”.

It doesn’t do anything to propel the conversation forward and does nothing to help you understand why that person is talking to you beyond needing a new car.

Your questions should always help you learn something more about the person who may be purchasing your product or service.

A better question might be “What do you do in your free time?” or “How big if your family?”.

As a general rule, if someone can give a one-word answer to your question, it’s a bad question.

Always take the time to dig deeper and find out more.

The third way to increase sales: Find influencers and early adopters

Early adopters are customers who are willing to invest their time early in your product and help provide you clarity on what matters most.

What you have as a product or service, and how you envision its use, will never align perfectly with how a customer interacts with it.

It doesn’t necessarily make either right or wrong, but it is a point that any good company should be aware of.

Early adopters tend to be vocal proponents of a product they like, or that suits their needs.

Having a direct tie to your customers like this is priceless, and makes it easy to create a better product or service.

By connecting with early adopters and influencers, you can create better products and services, while connecting with those that will increase your reach for you.

The fourth way to increase sales: Don’t be everything to everyone

One of the worst things a young business can do is say “Yes we can do that!” to anything a customer asks.

If it’s something that exists or is part of the current roadmap then fine, that makes sense. But if you are deciding to offer it only because a client wants it you are setting yourself up for failure.

When you try to be everything to everyone, you take away from the main benefits of what you have to offer.

By saying ‘Yes’ to anything a customer wants that isn’t already a part of what you are offering, you start to dilute the other parts that make what you are offering amazing.

Instead of focusing on what you can do best, and how that helps your customers (going back to the first point of knowing your product) you can build a compelling offering.

The fifth way to increase sales: Do what every sales person hates, and measure.

Look, the hard truth of it is this; if you can’t replicate it.

A lot of sales people you’ll run into are of the mindset that any time spent not out selling is wasted time.

The truth of the matter is that current sales, especially sales for the sake of growing your business, require you to track, measure and analyze.

Sales, especially sales for the purpose of building your business, need you to track, measure and analyze.

If you can’t track who you’ve been talking to, how much you’ve been talking to them, the average length of close time, etc. then your business is growing through luck and not a strategy, and luck will only get you so far.

The days of the rogue salesman with their notepad of contacts are gone, so find a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system that isn’t a pad of paper and works for your company and start growing.

Lastly: There’s no perfect solution for sales.

There’s no ideal solution for sales. It’s going to depend on you as an individual, what you’re selling, and who you’re selling it to. What there are however are techniques you can implement that create a strong sales environment within your organization. These are a few of the ones we use that have created a fundamental shift in how we approach sales.