Whether you are selling B2Bor B2C, marketing is vital to the success (or otherwise) of your business. So it’s understandable that a lot of companies and their marketing team push really hard to try and make as many sales as possible.

However, a lot of people are sick of the hard sell and many people, both consumers and business owners, think some marketers have started to go too far and it can actually have the opposite effect to the one they are trying to achieve.

What’s the solution? Going back to basics and simplifying your sales marketing strategy could be exactly what you need to start converting more people and boosting your bottom line. If you would like to try that, here’s what you need to do:

Use Sales Collateral Management Software

Sales collateral management software is an excellent tool that will enable your sales and marketing teams to work together efficiently. It will help you to communicate more effectively, gather usable data that can help you to refine your marketing strategies, and so much more besides.

Basically, it will make all of your efforts much easier going forward, so it should be the first thing you do when looking to simplify your marketing strategy.

Make Use of the Simple Call to Action

It might seem like such a simple thing to advanced marketers, but you should not underestimate the simple power for the call to action.

When you’re marketing less directly via content, emails or direct mail, for example, having a simple sentence at the end of your pitch that takes into consideration what you want the reader to want to do, and which gently tells them how to do it, you are far more likely to be successful.

Be More Subtle About Upselling

Instead of aggressively trying to upsell your products and services - something that puts a lot of people off - use tricks to make the expensive option seem like it offers more value.

For example, if you’re selling a magazine subscription and you want to sell online only subs for $50 and print and online subscriptions for $95, add in an extra option, not because you really want to sell it but because it will make your higher cost option seem more valuable.

For example, you could add a print-only option for $95 - when people see that, it will look like poor value compared to your premium option and give the people who might have been considering the lower value option a greater incentive to pay more for your premium subscription. Try it, it really works.

Try Some Straight Talking

Instead of trying to tie your customers in knots by using lots of fancy words that you hope will impress them and encourage them to spend more, try giving it to them straight.

Simply lay out what you’re offering and why you think it could benefit them/their business and leave it at that. A lot of people will find the honest and direct approach refreshing, which could just work in your favor.

Keeping it simple is the way to true success.