How to Improve Your Sales Conversion Rate

I recently calculated that I have given over 9000 sales presentations over the last 25 years, thats about 10 per week consistently, I could probably triple that again with the number of people I have presented to or trained around the world. So over the years I have figured out a few things about selling and how to improve your conversion rate.

Here is an interesting stat that you might find hard to believe. 62% of sales people fail to ask for the order. I was witness to this just 2 weeks ago when I invited a company to come to my home to talk to me about solar power generation. He went through his presentation and I had to close myself. I do find this very hard to comprehend. I am from the old school of sales; I grew up with Tom Hopkins and Brian Tracey. These guys know sales and I figured out that the successful people leave clues behind. Why not pick these up and run with them?

So back to the subject of improving conversion rates. The key to my success early on was to use a visual presentation. Not a laptop, just a simple sales presentation tool which consisted of a series of simple flip charts. Each chart deals with the three learning modalities, Visual, Kinesthetic and Auditory. The visuals would look at the pictures and diagrams, the kinesthetic would hold the presentation with me and the auditory’s would glance at the presentation while listening to me all the way through.

The visual presentation is KEY to your success. I don’t care what it is you are selling, give people to option to see what it is you do, experience the service / product you are selling and get involved in you and your company. Make it short and simple, do not crowd it with too many words or complex diagrams. The more simple the more likely you will not baffle people.

Have plenty of pictures of you and your happy clients, pictures that are relevant, leave clip art pictures out all together. Have sample for people to pick up and touch, give a simple demonstration to show them the practical use of the product / service. People have to be able to see themselves using your product or service. Make sure you use appropriate presentation material. I use a $29 faux leather binder with plastic sleeves for inserts. It is that simple.

So get to it, make your presentation folder and start closing….