To close sales you need your clients to take action. As the saying goes, “you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink,” so while you cannot make a client do anything, you can motivate them to take the leap from potential client to paying client.
To urge your leads to take the action you want them to take, your sales team must:
● Address Pain Points
It doesn’t matter what your product or service you offer—someone is looking for something to help them solve a problem. But you cannot motivate a client to take action and choose your product or service if you cannot prove to them that your product or service solve their problem and/or solve it better than whatever the competition is offering.
To motivate your clients to take action you will need to:
- Listen so you know each client’s pain points. Don’t assume they’re all the same.
- Show them in no uncertain terms how your product is the only solution or the best solution for them.
● Educate Your Clients
Part of showing clients that you can address their pain points and how you plan to do it involves educating them about your product/service/business model.
But this isn’t lecture time. Again, you must remember that first and foremost, you’re teaching your client how your product will solve their problem, then about the actual product or service itself. You have to be clear and explicit about how features translate to solutions.
Use client education as an opportunity to genuinely connect with your prospects, leads and clients on a personal level. After all, sales are driven by emotions. Your clients may be more motivated by the personal connection with you than by the logical explanations you offer about what you offer.
● Create a Sense of Community
Potential clients will be more willing to take action if they feel reassured that the action they may take has benefited others as well. Help them see how taking action gives them membership to a community of individuals and/or businesses who are satisfied with the results.
Use testimonials, references and recommendations from past clients to show them that you have successfully addressed the pain points of others, and that you can do the same for them.
● Follow-Up
People get busy, and the action you want your clients to take falls further down their priority lists. Help them refresh their memories and keep you at the top of their minds—follow-up.
There are multiple avenues for follow-ups, and you will likely need to escalate your follow-ups as time progresses from email reminders to phone calls scheduled or drop-in in-person visits, if applicable.
Of course, there is always a balancing act. You want to follow-up enough to be continually motivating but not so much as to appear aggressive.
● Offer Incentives
You can create or increase a sense of urgency by offering limited-time incentives—and nothing motivates like a deadline. One-time deals, discounts and/or bonus offers can also be effective as they create a reward for clients who take action.
● Ask Questions
Perhaps the most important aspect of motivating a client to take action is to ask questions. Find out:
- Have you accurately diagnosed paint points?
- Have you clearly explained your product or service and how it solves the client’s or potential client’s problems?
- Have you correctly identified the decision-maker?
- Do they truly understand what you’ve been telling them?
Any misunderstandings can affect whether a potential client takes action…or not.
Motivating a client to take your desired action will likely require multiple approaches. But every approach should have some key aspects in common—your client feels respected and their problems understood.
At Sales Focus Inc., we have motivating clients down to a science. We know how to develop a customized sales plan that identifies the best motivators for your target audience. And we know how to train sales agents to cultivate authentic connections. Contact us to schedule an initial consultation to learn more about how we can turn possibility into revenue.
