In an industry where best practice and new lines of sales practice change every day, staying on top of trends is important to any rep’s career.
Case studies showing value of a product can be an integral component of the sales carnival but watch out that you don’t turn into a phoney showman!
Personalization
Personalisation, in sales terminology, is a technique that involves adapting what you are doing to an individual buyer: emailing them, calling them on the phone, posting to them on social media or chatting with them through a chatbot. And it might include what seems like personalised content. Terminology aside, done properly, the way you adapt should lead to relationships with buyers who might buy from you again and again in the future. And many consumers increasingly expect personalised treatment from brands. According to the research firm Salesforce, 65 per cent of customers expect the organisations they buy from to ‘anticipate their rapidly evolving needs and “be the thoughtful neighbour or coworker [who] brings [you] your favourite coffee when life gets hard”’. According to McKinsey research, personalisation can increase top performers’ revenues by 10-15 per cent. Customers who feel like VIPs in their brand’s world are more likely to buy again, to share the brand with others, and to spend more if they are in a position to buy products that improve the experience.
Automation
Your salespeople can now use automation tools to let them concentrate on closing business rather than doing menial work, giving prospects more personalised messaging and helping them better through their buying process. Knowing your sales process and isolating those time-consuming tasks that don’t help maximise the value of a deal is the first step towards streamlining your efforts. After all, when you know precisely which tasks need to be automated, selecting appropriate solutions becomes infinitely easier. Remember, aggressive sales tactics won’t score you points with the buyers (who want plenty of breathing room to make their own decisions). And watch out for discounts. When done in excess, they can damage your brand and drive down your gross margin simultaneously – use them sparingly, when absolutely necessary.
Social Media
Either way, organizations that fail to leverage social media in the quest for leads and sales are potentially missing a great opportunity. Given the fact that social media allows organizations to reach buyers at work, as well as during leisure time on social media, companies need to be where their potential clients are. For instance, all of these social medias – Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and X (ex Twitter) – has billions of active users around the globe. Businesses who utilise these tools to offer their products, or message services like WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and X could dramatically improve sales results. Try to capitalise on sales with effective social media, creating a community and serving your selected target audience with engaging content. Shorten long-form pieces and post it on social media, in list format or as audio/video snippets that take only a few minutes to consume, like Twitter. And stay updated on analytics and management tools, and ensure they keep evolving to stick to the latest trends among your selected target audiences.
Analytics
Analytics are now an integral part of our daily intentions, from finding the fastest way to work to predicting stocks movement and sales analysis is now an integral part of our business lives and any decision must be based on sound analytics. Perhaps the most powerful sales tactic is called ‘upselling’ and ‘cross-selling’, where you identify something else the customer might be interested in and gently wave it in front of them so they don’t feel that they are being sold to (which is what they really dislike), but they still want to buy it anyway. This practice has been proven to both increase sales and foster customer loyalty. Maintaining relationships after the sale is also essential to sale situations in B2B where meeting sales goals depends on referrals. Maintaining contact with people and keeping relationships safe can bring more referrals in the long run. This is very useful for sale situations in B2B where the sales goal is large and the referral a key source.