Five Out-of-the-Box Sales Strategies for Identifying Your Ideal Customers in 2023

Sales teams in all industries are feeling pressure right now. Attracting new customers, building relationships, and closing deals are becoming more challenging. To reach your 2023 sales goals, you’ll need to get more creative and more personalized.

We’re going to explore five out-of-the-box sales strategies to help you and the rest of your sales team identify your company’s ideal customers, drive deeper connections, and close more deals, even in an uncertain economic climate. 

1. 1. Building a LinkedIn strategy around reputation building
   2. Overcome common sales objections with confidence
   3. Encourage referrals from happy customers
   4. Gain valuable insights from customers to refine offers
   5. Get creative to find fresh prospects and generate leads

Pitfalls of Sticking to the Same Old Sales Strategies

If your sales team’s playbook includes all the old, usual strategies, you may struggle to connect with potential customers. Here are a couple of reasons why:

1. Your leads aren’t ready to hear your message.

The traditional methods of filling your pipeline with leads, like cold calling or email blasts, could be more efficient and effective. But unfortunately, such methods typically waste valuable resources as your messaging falls on deaf ears.

2. Your leads are ready, but you’re missing the mark. 

If you do happen to find leads ready to hear your message, an old sales strategy may lead you to assume you understand their needs and wants. As a result, you may end up crafting a message that doesn’t resonate with your audience or speak to their specific pain points.

As the marketplace becomes more saturated and competitive, it’s become harder than ever to capture the attention of your target audience with conventional sales strategies. Luckily, there are ways to keep your message from getting lost or, even worse, completely ignored altogether.

Six Out-of-the-Box Sales Strategies for Identifying Your Ideal Customers in 2023 

If your current sales strategies aren’t helping you to identify your ideal customers and you’re ready to try something innovative, look no further. These six out-of-the-box sales techniques can help you and your sales team gain a fresh perspective as you discover creative ways to identify and connect with your ideal customers.

1. Building a LinkedIn Strategy around reputation building

With the rise of online networking platforms like LinkedIn, each sales team member has an opportunity to build their personal brand and engage with potential customers in a more authentic and personalized way than traditional cold calls or emails.

LinkedIn offers a metric called the Social Selling Index, or SSI. It measures how well your sales team uses LinkedIn for social selling.

SSI scores are based on four factors:

• • Establishing your professional branding
  • Building relationships
  • Engaging with insights
  • Finding the right people

Scores are regularly updated, so encourage your sales team to polish up their profiles and:

• • Create and publish LinkedIn posts
  • Engage with people who have viewed their profile
  • Join groups and participate in discussions
  • Connect with decision-makers and stakeholders

Sales professionals with an SSI score of 70 or above are 51% more likely to achieve their sales goals than those with a lower score. Therefore, developing a social selling plan around LinkedIn’s SSI scores can prove effective.

Related Content: The Guide to Generating Meetings Consistently on LinkedIn

2. Overcome common sales objections with confidence

Traditional sales strategies focus on pitching a product or service rather than addressing objections or concerns from potential customers. Creative sales teams should take a more proactive approach to understanding and overcoming objections. 

Common objections are typically related to the following:

• • Price – too high or low value
  • Timing – not ready to buy
  • Competition – already using or considering
  • Skepticism – negative experience or low confidence
  • Authority – may need approval to purchase

Developing a strategy ahead of time can help your team overcome sales objections. For example, a salesperson selling a software product who receives an objection over price may offer a free trial period or share a case study full of data, testimonials, and infographics highlighting the software’s ROI.

According to a HubSpot survey, 60% of customers say no four times before eventually purchasing a product or service. Objections are common, but successful salespeople can tailor their sales approaches to each prospect’s needs and objections.

3. Encourage referrals from happy customers

Salespeople rely on their personal efforts to generate new leads and close sales. But by leveraging the power of satisfied customers to refer new business, you and your sales team can significantly increase reach and credibility.

Here are some ways to implement this strategy:

1. 1. Use customer surveys or online reviews to identify satisfied customers.
   2. Reach out to them and ask if they know anyone who could benefit from your product or service, being specific about the types of customers you’re seeking.
   3. Offer an incentive for referrals.
   4. Ensure each referral is successful by following up with both parties, thanking the referring customer, and welcoming the potential new customer. 

According to a study by Nielsen, 92% of consumers trust recommendations from friends and family more than any other form of marketing. Therefore, referral-based sales strategies can provide a steady stream of high-quality leads that already trust your brand.

4. Gain valuable insights from customers to refine offers

By actively seeking out and listening to feedback from existing customers about your product or service, your sales team can gain valuable insight into what’s working and what needs improvement. This insight can help them tailor their offers to suit their target audience better. 

Here are three ways to gather feedback:

1. Send surveys to existing customers asking specific questions about your product or service.
2. Monitor social media channels with social media listening tools, paying attention to both positive and negative feedback.
3. Hold focus groups with existing customers to discuss their experiences with your company in detail.

Not only does this strategy help boost new sales, but it can also increase the retention rates of existing customers. A study by Salesforce found that 70% of consumers say that a company’s understanding of their needs influences their loyalty. Listen to feedback to increase satisfaction in both existing and potential customers.

5. Get creative to find fresh prospects and generate leads

If it seems like the usual well for prospects has run dry, it’s time to get creative! Sales teams that move beyond the normal channels to find fresh possibilities can experience more authentic engagement and higher conversion rates. 

Here are some ideas to consider:

• • Scrape social media: Use software to scan social media platforms for email addresses and contact information.
  • Referral marketing: Ask existing customers to refer friends and family to your business.
  • Embed yourself in online communities: Identify communities where your ideal customers will likely gather. Then, participate in these communities by offering value and establishing yourself as a thought leader.
  • Identify in-market prospects with intent data: Use intent data to identify potential customers already in the market for your product or service.

Must-Know Statistics on Crafting Messages for the Right Customers

Crafting a message that reaches and connects with your target audience is vital to your business’s success. But don’t just take our word for it. Here are some statistics that highlight the importance of identifying your ideal customers and crafting a message that speaks directly to them:

• • According to research from Campaign Monitor, personalized and targeted emails result in a 760% increase in revenue.
  • A survey by Salesforce found that 73% of consumers expect companies to understand their needs and expectations.
  • An Accenture report revealed that 75% of consumers are likelier to buy from a brand that recognizes them by name or recommends options based on past purchases.

But it’s not just about meeting personalized expectations. The right message can still reach the wrong group of people, and sometimes your company needs to fill the pipeline with warmer leads with greater potential. 

A survey by MarketingSherpa found that 64% of marketers send leads to sales teams without qualifying them, leading to wasted time and resources and a misalignment between teams.

Identify your ideal customers and tailor your message to their needs and interests to avoid wasting valuable resources. Using out-of-the-box sales strategies can help you achieve this goal with new and innovative ways to connect with an interested audience.

Related Content: Five Ways to Close More Deals Right Now

Don’t Get Boxed In: Break Through Sales Limits with Outside-the-Box Strategies

Staying ahead of the curve in today’s marketplace requires creativity, persistence, and an openness to new ideas. By implementing out-of-the-box sales strategies, businesses can identify and engage with the right customers and close more deals. 

Help your team take their sales efforts to the next level with Skaled. At Skaled, we help companies grow faster by bringing in Revenue Leadership, Operations, and Enablement experts. 

Take our free assessment to see where your sales team should focus their attention to reach your primary goal.

Guest Author: John Marquez, Datanyze

John is an experienced digital marketing professional at Datanyze. He spends most of his time testing different strategies and in his spare time, argues his findings with his dog, Zeus. You can follow him @J_PMarquez.