‘How do you sell your way out of tough times?’ Bill Gibson shared his golden rules for selling at Nedbank’s Small Business seminar earlier this month. I add my thoughts on each of Bill’s rules.

Increase the number of right people that you contact. To me this would mean ranking potential clients according to the following criteria:

• How well your business offering fits their needs
• How big a portion of your net profit may come from that client
• Their payment record – if you deliver your products or services on credit. The bigger debtor the client will be on your books, the more important checking their credit record becomes.

Then make sure you speak to the decision-makers at each of businesses or households higher up on your list. But don’t shun the smaller clients either. They will bring in the cash over the short term while you work on bringing the larger, long-term clients on board.

Call potential clients more often and be well prepared for each call. Bill cites the National Dry Good Association of America survey, which found that the people who make more than three calls to potential clients are responsible for 80% of all sales. But I think there’s a very fine line between cheeky, but charming, and pushy and off-putting. Being able to read body language and tone of voice is crucial. And if your business is predominantly relationship-based, you have to be extra careful not to make a nuisance of yourself.

Increase the number of people selling. Remember, it’s not only your sales team that’s selling your products and services. Make sure all your employees know the basics of your product range and are enthusiastic about your offering. And if there are related, but not directly competing businesses around who could refer some of their clients to you, create incentives for these business to lead more clients to your door.

Increase your deal closing ratio. Bill has several techniques up his sleeve. Some of them are quite cheeky, in my opinion, but when used on the right customer, they will seal the deal. You could, for example, use the ‘assumed’ close, where you ask the customer what day would suit him best for the delivery before he’s even agreed to purchase your product. Or try the ‘puppy dog’ close, where you allow customers to take your product home and try it out before they buy.

Increase the average size of your individual sales. Try add-ons, e.g. “Hope you enjoy your new notebook. Do you have something to carry it in? Have you seen our bags and cases?” Or up-selling: “Hmmm, from what you’re telling me, the 1G package may suit you better. You may run out of bandwidth with the 500MB contract.”

Increase how often a client buys. Although not appropriate for all businesses, knowing your client very well usually enables you to sell to them more often. I have a friend who, unlike us mere mortals, buys most of her clothes at exclusive boutiques. She favours one particular designer, who phones her up every time he notices something in the new ready-to-wear range that suits her taste. She seldom leaves his shop without at least one purchase.