Most customers focus on 3 letters when making important purchase decisions. At the end of the day, they will choose whichever product or service they believe provides the greatest return on investment (ROI).

Sales organizations, on the other hand, should focus on 5 letters, those being: R-O-I-S-E (Return on Invested Sales Effort).

Too often people refer to the familiar theme that sales is a “numbers game.” While I agree that tracking activity & results is, and will always be, an integral part of managing sales teams, simply pressing salespeople to make more calls in an effort to fill the pipeline ignores the most important metric in any business—sales efficiency.

Now that the average success rate for sellers leaving voice-mail messages or sending email solicitations has dropped below 1%, rather than just ‘banging the phones’ and hoping for the best, one has to wonder why there’s not a greater focus on the notion of increasing sales effectiveness.

The ‘number’ sellers should really focus on is conversion rate. What if were possible to get a 30%, 40%, or 50%+ response rate when reaching out to new prospects, as opposed to a 1% return on your invested sales effort? Similarly, what if you could accelerate the sales cycle, create a greater sense of urgency, maintain higher margins, and improve your closing ratio?

Relying on sales tricks or gimmicks to boost performance is unsustainable in today’s competitive business environment. But show me someone who is not only focused on sales efficiency, but knows how to execute more effectively, and I will show you a top performer in any company or industry.

How does one increase their R-O-I-S-E? I have published six books on the subject of sales effectiveness, but for our purposes here, allow me to give you three simple thoughts that can be implemented next time you talk with real live prospects or customers:

1.) Create Mini-Invitations

It’s easy to dive straight into ‘sales mode’ and barrage customers with questions. But just because you want to ask a bunch of sales questions doesn’t mean customers will “want to” share information with a salesperson they don’t yet know or trust. That’s why the very first question in my needs development strategy is:

 Seller: “Mr. Customer, can I ask you a couple specifics about ______?”

This question is not only easy to ask, it’s easy to answer—typically with a “Yes.” In Question Based Selling, we call this securing a mini-invitation.

Once the customer says, “Yes,” “Sure,” or gives you any other affirmative response, they have essentially invited you to ask questions. Bingo! By securing a mini-invitation to ask questions, you can expect to get more information, in more depth, that’s also more accurate.

2.) Trying to Indict the Customer… Seriously?

Sellers offer solutions to solve problems. And, in order to actually solve a problem, you first need to know what issues the customer is currently experiencing.

Trouble is, the issues or problems customers face are oftentimes self-induced. While the typical sales mindset is to ‘uncover’ the customer’s needs, there are plenty of occasions where decision makers aren’t excited about exposing their vulnerabilities.

For example, here are a few typical sales questions that can actually thwart your needs development efforts:

Salesperson:

“What problems do you have with your current operation?”
“Are you aware of the new compliance regulations?”
“Is it important to stay within a certain budget?”

Typical Responses:

“We’re doing just fine, thank you.”
“What, do you think we’re ignorant and uninformed?” 
“Of course budget is important, duh!” (click)

3.) “Besides the Obvious Goal of…”

One of the best ways to sidestep the risk of asking overly rhetorical sales questions is to ask “to what extent” a certain topic is important to the customer or needs to be further explored.

For example, asking if ‘reliability’ is important to a customer sounds silly. Of course reliability is important! I would be more inclined to ask, “To what extent is reliability important?” Asking the customer to quantify their perspective on relevant topics is one of the simplest ways to remove the “Duh!” factor.

Another risk reduction technique is simply to ask, “Besides the obvious goals of ____, ____, and ____, what else are you concerned about?” Fill in the blanks with three topics that are relevant to the target industry, and the pride factor that so often causes people to be guarded in their responses is more likely to generate the opposite reaction—where customers open up and share tons of valuable information.

Bottom line: Just ‘probing’ for needs is intrusive and laced with risk. A strategic approach to needs development gives savvy salespeople an opportunity to increase their R-O-I-S-E by raising potential issues, objectives, goals, wants, needs, and desires that the customer may not have otherwise considered. In fact, helping potential buyers better understand their needs is one of the greatest opportunities sellers have to add value throughout the sales process.

Too often, sales teams wait until the end of a fiscal period before they shift into high gear, and ‘push the pedal’ all the way to the floor, in an effort to boost results. Since the day of reckoning is surely coming, however, why wait until your back is against the wall to ramp up sales productivity?

It would be optimistic to hope enough deals would simply materialize out of thin air to make your numbers before year-end. It’s more likely that whatever business you close in the coming months will be a direct result of the level of effort you put forth in the coming weeks–to cultivate new prospects, nurture qualified opportunities, and ultimately, bring deals to fruition.

So, why delay? Crunch time is…NOW!

With half the calendar year already behind us, and the finish line now in sight, here are three specific execution strategies worth considering:

1.) Re-Think Your Account Penetration Strategy

How many voice-mails have you deleted, or email solicitations have you trashed, in the last few weeks without listening to the entire message, or reading past the very first sentence? A bunch? That’s because traditional ‘cold calling’ tactics are no longer cutting it, and continuing to sound just like everyone else who is knocking on your same door list of target accounts has become somewhat of a futile exercise.

Fortunately for those who are willing to step outside the box of traditional sales thinking, there is an antidote for customer standoffishness—curiosity.

If a key decision maker in an important target account is not the least bit curious about who you are or what you can do for them, it’s highly unlikely that you will get an audience with them. On the other hand, as prospective buyers become more curious about how you can add value, that’s the ticket to securing a precious slice of their time and their attention.

So, what are you doing to ‘leverage curiosity’ in the sales process? If the answer to that question isn’t clear, whether you prefer books, audio, or on-site training, I’ve spent the last 20+ years teaching sales teams how to gain an ‘unfair’ advantage in terms of penetrating more new opportunities.

2.) True Differentiation is Highly Intangible

Simply claiming to offer the best products is no longer enough if you sell into highly competitive markets. You must also find ways to differentiate yourself from everyone else who is out there claiming that, “We’re better.”

Trouble is, important sales attributes like credibility, integrity, and thought leadership are not just something that can be indiscriminately claimed. They must be earned, which is why it’s crucial for salespeople to understand how to convey more intangible value than the competition, throughout the sales process.

3.) Secure Smaller Commitments on the Way to the Larger Sale

Strategic deals generally require a series of smaller sub-steps on the way to consummating a mutually beneficial business transaction. As a result, your ability to secure those initial and secondary commitments are often just as important as wrapping up the final deal.

What’s the best way to secure these smaller commitments? One option is to try and push customers to move forward. Another is to beg. The best option to move your opportunities forward is to use of superior closing technique.

What does an effective closing question sound like? Here’s just one of many examples:

Salesperson: “Mr. Customer, would it make sense to get the appropriate people together in front of a flipchart (or WebEx), so we can map out your options, how they would impact your business, and the associated costs?”

If you treat the mid-summer months as “crunch time,” and focus on increasing your sales effectiveness in each of these areas, the seeds you sow in the near-term should put you in a strong position to far exceed your numbers by year-end.

Especially during the ‘kickoff season’ of any new sales year, sales teams and marketing departments alike usually invest a tremendous amount of thought and energy into how best to position their solutions within their respective markets. That makes sense—after all, the more solutions you provide, the more money you and your company stand to make, right?