What’s a Ninja trick? In my mind at least, it’s being able to do something super smoothly and perfectly with no effort. That’s what I think of when I talk about ninja success tricks. And luckily a marketing company called Gong has analyzed hundreds of sales meetings in 2021 to come up with some very compelling research. Now, I’ll add them to what I know and share them with you so that you too can become a sales meeting ninja!
Ditch The Slides
At the beginning of the pandemic, when I hired a coach to teach me how to sell online, she said the same thing: don’t sell with slides. In person or online. Now, there is research to back this up. Sales close rates drop by 17% with the use of slides. That’s because the seller asks 21% fewer questions and talks 15% more. Guess who doesn’t get to listen? Yup, that’s right, the seller. And guess who doesn’t get the sale?
Nix Email Negotiations
I knew this from very painful personal experience that price objections or negotiations should NEVER be handled through email. Of course, research, once again, backs this up. Win rates spike if price is shared on email (30% close if price is shared). However, once the buyer has a question about the price and the seller emails back a reply, close rates drop to 10%!! Nooooo! So please, even if the question about the price seems straightforward, resist the urge to reply in email and port the conversation to the phone, zoom or in-person.
Value Before Price
One of the cornerstones of my 5-step sales conversation process is to establish the cost of the problem before offering the price of the solution. Of course, research agrees. Unsuccessful demos where price was mentioned at the 20-25minute mark were almost half as successful as those that brought up price at the 38-46 minute mark of an hour long sales meeting. Doesn’t it make sense to sell the value before even talking about price?
Early Money Talk
The biggest secret to closing quicker in B2B sales is to talk about both budget and the price in the first call or meeting. When budget or price are not discussed, the close rates are 7% and 5% respectively. Yet upon first mention of both in the first meeting, close rates jump to over 40%. Don’t be scared. Don’t be shy. Know your worth and have the confidence to ask about their budget and name your price-right from the start.
Size Matters
According to research the size of the buying group is critical. Deal size and win rates significantly increase as the buyer team size increases. What’s even more interesting is that close rates go from 15% to 50% if you have only one person on the selling team versus at least 3 or more people with you.
When you perfect these Ninja Sales Meeting tricks, you no longer have to wait for months on end for deals to close. You can take control and smoothly sail into success in the new year.
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