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Sales Strategy Guide: 5 Steps to More Efficient Selling

Focus on your customer, choose the sales process to match, and make your sellers more productive: a recipe for predictable revenue.

Paul Bookstaber

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What’s better than making a sale? Making a selling machine — a defined sales process fit to match your customer and your product, with tools and data to make your sellers more productive and efficient. Create this, and the repeatable, dependable sales will come. That’s what a sales strategy is all about.

Below we share why a sales strategy matters and how to build one, step by step.

Table of Contents

What is a sales strategy, why do you need a sales strategy, sales strategy types, how to build a sales strategy in 5 steps (with examples), what are the most important tools to improve your sales strategy, make sales strategy and planning absurdly easy.

Our Sales Planning solution helps you align overarching strategy with budget, headcount, and sales territories — with just a few clicks.

A sales strategy sets a path to hit revenue targets by identifying target customers and selling channels, then creating a sales process to match. A sales strategy is never finished. It has to continually adapt to business and market change, always seeking to do more with less. This means that sales leaders have to keep digging into customer and sales performance data to track progress, make adjustments, and stay on course.

A great sales strategy brings your sellers around common goals, helps them spot risks and trends as they move deals along, and trains them to get better every day. Without a sales strategy, sellers would be out on their own — no shared vision, no shared sales process to know the next best action to take, and no shared data to study and learn what is and isn’t working. Uh-oh: inconsistent sales.

Here are the main reasons why you need a sales strategy:

Clear steps to advance customers through the sales pipeline

A sales strategy creates a blueprint for sellers to know the next step to take: how to handle certain objections, when to reach out with another email, and when to loop other people into the conversation. Think of it as a playbook with repeatable steps and reusable techniques for closing deal after deal.

More productive sellers and faster onboarding

A sales strategy takes all the lessons learned from past wins and failures and distills those lessons into best practices that every seller can benefit from. New sellers and sellers with room to improve can start behaving like your high-performers, with guidance and actions on everything from prospecting leads to closing deals .

Real-time visibility into the sales process to learn and improve

The structure you create in your sales process allows you to bring all of your data into one place and track the same key metrics for every rep. Are sellers performing as expected? Are they selling enough to hit your forecast? Are there red flags showing up in conversations? This baseline understanding of all your data (especially when it’s updated in real-time) helps you coach your reps to perform better.

In the next section, we’ll look at different kinds of sales strategies that can help you level up.

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Sales Performance Strategies

A sales strategy is based largely on two things: customer type and sales channel.

• Customer type (often called a customer segment) is usually based on size, industry, region, or the product they’re buying.
• Channel is how you reach these customers. For example, you could connect through direct sales, partners, or self-service channels.

While you can build a strategy around one of these — segment or channel — the most effective strategies take both into account. Let’s break it down.

Sales strategies based on customer type

The type of sales strategy you choose begins with how you group your target customers — typically by size, region, product, or industry.

Let’s take a look at each one.

• Segment by company size. These segments commonly break down into enterprise companies versus small and medium-sized businesses. This allows you to split your sellers into two different selling approaches. One targets large companies for a relatively small number of high-value deals, and the other targets small and medium businesses (SMBs) for lower-value, higher-volume deals.
• Segment by region. This approach makes sense as you expand into a global presence because you’ll need to identify the best practices for different local needs, with an emphasis on the unique languages, business pains, and cultural nuances in each place.
• Segment by product. This often makes sense for large companies that have a mix of legacy products and new, smaller ones (often from acquisitions). You’ll want to make sure that the newer, smaller products don’t get lost in the mix. Holding certain sales teams accountable to those products while dedicating other sellers to legacy products will help you shore up success on all sides.
• Segment by industry. This groups sellers around industries like manufacturing, healthcare, and financial services. A sales strategy that serves this customer segment can be a great way to increase win rates (the number of deals you sell), because it trains sellers to develop subject matter expertise that helps them really address the unique pains of different customers, from supply chain woes (as might be the case with manufacturing) to compliance needs (as might be the case with financial services).

Sales strategies based on selling channel

Now that you’ve grouped your customer segment, map the target customer to the right channel based on how they prefer to buy — via direct sales, channel sales , or self-service sales. A company will often begin by focusing on one channel, become great at it, and then build more to create a mix of different revenue streams.

Here are the three main selling channels.

1. Direct sales is classic sales: one rep talking to one customer, building a relationship over time, and finally bringing the deal to close. Choose this for your sales strategy when your product is complex or the deal size is large, requiring a longer sales cycle and a high level of human involvement. Direct sales will often be the sales strategy for enterprise sales (also known as complex sales).

2. Channel sales (also known as partner sales) is a great approach for growing revenue without adding new headcount. It lets you sell through vendors like partners, resellers, and distributors, a move that’s increasingly important as sales teams everywhere are trying to drive down costs.

3. Self-service sales lets customers buy without talking to a sales rep through channels like online stores. For example, Salesforce lets customers purchase software right through the Salesforce Starter webpage . Consider a self-service sales approach when you want to make it easier and faster for customers to buy. It’s especially powerful for selling subscriptions , since customers can add or make changes to their subscriptions without having to talk to a rep.

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Ready to build a sales strategy? Start by understanding your sales goals and the customers you want to target, and then choose a sales channel to reach them. Finally, build a sales process that you can study, learn from, and improve over time.

Here’s how to begin, one step at a time.

1. Define your sales targets

A sales leader will often begin the year with a target of how much revenue to bring in. This will help determine what customers you need to target and how many deals you need to close in the coming year.

Let’s imagine your target is $1 million in revenue. Now you’ll need to determine the right target customer and selling channel in order to meet your goal.

2. Determine your target customer and selling channel

First, determine your target customer based on how you slice and dice the market and what will likely get you to your revenue goal. As we noted above, you can focus on company size, region, industry, or the product you’re selling.

Second, conduct competitor research and learn more about the customer’s operating methods (online and via sources in your network) to determine how your target customer likes to buy. This will determine the sales channel you focus on.

For example, say you’re selling accounting software to enterprise business customers and you see a big opportunity among financial services firms. You know from experience that these buyers like to buy one-on-one from experts who understand the nuances of their regulatory environment. Ding-ding-ding! Train your sellers to speak the language of this specific industry and move forward with direct sales.

3. Build the most efficient sales process to hit your numbers

At this point, identify the steps your sales team can follow to complete a sale — the sales process — with the type of customer and channel you’ve chosen. Think of it as a roadmap with checkpoints between first customer contact and close, with guidance on how to move from one checkpoint to another.

The stages you choose and the milestones for each one will depend on the customer and channel. Here’s an example of a sales process that might fit our example target customer (financial services) and channel (direct sales):

• Prospect: Find new leads via online sources or your professional network.
• Qualify: Determine whether your product is a good fit for a prospect by calling bank managers.
• Research: Learn more about your prospect via online sources and industry research.
• Pitch: Connect with your prospect again to demonstrate the value of your offering.
• Overcome objections: Answer questions and allay concerns. Consider showing a demo to demonstrate how your product will help.
• Close: Negotiate terms and sign the deal.
• Nurture and continue to sell: Focus on post-sales activities, such as customer adoption and success, renewals, and marketing partnerships like events and referrals.

4. Fill your sales pipeline with enough leads to hit your target

Now that you’ve defined the stages in your sales process, fill your sales pipeline with prospects. Determine how many you need based on likely deal size for the customer types you’re targeting and past conversion rates. Then, use marketing channels and network outreach to connect with them.

In our example, you know you need to hit a $1 million revenue target. If the enterprise tier of your accounting software sells for $10,000 a year, you’ll need to close 100 deals to hit your goal. You know that last year’s conversation rate for enterprise prospects was 30%, which means your team probably needs about 330 prospects in your pipeline.

You also know that many of the decision-makers for big banks attend finance conferences, so you register several of your reps for the major ones in your region to make connections and identify prospects.

Prospects coming in? You’re ready to sell! (Wait, how do I sell? Good question. Read our definitive guide .)

5. Put your sales process to work and improve as you go

As you roll out the rest of your sales strategy, your team will dive into selling, going from cold leads to warm opportunities to red-hot deals. At the same time, your business and your market will experience disruption and change. So it’s critical to continually monitor the health of your pipeline, and if things aren’t going as expected or a change throws a wrench into your selling machine, then act to adjust.

Let’s say many of your prospects are suffering from tightened budgets. Instead of pushing your enterprise software, you pivot from fewer, high-value deals to more mid-value deals. How? You start recommending a lower-cost, midrange tier of your accounting software that can be easily upgraded when the time and budget are right.

Segmenting … channeling … pipelining? There’s a lot to a successful sales strategy. Good thing technology is here to help. Below we share how.

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Building and executing a sales strategy starts with a single source of truth, a CRM , where you can segment your customers and channels and map specific actions to your sales process. Additional tools can be combined with a CRM to boost productivity and efficiency, from reports and dashboards to forecasting tools and revenue management software.

Here are a few of the most important tools to consider:

Customer relationship management (CRM) system

A CRM gives you a complete view of all your prospects and customers. This visibility is critical for tracking your leads from click to close, monitoring what is and isn’t working, and making smarter decisions about where to invest.

Reports and dashboards

Reports and dashboards provide a real-time picture of your business revenue at a glance. This helps sales leaders continually adjust their sales strategy to stay on target, and dig deeper into detailed reports that can show insights at the level of the individual deal or seller.

Pipeline management and sales forecasting

Remember the defined sales process you created earlier in your strategy? Bring in pipeline and forecasting technology to help you stay up to speed on your team’s progress. Get a handle on where every deal sits in the pipeline and roll those numbers up to create accurate sales forecasts. Then, make cost-effective decisions about where to focus your resources.

Revenue management

A revenue management tool can help you connect customer touchpoints — like quoting, selling, and billing — that used to be locked away in different systems. When you connect the flow of customer data from one touchpoint to the next, you can make it easier and faster for customers to buy.

When in doubt, go back to basics

Creating a sales strategy is like building a car while driving it. You’re asked to hit your numbers while also building the machinery beneath. When in doubt, come back to the basics. According to Tiffani Bova, global growth evangelist at Salesforce, the basics come down to these questions: Who is your customer? What is your product? And how does your customer like to buy? When you can answer these, you know you’re on the right track.

Use the power of AI to improve your sales strategy

With the generative and predictive AI features of Sales Cloud, you can build strategies based on real-time customer and sales data quickly and accurately.

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Paul Bookstaber is a writer at Salesforce. He has a decade of experience in content marketing in B2B tech. Before that, he published a magazine and ran a tabloid blog. Today, he splits his time between Florida and the Mountain West, and loves to hike, ski, and watch Bravo. He is in a polyamorous ... Read More relationship with Luke and Roger, who are cats.

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22 Best Sales Strategies, Plans, & Initiatives for Success [Templates]

Discover sales strategy examples, templates, and plans used by top sales teams worldwide.

FREE SALES PLAN TEMPLATE

Outline your company's sales strategy in one simple, coherent plan.

Updated: 03/07/24

Published: 03/07/24

A strong sales strategy plan creates the foundation for a cohesive and successful sales organization.

Sales strategies and initiatives also align salespeople on shared goals and empower them to do their best work — keeping them happy and successful, too.

In this guide, I’ll dig into some sales strategies and initiatives that I’ve found can help you generate more leads and close more deals. But first, let’s define what a sales strategy is.

Table of Contents

What is a sales strategy?

Why is a sales strategy important, the most effective sales strategies, sales strategy types, sales planning: how to build a sales strategy plan, sales initiatives, sales strategy examples from successful sales teams.

A sales strategy is a set of decisions, actions, and goals that inform how your sales team positions the organization and its products to close new customers. It acts as a guide for sales reps to follow, with clear goals for sales processes, product positioning, and competitive analysis.

A clear sales strategy serves as a map for the growth of your business. Your sales strategy is key to future planning, problem-solving, goal-setting, and management.

An effective sales strategy can help you:

• Give your team direction and focus. Strategic clarity can help your sales reps and managers understand which goals and activities to prioritize. This can lead to improved productivity and outcomes.
• Ensure consistent messaging. Your sales strategy can help your team deliver a consistent message to prospects, partners, and customers. This can increase both trust and effectiveness.
• Optimize opportunities. Strong sales strategies will help you target the right prospects and customize your approach. This can help your team make the most of every sales opportunity.
• Improve resource allocation. Your sales strategy outlines your priorities and resources. In turn, this can help your sales team use their time, effort, and other resources more efficiently, boosting your team’s ability to focus on high-potential deals.

Next, let’s cover some of the sales strategies that I’ve found can be most effective.

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2. Become a thought leader.

Sharing your advice, tried-and-true best practices, and niche expertise are some of the most long-lasting ways to build your personal brand and lend more credibility to your organization. After all, nobody wants to feel like they’re being sold to. Instead, it’s better to help people by offering solutions to their problems.

That’s what thought leaders do. Indeed, a recent report found that “Thought leadership is one of the most effective tools an organization can use to demonstrate its value to customers during a tough economy — even more so than traditional advertising or product marketing, according to B2B buyers.”

According to the study, 61% of decision-makers believed that thought leadership could be moderately or very effective in demonstrating the value of a company’s products. Moreover, more than half of C-suite executives in the study believed that thought leadership has a greater impact on purchases during an economic downturn, making this an even more important element of a sales strategy in today’s uncertain economic times.

So what’s the catch?

Not all thought leadership content is created equal.

When done right, thought leadership can have a huge positive impact, but poor thought leadership can be devastating to a company’s sales goals. So, before you plan a spree of LinkedIn posts to drive leads, consider who your audience is, what they need to know, and how your organization can help.

Also, it may not hurt to have a second set of eyes from your marketing, communication, and PR departments review your plan first to make sure everything is on-brand (and trackable!).

3. Prioritize inbound sales calls as hot leads.

There’s an age-old question in sales: “Should I discuss product pricing with a prospect on the first sales call?” The honest answer is: It depends.

You and your sales team know your process better than anyone. So take it from me — if you’ve seen success with pitching with pricing first, last, or somewhere in between, stick with what’s working for you.

But beyond that, your team should always prioritize the prospects who come to you. These hot leads are definitely interested in what you have to sell, and before they make a decision, they want to get the information they need about how it will benefit them.

By prioritizing talking to these prospects as soon as they call in or send an email, you’re putting your best foot forward and showing them that you’re helpful, solutions-oriented, and considerate of their time. And if that means closing a deal on the first call, there’s nothing wrong with that — as long as the customer has the information they need to make an informed decision.

4. Properly research and qualify prospects.

I’ve personally discovered that even the strongest sales strategy can’t compensate for targeting the wrong customers. To ensure your team is selling to the right type of customer, encourage reps to research and qualify prospects before attempting to discuss your product. Indeed, throughout my career, I’ve found that more work on the front end can lead to smoother closing conversations later on.

Outline the criteria a prospect needs to meet to be qualified as a high-probability potential customer. These criteria will depend on your unique business and target audience, but they should generally be based on a prospect’s engagement history and demographics.

Free Guide: 101 Sales Qualification Questions

101 Questions to Ask Contacts When Qualifying, Closing, Negotiating, and Upselling.

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5. Implement a free trial.

Offering a free trial or freemium version of your product can be a highly effective way to convert prospects. In fact, HubSpot’s sales strategy report found that 76% of sales professionals feel that free trials are effective in converting prospects into paying customers, while 69% of professionals believe that freemium offerings are effective.

Keeping a list of proven, go-to closing techniques will help salespeople routinely win deals. Some of my favorite techniques include the ‘now or never close’ — i.e., “If you commit now, I can get you a 20% discount” — or the ‘question close,’ i.e., “In your opinion, does what I am offering solve your problem?”

Free Sales Closing Guide

An easy-to-use sales closing guide with three tactics you can use right away.

• Using an ROI calculator for your prospects
• How to ask confirmation questions
• Sales question templates you can use today

To further improve your closing techniques and learn to close deals with confidence, check out this free, downloadable Sales Closing Guide .

11. Nurture existing accounts for future selling opportunities.

Once a deal is done, there’s no need for a sales strategy, right? Wrong.

Account management is an incredibly important part of the sales process, as this is how you foster loyal, happy customers and identify cross-selling and upselling opportunities.

So, after your sales team sees success with its sales strategy, it’s vital to form a partnership between the sales team and customer service/success teams.

Remember: Ensuring customers’ continued satisfaction with your product or service will make them more likely to do business with your company again. You may even inspire them to advocate for it proactively.

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• Strategic Selling: A Comprehensive Guide for Success 

It’s often said that, “if you’re trying to sell to everyone, you’ll end up selling to no one.”   

Conducting sales without a clear direction is simply ineffective. Each potential customer comes with unique needs, budgets, and decision-makers in the mix. That’s why a well-defined sales strategy is essential – it enables you to precisely target and cater to these individual requirements. 

How, you ask? 

Strategic selling is the answer! It’s a sales strategy that takes a customer-centric approach to selling and focuses on creating a mutually beneficial relationship between the buyer and the seller.  

Before we go into how you can effectively use this strategy to increase your conversions , let’s first understand what it is exactly. 

What is Strategic Selling?  

Strategic selling is a concept that provides a framework for sales professionals to sell with a buyer-focused approach.  

It focuses on creating long-term, mutually beneficial relations with your customers. It breaks down complex sales processes into actionable steps. 

Unlike traditional selling, it does not focus on the product and its features. It gives emphasis to the value it provides to the consumer. 

This strategy is mainly applicable in B2B organizations where there are multiple decision-makers.  Each of them has separate issues dealt differently. Strategic selling helps tailor the product that gives a solution to all these problems.  

Let’s understand the key characteristics of strategic selling and how they aid in solving the problems.  

Fundamentals of Strategic Selling  

Let’s go through some features that make the core of strategic selling: 

1. Creating Win-Win Solutions

• Long-term relationship -You are not there to pressure them into buying your product and earn a sale. Getting to know your clients and focusing on enhancing your relationship with them is the key. 

Here you are not only looking at the immediate sale but also at future cross-selling opportunities.  

• Collaborative sales process – Work closely with the prospects to understand their pain points and what exactly they are looking for. It is vital to tweak your strategy according to what stage of sales funnel they are in. This will help you save time and offer customized solutions.  
• Value-based selling – It is an approach that requires you to understand and meet the specific needs of clients. Instead of simply promoting products or services, it focuses on creating genuine value for the customer.  

This involves thorough research and active listening to grasp the client’s pain points and goals.  

With this knowledge, customize your solutions to directly address these needs, whether through product features, pricing adjustments, or additional services. 

Importantly, emphasize the long-term benefits they will gain, such as increased efficiency or cost savings. 

This benefits both the customer, who receives tailored solutions, and the business, which cultivates a loyal customer base for sustained growth.   

2. Identifying the Decision-makers  

According to the strategic selling methodology there are four main types of influences impacting the sales decisions: 

• Economic Influencers – They are the ones who handle the budget and has the authority to release the payment.  

It could be an individual or a group of people. They might not necessarily use the product themselves but are responsible for the financial aspect of the purchase.   

What economic influencers care most about is the return on investment (ROI) and does the product/service fit their budget.  

The way to sell to them is to emphasize how your product can boost their revenue and is a valuable investment. 

• User-Centric Influencers – These are the people who will use your product or service.  

They’re mainly focused on things at a basic level, like how easy it is to use, how safe it is, and how to put it into action. Here you focus on how your product is user-friendly, how it will reduce their workload and make their life easier.  

For example, if you are selling a CRM, you can emphasize on how automation can help them close more deals. 

• Technical Buying Influencers – They are the experts who assess your product based on the specific technicalities and features.  

They look into whether your product matches the specifications that their organization needs. They then evaluate the measurable and quantifiable parts of your product.   

Here, you need to highlight how your product smoothly integrates with their current ecosystem, how easy is the implementation, etc.  

• Coaches – They are individuals embedded within a prospective client’s organization who offer guidance and support to you.  

They help you with insights like the practical usage of your products or services for the prospect’s organization to help you tailor your pitch. They might also advocate for your product, assist you in navigating internal processes, offer insights into the competitive landscape etc. 

Building trust, asking pertinent questions, and leveraging their influence is essential to close deals successfully.   

3. Developing Customer-Centric Approach  

Strategic selling prioritizes understanding and meeting the unique needs of each individual customer. It involves tailoring sales strategies and interactions to align with the customer’s preferences, pain points, and goals.  

Active listening and gathering insights can guide you to customize solutions and offerings to address specific customer requirements. 

Furthermore, it involves providing exceptional post-sale support and maintaining ongoing communication to ensure complete customer satisfaction and loyalty.  

This not only leads to higher customer retention but also increases the likelihood of referrals, positive word-of-mouth, and upselling opportunities. 

Now that you know the characteristics that make up the strategic selling methodology, let’s understand how to implement it.

The Strategic Selling Process

Here’s the four-step process you can follow to start your strategic selling journey: 

1. Identifying and prioritizing target customers  

• Since strategic selling is a long-term process, it is crucial to spend time on prospects that fit your ideal customer profile. These profiles are created by taking into account the demographic, geographic and psychographic details of the customer. You can create your own customer profiles using this free checklist and template.  
• Conducting thorough prospect research – Once you know about your ideal customer profile, you need to research and learn about various buying influences that play a role in winning sales.  You can use websites like LinkedIn or networking events to learn more about these influences. Your coach can also help you identify and meet with key decision-makers.  
• Understanding degree of influence – Identification is not the only thing that needs to be done. Although there are multiple stakeholders, the amount of influence they have is not the same. 

  Therefore, you need to determine the degree of influence they hold. Asses what domain they are from and if that is relevant to your product/service. You can then prioritize the people who have a greater influence on the sale of your product. 

2. Determining buyer receptivity  

The way you present your pitch would differ based on how buyers perceive their business situation. It is important to know when to approach the buyer according to their business needs.  

According to strategic selling, there are four different response modes based on how buyers evaluate their business situation. For each of these responses, your sales approach should be different. The four response modes are as follows: 

• Growth: The buyer is essentially aware of the problem. They know there is a gap between the desired results and the reality. They are ready to take that leap and see growth. This is the easiest response mode to sell to since they are receptive to change. 
• Trouble: The buyer has an issue, and they want a solution that can take things back to normal. But there is a difference between growth and trouble response. In growth response, the buyer wants to improve an already good situation. On the other hand, a buyer in trouble mode wants a solution that can quickly resolve their issue. The sales proposal presented must be such that it gives the fastest solution for the problem.  
• Indifference: Here the buyer does not see a gap between what they desire and the reality. It Is difficult to sell in this situation. The only thing that might make them want to buy is when they see growth or trouble coming. You can show them the results they have settled for is far less than what they can possibly achieve with your product or service.  
• Overconfidence: This is when the buyer’s perceived reality is way better than the actual reality. They are the most difficult to sell to. Either they are ignorant of their reality or have goals set so low that their poor performance is perceived to be good. It is wise to eliminate this prospect from being a potential buyer. 

3. Customer-oriented competitor analysis   

When we talk about competition in strategic selling, it has many factors other than your actual competitor companies. To capture the full picture of your competition, you need to include the other competitions like: 

• Companies might come up with their own internal solution 
• They might allocate the budget for some other purpose 
• They might decide your product is not worth it 

You might be wondering how to analyze competition with a focus on your potential customer. Here’s how: 

• Determine the competition- Identify all the alternatives mentioned above. Explore whether your prospect has any potential internal solution. Find out whether the customer is facing other issues that might take away your budget. Scope out other companies that are also looking to solve the same problem as you.  
• Examine your competitor firm’s strategy- Here you assess the firms that are competing with you for the same business.  Compare the price difference, features and offerings of their product with yours.  
• Figure out what makes you unique- This is the most important part. What is your unique selling proposition (USP)? Make a list of contributions that your product is making to their company. You should have at least one such contribution that makes you stand out and is important for their organisation. 

4. Creating a personalised sales strategy for each prospect  

Now that you have all the necessary details for your strategy, it’s time to create it.  

You should create a strategy that showcases a measurable impact to the prospect’s organization. Not only that, but it also needs to be personal.  

The way strategic selling puts it is, Win-results. You need to identify what are considered wins for the buying influences and incorporate them.  

Draft an action plan that has doable and logical actions that you can perform   

The following are things that you must include in your actionable sales strategy – 

• Define who will be the part of the sales meetings. Ensure it’s the person best qualified for it.   For example, for a meeting with an economic influencer, you might want to arrange a person from the executive level to see them. 
• Mark down the response modes that each buying influencer is in. Make your action plan accordingly. It is important to focus on influences who are in growth or trouble mode first.  
• It is important to note that getting a win result for every influence might not be possible. But is essential to keep track of what is considered a win for all of them including yourself. 
• Include the value addition you bring to the customer. Think about not only the product but also other things like customer service, support, customizations etc. 
• Finally, after every sales call, re-asses and re-consider everything with the new information s and adjust your sales strategy accordingly. 

Now that you know how to implement the strategic selling process, let’s look at ways you can leverage technology to make it easier for you. 

Strategic Selling in Changing Market Dynamics  

Strategic selling is a long term ever-evolving process. With the fast-changing business world, technology like customer relationship management software (CRM) can be your best friend. A CRM like Leadsquared can be a backbone to your selling process in the following ways: 

1. Utilizing data to drive sales decisions  

You can use a CRM in many steps during strategic selling. While you are creating an ideal customer profile, you can use the CRM for customer profiling. You can track your prospect’s journey to understand what stage of buyer’s journey they are on. 

You can also capture information on buying influencers and understand where they are in the lead funnel.  

Based on the data, you can collaborate with your marketing team to run account-based marketing campaigns. 

2. Leveraging technology for sales insights and analytics  

A CRM is a centralized platform for all your sales activities. You can keep a record of sales calls, and demo meetings with different stakeholders. 

Create notes on all the meetings to get useful insights for your next sales call.  

Through features like smart views on LeadSquared, you can have a view of your prospects and all your tasks and reminders all at one place.  

You can also easily update your action plan and create updated strategies then and there. 

3. Using data to anticipate customer needs and preferences  

Once you have made the sale, there are other after-sales services that are crucial.  

You can schedule  automated emails and set reminders to check-in on your customers and build long-term relationship. Another great way a CRM can be helpful is by identifying opportunities. 

CRMs like LeadSquared have features like opportunity management. Through this you can identify the up-sell and cross-sell opportunities for your products. This can be done by keeping track of your stakeholders’ activities. You can jump on these opportunities and win more deals with the existing customers. 

Final Thoughts   

Strategic selling is a long sales process and requires a lot of time and energy. But it is a fruitful methodology that yields results, beneficial for both you and your customer.  

This in turn, creates a long-term relationship with your customers for future projects too. You can also use technology like Customer Relationship Management (CRM) to help improve customer relations, by making your selling process more streamlined. 

Strategic selling offers numerous advantages, including stronger customer relationships, greater customer retention, enhanced cross-selling and upselling opportunities and long-term sustainable growth. 

Strategic selling as a concept was first introduced in 1985 by Robert B. Miller and Stephen E. Heiman in their book ‘The New Strategic Selling.’

Although it has numerous advantages, strategic selling can be time and resource intensive. It is also complex and requires a deep understanding of the market, competition, and the customer’s specific needs. Having a CRM like Leadsquared can help you tackle these challenges effectively. 

Vaishnavi is a content marketer at LeadSquared. She works closely with sales leaders and experts to share their insights on sales trends and best practices. Besides that, you can find her reading fiction or listening to history podcasts. You can reach out to her on LinkedIn or write to her at [email protected]

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Home / Blog / Sales Strategy: What’s Most Effective? A Great Message!

Sales Strategy: What’s Most Effective? A Great Message!

Publish Date November 22, 2019

Post Author by Tim Riesterer

Post Topics Customer Acquisition , Customer Expansion , Messaging

How do you create the best and most effective sales strategy? A lot of advice out there tells you that as long as you have a documented plan, a solid process, and a bullpen full of reps who know your solution inside and out, you’re ready.

Well, not quite.

The problem is, most sales strategies are too internally focused. They succeed in documenting internal procedures but lose sight of the messages and skills your reps need to communicate value to your prospects and customers.

Consider the following insights:

• Research from SiriusDecisions  shows that  the number-one inhibitor to sales achieving quota is an “inability to communicate a value message.”
• In corresponding research in which SiriusDecisions asked executive customers about the quality of interactions with salespeople,  only 10 percent said sales calls provide enough value to warrant the time they spent on them.
• A  Forrester Research  study revealed that  only 15 percent of sales calls add enough value,  according to executives surveyed.
• The Forrester study also showed that  just seven percent of surveyed executives say they would probably schedule a follow-up.

In other words, if your sales force can’t communicate value—why your solution is different, better, and worth more—your sales strategy won’t help you get more sales.

So, what can you do?

In this article, you’ll learn 10 tips for building a sales strategy that actually works. Each one is backed by behavioral research and has been rigorously studied to be effective in B2B selling situations.

But first, it’s important to step back and clarify what it really means to create a successful sales strategy.

What is a Sales Strategy?

A sales strategy is defined as a documented plan for positioning and selling your product or service to qualified buyers in a way that differentiates your solution from your competitors.

Sales strategies are meant to provide clear objectives and guidance to your sales organization. They typically include key information like growth goals, KPIs, buyer personas, sales processes, team structure, competitive analysis, product positioning, and specific selling methodologies .

Most of these guidelines are helpful for communicating goals and keeping your sales reps on the same page. Where most sales strategies fall short, however, is that they’re too focused on the internal workings of your organization. The actual skills needed to have winning conversations with buyers—along with the messages reps need to be successful—are merely an afterthought.

When you boil it down, the goal of every sales strategy is to make sure your salespeople hit their quota, right? And it’s the messaging element—what salespeople say, do, and write in order to create perceived value—that wins or loses the deal.

To truly be effective, your organization’s sales strategy needs to focus on customer conversations. These skillfully delivered conversations are what creates a distinctive purchase experience, demonstrates value for your buyers, and separates your company from the competition.

With that in mind, here are 10 things to keep in mind when creating a sales strategy.

10 Keys to Developing a Successful Sales Strategy

1. build a powerful value proposition in your messaging.

Most prospects either don’t recognize or can’t articulate the root challenges they struggle with on a daily basis. So, even if you sell a truly remarkable product, your buyers probably won’t recognize the real value you offer to their organization. That’s why you need to create a powerful and persuasive message.

In fact, Forrester’s research found that 74 percent of executive buyers will give their business to a company that illustrates a buying vision , compared to vendors among a group of commodity suppliers.

This isn’t just about touting your product’s features, hoping that your buyer chooses you over your competition. That approach only puts you at value parity with similar solutions, and it forces a competitive bake-off.

Instead of talking about what you do and why you think you can do it better, create a buying vision that defines a new set of challenges that align with your distinct strengths. This powerful value proposition will uncover previously Unconsidered Needs for your prospect, create contrast, and drive the urgency to change using stories and insights.

2. Create the Urgency to Change

Most companies unknowingly position themselves for a competitive bake-off of features and benefits. They answer the “why should I choose you?” question for their prospects. But in doing so, they miss a critical first step.

The truth is that the majority of buyers prefer to do nothing instead of change. In fact, 60 percent of deals in the pipeline are lost to “no decision” rather than to competitors .

Staying the same is safe and comfortable, while change is associated with threat and risk. To break through Status Quo Bias and get prospects to leave their current situation, you need to tell a story that makes a compelling case for why they should change, and why they should change now.

Successful sales strategy requires you to understand your real competitor—the status quo. Help your prospects make the decision to change before you try and convince them to choose you. Answering these questions is what differentiates your solution and sets the tone for your buyer’s entire Deciding Journey.

3. Tell a Compelling and Memorable Story

When salespeople prepare for conversations with prospects, they usually focus on getting all the facts straight about their offerings. But the most accurate information in the world won’t resonate if you can’t connect with your customers in a memorable way.

Telling personal stories and using metaphors and analogies  helps bring your message alive  in a more compelling way than simply reciting facts and data. Storytelling paints a vivid picture for your buyers, illustrating the contrast between their current situation versus what’s possible, and connecting what you offer directly to their unique situation.

Once you start sharing stories in your sales conversations, your customer relationships will become deeper and more rewarding.

4. Speak to the Customer Deciding Journey, Not Your Sales Process

A sales process is a set of repeatable steps that a salesperson uses to lead a prospect to purchase. Typically, the sales process involves several steps like prospecting, qualifying, discovering needs, negotiating, and closing. This would be an ideal checklist to follow if all your buyers were robots being taken through an assembly line. But that’s just not the reality.

Selling today isn’t a predictable progression that you’ve decided is how your prospects and customers should buy. What you’re really up against today is a Customer Deciding Journey —a series of key questions your buyers are asking as they look to address specific business goals.

Instead of being “program-centric” with a one-size-fits-all sales strategy, you need to be problem-centric, addressing the specific needs of your buyers as they arise with situationally relevant messages, content, and the skills to deliver them.

5. Don’t Rely on Buyer Personas in Your Sales Strategy

Customer profiles and buyer personas sound good in theory. The idea is to collect common demographic attributes, attitudes, and behaviors of your target audience to help frame and target your messages. But when used as a superficial profiling approach, personas can lead your messaging astray .

Persona-based selling assumes that the behaviors or actions of your target buyer are motivated by their internal characteristics. In reality, buyers are motivated by outside influences that challenge their status quo and convince them to change. These outside influences might include rapid growth within the company, inefficient or unsustainable processes, or broader changes that affect their industry as a whole.

The real drivers behind behaviors and behavior change are the challenges within your buyer’s  situation , not their professional  disposition . So, instead of focusing your sales strategy on a lot of inconsequential attributes, speak to your buyer’s situation and why their current approach is putting their business at risk.

6. Avoid the “Commodity Trap” in Your Sales Strategy

Too often, salespeople base their messages on the needs that prospects tell them they have. Then, they connect those identified needs to corresponding capabilities, in standard “solution selling” fashion.

The problem with this approach? You fall into the trap of commodity messaging along with your competitors, who are likely constructing their value message in response to the same set of inputs. As a result, you sound just like everyone else, leaving your prospects indecisive and without any real urgency to change.

Instead, you need to introduce Unconsidered Needs that extend beyond the identified, known needs and solve for those. Introduce prospects to problems or missed opportunities they’ve underappreciated or don’t even know about. Then, connect the Unconsidered Needs you’ve identified to your differentiated strengths, which are uniquely suited to resolve those risks.

Research conducted by Corporate Visions  found that  a provocative messaging approach that begins by introducing an Unconsidered Need enhances your persuasive impact by 10 percent.

7. Lead with Insights, Not Discovery Questions

Many salespeople try to be a “trusted advisor”—asking their buyers discovery questions, diagnosing the customer’s needs, and then presenting a solution that fits the criteria. But this approach does you and your customer a disservice.

To be of real value to your buyers, it’s not enough to say, “Tell me what you want; I’ll get it for you.” Buyers want salespeople who will tell them what they should want. They want you to sift through all the information that’s out there and deliver insight into what they’re missing that will improve their performance.

This means more than just finding data and statistics online. A fact without a story is just a data point. To make it real for your buyer, wrap your insights in a story that connects the dots for them and provides context within their world.

8. Align Sales and Marketing

Too often, sales and marketing are siloed departments, each with individual goals that appear compatible. Marketing creates sales messaging and tools and generates leads for the sales team. Sales teams use the messaging and tools to transform those leads into revenue. But  a lack of alignment and gaps in your process  can sabotage your efforts.

You might hear the following complaint from both sides: “We’re doing our job, but they just don’t get it.” The problem with these goals is that they foster an us-versus-them attitude and miss the big picture. Sales is a design point for better marketing. If Sales is the storyteller of your organization, then Marketing is the story builder.

Ultimately, these two teams share—and must be aligned to achieve—one purpose: to persuade buyers to choose you.

Get our State of the Conversation Report, The B2B Content Disconnect ,  to learn how to drive action and conversions with insights-driven content, before and after a sales rep enters the picture.

9. Tailor Your Sales Strategy for Customer Expansion

Most sales and marketing teams spend the majority of their budgets and effort on customer acquisition and demand generation. Meanwhile, the majority of your annual revenue likely comes from your existing customers, through renewals and upsells.

Nearly half of the companies  surveyed by Corporate Visions  invest less than 10 percent of their marketing budgets in customer retention and expansion. Clearly, your customers are highly underrated yet powerful growth engines within your company. And you shouldn’t overlook the potential of this untapped revenue stream.

The challenge is, retention and expansion require a distinct messaging and customer conversation approach. Existing customers are in a different position than your prospects—one that carries a unique buying psychology.

While customer acquisition is all about  challenging the status quo  to highlight the benefits of switching to your solution, customer retention and expansion require you to reinforce your position as their status quo. In fact, research shows that using a provocative, challenging message when you’re trying to renew or expand business with your customers will increase the likelihood that they’ll shop around by at least 10-16 percent .

Check out our e-book,  To Challenge or Not to Challenge ,  to discover research-backed insights into when you should (and shouldn’t) challenge your buyer’s status quo.

10. Enable Ongoing Situational Training

Most training and learning efforts are based on a collection of competencies, supported by a curriculum and catalog that gets scheduled on calendar-based interest and availability. But what does that have to do with helping the company’s business strategy, responding to shifting market demands, and intervening to fix emergent needs when they arise?

To be as effective and efficient as you need to be today, your sales training has to rise to a new level of flexibility, customization, and situational relevance. Using a flexible, on-demand training model enables you to deploy it at a moment’s notice to solve problems as they occur, and tackle initiatives as they arise.  Training your sales team for situational agility equips them with the messaging and skills they need relative to the customer conversations they’re having.

Take Your Sales Strategy Beyond “Best Practices”

Most of the so-called “best practices” out there won’t help your sales team succeed. Instead of following a fill-in-the-blanks template, create a strategy that communicates more value in your sales conversations.

Get our sales e-book,  Winning the Four Value Conversations , to get more research-backed sales messaging and skills for building a sales strategy that actually works.

Tim Riesterer

Chief Strategy Officer

Tim Riesterer, Chief Strategy Officer at Corporate Visions, is dedicated to helping companies improve their conversations with prospects and customers to win more business. A visionary researcher, thought leader, keynote speaker, and practitioner with more than 20 years of experience in marketing and sales management, Riesterer is co-author of four books, including Customer Message Management , Conversations that Win the Complex Sale , The Three Value Conversations , and The Expansion Sale .

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Last updated on May 21st, 2024

3 Examples of Strategic Sales Narratives and how to Build them

Everyone says to focus on the customer "pain" or "problem" but what if most people are not experiencing much pain? They just get on with things. Strategic sales narratives are sales stories that compel customers to understand why they need a product. They work because they use stakes, not problems, they make the client the hero and they begin with change rather than pain . Below I've summarised Andy Raskin's posts to understand how he helps build narratives for companies including examples and key points.

Next generation screen sharing for onboarding customers: See what your customer sees

Also see: How 10 Companies do their Sales Demos

What and Why

Positioning comes before the sales narrative. what is positioning.

How positioning is different to a sales narrative

Why do you need a compelling story?. Because Obi-Wan FAILED to sell the trip to Luke Skywalker

• What is an example of a great story deck? See how Uberflip used "The Greatest Sales Deck Ever"
• How do you use one sales narrative for multiple different industries you work with? See Zuora's example
• Intercom used the same narrative to announce a big update about 21 features they added
• LiveDocument's narrative: Unlock the volcano of growth trapped in your documents

Most people you’re selling to are not experiencing much pain. Don't pitch problems, pitch stakes.

They are the hero. You are the side-kick.

Getting your own teams buy-in to the sales narrative by getting them to "That's right"

Don't overdo the story and end up in the uncanny valley

A good way to get started. Who is your Vader?

There is an ongoing argument about which comes first "positioning" or "narrative" and that's something to keep in mind as you read. Below is my view as a bootstrapped startup co-founder with a product increasingly moving from SMB to enterprise sales.

A sales narrative is something you build AFTER you've positioned your product.

Positioning is an input into the sales narrative.

" Product positioning describes the specific market you intend to win and why you are uniquely qualified to win it "

Positioning has evolved from the old "positioning statement" to a scientifically structured process.

Here's the modern way to find positioning for your product:

• Start by focusing on your best customers.
• List your unique attributes that service those customers.
• List the real value of each of those attributes to those customers.
• Find out exactly who cares about them a lot.
• Find a market frame that helps those strengths stand out.

Positioning is something we consider as we build new products or change direction with an existing product to find a better market.

Read 10 companies show your their market positioning strategy.

How is positioning different to a sales narrative?

April Dunford wrote the modern book on positioning and is best qualified to answer:

Below are the first two tweets from her twitter thread on narrative vs positioning.

"I read an article today that was trying to equate narrative development and positioning. I don't see these as competing things - I think one is an input to the other. 1/

Positioning defines who your product is best suited for, what the alternative solutions are, what value the product delivers for customers. These are inputs to a narrative - you literally can't write a story until we know who the heroes and villains are 2/"

A sales narrative is a story you write for the market you're already sure about.

When you already know how your product solves a problem for your market you can focus on communicating effectively. You communicate effectively via story telling.

Why story telling?

Stories work. They always have. We are hard wired for them.

If we've got our positioning right then it's time to work on our story telling.

Why do you need a compelling story? Because Obi-Wan FAILED to sell the trip to Luke Skywalker

Even when people say they want something they don't really commit.

"In Star Wars Luke whines about wanting to be a pilot and have adventures yet when Obi-Wan offers him the opportunity to do exactly that, Luke demurs and says 'I can’t get involved'”

Luke only chose to go on the trip after they killed his uncle and aunt and changed his world.

It's a little brutal but proves the point. Put your solution to their problem in a story line that compels them to act.

Read more on how great pitches start with change here.

1. What is an example of a great story deck? See how Uberflip used "The Greatest Sales Deck Ever"

You've probably already come across the " Greatest sales deck ever made ".

Here's a brief summary of the 5 key points of the story it told.

• Name a big relevant change in the world
• Show how there will be winners and losers
• Tease the promised land
• Introduce features as magic gifts that overcome obstacles to that promised land
• Present evidence that you can make this story come true

I always thought of that as more of a VC pitch but it appears Uberflip used that same pitch as their sales narrative.

"... in the two quarters since introducing a sales narrative based on that post, Uberflip has met or exceeded revenue targets, which was not happening before."

Critically, they also start with the change in the environment rather than a problem.

What's interesting to me is that everyone says start with the "problem" but I've always felt that pointing at the problem is like pointing at the customer and saying "you suck".

As Andy Raskin points out: "when you start with a change (rather than a “problem”), you build trust with prospects because they’re likely to see you as a partner in navigating the shift"

The Uberflip example is a great read because it shows you the before and after decks for comparison.

So, read more on Uberflip's use of the sales narrative

2. How do you use one sales narrative for multiple different industries you work with? See Zuora's example.

I love this post because while trying to create a sales narrative you start thinking "But how can I apply this to all the segments we market to?"

Fortunately, Andy Raskin expands on the initial Zuora "Greatest Sales Deck" example by showing us how they use that narrative across industries.

"A better approach, clearly, is to have a simple, powerful, high-level story that connects the low-level ones together"

I especially like how they bring that idea of change to each individual role.

Read more on tailoring your pitch to multiple audiences .

3. Intercom used the same narrative to announce a big update about 21 features they added

I got this email from Intercom today and straight away boooom, I was hooked into reading it because it sounds epic.

The funny thing is that this update does not really apply to our company.

The features are not really relevant to us.

Yet it's still somehow compelling to hear about a big change happening and it's almost as if humans are wired to focus on change as a survival skill. We're curious primates knowing that changes mean opportunity or danger.

Here are their key sub-headers of that Intercom post.

• Customer support is undergoing massive, irreversible change
• Internet scale and changing customer expectations are driving and accelerating the change
• The Conversational Support Funnel has three layers, and using each one makes the others better

The headers don't exactly follow the process of the greatest sales deck but read through it and you'll see they follow the structure within the quotes and sub-headers.

See Intercom's announcement on their new features starting with 'Change'

4. LiveDocument's narrative: Unlock the volcano of growth trapped in dead documents

You have ZERO interest in this LiveDocument product at present.

Let's see if we can shift your emotions using a sales narrative structure for a product that is great for sales.

Here it is: Unlock the volcano of growth you have trapped in dead documents

Essential points to remember in building your own sales narrative

Below I put together some of the key points from Andy Raskin's blog posts along with input from some other organisations on sales narratives.

Most people you’re selling to are not experiencing much pain. Don't pitch problems, pitch stakes

It's almost comical to think about it but I don't go through my working day thinking about pain points and which software is going to solve that.

Yes, for some absolutely critical problems I will do but most things don't feel critical until some big catastrophe.

I think people just get on with things.

If someone tells us we have a big problem it may not fully resonate until they put it in perspective.

Why are stakes better than pain points?

Pain point : You're unhealthy, eat this and you'll be healthier.

Stakes : You're going to die if you don't eat this. Eat this so you can carry on living a happy life.

What's more compelling?

It's the stakes. It's an ugly truth.

How often do people fail to make a lifestyle change until they get a bit of a health shock? I guess stakes are a better way to communicate the loss from inaction.

Read more on stakes not pain here and also read this which contains a further important section on stakes.

They are the hero and you are the side-kick

Both Andy Raskin and Cathy Salit mention a similar metaphor, the Hero <> Side-kick / Wizard metaphor.

You are not the hero solving the problem, they are the hero.

You are the wise guide or side kick helping them navigate the problem.

They are Luke.

You are Yoda.

"Rather, they are entering a preexisting story as a supporting character who is there to help the hero — the client — achieve his or her goal.

The client as hero. It was a revelation — and one that led to many successful new practices. Once salespeople understand they are supporting the hero’s success"

Read more on storytelling in sales by Cathy Salit

Get your own teams buy-in to the sales narrative by getting them to "That's right"

You've not only got to pitch the strategic sales narrative to the client but first you've got to internally sell that same narrative to your own team members.

This is a good technique.

Andy Raskin mentions the book "Split the difference" by a FBI hostage negotiator named Voss.

"When Voss analyzed the transcripts of his most unlikely hostage negotiation victories, he discovered that the turning point frequently occurred right after his team took the time to listen to the captor’s argument, summarized that argument back to the captor, and then got the captor to say, ' That’s right .'"

They said the captor's story back to the captor "So, let me see if I have this straight, your cause is this and america is messed up because... "

Oddly enough, that's also a common copywriting technique.

There's a blog introduction formula I like simply because I find writing introductions to be difficult and I just want something that works so I can get in with writing the blog post.

The formula is called APP which stands for Agree, Promise, Preview. The Agree part comes right after the main headline and has to be a statement which makes the reader say to themselves "Yes, that's true".

If they agree then it means the rest of the article is going to be relevant to them. If you write any articles, emails or blog posts then read more about Agree, Promise, Preview.

Also, read the full article getting to That's right.

When I first heard of "The Hero's Journey" I started thinking I've got to do a Star Wars level story for our company, Upscope Co-browsing but that's not good story telling.

If you overdo it then you end up in the "uncanny valley" which is summarised here.

One of the examples given is the Polar Express animated movie which used realistic looking characters and went into the land of creepy very quickly . They entered the uncanny valley by being too real.

"We can improve our storytelling with techniques applied from the wealth of storytelling techniques used by the best screenwriters, playwrights and novelists, but only to a point ."

If you try too hard to be a story teller when you really need the right tone for your customers then you end up trying too hard and it shows.

Read more on the uncanny valley of story telling here.

A good way to get started on your sales narrative. Who is your Vader?

This is a nice table of company messaging and the Vaders they are battling.

The questions to ask would be as follows:

What, ultimately, is the state your customer desires to reach?

What stands in the way that you can help your customer overcome?

What does it look like when your customer defeats Darth Vader?

What are three ways your company can help your customer defeat Darth Vader?

Once again, read the full article here. I'm just summarising stuff for myself as much as for you :)

It's been a pleasure.

What to read next? Read all about positioning and especially the first item in the list. It's a blue print for how to build a company and positioning.

Read about Go-to-market strategies as it's another part of the jigsaw puzzle.

Also see how 10 companies do their demos as it has some of the same vibes

Pardeep overlooks growth at Upscope and loves writing about SaaS companies, customer success and customer experience.

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The Experience Selling Business Model Explained: An Entrepreneur's Guide

Uncover the intricacies of the experience selling business model in this comprehensive guide.

Understanding the Experience Selling Business Model

Before delving into the intricacies of the Experience Selling Business Model, it is crucial to grasp the concept behind it. At its core, experience selling involves creating immersive and memorable experiences for customers, going beyond mere product or service transactions. It is about building lasting relationships through personalized interactions and captivating moments that resonate with customers on a deeper level.

Imagine walking into a store where every detail has been carefully curated to create an atmosphere of wonder and delight. The lighting, the music, the scent in the air - everything is designed to transport you to another world, where shopping becomes an experience in itself. This is the essence of experience selling.

But why is this approach so important in today's competitive business landscape? The answer lies in the power of emotions. Customers are no longer satisfied with just buying a product or service; they want to feel something. They want to be inspired, entertained, and connected. And that's exactly what experience selling aims to achieve.

The Concept of Experience Selling

In the Experience Selling Business Model, companies strive to transform their customers' journey from a transactional experience to an emotional one. This model recognizes the importance of creating positive emotions and memories associated with the brand, driving customer loyalty and repeat business. By tapping into customers' emotions, companies can establish a strong emotional connection, fostering trust and loyalty like never before.

Think about your favorite brand. What emotions does it evoke in you? Maybe it brings back memories of a special moment in your life or makes you feel a sense of belonging. This emotional connection is what sets experience selling apart from traditional selling methods.

Take the example of a luxury hotel. When you walk into the lobby, you are greeted by friendly staff who make you feel like a valued guest. The interior design is exquisite, with attention to every detail. The hotel offers personalized services tailored to your preferences, making you feel pampered and special. These experiences create a lasting impression, making you want to come back again and again.

Key Components of the Experience Selling Business Model

To successfully implement the Experience Selling Business Model, you need to pay attention to several key components. These include understanding your target audience, creating personalized experiences, leveraging technology, and fostering a customer-centric culture within your organization. By integrating these components, you can create a seamless and unforgettable experience for your customers.

Understanding your target audience is crucial in experience selling. You need to know their preferences, desires, and pain points. By gaining deep insights into their needs, you can tailor your experiences to resonate with them on a personal level. This requires conducting thorough market research, analyzing customer data, and staying updated on the latest trends and preferences.

Personalization is another essential aspect of the Experience Selling Business Model. Customers want to feel like they are being seen and understood as individuals. By offering personalized recommendations, customized products or services, and tailored communication, you can make customers feel valued and appreciated.

Technology plays a significant role in enhancing the experience selling process. From virtual reality experiences to personalized mobile apps, technology enables companies to create immersive and interactive experiences that leave a lasting impact on customers. By leveraging the power of technology, you can take your customers on a journey they will never forget.

Lastly, fostering a customer-centric culture within your organization is vital. Every employee should be aligned with the goal of creating exceptional experiences for customers. This requires training, empowerment, and a shared understanding of the importance of customer satisfaction. When everyone in your organization is committed to delivering outstanding experiences, it becomes a part of your brand's DNA.

In conclusion, the Experience Selling Business Model is a powerful approach that goes beyond traditional selling methods. By creating immersive and personalized experiences, companies can establish strong emotional connections with customers, driving loyalty and repeat business. Understanding the concept, key components, and importance of experience selling is essential for any business looking to thrive in today's customer-centric world.

The Evolution of the Experience Selling Business Model

The Experience Selling Business Model has emerged as a response to the changing customer dynamics and the evolution of technology. This model recognizes that customers are no longer just targets for sales transactions, but individuals seeking meaningful and enjoyable experiences. By shifting the focus from traditional selling to experience selling, businesses can enhance customer satisfaction, increase the chances of repeat business, and generate positive word-of-mouth marketing.

Traditionally, selling approaches viewed customers as mere transactional opportunities. The goal was to convince customers to make a purchase, often through aggressive sales tactics. However, experience selling takes a different approach. It recognizes that customers are looking for more than just a product or service – they want an immersive and memorable experience.

Experience selling places a strong emphasis on creating experiences that resonate with customers on an emotional level. It goes beyond simply meeting their needs and wants; it aims to exceed their expectations and leave a lasting impression. By doing so, businesses can build strong relationships with customers, foster loyalty, and differentiate themselves from competitors.

Traditional Selling vs Experience Selling

In traditional selling approaches, customers were mainly seen as targets for sales transactions. The focus was on closing deals and maximizing revenue. However, with the rise of experience selling, the mindset has shifted. Businesses now understand that the key to success lies in providing meaningful and enjoyable experiences.

Experience selling takes a customer-centric approach, putting the customer at the center of the selling process. It involves understanding their needs, desires, and preferences, and tailoring the experience to meet those specific requirements. This personalized approach not only enhances customer satisfaction but also increases the chances of repeat business and positive word-of-mouth marketing.

Furthermore, experience selling recognizes the importance of emotions in the buying process. It leverages emotions to create a connection between the customer and the brand, making the experience more memorable and impactful. By tapping into emotions such as joy, excitement, and trust, businesses can create a lasting impression that goes beyond the transaction itself.

The Impact of Technology on Experience Selling

Technology has played a pivotal role in enabling companies to deliver exceptional experiences to their customers. With the rapid advancement of technology, businesses now have access to a wide range of tools and platforms that can enhance the experience selling process.

One of the key ways technology has impacted experience selling is through personalization. By leveraging customer data and advanced analytics, businesses can provide personalized recommendations based on individual preferences and behaviors. This level of personalization not only enhances the customer experience but also increases the chances of making a sale.

Another significant impact of technology on experience selling is the rise of virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) experiences. These immersive technologies allow customers to try products and services virtually before making a purchase. For example, customers can virtually try on clothes, test drive cars, or explore vacation destinations, all from the comfort of their own homes. This not only enhances the customer experience but also reduces the risk of buyer's remorse.

Furthermore, technology has enabled businesses to create seamless and convenient experiences across multiple channels. With the rise of e-commerce and mobile technology, customers can now interact with businesses anytime, anywhere. This omni-channel approach allows businesses to meet customers where they are and provide a consistent experience across different touchpoints.

In conclusion, the Experience Selling Business Model represents a shift from traditional selling to providing meaningful and enjoyable experiences. Technology has played a crucial role in enabling businesses to deliver exceptional experiences, from personalized recommendations to immersive virtual reality experiences. By embracing technology and focusing on creating memorable experiences, businesses can differentiate themselves, foster customer loyalty, and drive long-term success.

The Benefits of Adopting the Experience Selling Business Model

Implementing the Experience Selling Business Model can bring numerous benefits for your organization. Let's explore two key advantages: enhancing customer engagement and boosting sales and profitability.

Enhancing Customer Engagement

By focusing on creating memorable experiences, you can significantly enhance customer engagement. When customers feel emotionally connected to your brand, they become more invested in your products or services. This increased engagement leads to higher customer satisfaction, increased loyalty, and positive brand associations.

Imagine a scenario where a customer walks into your store and is immediately greeted by friendly and knowledgeable staff. The staff members take the time to understand the customer's needs and preferences, providing personalized recommendations and suggestions. The customer feels valued and appreciated, creating a positive emotional connection with your brand.

Furthermore, the experience selling business model goes beyond the traditional transactional approach. It focuses on creating immersive experiences that go beyond the product itself. For example, a clothing store may host fashion shows or styling workshops to engage customers and provide them with a unique and memorable experience.

These experiences not only create a lasting impression but also encourage customers to share their positive experiences with others. Word-of-mouth recommendations are powerful, and when customers become brand advocates, they can help attract new customers and expand your customer base.

Boosting Sales and Profitability

A well-executed experience selling strategy not only improves customer engagement but also has a direct impact on your bottom line. When customers have positive experiences, they are more likely to make repeat purchases and recommend your brand to others. This results in increased sales and long-term profitability for your business.

Consider a scenario where a customer has a fantastic dining experience at a restaurant. The ambiance, the service, and the quality of the food all exceed their expectations. As a result, they not only return to the restaurant but also recommend it to their friends and family. This positive word-of-mouth leads to increased foot traffic and a boost in sales.

Moreover, the experience selling business model allows you to differentiate yourself from competitors. In today's crowded marketplace, where products and services can be easily replicated, the experience you provide becomes a crucial differentiating factor. Customers are willing to pay a premium for exceptional experiences, which in turn increases your profitability.

Additionally, the data collected from customer interactions and experiences can provide valuable insights for your business. By analyzing customer feedback and behavior, you can identify areas for improvement and make data-driven decisions to optimize your sales and marketing strategies.

In conclusion, adopting the experience selling business model can have a profound impact on your organization. By focusing on enhancing customer engagement and boosting sales and profitability, you can create a competitive advantage and build long-term success.

Implementing the Experience Selling Business Model

Transitioning to the Experience Selling Business Model requires careful planning and implementation. Let's explore the essential steps to successfully adopt this model and address the challenges you may face along the way.

Steps to Transition to Experience Selling

The first step in implementing the Experience Selling Business Model is to thoroughly understand your target audience and their needs. By gaining insights into their preferences and pain points, you can tailor experiences to meet their specific requirements. Additionally, investing in staff training and development programs can empower your team to deliver exceptional experiences consistently.

Overcoming Challenges in Implementation

Implementing any new business model comes with its fair share of challenges. In the case of experience selling, some common obstacles include aligning employees with the customer-centric culture, managing customer expectations, and effectively utilizing technology to deliver personalized experiences. By addressing these challenges head-on and continuously refining your approach, you can overcome hurdles and achieve success.

Measuring the Success of the Experience Selling Business Model

Moving towards the Experience Selling Business Model necessitates monitoring and evaluating its impact on your business. Let's explore essential key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure the success of your experience selling initiatives and the importance of continuous improvement and adaptation.

Key Performance Indicators for Experience Selling

Measuring the success of your experience selling endeavors requires tracking various KPIs. These may include customer satisfaction scores, customer retention rates, average transaction value, and the number of repeat customers. These metrics provide valuable insights into the effectiveness of your strategy and help identify areas for improvement.

Continuous Improvement and Adaptation

In the ever-evolving business landscape, it is crucial to continuously refine and adapt your experience selling strategy. Regularly gather customer feedback, monitor market trends, and embrace emerging technologies to stay ahead of the competition. By prioritizing continuous improvement, you can ensure that your experience selling efforts remain fresh, relevant, and captivating for your customers.

In conclusion, the Experience Selling Business Model is a game-changer in today's customer-centric business world. By creating immersive and memorable experiences, businesses can foster stronger connections, drive sales, and build long-term loyalty. By understanding its concept, evolution, benefits, implementation, and measurement, you can confidently embark on your journey towards becoming an experience-driven organization.

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Persuasive Tactics in Selling: Mastering the Art of Persuasion for Sales Success

Improve your sales mindset and increase your success in selling by mastering the art of persuasion! Learn more persuasive tactics and strategies here.

August 11, 2023

Elevate Your Sales Game: Mastering Persuasive Tactics for Selling

Dipping our toes into the sea of commerce, we don't just stumble upon the shore of sales - we plunge headfirst into its depths. Deep within these waters lies an often underestimated but indispensable skill - persuasion. It's the golden fleece for salespeople, the Midas touch turning conversations into conversions. You might be wondering, why is persuasion so crucial in selling? It's more than just a tool, it's the very lifeline that connects your product to the customer. It's about painting vivid pictures in the minds of prospects, showing them a future they can't resist.

Why is persuasion important in selling?

Climbing the Mount Everest of sales without persuasion is like sailing without a compass, drifting aimlessly in an ocean of uncertainty. Persuasion creates a path for trust and rapport, building bridges between your product and the customer's needs. It's the silent whisper nudging the buyer towards the "yes" we all crave to hear. It's a dance of words, a game of minds, and the very thread that weaves the fabric of sales success. Effective persuasion techniques followed by the sales rep can smoothen up the persuasion process.

The Five-Pillar Framework of Persuasive Techniques

Peering through the lens of persuasion reveals a kaleidoscope of techniques, each with its unique allure. Let's unravel the five cornerstones, each adding another layer of depth to your sales persona.

Personalize Your Message

Personalization isn't just tailoring a greeting with the potential customers name; it's about understanding their unique world. It's delving into their problems, their dreams, and their expectations. It's about reshaping your product

story to echo their personal narrative.

Focus on Problem-Solving

Prospects aren't just looking for products, they're seeking solutions. Understand their pain points and highlight how your product soothes those aches. Paint a picture of a world unburdened by their problems, a world brought into existence by your product.

Anticipate Objections

Imagine a chessboard. Each move you make corresponds to a possible countermove by the prospect. Anticipating objections lets you stay a step ahead, preparing your responses and steering the conversation to your favor.

Empower Prospect Decision-Making

Buying is an emotional journey, not just a logical decision. Empowering prospects in their decision-making process helps them feel in control, alleviating purchase anxiety. Give them the reins, let them feel the thrill of driving towards their decision.

The Art of Storytelling

Stories are the magical portals that transport prospects from the mundane world of features into the enchanting realm of benefits. By framing your product within a compelling narrative, you make it relatable, desirable, and memorable. A sales professional should make sure that his body language is calm and composed while delivering a persuasive sales pitch.

A Shining Beacon: An Example of Persuasion

Let's cast our gaze upon the marketing colossus, Apple. Their launch of the iPhone wasn't just about selling a product, it was about selling a lifestyle. They didn't just highlight features, they wove a story around the experience of using an iPhone - a narrative that resonated with consumers, evoking emotions and aspirations. The result? A product that transformed into a status symbol, a persuasion masterpiece.

Six Keys of Persuasion: Unlocking Sales Success

• Reciprocity: The act of giving elicits an inherent desire to return the favor. Provide value upfront, be it through free trials, valuable content, or unmatched service.
• Commitment and Consistency : People strive for congruence in their attitudes and actions. Small commitments lead to larger ones, creating a cascade of yeses.
• Social Proof: Prospects are more likely to trust a product when others vouch for it. Testimonials, ratings, and reviews help create this social proof.
• Authority: Establish yourself as an expert in your field, an authority figure to be trusted. This bolsters your credibility, making your persuasive efforts more impactful.
• Liking: We are more likely to say yes to those we like. Build rapport, find common ground, and make a genuine connection.
• Scarcity: Limited availability or time creates a sense of urgency. Harness this power of scarcity to make your offer more attractive.

The act of selling is an art form, a symphony of persuasion techniques that blend to create a harmonious selling experience. Mastering persuasive selling isn't an overnight journey, but the voyage itself is the adventure. So, as we dive deeper into the sea of sales, let's allow the currents of persuasion to guide us, exploring uncharted territories of persuasion strategies, persuasive selling techniques, and ways to be more persuasive. Because at the end of the day, selling isn't just about transactions, it's about meaningful connections, shared stories, and experiences that resonate. That's the true power of persuasion.

Spotlight on Persuasion in Sales

As we delve into the art of persuasion in sales, let's dissect the mechanisms that make it so impactful. Persuasion, at its core, is about influencing perceptions, subtly nudging a person's belief system towards the desired outcome. In the sphere of sales, this manifests as aligning the prospect's needs with the value proposition of your product or service. Persuasion strategies can breathe life into your sales process, making it more dynamic, engaging, and fruitful.

Sales Persuasion Techniques: The Magic Wands

Sales persuasion techniques are akin to the tools in a magician's box. Each one has its specific role, and the true magic happens when they are wielded with skill and finesse. Effective persuasion techniques are crucial in terms of getting the deal done. Here are a few persuasive selling techniques to consider:

Understanding the Prospect

Before you can persuade, you must understand. Get to know your prospect – their needs, desires, and fears. This understanding lays the groundwork for a personalized approach, significantly enhancing your persuasiveness.

Building Rapport

Rapport is the invisible thread that binds the salesperson and the prospect together. It creates a sense of understanding and mutual trust, fostering a conducive environment for persuasion.

Showcasing Benefits

While features explain what your product does, benefits illustrate what it means for the prospect. Always frame your product in terms of benefits, addressing the prospect's needs and wants directly.

Using Social Proof

People are social creatures. We naturally gravitate towards things others find valuable. Incorporate testimonials, reviews, and endorsements into your sales pitch to leverage this powerful principle.

Creating a Sense of Urgency

A well-crafted sense of urgency can make your offer irresistible. Whether it's a limited time discount or a scarcity of stock, urgency nudges the prospect to act quickly.

How to Be More Persuasive: Elevation Through Evolution

Evolution is the key to being more persuasive. It’s about continually refining your strategies, tweaking your approach, and seeking novel ways to influence. Here are a few tips:

Harness the Power of Listening

The most persuasive sales reps are often the best listeners. They absorb information, understand the prospect's perspective, and use it to guide their sales pitch.

Engage Emotionally

People are emotional beings. We make decisions based on how we feel about them. Use stories, metaphors, and emotive language to tap into this aspect.

Genuine concern for the prospect's needs goes a long way in establishing credibility. It sends a clear message – you're there to help, not just to sell.

Leverage Technology

Modern technology offers a plethora of tools that can boost your persuasive efforts. From CRM systems to AI-powered language models, make the most of the resources at your disposal.

Educate Yourself Continuously

The world of sales and persuasion is ever-evolving. Stay updated with the latest trends, theories, and techniques. An open mind is an effective mind.

Effective Persuasion: The Ethical Mandate

While mastering persuasive tactics for selling, it's vital to remember the ethical dimensions. Effective persuasion is not about manipulating prospects but about creating genuine value for them. It’s about striking a balance – advocating for your product while respecting the prospect's autonomy and decision-making capability.

Unleash the Power of Persuasion: Your Sales Connection Awaits

Having reached the summit of understanding persuasive tactics for selling, you're now ready to venture into the marketplace with renewed vigor, armed with techniques to influence, engage, and convert like never before. Yet, we recognize that the path to mastering persuasion is not a sprint but a marathon, a journey that requires time, patience, and experience.

This is where we step in. At The Sales Connection , we are a collective of seasoned sales professionals, each a maestro in the art of persuasion. Our mission? To help you close deals faster, build enduring relationships, and catalyze growth for your business. We combine time-tested sales strategies with innovative, data-driven approaches to bring you a bespoke solution tailored to your unique needs.

But our services extend beyond just closing deals. We strive to create a sales culture within your organization that's imbued with the spirit of persuasion, nurturing your in-house team to become more effective, more persuasive, and more successful.

Your journey towards sales success begins with a conversation. Engage with one of our representatives today to explore how we can revolutionize your sales process, propelling your business into a new era of growth and prosperity. Because at The Sales Connection, we don't just close deals, we open doors to opportunities. Let's embark on this journey together. Start your Sales Connection today.

Kayvon has over two decades of experience working with high-level closers and perfecting his sales methodologies. He has earned the title of Canada’s #1 pharmaceutical sales representative and continues to share his expertise as a keynote speaker and through his multi-million-dollar coaching program.

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What is Persuasion Selling? (Explained With Examples)

Apr 24, 2024

In the competitive world of sales and marketing, persuasion is a crucial skill that can make all the difference in closing deals and achieving success. Persuasion selling, also known as persuasive selling, is a sales technique that focuses on influencing customers and convincing them to make a purchase. In this article, we will explore the concept of persuasion selling in detail and provide several real-world examples to illustrate its effectiveness

1. What is Persuasion Selling?

Persuasion selling is a sales approach that goes beyond simply presenting product features and benefits. It involves understanding customers' needs and desires, building emotional connections, and using various persuasive techniques to motivate them to take action. Rather than relying solely on rational arguments, persuasion selling taps into the psychological aspect of decision-making, appealing to customers' emotions and leveraging their desires.

In today's competitive market, where customers are bombarded with countless options, persuasion selling has become an essential skill for sales professionals. By mastering the art of persuasion, salespeople can effectively influence customers' beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors, ultimately leading them towards a buying decision.

1.1 Definition of Persuasion Selling

At its core, persuasion selling is about influencing customers' beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors to lead them towards a buying decision. It involves constructing persuasive messages tailored to individual customers, highlighting the value proposition, and addressing any objections or concerns they may have. Persuasion selling seeks to create a sense of urgency and excitement, compelling customers to act now rather than later.

One key aspect of persuasion selling is understanding the psychology behind decision-making. By tapping into customers' emotions, salespeople can connect with them on a deeper level. This emotional connection helps build trust and rapport, making customers more receptive to the salesperson's message.

1.2 Advantages of Persuasion Selling

Persuasion selling helps you close more deals in your sales pipeline.

Persuasion selling offers several advantages over traditional sales techniques. Firstly, it allows salespeople to establish stronger connections with customers by appealing to their emotions. By understanding customers' motivations and desires, salespeople can tailor their approach to resonate with their target audience, boosting engagement and rapport.

Secondly, persuasion selling is an effective way to differentiate oneself in a competitive market. With so many similar products and services available, it can be challenging for customers to make a decision. However, by effectively showcasing the unique value of a product or service, salespeople can stand out and persuade customers that their offering is the best choice.

Finally, persuasion selling has the potential to generate higher sales volumes. The persuasive techniques employed can lead customers to make faster and more frequent purchases. By creating a sense of urgency and excitement, salespeople can motivate customers to take immediate action, resulting in increased sales and revenue.

1.3 Disadvantages of Persuasion Selling

While persuasion selling can be highly effective, it is essential to recognize its limitations and potential drawbacks. One potential disadvantage is the ethical aspect of persuasion selling. As the salesperson aims to influence customers' decisions, it is crucial to ensure that the techniques employed are honest and transparent, avoiding any manipulative tactics that may erode trust.

Additionally, persuasion selling may not be suitable for all types of products or services. Some industries, such as those focused on providing professional advice or consulting services, may require a more consultative approach rather than relying solely on persuasion techniques. In these cases, building trust and credibility through expertise and knowledge may be more effective in winning over customers.

It is also important to note that not all customers respond equally to persuasion techniques. Some individuals may be more resistant to persuasion or may have specific preferences that require a different approach. Salespeople must be adaptable and able to tailor their strategies to the unique needs and preferences of each customer.

Despite these potential disadvantages, when used ethically and appropriately, persuasion selling can be a powerful tool for sales professionals. By understanding the psychology of decision-making and leveraging persuasive techniques, salespeople can effectively influence customers and drive sales success.

2. Examples of Persuasion Selling

Now that we have explored the concept of persuasion selling, let's dive into some real-world examples to better understand how it works and its effectiveness in different contexts.

2.1 Example in a Startup Context

Imagine a startup that has developed an innovative software solution for small businesses to streamline their operations. To persuade potential customers to adopt their product, the startup's sales team might focus on highlighting the time and cost savings the software can provide.

They would delve into the specific pain points of small business owners, such as the challenges of managing multiple tasks and processes manually. By addressing these pain points, the sales team can effectively demonstrate the value proposition and long-term benefits of the product.

Additionally, the sales team might emphasize the ease of implementation and user-friendly interface of the software. They could provide detailed examples of how the software has helped other small businesses increase efficiency and productivity, ultimately leading to higher profits.

By tailoring their messaging to resonate with the target audience, the startup's sales team can effectively persuade potential customers to adopt their innovative software solution.

2.2 Example in a Consulting Context

In the consulting industry, persuasion selling plays a vital role in showcasing expertise and securing client engagements. A consulting firm may leverage case studies and success stories to demonstrate their track record, persuading potential clients that they have the skills and knowledge to solve their specific business challenges.

For instance, a consulting firm specializing in supply chain optimization may present a case study where they helped a client reduce costs and improve efficiency by implementing new logistics strategies. They would highlight the specific challenges the client faced and how their tailored solutions resulted in significant improvements.

Furthermore, the consulting firm might provide testimonials from satisfied clients, emphasizing the positive impact their services had on their businesses. These testimonials would serve as social proof, reinforcing the consulting firm's credibility and persuading potential clients to choose their services.

By tailoring their messaging to address client concerns and providing concrete examples of their past achievements, the consulting firm can effectively persuade clients to choose their services and trust in their expertise.

2.3 Example in a Digital Marketing Agency Context

In the digital marketing agency world, persuasion selling is instrumental in winning clients and securing marketing contracts. A digital marketing agency may use persuasive techniques such as social proof, showcasing testimonials and client success stories, to persuade potential clients of their expertise and proven results.

For example, a digital marketing agency might highlight a case study where they helped a client increase their online visibility and generate significant revenue through targeted advertising campaigns. They would provide detailed metrics and analytics to demonstrate the measurable business growth achieved.

The agency might also leverage the power of social media by showcasing the number of followers, likes, and engagement their clients have gained through their strategic social media marketing efforts. This social proof would persuade potential clients that the agency has the knowledge and skills to achieve similar results for their businesses.

By demonstrating how their strategies have generated measurable business growth for other clients, the agency can build trust and convince prospects that they are the right partner to achieve their marketing goals.

2.4 Example with Analogies

Analogies can be powerful tools in persuasion selling. For example, a car salesperson might compare the performance and features of a sports car to a powerful race car. By drawing parallels between the two and highlighting the exhilarating experience of driving a sports car, the salesperson taps into the customer's desire for excitement and adrenaline.

The salesperson might explain how the sports car's engine, aerodynamics, and handling capabilities resemble those of a race car, creating a thrilling driving experience. They could also emphasize the prestige and status associated with owning a sports car, appealing to the customer's desire for social recognition.

Furthermore, the salesperson might highlight the advanced safety features of the sports car, ensuring the customer that they can enjoy the exhilaration while still prioritizing their well-being.

By using analogies and appealing to the customer's emotions, the salesperson can ultimately sway the customer to make the purchase and fulfill their desire for excitement and luxury.

In conclusion, persuasion selling is a persuasive sales technique that focuses on understanding customers' emotions and motivations to influence their decisions. By employing various persuasive techniques and tailored messaging, salespeople can effectively connect with customers, differentiate themselves in the market, and ultimately close more deals.

Through real-world examples, we have seen how persuasion selling can be applied in different contexts to achieve outstanding results. When executed ethically and transparently, persuasion selling can be a powerful tool in the sales arsenal, leading to increased success and growth for businesses.

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What is Consultative Negotiation? (Explained With Examples)

What is Consultative Prospecting? (Explained With Examples)

What is Consultative Selling? (Explained With Examples)

What is Content Marketing? (Explained With Examples)

What is Content Syndication? (Explained With Examples)

What is a Conversion Funnel? (Explained With Examples)

What is Conversion Optimization? (Explained With Examples)

What is a Conversion Path? (Explained With Examples)

What is Conversion Rate? (Explained With Examples)

What is Cost-Per-Click (CPC)? (Explained With Examples)

What is a CRM (Customer Relationship Management)? (Explained With Examples)

What is Cross-Cultural Selling? (Explained With Examples)

What is a Cross-Sell Ratio? (Explained With Examples)

What is Cross-Selling? (Explained With Examples)

What is Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)? (Explained With Examples)

What is Customer-Centric Marketing? (Explained With Examples)

What is Customer-Centric Selling? (Explained With Examples)

What is Customer Journey Mapping? (Explained With Examples)

What is the Customer Journey? (Explained With Examples)

What is the Customer Lifetime Value (CLV)? (Explained With Examples)

What is Customer Profiling? (Explained With Examples)

What is Customer Retention? (Explained With Examples)

What is Dark Social? (Explained With Examples)

What is Data Enrichment? (Explained With Examples)

What is Data Segmentation? (Explained With Examples)

What is Database Marketing? (Explained With Examples)

What are Decision Criteria? (Explained With Examples)

What is a Decision Maker? (Explained With Examples)

What is a Decision-Making Unit (DMU)? (Explained With Examples)

What is Demand Generation? (Explained With Examples)

What is Digital Marketing? (Explained With Examples)

What is Direct Marketing? (Explained With Examples)

What is a Discovery Call? (Explained With Examples)

What is a Discovery Meeting? (Explained With Examples)

What are Discovery Questions? (Explained With Examples)

What is Door-to-Door Sales? (Explained With Examples)

What is a Drip Campaign? (Explained With Examples)

What is Dunning? (Explained With Examples)

What is an Early Adopter? (Explained With Examples)

What is Elevator Pitch? (Explained With Examples)

What is Email Hygiene? (Explained With Examples)

What is Email Marketing? (Explained With Examples)

What is Emotional Intelligence Selling? (Explained With Examples)

What is Engagement Marketing? (Explained With Examples)

What is Engagement Rate? (Explained With Examples)

What is Engagement Strategy? (Explained With Examples)

What is Feature-Benefit Selling? (Explained With Examples)

What is Field Sales? (Explained With Examples)

What is a Follow-Up? (Explained With Examples)

What is Forecast Accuracy? (Explained With Examples)

What is a Funnel? (Explained With Examples)

What is Gamification in Sales? (Explained With Examples)

What is Gatekeeper Strategy? (Explained With Examples)

What is Gatekeeper? (Explained With Examples)

What is a Go-to Market Strategy? (Explained With Examples)

What is Growth Hacking? (Explained With Examples)

What is Growth Marketing? (Explained With Examples)

What is Guerrilla Marketing? (Explained With Examples)

What is High-Ticket Sales? (Explained With Examples)

What is Holistic Selling? (Explained With Examples)

What is Ideal Customer Profile (ICP)? (Explained With Examples)

What is Inbound Lead Generation? (Explained With Examples)

What is an Inbound Lead? (Explained With Examples)

What is Inbound Marketing? (Explained With Examples)

What is Inbound Sales? (Explained With Examples)

What is Influencer Marketing? (Explained With Examples)

What is Inside Sales Representative? (Explained With Examples)

What is Inside Sales? (Explained With Examples)

What is Insight Selling? (Explained With Examples)

What is a Key Account? (Explained With Examples)

What is a Key Performance Indicator (KPI)? (Explained With Examples)

What is a Landing Page? (Explained With Examples)

What is Lead Database? (Explained With Examples)

What is a Lead Enrichment? (Explained With Examples)

What is Lead Generation? (Explained With Examples)

What is Lead Nurturing? (Explained With Examples)

What is Lead Qualification? (Explained With Examples)

What is Lead Scoring? (Explained With Examples)

What are LinkedIn InMails? (Explained With Examples)

What is LinkedIn Sales Navigator? (Explained With Examples)

What is Lost Opportunity? (Explained With Examples)

What is Market Positioning? (Explained With Examples)

What is Market Research? (Explained With Examples)

What is Market Segmentation? (Explained With Examples)

What is MEDDIC? (Explained With Examples)

What is Middle Of The Funnel (MOFU)? (Explained With Examples)

What is Motivational Selling? (Explained With Examples)

What is a MQL (Marketing Qualified Lead)? (Explained With Examples)

What is MRR Growth? (Explained With Examples)

What is MRR (Monthly Recurring Revenue)? (Explained With Examples)

What is N.E.A.T. Selling? (Explained With Examples)

What is Neil Rackham's Sales Tactics? (Explained With Examples)

What is Networking? (Explained With Examples)

What is NLP Sales Techniques? (Explained With Examples)

What is the Net Promotion Score? (NPS - Explained With Examples)

What is Objection Handling Framework? (Explained With Examples)

What is On-Hold Messaging? (Explained With Examples)

What is Onboarding in Sales? (Explained With Examples)

What is Online Advertising? (Explained With Examples)

What is Outbound Sales? (Explained With Examples)

What is Pain Points Analysis? (Explained With Examples)

What is Permission Marketing? (Explained With Examples)

What is Personality-Based Selling? (Explained With Examples)

What is Pipeline Management? (Explained With Examples)

What is Pipeline Velocity? (Explained With Examples)

What is Predictive Lead Scoring? (Explained With Examples)

What is Price Negotiation? (Explained With Examples)

What is Price Objection? (Explained With Examples)

What is Price Sensitivity? (Explained With Examples)

What is Problem-Solution Selling? (Explained With Examples)

What is Product Knowledge? (Explained With Examples)

What is Product-Led-Growth? (Explained With Examples)

What is Prospecting? (Explained With Examples)

What is a Qualified Lead? (Explained With Examples)

What is Question-Based Selling? (Explained With Examples)

What is Referral Marketing? (Explained With Examples)

What is Relationship Building? (Explained With Examples)

What is Revenue Forecast? (Explained With Examples)

What is a ROI? (Explained With Examples)

What is Sales Automation? (Explained With Examples)

What is a Sales Bonus Plan? (Explained With Examples)

What is a Sales Champion? (Explained With Examples)

What is a Sales Collateral? (Explained With Examples)

What is a Sales Commission Structure Plan? (Explained With Examples)

What is a Sales CRM? (Explained With Examples)

What is a Sales Cycle? (Explained With Examples)

What is a Sales Demo? (Explained With Examples)

What is Sales Enablement? (Explained With Examples)

What is a Sales Flywheel? (Explained With Examples)

What is a Sales Funnel? (Explained With Examples)

What are Sales KPIs? (Explained With Examples)

What is a Sales Meetup? (Explained With Examples)

What is a Sales Pipeline? (Explained With Examples)

What is a Sales Pitch? (Explained With Examples)

What is a Sales Playbook? (Explained With Examples)

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Six Pillars of a Personal Selling Strategy

Even after creating an impeccable product and performing outstanding market research, one may encounter challenges when trying to sell the said product to the target buyers. The issue of sales management is particularly complicated due to the personal factors shaping customers’ attitudes toward a product or service that a company strives to promote. Grewal and Levy (2020) stipulate that the use of personal selling allows adding extra value to a product or service, which is a reasonable claim, yet it puts additional pressure on a business. Since establishing a personal rapport with each customer is impossible, organizations need to compromise, using a template approach for subscribed customers. As a result, personalizing the message becomes excessively hard.

As a rule, the personal selling process is split into six steps. These are the stages of generating quality leads, designing an approach, presenting sales and managing barriers, closing the sale, and conducting a follow-up (Grewal & Levy, 2020). In this context, the understanding of the sales force is indispensable. To direct the sales force in the right way and maximize its efficacy, one should analyze its structure, recruit people capable of managing sales, train and motivate them, and conduct an evaluation of their performance. The proposed course of action will allow one to develop a consistent sales management strategy. Furthermore, one must comply with the ethics of sales management to reinforce the rapport with buyers. Namely, the issue of personal data safety, as well as the task of maintaining honesty and integrity, must be addressed accordingly. For instance, when being asked about competitors and the quality of a product, one might find it tempting to describe the rivals’ product as inferior, yet it is essential to answer honestly and directly.

Grewal, D., & Levy, M. (2020). Marketing (7th ed.). McGraw-Hill Education.

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Product Marketing Essay Examples & Topics

Product marketing is the process of taking a product and launching it into a market. This process takes place in the beginning of a product’s life cycle. Product marketers have to understand the product and the customers that it will reach.

Introduction of a new product consists of five steps.

The first step is discovery, where specialists conduct research. The next stage is planning: the team comes up with an effective marketing strategy. It is followed by definitions, where the customers are identified. Then it is time for the preparation stage, where campaigns are developed. Finally, the product launches, and it is time to monitor it to ensure its growth.

In your product essay, you might want to focus on product marketing strategy development. Another option is to discuss the essential product management issues. Want to know more about how to promote a product? Essay examples, topics, and writing tips are collected here. In this article, our IvaPanda experts have broken down how to write a successful product marketing essay. We listed some advice on how to describe any item that needs to be marketed and sold. Furthermore, on the page, you will also find product essay examples.

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Product Essay: Writing Descriptions 101

To sell a particular product, you have to advertise it effectively. If you are studying marketing, you are very aware of that fact. However, you should also be mindful of writing a clever description of the item you’re advertising. An accurate and complete product description leads to the selling of a product. Essay examples analyzing such advertisements can be found below. Here, we will explore how to describe a product correctly.

Here are some ground rules:

• Determine your audience.

Before you can begin selling your item, you need to know to whom you’re selling it. Promoting a product cannot be accomplished without identifying your target audience. To do this, you need to get into the heads of your customers. Think of their interests, why they want your product, which features they would pay most attention to.

• Think of the product’s benefits.

With your buyer in mind, imagine what parts of your product are of the utmost importance. This will be the basis for your product promotion. Your audience needs to know how you can improve their lives. Mention the quality of the product and its unique selling point.

• Try a story-telling technique.

The days of personal selling door-to-door are over. Yet, you can still try to appeal to your customers. Their emotions will still influence their purchase, so try to call to them by being as precise as possible. Mention all the features that will be relevant. Ensure that you allow them to visualize their experience with the product.

• Work on the wording and tone.

Your sales letter needs to sound convincing but not overbearing. Try being as natural as possible in your wording, as though you’re working retail and selling the product face-to-face. At the same time, don’t shy away from using powerful words. Make sure your phrasing will elicit a strong emotional response from your audience.

• Make sure it’s easy to skim.

In the day and age of social media, people are surrounded by information. There isn’t enough time in the world to absorb it all. So, ensure that your description is easy to skim. Keep your introduction and conclusion short, use bullet points, and break your text into paragraphs. Our summarizer tool can help you see your essential arguments.

• Add keywords and images.

Remember to review your text to check that it is optimized for search engines. After all, that is how most people will stumble upon it! Make sure to add decent, quality images that capture your product design. They are just as important as the full item description.

How to Write an Essay about a Product

Even if you have read through different examples of essays about products and marketing in general, you might still have questions. For example, how do you create a correct paper structure? What is product-market research? Should you include it in your essay? In this section, see how to start your marketing essay.

Here are some tips on how to write an essay about a product:

• Introduce the product. This is the stage where you develop a relationship with your reader. Show your audience that you understand them and start to familiarize them with your item. They don’t have to know the history of the product development – just the context.
• Address the problem. In other words, formulate your thesis statement. Think of an issue that you could describe. Or consider ways to improve your product. You can approach this through tools such as marketing mix. Our thesis generator can help you formulate it.
• Describe the product in question. In the body of your essay, you need to capture the essence of your item. You can think about it in terms of a product launch. How do you sell it to the customers? Be specific, and don’t forget who your audience is.
• Evaluate the product’s features. Imagine what kind of service or benefit your readers might receive from it. Don’t forget to mention key details. For example, imagine you’re talking about a local product. Acknowledge a few different alternatives available on the market to validate your research.
• Conclude your assessment. To round up your essay, deliver your final verdict on the product. Mention whether you think the price-to-quality ratio is worth it. Your product essay has to be valuable to those who read it, so be candid and thoughtful.

Thank you for reading! We wish you all the best with your paper. Now, you can proceed to read our examples of essays about product below.

370 Sample Essays on Product Marketing

Scrub daddy inc.’s superior sponge marketing plan.

• Words: 3585

Bulla Creamy Classics Ice Cream’s Marketing Strategy

• Words: 1615

Victoria Secret Target Market & Consumer Demographics

Apple distribution channels research paper: direct & indirect distribution of iphone.

• Words: 2874

Forbidden City: Launching a Craft Beer in China

The product life cycle (plc): apple inc. case.

• Words: 1441

MacBook Pro: Targeting, Positioning, Marketing Mix

• Words: 1663

Decathlon Company’s New Product Marketing Strategy

• Words: 3498

Nike Shoes Product Marketing and Perceptual Map

New energy drink marketing strategy.

• Words: 3973

Christian Louboutin: Brand, Voice, and Guidelines

• Words: 1096

Marketing: Rolex as Product, Its Promotion and Price

• Words: 7165

Marketing: McDonalds and KFC

• Words: 2511

Marketing Strategies for Laundry Detergent “Finish Dishwater Tablets 25 Pack”

• Words: 1502

Pricing and Distribution Strategy: Blizzard From Dairy Queen

Rockstar drink: developing, managing and pricing products, potato chip: basics of cost & managerial accounting.

• Words: 1413

Dell Inc. Company Strategic Marketing

• Words: 3503

Tesla Motors’ Electric Vehicles Marketing

• Words: 1704

Vaseline Product: Brand and Packaging Perspectives

Xbox product’s market segments and decision-making.

• Words: 2726

Dunkin’ Donuts Products’ Competitive Advantage

Apple, samsung, sony, lg, toshiba product hierarchies.

• Words: 2775

A Strategic Marketing Plan for the Coca-Cola Amatil Company

• Words: 3444

Sleep and Wake Pillow Product Development & Marketing

• Words: 3060

Coco Mademoiselle by Chanel: Consumer Behavior

• Words: 1235

Why Barbie Has Been so Successful?

Nivea and its marketing strategy.

• Words: 1187

Blu-Ray DVDs: Marketing and Target Market

• Words: 1532

The Dyson Robotic Vacuum: Target Group and Marketing Plan

Starbucks’ new ice cream product and service plan.

• Words: 1218

Finish Dishwasher Tablets and Its Buyers’ Behavior

Tastykake’s innovative product introduction, red bull project’s effective leadership measures.

• Words: 9892

The Consolidating Steel Industry

Victoria’s secret’s positioning and product differentiation, kellogg company’s marketing positioning.

• Words: 1086

Nike Shoes’ Marketing and Segmentation Strategy

Foldable fabric trolley: product design and development.

• Words: 8852

New Product Development: Smart Shopping Cart

• Words: 1140

Unilever’s Product Development: Collaborative Innovation

• Words: 2492

Marketing Mix of Yorkshire Tea

• Words: 1109

Marketing Strategy of Kellogg’s

• Words: 1119

IKEA Company’s Product Design and Pricing

Pricing strategy for a general motors’ chevrolet bolt ev.

• Words: 1246

Organizational Buyers

• Words: 1790

Market-Product Focus in Marketing Plan

Vertu company’s new product advertising strategy.

• Words: 1478

Launching a New Car: Project Initiation and Planning

• Words: 1430

Chanel Cosmetics Competition Analysis

• Words: 2510

Development of a Low Calorie Date Jam

• Words: 3104

Christian Dior’s Jasmine Perfume’s Marketing

• Words: 1708

Effects of Red Bull’s Promotion on Sales Volume

• Words: 4278

OGX Beauty Product Launch Project Management

• Words: 2740

Smart Bags: Product Life Cycles Stages

Marketing for orthopedic footwear production.

• Words: 1004

Product Distribution Options

Pharmaceutical sales using e-commerce.

• Words: 1725

Vegan Hot Dogs: Product Marketing

Baby car seats product positioning and marketing, abc company: instagram campaign creation.

• Words: 1124

Nissan Patrol Product Marketing in the UAE

• Words: 2201

Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, (MSO)

New product feasibility: tecno n7 series android smartphone.

• Words: 3127

New Products: Electric Scooters

Green marketing: tesla’s case, quality function deployment: steps and benefits.

• Words: 1974

Salespeople Promoting Products: Pros and Cons

Xiaomi devices’ design, production, and sale, ford motors company’s new product development.

• Words: 4222

Virtual Reality Technology for Wide Target Audience

• Words: 1088

Squeeze Ball Product Development and Marketing

• Words: 1668

Ergonomic Chairs: Product Marketing

Energy drink product marketing.

• Words: 1199

L’Oréal Professionnel Homme’s Product Marketing Strategy

• Words: 5143

Soju Product: Socio-Cultural Environment Influence

• Words: 1674

Autonomous Vehicles Product Development and Launch

• Words: 1424

Nestle’s Nescafe Arabiana Marketing Plan Audit

• Words: 3387

Product Classification, Differentiation, Branding

• Words: 1388

Samsung & LG Electronics: Product Differentiation

• Words: 1681

Maotai Spirit Product Competitive Advantage

• Words: 1092

The Tesla Model 3: Product Evaluation

Aqualisa quartz: simply a best shower, adopting marketing strategy across cultural and religious divides: mcdonald’s home market and turkey.

• Words: 1259

New Product Campaign Pitch: Women Cosmetic

• Words: 1946

Woolworths’ Homebrand Product Marketing Mix

• Words: 1659

IPhone as a Product That Isn’t Worth Its Cost

Dubai private hospitals’ product hierarchy.

• Words: 2766

Amazon.com Website Products Marketing

• Words: 1142

IKEA: Overview of Marketing Strategies

Rococo chocolates: a marketing plan and business strategy, product marketing: the key approaches, licious whiskers: retail sales plan, sobar: the non-alcoholic drink.

• Words: 1158

New Balance 827 Sneakers for Active Lifestyles

• Words: 1175

The Costs and Pricing of Athletic Accessories

• Words: 1569

Licious Whiskers Distribution in Tennessee

The new balance sneakers product marketing, mealztime cordless self-heating bento box, nike’s baseball shoes: product marketing, the eight sleep pod: product marketing, tokyo’s branding & social media, decoding the art of television commercials.

• Words: 1240

E-Cigarettes and Tobacco Product Marketing Tactics

Crescent pure promotion: case study, domestic production as an essential for stabilizing the economy, the coho salmon cake product marketing.

• Words: 2977

The Wrinkle Cream Marketing and Pricing Policy

Chevy silverado vs. gmc denali trucks comparison, fraudulent claims and incomplete product content, developing a supply chain security policy, led (light-emitting diode) table lamps as products, jolt coffee’s new categories of commodities, the lenovo consumer digital journey.

• Words: 2575

Market Efficiency and Externalities

Product advertising through product placement, solar powered sunglasses product marketing, psychographic and behavioral characteristics in promoting the product, the attractiveness of environmentally-friendly clothing products, importance of development of the cellphone.

Seven Essentials When Preparing to Sell Your Business

Before you put your business up for sale, make sure these seven ducks are in a row to help with a smooth process and transition.

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Awareness and preparation are critical in understanding the complexities and nuances involved in selling a business. It's a significant decision that requires meticulous planning and strategic considerations.

Whether you're a seasoned entrepreneur or a first-time business owner, preparing to sell your business demands careful attention to detail. Here, I outline the seven essentials to consider when embarking on this transformative journey.

1. Ensure your financial readiness.

Before listing your business for sale, ensure your financial house is in order. Review your financial statements, including income statements, balance sheets and cash flow projections. Identify areas for improvement and implement strategies to maximize profitability .

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A potential buyer will scrutinize your financials, so transparency and accuracy are paramount.

2. Establish valuation and a pricing strategy.

Determining the value of your business is a critical step in the selling process. Seek professional valuation services to assess both tangible and intangible assets accurately. Avoid overpricing or undervaluing your business, as this can deter potential buyers or lead to missed opportunities.

A well-researched pricing strategy based on market trends and industry comparables can help attract qualified buyers and optimize sale proceeds.

3. Optimize your operations.

Streamline your business operations to enhance efficiency and maximize value. Identify areas for improvement, such as cost-reduction initiatives, process automation and scalability enhancements.

A well-oiled operation not only improves your business's attractiveness to buyers but also ensures a smoother transition post-sale.

4. Do a legal and compliance review.

Conduct a comprehensive review of your business's legal and regulatory compliance to mitigate risks and avoid potential liabilities. Address any outstanding legal issues, such as contracts, leases, permits and intellectual property rights.

Engage legal experts to draft necessary agreements, including sales contracts, nondisclosure agreements (NDAs) and noncompete agreements , to protect your interests throughout the transaction.

5. Determine market positioning and a marketing strategy.

Develop a compelling narrative that highlights your business' unique value proposition, competitive advantages and growth potential. Tailor your marketing materials, including prospectuses, pitch decks and online listings, to resonate with potential buyers.

Leverage various marketing channels, such as industry networks, online marketplaces and business brokers, to reach a diverse pool of qualified buyers and generate interest in your business.

6. Prepare for due diligence.

Anticipate the due diligence process by organizing all relevant documents and records in advance. Provide prospective buyers with access to financial statements, tax returns, customer contracts, employee agreements and other pertinent information in a secure and organized manner.

Proactively address any potential red flags or areas of concern to instill confidence and facilitate a smoother due diligence process.

7. Get professional guidance and negotiation expertise.

Seek guidance from experienced professionals, including financial advisers , attorneys and business brokers, to navigate the complexities of selling your business. Collaborate with trusted advisers to develop a negotiation strategy that maximizes your interests while fostering a mutually beneficial outcome for all parties involved.

Remain flexible and open-minded during negotiations, focusing on achieving your overarching goals and objectives.

In conclusion, selling a business requires careful planning, diligent preparation and strategic execution. By prioritizing these seven essentials — financial readiness, valuation, operational optimization, legal compliance, market positioning, due diligence preparation and professional guidance — you can enhance the likelihood of a successful and lucrative business sale.

Embrace the opportunity to embark on this transformative journey with confidence, knowing that you have the support and expertise needed to navigate the complexities of the selling process.

Remember, selling your business is not just a financial transaction — it's a milestone that marks the culmination of your hard work and dedication as an entrepreneur. With careful planning and strategic foresight, you can unlock the full potential of your business and embark on a new chapter of growth and prosperity.

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Dennis D. Coughlin, CFP, AIF, co-founded CG Capital with Christopher C. Giambrone in 1999. He has been in practice since 1996 and works with individuals nearing retirement and those whom have already retired. Proud of his humble upbringing, Dennis shares his advice with the same core principles that he was raised with. When not in the office, you will find him with his family enjoying the outdoors.

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A financially independent eBay seller who's spent 15 years 'studying the platform' shares 3 strategies that helped him turn a hustle into an online business bringing in six figures a month

• Richard S. started reselling electronics and eventually used clothing after losing his job in 2008.
• He scaled the business dramatically over the past 15 years, bringing in six figures per month.
• One of his top strategies was to optimize his listing pages using keywords.

Richard S. became a dad at age 18, skipped college, and took a job at CVS while attending vocational school to learn computer repair.

His vocational degree led to an entry-level position at Circuit City. But weeks after being hired in 2008, the electronics retailer filed for bankruptcy.

He didn't have many options.

"In 2008, you weren't getting laid off and getting hired immediately," Richard, who prefers not to share his last name for privacy reasons, told Business Insider. "We were in the middle of a housing crisis, the stock market lost 57%, people were not hiring."

To put food on the table, the single dad started reselling electronics and eventually used clothing on eBay .

In the last 15 years, he says he's grown the hustle from a one-man operation to a full-fledged business that, at its peak, had five employees and was bringing in seven figures annually.

BI viewed a screenshot of his eBay dashboard showing $472,493 in sales during a three-month period in 2022. That's about $157,000 a month.

BI also confirmed that his eBay store, Technsports , ranked No. 1 by gross market value in highly competitive categories on the site, including: used T-shirts with 137,128 total sellers and used polo shirts with 193,012 sellers. That's according to eBay's 2021 Listing Quality Report, which provides sellers a performance overview of their biggest 10 categories.

Richard is scaling his store down from over 50,000 items to about 5,000, in preparation for what he calls a "50-year vacation" starting in August 2024. The 40-year-old says he has enough in savings and investments to live on and plans to travel the world in his early retirement.

He also plans to grow the YouTube channel he started in 2023 to help other people make money selling on eBay.

"Anybody can do it," said the eBay veteran. "It took a minute or two to make the profile and list the items the best that I could at the time. I was not an expert. I didn't know everything. But I took a couple quality photos, made a quality description, and it was good enough to sell rather quickly."

He shares three strategies that helped him take his online store to the next level.

1. Source profitable products

In the reselling business, "it doesn't matter what I think is cool," said Richard. "It matters what the customer thinks is cool."

Rather than speculating what might sell, use the tools available to you to understand what people are buying.

He said you can browse the "sold items" section of your category on eBay to figure out what is selling well and what isn't. Spend 30 minutes a day studying your category. When it comes time to actually source an item, look it up on eBay before you buy it.

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"You can go right on the eBay app and you can look at the comp," he said. "In 2024, there is no excuse to speculate on an item and there is no excuse to lose money on an item because we have this luxury. If we're unsure, check eBay." If you found an item for $5 at a thrift store but it's selling on eBay for $4, pass. If you find something for $5 and it's selling on eBay for $10, you might consider listing it — or, you may decide the profit isn't big enough to be worth your time.

Richard, who started off reselling electronics, specializes in used clothing.

He likes apparel because it requires "no testing, no troubleshooting, no parts or pieces," he said. "It's not going to break in the mail. You don't need instructions to put on a shirt. At worst, if it doesn't fit, they can send it back for a full refund."

Plus, "it has grown to be much more acceptable for people to buy secondhand and pre-owned," he said. "It is very environmentally friendly. I have probably processed and sold a million pieces of clothing, and if every piece of clothing weighs half a pound, I have saved probably 500,000 pounds from going to the landfill."

2. Optimize your listing pages using keywords

Building an accurate, engaging listing page is "the most important part of the process," said Richard. To do so, you first have to know who your customer is.

"The customer for a Tommy Bahama shirt is totally different from a customer that wants a Nike skateboard shirt," he said. "I need to create a listing that will capture the customer that I'm looking for."

That requires using specific keywords in the title of the listing.

"The search on eBay defaults to best match, and if you can best match what the customer has searched, then you will get more favorable results," he said, adding: "I have spent 15 years studying the platform."

For example, if you're selling a Tommy Bahama shirt, don't just title your listing "Tommy Bahama shirt," he said. "Everybody can put that part into their title. It's what comes after that, the nuance, and that's the separator of how you get your item seen versus your item never selling."

There's a right and a wrong way to add details. You have to know what your customer is searching for.

"If your title says 'Tommy Bahama Shirt Purple Monkey Dishwasher,' nobody is ever going to search that," he said. "But if your title says 'Tommy Bahama Silk Blend Button Up Camp Hawaiin Shirt,' now you have all of those keywords. So every single time a customer searches 'Tommy Bahama Hawaiian Shirt,' I show up; 'Tommy Bahama Camp Shirt,' I show up. 'Tommy Bahama Silk Shirt,' I show up."

In addition to keywords, your listing should have clear photos and a detailed description.

If you're selling clothing, "you have to provide measurements because the customer is buying it sight unseen, so they need a fundamental idea of what they are purchasing," he said. Or, "If there is any sort of flaw or thing you need to bring attention to the buyer, you need to have that filled in."

3. Retain customers by offering excellent customer service

In any industry, "the most expensive thing for most businesses is the cost of customer acquisition," said Richard. "So, once we have the buyer in the funnel, if we can sell to them again, that's just a free customer for us."

He has a few strategies for retaining customers, including a 60-day free return policy, which is the most aggressive policy eBay offers, he said: "It is the best way to attract customers, and it is the best customer experience."

He also takes advantage of tools that eBay provides sellers, including coupon codes. When he ships items to his customers, he includes the coupon with a note in the package: "I just say, 'Hey, I'm from South Florida. I'm a regular guy. I've been selling on eBay for over 10 years. If you're happy with your item I would love positive feedback and I would love for you to come back to my store. Here is a coupon code for your next purchase. If I've overlooked something or made an honest mistake, please feel free to send me a message.'"

The platform also allows sellers to send offers to potential customers who have looked at items.

"If a buyer has watched my item, I can send an offer to them that's greater than maybe what they thought I would accept," explained Richard. "So maybe they looked at my item, and it was 30 bucks, and maybe they wanted to pay 20, but they don't want to send an offer. In the past, that's a sale I lost out on. But now eBay gives me the ability to send an offer to a watcher, and I'm in control now."

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Guest Essay

How Trump’s Team Blew It

By Renato Mariotti

Mr. Mariotti, a partner at Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner in Chicago, is a former federal prosecutor.

The criminal trial of Donald Trump didn’t have to end this way.

The prosecution’s case had flaws that couldn’t be wallpapered over even with weeks of testimony, over 200 exhibits and a polished and persuasive presentation by Alvin Bragg, the Manhattan district attorney, and his team. If Mr. Trump’s lawyers had played their cards right, they most likely would have ended up with a hung jury or a misdemeanor conviction.

The defense lost a winnable case by adopting an ill-advised strategy that was right out of Mr. Trump’s playbook. For years, he denied everything and attacked anyone who dared to take him on. It worked — until this case.

I have practiced criminal law for over 20 years, and I have tried and won cases as both a federal prosecutor and criminal defense attorney. I’ve almost never seen the defense win without a compelling counternarrative. Jurors often want to side with prosecutors, who have the advantage of writing the indictment, marshaling the witnesses and telling the story.

The defense needs its own story, and in my experience, the side that tells the simpler story at trial usually wins.

Instead of telling a simple story, Mr. Trump’s defense was a haphazard cacophony of denials and personal attacks. That may work for a Trump rally or a segment on Fox News, but it doesn’t work in a courtroom. Perhaps Mr. Trump’s team was also pursuing a political or press strategy, but it certainly wasn’t a good legal strategy. The powerful defense available to Mr. Trump’s attorneys was lost amid all the clutter.

At the beginning of the trial, Mr. Trump’s team had a clear path to victory. He was charged with 34 counts of falsifying business records related to the cover-up of a $130,000 hush-money payment that was made to the porn star Stormy Daniels. Yet the only direct evidence of Mr. Trump’s knowledge was the testimony of Michael Cohen — who has pleaded guilty to lying to Congress and charges of bank fraud, tax evasion and campaign finance violation — who hates Mr. Trump and makes money off his public commentary on Mr. Trump’s legal woes.

You don’t need to be a lawyer to see how this could be a powerful legal defense. The prosecution had to prove that Mr. Trump knew about and caused — or at least was an accomplice in creating — the false business records. But at the time the records were created, Mr. Trump was in the White House. The defense could argue that Mr. Cohen and Allen Weisselberg, the Trump Organization’s chief financial officer, who has pleaded guilty to lying under oath and tax fraud, came up with that scheme on their own. Mr. Trump, his lawyers could argue, was focused on his role as president.

Mr. Trump’s team did say something similar at various points in the trial, including during Todd Blanche’s roughly three-hour closing argument. The problem is that the defense made so many other points, and fought so many other things, that it failed to focus the jury on the weaknesses in the prosecution’s case and instead tried to fight everything and everyone, even when it gained little by doing so.

Although the prosecution’s evidence of Mr. Trump’s personal approval of the falsification of business records was thin, the evidence for most of the other relevant facts was rock solid. Yet the defense destroyed its own credibility by denying the undeniable, like its laughable claim that the large lump-sum payments to Mr. Cohen really were payments for legal services, including the amount that he embezzled from Mr. Trump.

The trial dragged on for weeks largely because of Mr. Trump’s “deny everything” approach. A savvy defense counsel would have stipulated that Mr. Trump had an intimate affair with Stormy Daniels. Instead, the defense forced the prosecution to prove that the affair occurred and proceeded to aggressively attack Ms. Daniels, whom some of the jury likely found sympathetic in her testimony. That attack gained no ground legally for the defense — little turned on whether Mr. Trump had a sexual encounter with her — but distracted from his actual defense.

Similarly, the cross-examination of Mr. Cohen dragged on for days because the defense sought to confront him with every lie it could identify, seemingly every misdeed he ever committed and every potential line of attack it could come up with.

Because the defense denied everything and attacked Mr. Cohen on every point, prosecutors were able to focus on the many points where Mr. Cohen’s testimony was corroborated by documents, phone records, text messages and a recording. If the defense had narrowly focused on the key points on which that testimony was not corroborated, it could have undermined the prosecution’s advantage.

It may be that a not-guilty verdict was always a long shot. But if the defense had been more effective, one of the two lawyers on the jury might have voted to acquit, all that is needed for a hung jury. Or perhaps the jury would have compromised and rendered a verdict that Mr. Trump committed only a misdemeanor, which most defense attorneys would view as a win, given the circumstances.

But Mr. Trump’s team went for broke, deciding not to seek a jury instruction that would have permitted jurors to find that Mr. Trump committed a misdemeanor rather than a felony. It’s unclear whether that decision to deny the jury an option that would have given the defense a win was an act of hubris or a refusal to compromise, but both are characteristics of Mr. Trump that don’t translate well into a criminal trial.

Mr. Trump’s team was a reflection of its client, always attacking and never backing down. That playbook has worked for Mr. Trump again and again. For this trial and in a Manhattan courtroom, the attitude and strategy backfired.

Renato Mariotti, a partner at Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner in Chicago, is a former federal prosecutor and a co-host with Asha Rangappa of the “It’s Complicated” podcast .

The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. We’d like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips . And here’s our email: [email protected] .

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