How to Win New Business in Sales and Marketing
Manisha Rewani [MBA]
Sales is a field that is always evolving based on best practices and competitive advantages. Managers are constantly looking for new sales strategies and ways to boost rep performance, and reps are continuously trying to close more deals and hit their quota.
That being said, succeeding in sales is not that simple. If you haven’t done your research and aren’t prepared when you pick up the phone or reach out to a prospect, chances are that your efforts will not be fruitful.
1. Know Your Customer
Understanding what a customer is looking for, the value they want from your product, and their paint points is vital to successfully getting across to a prospect. Doing research beforehand, as well as listening – rather than overselling – on a call will ultimately result in higher success rates.
That being said, different personas and different verticals will require different conversation styles. For example, executives expect reps to be well-informed and knowledgeable of their needs before a conversation, with talk rates for reps around 60-75%. On the other hand, speaking to an end user who experiences the pains that your product solves will involve more active listening and discovery through question asking. For these calls rep call time should be closer to 35-50% of the call.
2. Develop a Strong Value Proposition
Your value proposition is the most important aspect of your brand’s messaging. The message that you deliver to prospects should reflect what your product has to offer and your competitive advantage. Most importantly, it should be able to be delivered by your reps quickly and concisely.
Make it clear to prospects what sets you apart from other vendors, and what advantages they will gain from buying from you. For your advantage, consider developing different value propositions for different products offered by your organization – 52% of companies have different value statements for different services.
3. Practice Omnichannel Outreach
While sales managers can still consider the phone as the priority method of outreach, make sure to provide training for your team on email and social outreach as well. Today, 92% of B2B buyers are using social media platforms to engage with thought leaders in their industry (Bambu). If you aren’t social selling or connecting with prospects via email, you are likely missing out on opportunities that your competitors are taking advantage of.
Deloitte examined consumer reliance on smartphones, finding that 20 percent of consumers say they check their phone over 50 times each day, and over a third saying they check their phone first thing in the morning. Therefore, reaching out via email and social media are effective ways to get across to prospects and enhance the phone efforts of reps.
4. Personalize Marketing Messaging
Potential customers should be presented with valuable, personalized experiences that match what reps are delivering over the phone. Personalized emails can improve click-through rates by 14% and conversion rates by 10%.
While it might not be obvious, B2B buyer personalization is just as important as B2C buyer personalization. Salesforce found that while 84% of B2C buyers want to be treated like a person, not just a win, 83% of B2B buyers said the same thing.
5. Automate Conversations
Automating conversations is a strategic way to ensure faster responses to prospects. Using a chatbot is not only another way to personalize messaging to potential customers, but also make sure you are available to customers 24/7.
Forrester found that 90% of customer service leaders agree personalization is the future of automation. Fast-paced responses are key, as almost two-thirds of customers won’t wait longer than 2 minutes for assistance.
6. Establish a Seamless Customer Experience
Brand consistency is key to remaining recognizable to your target audience. Visual and written messaging both dictate to customers the value of your product and how trustworthy your brand is. It also serves to connect your value statements with your visual messaging and product.
Customer service may be a different department than sales. However, companies with a customer experience mindset drive revenue 4-8% higher than the rest of their competitors. Therefore, it will benefit your organization to align sales, marketing, and customer service departments.
7. Build Customer Loyalty
It is important to understand that it costs more to gain new customers than it does to connect and build relationships with existing customers. Understandably, it is easier to sell existing customers new products as they are familiar with your brand and service.
In fact, customer service is set to become the number one competitive advantage for B2B sales in 2020. Sixty-two percent of B2B customers purchased more after a good customer service encounter. Further, 66% of B2B customers stopped buying after a bad customer service experience.
Manisha Rewani [MBA]
Manager Mktg
AirCrews Aviation Pvt. Ltd
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