If you want to increase your sales, you need to do everything you can to give yourself an unfair advantage over your competitors, or sell smart.
Research shows that one of the best ways to do this is to catch it early:
- Forrester Research found that the first vendor to reach a prospect and establish a buying vision has a 74% close rate.
- InsideSales found that 50% of sales opportunities go to the first salesperson to contact a prospect.
Most salespeople spend their time chasing prospects who are actively involved in making a decision. If you join them, your chances of winning are slim. Smart selling instead involves going where the decision isn’t yet, but could be. This is what early birds do to find undiscovered opportunities.
Identify identical projects
If you want an unfair advantage, you need to quickly seek out similar organizations that are likely facing a nearly identical problem. This way, you can get in early, open your potential client’s eyes to what is possible, and often win business without competition.
Find a “trigger”
Anything that changes a prospect’s priorities creates an opportunity for you. For example, if profits stagnate in the third quarter, directives go out to the entire company to reduce costs. New business deals or market directions also change priorities—sometimes overnight.
If you want an early bird advantage, analyze what kind of change with your customers could create opportunities. Then get serious about using sales intelligence to follow up on them.
Pay attention to changes in the management team
New leadership always shakes things up. A new boss is brought in to make things happen and often launches new projects within months of starting.
Getting on a new leader’s agenda quickly can open up quick sales opportunities.
And if you think about it, you’ll realize that the old job of the new boss has to be filled now. And that old boss is going to show up somewhere soon. That creates at least three potential opportunities with people who are eager to make their mark.
Is it unfair to cash in on these opportunities? Not at all. That’s what smart salespeople always do. They move early, lay the groundwork, build the business case, develop strong relationships – and close deals with minimal competition.
If you want to win assignments, it is important to be the early bird. Click here to see how YellowForest can help.
