BY Jessica Helinski
One of the most important sales techniques to master is how to ask for the sale without being pushy. As a sales rep, you most likely will always be the driver of new business, but unfortunately, many reps come across as pushy. Even if you just know you and the prospect will be a great fit, he or she will likely need some convincing. So how can you do that without being an annoyance to them? HubSpot contributor Niti Shah has some excellent advice on how to break through to the prospect without being a bother.
How to Ask for the Sale Without Being Pushy
First, she emphasizes the importance of reaching out to customers using the right communication channel. Email is a great way to connect with prospects because it allows the prospect time to consider what you wrote before formulating their response, which is how to ask for the sales without being pushy. “It can be bookmarked, tied to a label like ‘follow up later,’ and forwarded along if the prospect feels like someone else in the company would be a better fit to talk to you,” Shah writes. But, when you use email, you also risk being lost in the inbox clutter. So, she reminds reps that they may need to send multiple emails in order to break through the mass of emails your prospects receive every single day.
Phone Calls
Phone calls are the other most common way to reach out to prospective customers. Phone calls are instantaneous and, therefore, are a quick way to move the sales process along. A phone call will also help establish a personal relationship with the prospect since your voice adds a human touch to a distanced interaction. But there is a chance that your call will go to voicemail. And, like with email, you might have to leave multiple messages in order to reach the prospect.
So, Sha recommends using voicemail and email together. Rather than filling up an inbox or voicemail box, alternate between the two. That is how to ask for the sale without being pushy. She suggests using Jeff Hoffman's BASHO Sequence. “It follows a series of four voicemail/email touches, starting with introductory, to persistent, and then, if the prospect hasn't responded after the first three attempts, to a break-up,” she explains.
Social Media
Another way to contact a prospect, especially if he or she is not responding to your calls or emails, is to use more informal channels to reach out. Get yourself in their peripheral without being annoying by connecting with your prospects on social media. By connecting on a network, like LinkedIn, Shal notes that you can gently nudge the prospect toward speaking with you in a more formal setting.
Shah goes on to share a few more tips on how to ask for the sale without being pushy. As the seller, it’s up to you to make first contact and drive the sale from there. Use her tips to do so without being annoying.
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