20+ years
How many times have you heard that sales is a numbers game? And if you want to boost your B2B sales results, you need to commit to making more calls?
But what happens when you’ve reached your maximum call volume and your results are still below quota?
Consider this: According to Salesforce research, 92% of customer interaction occurs by phone, but as many as 85% of customers say they are unhappy with their phone experience.
As we settle into the deepest part of winter and even temperate climates are feeling a drop in the mercury, let’s heat things up with a look into what we can expect in inside sales in 2020 and beyond.
You’ve done your homework. You’ve studied a company. You’ve identified some of the key pain points experienced in the industry and determined how your product or service offers a viable solution.
You’ve even identified the key decision-maker you need to talk with to present your ideas.
You have your message, and you make your call… That’s when your initial strategy goes up in smoke. Your decision-maker’s assistant answers and seems reluctant to pass you through to the boss.
The decision-maker’s gatekeeper has just shut you down.
The handwriting has been on the wall for several years. Inside sales teams are expanding in size and growing in importance, and they aren’t showing any signs of slowing down.
The reason is simple. Inside sales can transform your sales through digital technology, cost savings and the ability to meet the changing preferences of younger buyers. That’s why the number of inside sales reps is growing three times faster than traditional outside reps. It’s also why fast-growing tech companies rely heavily on inside sales.
The holidays are upon us. People are scheduling company parties and trying to spend more time with their families and less in the office. With so much other activity going on, are you planning to follow suit and shutter your inside sales efforts until after the holidays? If so, maybe you should reconsider. There’s business to be had — business that the competition is probably not pursuing as aggressively as at other times of the year.
Self-driving cars … Siri personal assistant … chess master IBM Watson. These are just a few of the things that come to mind when we think about artificial intelligence (AI). AI is the buzzword that seems to be on everyone’s lips.
There’s virtually no business or industry, or consumer for that matter, that isn’t confronting the impact of AI today. To some, AI signals a utopian future, while others foresee a dystopian nightmare coming to control us all.
But before you try to ignore AI or run for the hills for fear your job is on the line, let’s dig a little deeper.
We all want the best from our inside sales and B2B telemarketing teams. They are, after all, on our front lines — often the first people to connect with our prospective customers.
Thus, achieving your goals starts with having a successful B2B telemarketing manager. You need someone who can anticipate issues before they become problems, can identify bottlenecks early, be proactive with solutions and know-how to encourage teams to perform at their peak.
When it comes to account-based marketing (ABM) today, data is the name of the game.
Admittedly, ABM is based on a time-tested, traditional sales strategy: identify and sell to prospects that match the needs and demographics of your best customers. An effective salesperson can easily target three to five significant accounts and build deep relationships without extensive data.
But to make ABM the centerpiece of your department’s sales efforts, you need to scale your process. And the key to scaling your ABM is your ability to manage your data, integrate with third-party data and identify the critical insights.
Entrepreneur and motivational speaker Jim Rohn once said, “Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going.” An ideal way to develop good selling habits is to build a B2B sales process that incorporates your best practices.
A sales process makes your best efforts more consistent. It can take the guesswork out of your next step. And it lets everyone on your team know what to expect and how to respond.
Not to be confused with your sales methodology (or approach to selling), a sales process gives you a series of actionable steps and contingency plans for moving a prospect through the buying process as efficiently and effectively as possible. When well designed and strictly followed, your sales process can help:
If you don’t have a B2B sales process, then you’re trusting your instincts and are unlikely to produce predictable and optimum results. By comparison, companies that adhere to a well-defined sales process are 33% more likely to be among the high performers.
If you know someone who calls himself an “Apple fanboy” or have a friend who is rabidly loyal to Pepsi, then you’ve seen the power of emotional branding.
As consumers, we’re used to companies playing on our emotions to sell us everything from toothpaste to beer to smartphones. But have you ever stopped to consider that the same people who believe that sparkling white teeth will make them more attractive are also buying software, office equipment and business insurance? Every article on B2B sales discusses the need to establish trust, build relationships and increase customer lifetime value. But how do you get there?
