Did you know that 82 percent of B2B decisionmakers think that sales reps are unprepared? This statistic reflects the all-too-familiar drawn-out sales presentations and calls that many executives have experienced. How can you ensure your team doesn’t end up in this category? We compiled our top five tips for bringing value, increasing conversions and accelerating revenue below.

1. Have more engaging and relevant meetings with your potential customers. No one enjoys sitting through a meeting that could have been an email. By sharing the latest market intelligence about what is happening in the world of your customers, they are far more likely to listen and interact instead of zone out. Customers will buy from someone they like and trust. By building a comfortable relationship based on value from the start, you will see better results when it comes time to make the deal.

2. Provide valuable data, insights and connections. You can increase your response rate, deal velocity and win rate by utilizing real-time data about your potential customers and opportunities. It’s important to present content and information that will help solve your prospect’s problems, while also educating them on your brand and services. Be prepared to include testimonials from similar customers. These components will spark key conversation points and make your services more relatable to potential customers.

3. Save time with pre-call research. To save time and resources, do thorough research about your potential customer and their company prior to your first interaction. Have you planned how you want to the sales interaction to play out? Is there video you want them to watch? Or a white paper you want them to review? When you map out your pre-sell strategy, you can significantly increase your closing rate. Deeper sales intelligence can also help you more quickly uncover the potential problems your customer is dealing with before they even tell you. Without a clear understanding of the circumstances surrounding your customer, their company and the sale, it’s far more difficult to position your solution in the best way possible.

4. Identify the top six to 10 decisionmakers within a deal. Once you have tracked down the important stakeholders in your deal, connect with each of them individually. Unfortunately, some sales teams have a habit of reaching out to the wrong contact and waiting too long for a response. If you don’t receive a response, reassess and return to your previous research to determine who are the key players in your sale. Once you have connected with each decisionmaker, it’s extremely important for everyone to be in alignment during a deal to ensure the longevity of the relationship. At the end of the day, your sales pitch should be helpful and relationship-driven, providing value and empathy instead of trying to push out a contract.

5. Update your sales script. We have all been on a sales call and immediately identified red flags, whether that be someone who only talks about themselves, a rep who gets your name wrong or ridiculous promises that seem too good to be true. These signs immediately create an environment of mistrust and are easy to detect and correct. Aside from these glaring errors, there can be many elements hiding below the surface in your sales script that aren’t serving your team well. To remedy this, try out several different variations of your script and monitor how they affect your closing percentage. This will help increase your current sales and compile all the best knowledge from your team into one hard-hitting script.

Happy Selling!