Two professions that are intrinsically intertwined are sales and marketing. They both require their practitioners to convince people to spend their hard-earned money on particular products or services.

The main difference between the two professions is that salespeople try to directly influence their customers while marketers use more indirect means of persuasion. As such, many of the skills that go into the making of a good marketer are also useful to sales professionals.

Become a good marketer is a great way to become a better salesperson and vice versa. Whether you take classes, get coaching or do as much personal research as you can, the benefits of being familiar with both ends of the operation are substantial. Read on to learn how understanding marketing can help your sales career:

Techniques and Strategies

The main thing you’ll develop is the myriad of marketing strategies and techniques you can use to convince prospects to invest in your goods or services. The bread and butter of marketing is to peak people’s interest through a variety of means. While cold calling and sales pitches can be effective, there are many other little ways developing marketing knowledge can help boost your sales.

One of the most common ways is to understand the main benefit of what you’re selling in a succinct way. Over-explaining why someone would want something often bores potential clients and makes you seem like you don’t really know what you’re talking about.

Advertisements only have a short amount of time or space to convince people to buy their product, so they need to be concise. Approaching sales in this way can save time and make the client more interested more quickly. Additionally, you can also focus on what’s unique about your product, like if it does something better than other products of its kind.

It’s never a bad idea to keep an eye on how your products and services are being advertised. Knowing your company’s ads will help you understand your prospects better and it might give you some ways to make your sales pitch punchier.

Consumer Psychology

Jill Rowley, a social sales evangelist who has worked with companies like Hubspot and Salesforce said: “The new reality is that sales and marketing are continuously and increasingly integrated. Marketing needs to know more about sales, sales needs to know more about marketing, and we all need to know more about our customers.”

Understanding the needs of customers is one of the most important aspects of either discipline, one that is absolutely essential for the success of each.

In sales, the main approach to this understanding is through concrete knowledge of the needs and problems of a client, along with strong intercommunication skills.

For marketing, the main focus tends to be on consumer psychology, predicting an audience’s thought patterns and coming up with ways to influence their decisions.

Salespeople already do this, in a way, through their interpersonal skills and the way they present themselves. However, having the depth of understanding that marketers have on consumer psychology can give you an edge in your sales pitches.

There are many things that can influence customer psychology, some as seemingly insignificant as a color or a choice of words. On a big picture level, approaching a meeting with an heir of authority on the topic and being able to
show social proof of your product or service’s effectiveness can get clients more interested in your pitch.

However, trying to manipulate the client into investing in a subpar good or service will lead to a diminished reputation and long-term failure.

Industry Insights

Finally, learning more about marketing for the sake of your sales career can provide you with greater industry insights as well as a better understanding of cause and effect. It will also help you appreciate how sales and marketing intertwine.

The more you know about not only your area pf expertise but other – such as marketing – can only help make you more powerful as a sales professional.

There are many professions where it helps to be highly creative such as musician, graphic
designer, chef or architect. Sales is rarely mentioned – or even thought of – when the topic of
creative careers comes up.
However, talk to any hyper-successful sales professional and you’will soon realize that their
plays a huge role in their achievements. In fact, there are many ways a salesperson must think
outside the box if they are to rise to the top of their organization.
Here are some ways you can channel your inner Picasso into your sales career:

Create a Creative Sales Plan

One area where you can really engage your creativity is your sales plan. Depending on how
much power you have over your sales plan, there are a lot of variables you can alter to create
something that is suited to your strengths that perhaps others wouldn’t consider.
If you’re a team leader, start at the top and think about how your team is structured, how goals
are met, and who your target audience is. Look at the big picture and pay attention to where
the team as a whole is succeeding and falling short.

Maybe the team needs to be restructured for better workflow and communication. Perhaps
you’re marketing to the wrong audience or customers that doesn’t fit your product as well as
you thought they would.

While nobody thinks of data analysis as a creative art form, by doing a deep dive and gaining a
true understanding of everything that is going on, it will allow you to become far more creative
with your approach and solutions.

Identifying weaknesses and coming up with creative ways to lessen their impact requires
creativity and a willingness to experiment and try new things.

As an individual sales professional, you need to start by being honest with yourself about
whether you’re achieving at the level you should be or not. If your sales strategies are not
yielding strong results, it’s time to get creative and come up with more unique and interesting
ways to present to existing customers or to find new prospects from previously untried areas of
the market.

Get creative and come with catchy ways or deals to turn a prospect into a long-term customer.
Find a way to make yourself stand out from the crowd and be interesting to the people you are
trying to sell to.

Be creative and pitch ideas to your marketing department that you think will bring in sales
leads. This can anything from a funny local TV commercial to a well-placed billboard to an eye-
catching online advertisement.

You have more face-to-face interactions with your customers than the marketers do so show
them you can help develop creative ideas that will help take the company to new heights of
success.

Create a Creative Sales Pitch

In an ideal world, the follow-the-script sales pitch handed to you by your manager, or the
marketing department works every time you use it. In the real world however, this is not always
the case.

Again, sales professionals know a company’s customers better than anyone. And any
salesperson worth their salt knows that they have to stay light on their feet and make creative
adjustments to their pitch based on the response they’re getting from the customer.

Of course, it is best to be prepared and to know the “company line” pitch inside and out but
don’t be afraid to let your creative flag fly and improvise if you can tell it’s not hitting the target.

Do your research of your prospect, including their history and their needs, and know what
resources that you’re able to draw upon, including what deals and opportunities you can give
them. This allows you to have a better idea of what you can and should do based on a variety of
situations your pitch may present you. Further, this allows you to implement the creative sales
strategy you worked so hard on.

Being able to think quickly and creatively will allow you to come up with answers to questions
you hadn’t considered. It can also grant you the opportunity to present your service in a
perspective they may not have considered. The most important thing is this step though, is not
to let your creativity overtake the conversation. A sales pitch is supposed to be a back and
forth, allowing both parties to get what they want. Trying to be too clever and eclectic may be a
turn off for some. Just remember to have a cool head and be ready to get creative.

Did you know that every 24 hours, enough sunlight touches the Earth to provide energy for the entire planet for 24 years? No wonder solar energy has grown into a behemoth of an industry!

A greener alternative to the standard methods of energy generation, solar has become extremely popular in more environmentally conscious (and sunnier) parts of the world like California.

While once considered a fad by many, solar has become an established part of our energy production and one of the fastest growing industries of this decade.

There are many reasons for a salesperson to get into selling solar. In this blog, we will explore why you should lose your skepticism and provide you with the two best reasons for becoming a sales professional in the solar industry:

1. It makes business sense

Solar energy is one of the fastest growing and most lucrative industries in the world, especially within the energy sector. Within the past 10 years, it has grown in size multiple times and – at its current growth rate of 20% – it will double in size again within the next three-and-a-half years.

One of the main reasons for this exponential growth is it is becoming a lot cheaper to produce. It has become less expensive due to the inherent feedback loop caused by the growth of an industry (i.e. a product is first produced and sold, the demand for the product increases and supply increases with it).

Eventually, the economics of scale goes into effect and the revenue of production becomes greater than the cost, especially when they are able to afford ways to streamline the process, ultimately decreasing the price of production. This has also allowed it to become a lot more affordable, while also encouraging developers to innovate and improve their products, both of which contribute to its growth.

One of the other main reasons for its growth is financial and political support. Due to it becoming a more profitable industry, financiers have become more willing to invest. Furthermore, due to growing environmental concerns and the debate around renewable energy, many governments have opted to support solar energy. Bills have been passed to reduce the cost and encourage the growth of renewable energy. Even the housing market supports it as homes with solar panels installed on them are considered more valuable.

Due to its near-unprecedented level of growth – and the promise of continuous growth – it has become a hot industry for sales professionals to get into. It is an industry that is constantly looking for new talent with high-paying positions regularly available. Selling right now in the solar energy sector allows you to be at the forefront of the industry’s expansion and paves the way for your future success. It is also a rewarding business for sales professionals with positions consistently paying up to $120,000 a year and sometimes higher based on performance.

2. It makes environmental sense

The other big reason for becoming a solar energy salesperson is because it is good for the planet. Unlike coal and petroleum, it is a far cleaner option, producing zero carbon or any other greenhouse gasses. In fact, it does not use any other resource aside from the materials needed to build the panels.

Solar is also one of the safest forms of energy collection, unlike other forms which require large facilities with potentially dangerous moving parts, solar only requires the panels and installation. It is even safer than wind energy!

Most importantly, it is a renewable energy source as the sun is practically an infinite source of energy. By gathering this energy and using it to power our modern world, the problem of energy scarcity could become a thing of the past. Working as a salesperson in the solar industry can allow you to make a difference and be part of something greater than yourself.

Whether you’re at a large company, a small firm, or out on your own, your sales strategy will play a large role in determining your level of success.

Given the vastness of the marketplace, there is no such thing as a one-size-fits-all sales strategy. An effective sales strategy is one that creates necessary guidelines for a salesperson to understand their goals and the actions they must take to achieve them.

And there are many things that can go wrong with a sales strategy, regardless of how much time and energy went into creating them. They can be over-complicated, too imprecise, or too rigid to apply to a specific set of circumstances. To iron out any flaws you may have in your current sales strategy and refine it down to its most effective parts, you first must conduct an in-depth analysis. Read on to learn how:

How To Analyze Your Sales Strategy

The purpose of a sales strategy analysis is to determine the goals of that strategy and how effective it is at reaching them. Typically, you should do this on a quarterly or even monthly basis. Typically, the first place you should look is revenue. If your revenues are falling, there’s a very good chance it’s due to an effective sales strategy.

In addition to revenue, you should also take good hard look at things like: What is your current financial growth rate? How much is your company spending? How many sales have you been
making? What is your closing rate? What is the average size of a sale? What does your pipeline look like? Are quotas being met? If there is a drop-off in any one of these areas, you may need to tweak or update your sales strategy.

Additionally, you should look at the market to see where you may be falling short. What are the standard metrics for a company your size? What trends are drawing in more customers? What sales strategies and techniques have more successful companies been using? Your competition may be doing something you are not.

Also try to bear in mind that the world might be changing in a way your is struggling to deal with. Keeping an eye on the national and international economic situation may help inform your decisions when it comes to refining your sales strategy.

Once you have gathered as much information as you can, study your existing sales strategy. Perhaps, you don’t need to throw the whole thing out and start over. Chances are your research will just have uncovered one or two areas where you need to make minor improvements that will yield huge results.

How To Refine Your Sales Strategy

The purpose of analysis is to see where problems lies while the purpose of refinement is to solve them. By taking everything into account – your company’s metrics, current trends, the world’s economic situation – and relating them to your sales strategy, you can smooth out the rough edges that may be causing problems.

Perhaps you need to loosen up and replace an overly rigid strategy with one that is more flexible, laid-back, and empathetic? Maybe you just need to simplify your plan to make it easier for more people to implement? To truly refine your strategy, you must make a decision about what is most important to you.

As said by Michael LeBoeuf – author of Working Smart, The Millionaire in You, and The Perfect Business – “A satisfied customer is the best business strategy of all.”

While not all strategies are the same, they must all fulfill the needs of your clientele, or they will fail. This means being empathetic to the needs of your customer and following a customer- centric approach. While every other detail in how your strategy can better work for your company’s needs are important, it will become worthless if you don’t think of the customer first.

If you can get past the mixed metaphor, it’s important you understand that not every sales pitch is going to be a homerun. In fact, there is a chance that some will miss the mark so badly you’ll bean the mascot. No matter how hard you try, it is unrealistic to expect every pitch to be successful.

However, whether it be one-off mistakes you make on one pitch or systematic flaws that lower your chances of success on every pitch, there are ways to keep yourself in the game. First, it is important to recognize what these mistakes are and have a plan for how to overcome them. Here are some things to look out for as you refine your sales pitching skills:

Making Excuses

You need to understand that occasionally, a failed sales pitch is not your fault. Sometimes, you’re simply not able to provide what your client needs. Every salesperson has to work within the confines of what their company offers but even if your product is the best on the market, not everyone is necessarily going to want it.

Alternatively, they may be getting that product or service from somewhere else at a price you can’t match. It happens. You simply lack the ability to compete on price and you’re out. The worst thing you can do in this situation is to lie or pressure them into spending more than they should. They may go along with it when you’re face to face, but they will regret it later and this will cost you business down the road.

A failed pitch could also be due to something that is completely out of your control. Sometimes people are just in bad moods and nothing you say can change that. Just accept that you did your best and move on. You can always follow up with them after they’ve had a chance to cool down.

One caveat here is that you don’t start making excuses for every unsuccessful pitch. Make sure you’re taking a good hard look in the mirror before you start evaluating other possible influences on the situation.

Unprofessionalism

Have you ever met someone who didn’t take anything seriously and was too casual for their own good? In a professional setting, people like this can be off-putting to the point of being deal breakers. More often than not, a sales rep acting unprofessionally during a pitch kills the deal. After all, if you’re not taking things seriously, why should they?

Dress appropriately for any face-to-face meetings and respect your customer’s time by being punctual and concise. Be friendly but not over-familiar and most importantly, show how much their business means to you by being prepared.

Too Self-Focused

During a sales pitch, it can be tempting to talk about yourself and what your product can do. That’s not to say you shouldn’t talk about yourself or your product at all, but you’ve got to read the room. Sure, you need to instill confidence that you and your product can deliver but try to do it in moderation. Less is definitely more when it comes to pitching success. The last thing you want them to think is that you’re trying too hard to impress or persuade them.

Matt Heinz, founder of Heinz Marketing, said: “Filter everything you’re doing, saying and pitching through the customer’s point of view, and you’ll improve just about every metric you care about today.”

What this means is instead of talking about yourself all the time, you need to listen to what they say their needs are. In fact, if at any point you start to feel your customer is losing interest, you should always steer the conversation back towards them. People love talking about themselves and this will give you a chance to work your way back into the conversation. Then, thanks to all of the extensive pre-meeting research you did, you’ll be in a much better place to answer some of their concerns.

Lacking Confidence or Grace

While you may be doing everything right on paper, there’s a chance something’s wrong with the vibe you give off in person. For instance, if you come across as overly aggressive, your prospect or customer might feel unduly pressured. Or, if you are nervous or jittery, that might take that to mean you don’t have any confidence in what you’re selling.

Though this may sound like a small detail, it isn’t. People buy from people they like and people like dealing with confident and well-prepared professionals. To be successful in sales, you must be self-aware and know how you come across to other people.

Exuding competence and a sense of being in control will help your customer relax which will make them more likely to buy from you even if you’re not giving your best pitch.