7 Selling Strategies from the Wealthy Bag Lady

Selling has changed because of digital technology, requiring sales professionals to adopt new strategies and techniques. To be successful and stand out from the crowd, customize your sales presentations online and offline.

I’m known as the “Wealthy Bag Lady.” I owned a business that produced custom-printed shopping bags for trophy clients such as Disney, Nissan, Pepsi, IAMS Pet Food, and Sony.
I needed to be scrappy and sell because, if I didn’t sell, I didn’t eat.

I learned that selling is all about service. The sale brings buyers and sellers together. Successful salespeople build successful relationships.

I knew my clients’ birthdays, anniversaries, and even when their kids graduated from school.
Communication is the most important thing for your sales and marketing. Keeping up with the changing landscape of sales, such as the increasing importance of data-driven decision-making and the use of AI will help you stay competitive now.

Some Key Takeaways

• Understand your client’s needs and how to solve their problems.
• Develop sales systems and keep adapting them for the digital age.
• Integrate your marketing messages with your sales strategies.
• Build and nurture relationships.

What is Selling?

To sell effectively you need to define your vision, know your ideal customer, and set achievable goals.

First Step: Prospecting

The first step is prospecting, which means finding people to buy what you sell. You’ll make the initial contact, present the customer benefits, close the sale, and nurture your customer.

Remember that making the sale is just the beginning. Your fortune is in your follow-up.

Online communications do not always replace relationship-building. I like to use digital platforms to make the appointment and then have an actual conversation with the prospect rather than just emailing back and forth.

It’s best to suggest a time for your discovery session with your prospect rather than having them get back to you with their availability.

#1: Who is Your Target Customer?

Identify your ideal customer (sometimes called an avatar).

When I’m consulting with a client, I ask them “Who is your ideal customer?” Their answer: “Everyone,”

In sales, if you’re selling to everyone, you’re selling to no one. How do you target everyone? Where do they go online? What benefits do they want? What are their pain points?

When I did my event, Women’s Small Business Expo, I researched the heck out of women business owners and found out that women make or influence 85% of the purchasing decisions in America. I could tell you if a woman walking down the street was my customer. I even gave my avatar a name. She was Betty and she worked for a while as an employee. Now Betty wanted to start her own business to get more freedom and independence.

Table will go here

Target your ideal customer by:

• Age range
• Gender
• Income
• Diversity
• Education
• Motivations
• Lifestyle
• Buying habits

#2 Decide on Your Sales Strategy

Crafting your effective sales strategy requires a clear value proposition, selecting the right platforms, utilizing the right tools, and creating a system.

Your Value Proposition

Your value proposition is the collection of customer benefits. It lets them know why they should choose your company over your competition.

Your Sales Channels

Your sales channels should include high-tech, low-tech, and no-tech strategies. High-tech includes your website, social media, lead services, eCommerce, etc. Low-tech includes referrals, directories, etc. No-tech includes networking, exhibiting at trade shows, public speaking, etc.

Your Sales Tools

There are so many great Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tools that provide information about your prospects and clients. Send outbound emails 2-4 times per month and post on social media 3-5 times a week.

Check the effectiveness of your outbound marketing to see how many people opened your emails, liked, and shared your content.

#3: Choose the Right Sales Tools for You

You’ll close more deals if you create rapport with your prospects and clients and you’ll rise above the mediocre middle.

How Do You Build Relationships?

Building rapport is showing genuine interest in your prospect. Sometimes it even means turning away business if your company is not the right fit.

I’ve sent birthday cards and old-school thank-you notes. When I get a new high-paying client, I send them a gift basket. I like food gifts because people can enjoy the food immediately and there is nothing to assemble. Getting a food basket delivery is also an experience. People even fight about who gets the chocolate in the office or at home.

Communication is King

I like to communicate by inspiring confidence in my business knowledge and being vulnerable. Be conversational, listen to your customer’s questions, and offer brilliant solutions.

Do You Need Closing Techniques?

If you do a great presentation, you don’t need fancy closing techniques.

These are some of my favorite ways to close a sale.

• Check in to get a barometer of your customer’s interest by saying, “How does this sound so far?”
• Assume the close and ask about what color they want, quantity, and how they would like to submit their payment.
• Silent close: At the end of your presentation, shut up and let the customer talk. People feel compelled to fill in the silence in the conversation and you can get the advantage on a plate.

The most important thing in the close is authenticity. Be real and transparent and let the customer know that you respect them. They can trust you.

#4: Manage and Make Your Sales Operational

Effective planning, creating a great team, and analyzing data will help you with sales and revenues.

Recruiting and Training a Sales Team

Building the sales team is essential. Training people is time-consuming but it makes a world of difference in your results. Make sure to foster an environment of cooperation and let people know that they can come to you with any questions.

Also, remove any toxic people from the team because they affect the overall employee morale. I had a Negative Nancy on my sales team. I had to let her go when she started to infect the attitude of the entire team.

How Do You Measure the Effectiveness of Your Sales Process?

Create your key performance indicators (KPIs) that include sales conversion ratios, the size of the average sale, and how people move through your sales funnel.

#5: Integrate Sales and Marketing

I’m amazed when I see that the sales and marketing departments are not communicating with each other. It creates stress within the company and confusion with clients.

For better results, integrate your approach for attracting clients and closing the sales.

Aligning Marketing with Sales Efforts

Marketing is getting the word out about what you do online and offline. Effective marketing is crucial to effective sales and customer journey. Make sure sales and marketing teams collaborate regularly, share leads, and create effective messaging.

Get Customer Feedback

Be willing to hear positive and negative feedback from customers. I had a bank client who gave me negative feedback about our sponsorship program. It was hard to hear, but I told them that I would correct the issue. They became a long-term customer because I listened to their needs.

#6: Understand the Challenges to Increasing Your Sales

Customer objections can be a gift, rather than a problem. You can change your policy to handle objections. Add them to your presentation or address objections with great client testimonials.

How Do You Handle Sales Objections?

One of the most common objectives is price. This is your time to shine by comparing your company to your competitors. You can also cite a customer testimonial that said, “I was initially surprised by the price, but now I think it’s one of the best investments I ever made.”

Your Competition and Your Integrity

The best way to stand out from the competition is to offer your clients a completely personalized experience. No cookie-cutter solutions.

Don’t forget that integrity is part of your brand. Your word is your bond and you always do what you say. If you can’t get something to a client on time, let them know that you’re working on it and that you’re not ignoring them. Arrive early to meetings.

#7: Pick the Right Online Sales Tools

Digital technologies have changed the paradigm of sales. Take advantage of the plethora of online tools to help you such as social platforms, customer relationship management (CRM), and data-driven insights.

How to Personalize E-Commerce

There are many online platforms for E-commerce such as storefronts, payment gateways, merchant processing, and list segmentation. When people buy a product, you can put them on lists and send them drip campaigns to initiate more sales and follow-up.

Use Social Media to Build Relationships

Social media strategies are great for engaging with your customers. It’s a two-way communication rather than just pushing messaging with no feedback.

People ask me which social media platform to use and I tell them that it’s where your audience hangs out online. If you’re working with the youth demographic, you’ll want to use different social media than if your clients are mature consumers.

Analyzing Your Sales Data

In my business career, I’ve seen the rise of tools for analyzing customer data, strategies, marketing messages, closing ratios, etc.

Frequently Asked Questions