etailinsights eCommerce Data and Sales Blog

Power User Spotlight: Christopher Vanning, ClearSale

Christopher's Hack: Leverage relatable success stories with your prospects

Your company should have a positive history providing value to merchants and clients - use it! There will always be other competitors and ways to resolve the problems your product or service addresses. What they don't have is your company and client stories to relate to the prospective merchant. It's not about features and benefits, it's about outcomes! If you can identify and communicate the desired outcome that can align with your solution, you will almost always eliminate being reduced to a commodity.

Power User Spotlight: Ashley Applegarth, Doddle

Ashley's Hack: Be Yourself

The true sales hack is be authentic, be yourself. It’s that simple.

Power User Spotlight: Melanie Pawlak, LinkConnector

Melanie's Hack: Tell a story that relates to your prospects

Tell a story! Online retailers often want to know how someone in a similar role or industry vertical has benefited from affiliate marketing and LinkConnector’s capabilities.  By telling a story which describes how we have helped a customer overcome specific challenges and the results achieved through our technologies and affiliate relationships, helps the prospect to create a picture of the growth their company could obtain through an affiliate program.

Power User Spotlight: Birdie Bartholomew, Happy Returns

Birdie's Hack: Build strong in-person relationships

Build strong relationships and take every opportunity you can to do so in person! There are a lot of companies out there solving problems, selling you things and wanting to work with you. Differentiate yourself by listening to them, getting creative in how you can solve their obstacles and go out of your way to meet them in person. In fact, make it a point to get to know the entire team and not just the decision maker. When I began building the Happy Returns relationship with Rothy’s, the VP of Operations was my main point of contact and primary decision maker. But, I went out of my way to individually get to know members of the Ops, Finance, Tech, Marketing & Product teams because I knew our integration and partnership would impact every single one of them. Make yourself an invaluable resource to your prospect before, during, and after the sales process is complete.

Power User Spotlight: Jessica Rayner, Clutch

Jessica's Hack: Leverage Previous Conversations

It's so important to always leverage previous conversations when reaching out cold. Referencing previous interactions will go a long way to show a prospect that you remember them and you value any communication with them. As you build rapport with prospects, and perhaps you find out something on a more personal level such as an upcoming vacation they're taking, it always goes a long way to reference any details you learned about them previously. This small touch shows openness and transparency in how you relate to your prospects! 

Power User Spotlight: Mariam Avetisyan, Annex Cloud 

Mariam's Hack: Ask the right questions

There is not really one sales hack, but one of my favorites is asking the right questions. Our ability to provide the right solution to our prospects depends on the questions we will ask. If we form our questions correctly, they will lead us where we want to go. Sometimes we get carried away with the conversation, focus on the things that are not important. We forget to ask the most important questions to determine our prospects needs, pain points, whether we are dealing with the right person, or if there is a fit between our companies. Doing prior research about the prospect and writing down our questions can help prepare for our call or meeting. Also, it’s better to ask questions rather than make assumptions.

Power User Spotlight: Morgan Kamins, Klarna

Morgan's Hack: Use a personalized approach to connect with prospects

My sales hack is to approach each conversation with a current or prospective retailer as a way to get to know them and their business on a more personal level and to use alternative avenues of outreach to your advantage. 

Power User Spotlight: Nico Santos, Drip

Power User Spotlight: Ryan Valdez, Skava

Power User Spotlight: Nick Hein, Retention Science