Have you had difficulty moving prospective customers through the decision-​making process? If so, you are not alone. We live in a world with an abundance of information and options. And often, buyers can feel overwhelmed when faced with making a decision. In a blog post, sales specialist Anne Miller shares seven tips (from SalesLoft) that you can use to get a yes in sales by streamlining the process for prospects.

How to Get a Yes in Sales

Streamline Communication

In order to get a yes in sales, you need to cut out rambling emails and other wordy communication attempts. If you prospect opens an email to find a solid block of text, they probably will not take the time to read all of it. Sending that lengthy of an email also implies that you do not care very much about the value of the prospect's time. So, instead, keep communication short and sweet. When there are fewer words and details for prospective customers to focus on, you can get your point across more clearly and easily.

Research Prospects

Too much time is wasted during initial sales meetings by getting to know the prospective customer and what their basic needs are. You can learn all of that beforehand by taking the time to research the prospect before meeting with them for the first time. This will help you avoid asking questions with answers that could easily be found on LinkedIn or via a Google search. The time you spend in a sales meeting should be spent digging deeper into the prospect's pain points to learn exactly how you should approach pitching your product or service to them.

Break Down the Process

You should do everything you can to make the sales process easy for prospective customers. In order to get a yes in sales, you need to always have the next steps of the sales process readily available. You should also be quick to answer any questions that arise. But if you don't know the answer to a question your prospect asks, don't wing it when giving an answer. Admit that you don't know the answer off the top of your head, but you will look into it further an get back to them. You may think that admitting you don't know something will ruin your credibility. But it will actually make you seem more human and willing to take both initiative and responsibility when things don't go according to plan.

Create Valuable Content

By offering content to buyers, you are giving them a resource of their own. They can use this content to learn more about your company, your product or service, etc. They can also potentially answer any emerging questions, which will save time in the long run.

“Your customers live in a busy world of too much information, too many choices, and shorter and shorter attentions spans,” Miller explains. “In this new world, even your smallest actions need to be fine-​tuned to move your customers, and your relationship with them, forward.” With these tips, you can streamline the path to "yes!"