How to LEVEL-UP Your

Sales Communication &

SEAL More Deals
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1 How to Improve Your Sales Communication & Seal More Deals

Your Sales Communication Guide
WILL HELP YOU

1 Embrace, Then Conquer Failure

2 Pick the Right Prospects

3 Overcome Sales Objections

4 Avoid Conversational Mistakes

2 How to Improve Your Sales Communication & Seal More Deals

1
Eliminate
Embrace, THEN
CONQUER Failure
Sales and rejection go hand-
in-hand, and actively avoiding
failure does a lot more harm
than good.
Fear is a paralyzing and
instinctive psychological
response designed to narrow
your focus to respond to only the
threat at hand.
In Sales, you can’t afford to
default to this instinct. Anyone
working for a fast-growing
company will understand stress
and pressure.
There’s nothing to fear
but fear itself.
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
You’ll miss targets. You’ll face
objections. You’ll fail to close
really important deals. But panic
won’t help you.
You need to plan to overcome
the panic when a sudden flurry
of rejections hits you right in the
face. This guide will help you
bounce back up off the canvas
nice and fast so you can win the
fight.
3 How to Improve Your Sales Communication & Seal More Deals
Failure is a road,
not a destination.
For a salesperson failure comes in the form of one
syllable and two heart-wrenching letters.

But behind every “no” are motives that can point

you towards the leads that are ready, willing, and
able to say “yes”.

4 How to Improve Your Sales Communication & Seal More Deals

 70% of all deals should
be winnable.
- Timo Rein, Sales Expert & CEO of Pipedrive

If this is far from your close rate you’re either

picking the wrong prospects, or you’re mishandling
rejection.

Either way, we’re here to help.

5 How to Improve Your Sales Communication & Seal More Deals

2
Close more and fail
less by picking the
right prospects.

6 How to Improve Your Sales Communication & Seal More Deals

Contrary to many sales mantras, Set the myths and rumors aside. Don’t just
add more leads to your funnel. The best sales
we know that less is more. processes help salespeople focus by finding the
hottest leads fast.

Our 2017 Sales Performance Review proves that

the highest performing sales teams had smaller
pipelines filled with fewer but better leads.

You’ll close more deals if you spend more time

having better conversations with the right people.

High Performers

36.97% 36.5
Conversion Rate Days to Close

Low Performers
Lost Wo n
4.9% 53.62
Conversion Rate Days to Close

7 How to Improve Your Sales Communication & Seal More Deals

Less chasing, There’s one simple trap so many salespeople fall
into: spending too much time chasing prospects
more qualifying. who are far from their ideal target profile.

According to Lincoln Murphy’s Ideal Customer

Profile Framework, your ideal potential customer is:

1. Ready

2. Willing

3. Able

8 How to Improve Your Sales Communication & Seal More Deals

A lead is ready when they have a Talk to your marketing team

problem they need to solve While salespeople handle the sale, marketing
follows up with customers you close. Ask them to
share valuable insights, such as buyer personas
of active customers or feedback survey data, and
FACT use that knowledge to hone in on leads that fit the
profile.
A prospect without a problem (or one
that they’re aware of) is likely to reject the
Practical advice: If most of your lead generation
solution you’re selling.
process happens online, make sure you fine tune
your lead generation forms and channels to suit the
prospects you’re after.

Optimize your online lead generation process

If you’re using sign-up forms, social media, or email

marketing to gather prospects, your message needs
to be on point. If those leads don’t convert, then
you may be off with the way you’re presenting your
solution.

Practical advice: Pipedrive’s Sales Inbox (which

comes with full 2-way sync with any email
provider) is designed to help you fine-tune email
communications. Custom Templates help you
maintain a consistent message, and email tracking
gives you deeper insight into the interests of
your prospects so you can tell what content is
resonating.

9 How to Improve Your Sales Communication & Seal More Deals

A lead is willing when they are Be reachable and responsive

ready to take action If a lead is split on whether to take action and

purchase your solution, you need to be available
when they make a decision.

FACT Practical advice: Use CRM software with a solid

mobile option. Pipedrive’s mobile app includes
A prospect that is not interested in taking the
call logging features, and allows you to see deal
steps needed to solve their problem won’t be
information on incoming calls to keep you prepared
buying anytime soon.
no matter where you are.

Make meeting and communicating as easy as

possible

Going back and forth on appointment planning or

missing emails when you’re not in the office is an
easy way to lose a client that is struggling to take
that important step before a sale.

Practical advice: Use software designed to make

planning easy. Pipedrive’s Scheduler gives clients
an instant view on your availability, making it easy
to find a time that matches their schedule.

10 How to Improve Your Sales Communication & Seal More Deals

A lead is able when they have the Re-evaluate the way you gather prospects

right authority If you or your team are experiencing lots of

rejections, it could mean that your points of contact
lack the authority to make purchases. You may be
collecting contacts in the wrong places.
FACT
Practical advice: Identify what title or role is best
A prospect that can’t approve buying
suited to deciding on your product. If you’re selling
your solution is not in a position to give
accounting software, try networking with CFOs or
you the yes you need.
heads of accounting. If you’re selling craft beer to
restaurants get in touch with communities of bar
owners instead to small-talking bartenders.

Use Pipedrive CRM to find the right stakeholders

Targeting the wrong person from the right business

client is a common way to lose a sale. Pipedrive’s
Smart Contact Data feature was designed to solve
this issue by crawling the web for insights on your
prospects.

Practical advice: Use Smart Contact Data to

identify which of your contacts at an organization
are best suited to decide on purchasing your
solution.

11 How to Improve Your Sales Communication & Seal More Deals

A lead is able when they have the Focus the conversation on value not price

right budget Sales is all about presenting added value. Budgets

are allocated based on how much a prospect values
solving the problem.

FACT Pro response: Demonstrate what’s to gain from

solving their problem with a superior offering.
A prospect without the financial means to
You’ll find that in many cases that budgets are not
pay for your product is not the prospect
set in stone; especially if you educate clients on
you’re looking for.
what makes your solution different than cheaper
competitors.

Don’t give quotes too early

Quoting upfront puts you in the ‘just another

vendor’ category rather than positioning you as
an expert or trusted adviser. You also give up your
power to direct and control the conversation.

Practical advice: “I don’t do blind quotes. The

reason being, I need to see where you are now,
and where you’d like to be, and that will give me a
better idea of how I can help get you there before
providing a more accurate quote.”

12 How to Improve Your Sales Communication & Seal More Deals

3
Take advantage of
psychology to control
your sales conversations

OVERCOME SALES
OBJECTIONS

People don’t buy for logical

reasons. They buy for
emotional reasons.
- Zig Ziglar

13 How to Improve Your Sales Communication & Seal More Deals

7 cognitive biases and how to
address them in sales

Consumer behavior is predictable, and success in sales comes down

to understanding it and communicating accordingly.

Sure, we can’t control the final outcome, but we can certainly

influence it and do so with confidence.

The first step to doing that is understanding the 7 cognitive biases

that affect the way humans make decisions.

Cognitive bias is an error in reasoning that causes us to deviate from

good judgment and make illogical decisions.

Understanding these cognitive biases and playing to them instead of

against them is an important skill when it comes to creating a need
for your solution and demonstrating value.

14 How to Improve Your Sales Communication & Seal More Deals

1. Anchoring Effect 3. Bandwagon Effect

What is it? What is it?

Your prospect’s inbuilt bias to give more weight to Your prospect’s susceptibility to trust social proof.
the first piece of info they hear about something
when forming opinions. Takeaway:
Don’t shy away from using highly relevant case
Takeaway: studies to bring things vividly to life and gain trust.
Make sure you understand exactly what your
prospect needs as a solution before you start
highlighting features and benefits.

2. Ambiguity Effect 4. Confirmation Effect

What is it? What is it?

Your prospect’s tendency to mistrust what they Your prospect’s preference for things that agree
don’t understand. with their preconceptions.

Takeaway:
Make sure you simplify your proposition and tell
a compelling story – and never forget to tailor
the language you use to make everything easy to
understand.
Takeaway:
Spend time listening so that you understand what
your prospect thinks – and then you can share
information that confirms these thoughts.

15 How to Improve Your Sales Communication & Seal More Deals

5. Halo Effect
What is it?
First impressions matter. Nicholas Boothman
argues that the outcome of a sales call is often
achieved or lost in the first 90 seconds.
Takeaway:
Your initial focus should be on building rapport
and gaining trust. This first call is more about
relationship building than pitching.
6. IKEA Effect
What is it?
Your prospect’s inclination to value something
significantly more if they feel they have played a
role in building it.
Takeaway:
Work together with your prospect to customize
your solution to cater to their specific needs. Make
them feel like they have a hand in shaping the
solution.
16
7. Sunk-Cost Fallacy
What is it?
Your prospect’s innate drive to finish what they
start. People are especially, and sometimes
irrationally, committed to finishing something and
sticking it out when time, energy or money has
been invested
Takeaway:
Encourage your prospect to agree to small
commitments. Send questions for your potential
buyer to consider before your next meeting.
Disclaimer: With this knowledge comes a responsibility to use
it with integrity. There is a big difference between persuading
someone to buy your solution and manipulating or misleading
them. Remember, you are also susceptible to these biases so
imagine the situation in reverse. Treat this tactic as ethical
influence.
How to Improve Your Sales Communication & Seal More Deals
4
Meet Dan. Dan is pretty glum.

His sales are at a record low, and as the rejections

pile, Dan gets more and more anxious every time
he approaches a new lead.

Despite his best intentions, Dan’s communication

is letting him down. He is making a few common
mistakes that so many salespeople struggle to
avoid overcome.

conversational While these communication blunders are the

biggest reasons for failing to close, they are also
mistakes easy to fix. We’ve got a combination of sales
communication advice and some tech tips to help
you make sure you don’t end up like Dan.

17 How to Improve Your Sales Communication & Seal More Deals

MISTAKE #1 The communication fix

Dan needs to research his leads in advance,

Dan isn’t prepared and use that knowledge to come up with some
interesting openers before cold calling. Some great
conversation starters are:
Dan has no idea who he’s selling to, giving him very little to talk
about than his one-sided pitch.
• ‘I see you have been with Alpha company for
2 years. What changes have happened since you
Knowing about a prospect makes them feel valued, and preparing for
joined?’
a call shows you have done your research. Show that you’ve taken an
• ‘I loved that article by X that you shared on
interest, and prospects are a lot more likely to return the favor.
Twitter, what do you think about her views on
the difficulties facing the Y industry?’
Cognitive Biases you can use:
Dan might seem a little lazy, but this research really
doesn’t have to be so hard. You can use Pipedrive’s
Smart Contact Data feature to scan the web for all
Halo Effect Ambiguity Confirmation Anchoring
Effect Bias Effect publicly available info on your prospects for you to
add straight to your database.

Your background research is sorted within just

a few clicks, so you can talk specifics with your
prospects instead of bumbling around like Dan.

18 How to Improve Your Sales Communication & Seal More Deals

MISTAKE #2 The communication fix

Now that Dan has done his research, the next step
Dan talks too much is to use what he already knows to learn more
about his prospect.

Dan is passionate. He is trying hard. He loves to chat with his

That opening conversation is not only your chance
prospect. The problem is - Dan’s enthusiastic chatter doesn’t
to hook interest – it’s also your chance to zero in on
allow him to learn by listening.
the specific pain points of your prospect.

In a recent analysis of over a million sales calls by SalesHacker, it was

found that top sales professionals talk for only 46% of the discovery
call, whereas average and lower-performing ones talk for 68-72% of
the call. Dan needs to talk less than his potential customer.
Cognitive Biases you can use:
Dan should avoid steering the conversation too
much, and focus instead on more general openers
to help his prospect open up and share their
thoughts. Here are some sample sales dialogue
starters you can use to allow the prospect to share
their own unique problems and drivers:

• ‘What is your biggest challenge this year?’

• ‘How do you find things are different between
Halo Effect Ambiguity Confirmation Anchoring
Effect Bias Effect your role at company Alpha and company
Beta?’

19 How to Improve Your Sales Communication & Seal More Deals

MISTAKE #3 Quick fix

Dan needs to ditch the pitch, and use questions

Dan sells too hard that relate more directly to his prospects. Focus on
benefits, not features.

No matter how important Dan’s targets and goals are, his

Example: ‘Would it help you if your team could
potential customers don’t care. Dan needs to help the prospect
spend 30% less time on admin?’
rather than talk about his product’s features.

He should also focus on highlighting just one

Dan needs to stop pitching in the first sales call. Instead he should
tangible area he can help with, and back this up
focus on building up trust and scheduling a follow-up meeting to ease
with social proof.
his prospect in.

He can also offer to send some relevant info, or

He can also use this time to learn more and tailor his offering to suit
simply ask: ‘Would it be possible to take you and
their needs.
your team through a demo at your office so you can
see exactly how we can help?’
Cognitive Biases you can use:

Ambiguity Confirmation Anchoring Bias Bandwagon

Effect Bias Effect

20 How to Improve Your Sales Communication & Seal More Deals

MISTAKE #4 Quick fix

Dan needs to check in before making a call, or

Dan can’t read between
the lines
Dan is a chatty guy, which is why he often finds it difficult to
notice that his prospect is not in the mood to talk.
When a prospect sounds harassed, stressed or simply disinterested
you can win yourself the benefit of the halo effect by simply
acknowledging this and offering to get in touch again at their
convenience.
Cognitive Biases you can use:
simply ask prospects if they’re ready to talk before
diving into the conversation.
He should be prepared to schedule another call
if time is running out. Dan needs the help of the
Pipedrive Scheduler handy to conveniently show
prospects his availability for another chat at a time
that suits both parties.
After rescheduling, Dan should follow up by sharing
a related industry article. This gives him a great
conversation starter for next time.

Halo
Effect

21 How to Improve Your Sales Communication & Seal More Deals

MISTAKE #5 Quick fix

Dan should establish himself as an expert with

Dan is too modest questions that prove his knowledge. For example:

• ‘The recent collapse of Beta company has had

In his eagerness to sell the product he believes in, Dan forgets to
huge effects on retail in this region. How has it
mention that nobody knows his market better than he does.
affected you guys?’
• ‘Did you see what X predicts for the sector this
Getting back to the SalesHacker study, it was found the the most
year?’
successful sales professionals spend 52% more time talking about
• ‘Were you at the recent X event? What did you
business value, and 39% less about features.
think?’

That’s because the best salespeople position themselves as advisors

While focusing on added value rather than features,
and consultants who are sincere in their promise to solve their
Dan should always tailor the benefits he talks
prospect’s problems.
about to the needs he identified throughout the
conversation.
Cognitive Biases you can use:

Ambiguity Bandwagon
Effect Effect

22 How to Improve Your Sales Communication & Seal More Deals

Don’t be like Dan.
Tackle Failure Like A Pro.

Don’t fall into the group of salespeople who spend too much time
chasing the wrong prospects.

Seal more deals with less calls by identifying and targeting prospects
who are:

Ready Willing Able

Once you find your target market of ready, willing, and able prospects
you can use the 7 cognitive biases you learned today to maximize the
impact of your communications.

23 How to Improve Your Sales Communication & Seal More Deals

Make the Most of These Practical Handle with Care! Persuading someone to buy
your solution is very different to manipulating
Advices or misleading them. Remember, you are also
susceptible to these biases, so make sure you use
1. Use the anchoring effect to structure your pitch of product and this tactic ethically and responsibly.
service benefits in the most effective way possible.
Don’t be like Dan! Apply these practical strategies
2. Use the ambiguity effect to teach and guide leads through your that will almost instantly improve your sales
value offering to avoid them running for the hills in confusion. performance and, ultimately, the amount of times
you experience failure.
3. Apply the bandwagon effect by making the most of social proof
in your communications, building trust with prospects before 1. Do your homework before you make the call
you even start with the pitch.
2. Let your prospect do at least half the talking
4. Listen to your prospect closely to take advantage of the
confirmation effect, tailoring your sales conversation to resonate 3. Ask more questions and show interest (ditch
with their own thoughts and beliefs. the one-size-fits-all pitch)

5. Make the most of the halo effect by investing in the first 4. Be considerate and respect your prospect’s
impression. Don’t dive into the sale, and use that initial contact schedule
to build trust and get to know who you’re talking to.
5. Position yourself as an expert, not a sales guy
6. Use the IKEA effect to give your prospects a role in developing
solution (a.k.a. your product or service). This will ultimately
increase the perceived value of your offering.

7. Apply the sunk-cost fallacy in your sales calls by encouraging

your prospect to agree to small commitments. They will be a lot
less inclined to quit after putting time into your proposal.

24 How to Improve Your Sales Communication & Seal More Deals

Take advantage of sales
software
Manually tracking emails, filling in spreadsheets, and calculating
conversion rates longhand take up a lot of time that could instead be
spent on getting to know your clients and having sales conversations.
Using CRM software designed to handle the unique and robust
nature of sales conversations will help you cut out all those admin
tasks.
Pipedrive was designed by a team of seasoned sales experts, and is
a highly customizable sales management tool that is stocked with
plenty of communication tools to streamline your sales process.
25
The best sales pros are the best relationship
developers
• Sync Pipedrive’s Sales Inbox with any
major email provider to track clicks and
opens of custom templates, taking your email
communications to the next level.
• Use Smart Contact Data to scan the web for
valuable information to get to know your
prospects better
• Send Activity Invites to leads and plan the
perfect time for both your timetables with the
Pipedrive Schedule
• Create Custom Activities that will tailor your
email communications to suit each unique
client and add that personal yet professional
touch
All this plus a mobile app that gives you access to
Pipedrive’s features anytime, anywhere are yours to
try out for free.
Start your 14 day free trial today and find out how
over 75,000 sales teams use Pipedrive to streamline
their communication. You’ll be finding, nurturing,
and converting more leads in no time!
How to Improve Your Sales Communication & Seal More Deals