This article originally appeared in the FiveMinuteFounder newsletter. If you’re building a business and want to grow more revenue faster, join 3’000 founders for practical, weekly articles like this one.

---

It’s official.

According to a poll by IndieHackers.com…

Sales is the hardest part of starting a business.

Founders: Which of the following do you need the most help with?

(Feel free to ask for help in the comments 😇)

— Indie Hackers (@IndieHackers) March 8, 2019

Are you feeling that pain too?

Well first up, let’s be brutally honest…

There’s no substitute for hard work, interest and a genuine drive to help your customers.

But I’ve learnt a few tricks over the years.

Tricks which helped me sell $millions worth of software faster.

And you can use the same tricks to make more sales too.

So if you want…

• … to boost your sales by ~10%
• … with no extra work or cost
• … in just a few minutes

Then read on for my 3 favourite sales hacks that actually work!

---

1. Add a ‘PS’ to your emails

Making a sale is really hard.

Via email, it’s really, really hard.

Why?

Well there are lots of reasons.

But a significant one is lack of attention.

Your recipients will skim your email, not read it.

That means you’re missing out on sales because your leads don’t read the important bit of your email!

Bonus tip: This is why you should keep cold emails short and include a really obvious call to action!

Luckily, there is one bit of an email that basically nobody can resist reading…

A PS (postscript) at the bottom of your email.

When I include a PS message in my cold emails, the conversion rate goes upby more than 10% !

To make it work for you, use a PS that…

• … has an obvious, exciting call-to-action
• … is short, relevant and addressed actively to the reader
• … is placed below your sign-off, but above your email signature (to make sure people see it)

Here’s a real example I used that boosted conversions by 27%…

PS: Did you know you could double your sales with PostPerk?  Click here to see how {{ Similar_Brand }} grew their revenue by 112% in two months!

---

2. Video > Voice Calls

A big factor in sales – especially for startups – is trust and building a relationship.

Now, you (probably) can’t visit every customer and get to know them in real life. 

But it doesn’t cost you any extra time or money to jump on a video callinstead of a regular phone call.

Defaulting to video calls for sales will…

• … help you understand the customer better from their visual cues
• … build trust and a relationship
• … boost your conversion rates

This is a trick I learned from a friend (an experienced VP of sales at an SF-based startup).

 And I’m definitely no runway model…

But moving to video helped me close nearly twice as many deals!

Give it a try.

---

3. Send more follow ups

This last trick is more obvious.

But you probably don’t do it.

Think back to the last holiday you booked.

How many times did you mean to book the flight/hotel etc, and then forget and come back to it later?

A few times, right?

And that’s for a sale you’re super, super excited about.

Your product won’t be something your customers look forward to as much as a holiday.

So you need to remind and help them by following up.

I recommend sending a sequence of at least 4 emails.

Not convinced?

Well easily >30% of my sales for every product I’ve ever sold has come from emails #4-8.

Don’t leave 30% of your revenue on the table. 

Use this guide and practical examples from Close.io to get started.

---

You can use these tricks to boost your sales in just a few minutes.

Remember though – they’re no substitute for hard work, listening and caring about solving your customer’s problems!

If you liked this article, you’d get a ton of value from my weekly advice newsletter.

Subscribe to join 3’000 founders just like you – and grow your business faster with actionable, useful advice.