MAIN INSIGHT 53
Michael Judge
SALES DIRECTOR
What impact has the global pandemic had on the roles of sales and marketing professionals?
Making a prospect feel like an individual and not just another number in your outreach efforts has become hugely important since the global pandemic. Although we are emerging from the pandemic and many B2B events have returned, their attendances are still down. This means that sales and marketing teams are competing to reach prospects elsewhere and as a result there is more content being produced than ever before. If a prospect is served a piece of content that is not relevant or valuable to them, then they will simply ignore it. Because this rich content is now so freely available, prospects are contacting sales teams far later in their buying journey than before the pandemic and are often well educated ahead of their initial call. This means that the role of sales representatives is changing from that of an educator in the early stages of a buying journey to that of a consultant or expert, that can make readily available information relevant to the buyer's specific needs.
Is human engagement still an important part of B2B sales?
AI and automation within sales present exciting opportunities to quickly scale your outbound efforts, but the ‘human touch’ will remain a crucial part of B2B sales processes for years to come. This is particularly true when it comes to making a cold introduction. We’ve all been approached on LinkedIn with messages that have been lazily personalised using out-of-date information, which although technically relevant shows a lack of effort on behalf of the individual reaching out. To make your outreach stand out in a crowded environment, you need to take your time and research the individual on a deeper level than what is just available from a cursory glance at their LinkedIn profile. Over the course of a couple of weeks you can quickly see which types of content they interact with or talk about themselves, giving you the perfect material to create a more relevant and personalised introduction.
AI and automation within sales present exciting opportunities to quickly scale your outbound efforts, but the ‘human touch’ will remain a crucial part of B2B sales processes for years to come.
Being able to see exactly what a prospect reads online empowers your sales people to have meaningful conversations that speak directly to the problems that particular prospect is trying to solve, helping them to establish authenticity and credibility.
How can businesses deliver a successful B2B sales strategy in a digital environment?
Understanding how your prospects interact and engage with your content online is crucial to delivering a successful B2B sales strategy in a digital environment. Being able to see exactly what a prospect reads online empowers your sales people to have meaningful conversations that speak directly to the problems that particular prospect is trying to solve, helping them to establish authenticity and credibility. Tracking prospect interaction through a CRM doesn’t just help sales teams to have the right conversation though, it also helps them to have the conversations at the right time. By mapping various customer buying journeys over time and seeing which content they have engaged with along that journey will highlight the best moments for a sales representation to call a prospect and have a conversation with a positive outcome.
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