The sales profession is highly dynamic and demanding. What worked yesterday may not work today, and new competitors and regulations keep you constantly on your toes. One thing remains the same, however. Simply put, better sales techniques mean more sales for your team. What can you do to elevate the sales techniques used by your sales reps?

The following three sales techniques can help your sales reps to increase their sales and improve their skills.

Use Content Marketing

One of the major changes in sales in the past few years is the way we market. Postcards, television ads, brochures, and displays just don’t pack the marketing punch they used to because people are increasingly online. They have become very good at tuning out sales techniques such as traditional marketing campaigns, and one of the ways they do this is by doing consumer research online. You can take advantage of this change by providing helpful online content about your products and services.

If you can create a compelling, mobile-optimized, SEO website that shows up at the top of search results, you’ll reach plenty of customers. For content marketing to be an effective sales technique, it must be updated and added to on a regular basis, but there are several attractive benefits to this sales technique:

• Pre-qualified leads
• Higher customer satisfaction
• Reduced marketing costs
• Higher conversion rates

Focus on Upselling

Upselling is one of the sales techniques that is too often overlooked. The hardest part of selling is turning a prospect into a customer. Once a customer has developed a relationship with you and is already buying something from you, it’s easier to close an additional or related sale.

The key to upselling is to think about what will genuinely help your customer. If you suggest a product or service that the customer clearly doesn’t have a need for, you could actually damage your business relationship because your motives will be suspect. So be careful about your suggestions, but use upselling to your advantage.

Work on Problem Solving

Everyone has problems. What the world needs are problem solvers. If your prospects see your sales reps more as problem solvers than as merely sales people trying to get their business, you’ll be in a much better position.

One of the most effective sales techniques is to position yourself as a problem solver. In order to help customers with their problems, your sales reps need to learn great listening skills. They need to ask probing questions so they can find out exactly what’s going on that they can help with.

• What challenges are you facing?
• What products are you using now?
• What features would make your job easier?

Then, instead of merely selling a product, your sales reps take on a new role. They create custom solutions for prospects and customers who are looking for answers.

Training your sales reps on these sales techniques will give them skills they can use in their day-to-day interactions with prospects and customers. When your sales reps practice and use effective sales techniques, they increase their chances of success.