Even if you are getting loads of leads, website traffic and call connects, it doesn’t mean you are hitting your key targets. Your conversion rates could be falling, and there is no one-size-fits-all method to make radical changes. Every business is different and the reasons prospects fall between the cracks vary. It’s not easy to improve your conversion rates, but those who do find the sweet spot can welcome in the new sales, meaning new revenue.

So, if your sales conversions aren’t what you want, here are four easy-to-adopt sales strategies to boost your business.

1 – Get social

Salespeople might be thinking, isn’t social media a marketing or comms job? Well, think about this: Failing to utilise the power of social media will result in missed sales opportunities. That’s because social media is actually the perfect modern-day platform to help salespeople connect with prospects.

Not only is your target audience almost certainly going to research your business and product on social media, but your social media accounts provide an opportunity to engage with your prospects, build trust and create an online personality.

First up, pick the right channels to have a presence on (whether it’s LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter or something else). Secondly, decide how you will use your social accounts – connecting with prospects, customer service or providing thought leadership. Thirdly, use marketing generated content to provide value – your social media accounts should be seen as an opportunity to create conversations. Lastly, and this requires a shift in mindset, don’t sell too soon – social channels are conversation starters, not an opportunity to hard sell every time. Find a prospect, engage with them, provide value, and then progress to the sales phase. Doing so will establish a warmer sales opportunity that is more likely to close.

2 – Deliver great CX

The customer experience (CX) is the key competitive difference today. Those who nail it likely have a much higher conversion rate than those who fail. From a sales point of view, a poor CX could be salespeople not having access to the right data (historic engagements, user behaviour, and so on) or a poor experience across multiple communications channels such as email, social media or by phone.

Salespeople who are armed with the right information and go above and beyond to help their prospects are much more likely to persuade them to make a purchase. Leading salespeople provide an experience that begins with informing a prospect and ends with inspiring them to purchase.

3 – Embrace new tools: Live chat for sales

Relating to delivering a better CX, there are lots of tools that can be implemented to help. Far beyond the confines of just a CRM system.

Live chat is a new-ish tool that can significantly help sales conversions. It presents an opportunity for sales staff to speak with prospects as they browse their businesses’ website.

For salespeople, that means they can provide help and answers in real time, enhancing the customer experience and providing an opportunity to immediately convert. Giving actual answers to website visitors could be personalised help (which every customer loves) to try and encourage them to buy. It could also be providing relevant information to time-pressed buyers. Otherwise, visitors are likely to simply give up and click off your website. Or it could be providing additional value such as an invite to a relevant webinar.

Live chat is actually really easy to implement and there are lots of tools readily available that can be managed via your mobile phone – so a salesperson will get a notification when a chat begins and interact with an enquiry in a WhatsApp-style messenger app. Key messages can also be automated to instigate conversations or if salespeople are not currently available. Industry leaders include Drift, Facebook Messenger, Chatfuel, Intercom and HubSpot chat.

Not convinced? Here’s why you should be: Improved customer experience, real-time sales assistance, a more personalised sales experience, conversation openers with interested leads.

4 – Empower sales staff with sales enablement

Sales enablement, which means providing your salespeople with everything they need to help make a sale, is a powerful method to improve conversion rates. For instance, if your salesperson doesn’t have access to the relevant information when speaking with a potential customer, can you really expect them to seal the deal?

Sales enablement helps your sales team deliver in a scalable, predictable and repeatable manner – thus improving conversion rates. Relevant information to provide to your salespeople includes an up-to-date sales script, relevant content, product information, customer details and more. Providing them with access to the best practices, tools and resources will help them become better salespeople, which in turn will increase conversion rates.

There you have it. There are plenty of sales strategies to improve your conversion rates but these are a good place to start and easy to implement. If you want to improve conversions and deliver the results you need to grow, begin testing with these strategies and you’ll quickly find sales improve.