We spend a lot of time talking about how to improve sales. Better strategy, better systems, better CRMs, better marketing, AI automation, and training are all regular and useful topics to discuss.

But I get to look inside a lot of businesses and their sales pipelines, and I’m constantly reminded that quite often it’s the simple stuff that makes the biggest difference. It’s not particularly clever, it’s just good habits, done consistently.

Make time

Everybody gets busy, but we’re also very good at making ourselves busy doing the things we like doing (or at least feel comfortable doing).

If you’re responsible for looking after existing customers as well as finding new ones, you’ll naturally gravitate towards the existing customers. They know you, they need things and there are always emails to answer, quotes to do and problems to solve. Then Friday rolls around, you’ve had a busy week, but you haven’t actually done any prospecting.

The answer is pretty simple. Put it in the calendar. Block out the same time, on the same days, every week for prospecting, networking, reconnecting with old customers or whatever it is you need to do to create new opportunities. Tell the people around you that you’ve done it too, because a bit of accountability helps.

Be real about your follow-up

Most salespeople think they’re pretty good at following up. From what I see, most aren’t.

I get to look through business’ CRMs and I see rotting deals and missed opportunities left, right and centre. Quotes that haven’t been followed up, customers who were meant to get a call two weeks ago, deals with no next activity and opportunities that looked really promising and then just stopped.

Following up can feel uncomfortable. Nobody wants to be a pain in the backside or make the call where the customer might say no. But we still have to do it.

You’re far better off getting a no today and moving on, rather than leaving a deal sitting there for six months because you’re scared to ask the question. And don’t forget to use your CRM. Put the next action in there, give it a date and then actually do it.

Get in front of people

Nothing beats face time. Email, LinkedIn, Teams and Zoom all have their place, but spend more actual time with customers and prospects and see what it does to trust and loyalty.

Go and see them, have a coffee, visit their site and learn more about their business. Just don’t waste their time. Nobody wants another salesperson turning up to “touch base” for the sake of ticking off a sales call (or worse a boring, product pitch).

Every interaction should be useful. Bring an idea, share something you’ve learned, ask good questions or help them think about something differently. Don’t make sales calls for the sake of making sales calls, find reasons to have helpful conversations with people instead.

Always have a next step

We hear this one all the time: “The meeting went really well.”

Cool. What happens next?

A good conversation isn’t necessarily a sales opportunity, particularly if nobody has agreed on what happens afterwards. Before you finish, establish the next step. It might be, “I’ll send that through and call you Thursday,” or “You talk to the team and I’ll check back in on the 15th.”

Otherwise everyone goes back to being busy, nobody quite knows whose job it is to do something next and the opportunity slowly disappears.

Ask for the business

This is another ridiculously obvious one, but actually ask.

It can be as simple as “are you ready to go ahead”, or “what do we need to sort to move forward?”

If they’re not ready, find out why. Maybe it’s price, maybe they have questions or doubts maybe you’ve missed something or maybe the timing simply isn’t right. Whatever it is, you’re better off knowing than guessing – that way you can take the next reasonable step!

You don’t need some cheesy closing technique. Sometimes you just need to ask the question and give the customer an opportunity to tell you what’s actually stopping them from moving forward.

Do what you said you’d do

If you said you’d call Tuesday, call Tuesday. If you promised the quote by Friday, get it there by Friday. If you said you’d find something out, find it out. And if something changes and you can’t do what you promised, tell them before they have to chase you.

It’s hardly revolutionary sales advice, but being reliable builds trust and trust sells. Every time you do what you said you’d do, you give the customer another reason to believe that dealing with you is going to be easy.

None of this is particularly clever, and that’s really the point.

There are plenty of things we can do to make sales teams smarter and plenty of tools that can make them more effective. But sometimes we need to stop looking for the clever answer and get better at doing the boring, slightly uncomfortable stuff we already know works.

Make the time, follow up, get in front of people, agree on the next step, ask for the business and do what you said you’d do.

Do those simple things consistently and they can make a bloody big difference.