Competition is cut-throat in all industries. To have a better brand recall, close out more clients, and edge out other companies, you should start implementing out-of-the-box sales and marketing strategies for your business. Such will allow your products and services to stand out among the rest.
The fundamentals have not changed: have something that the consumers want or need, appeal to their emotional and rational sides to motivate them to buy, make the buyer’s journey easy for them, and have the right team to execute all of these.
However, the tides have changed. For instance, marketers used to create campaigns to address who, what, when, where and why. Today, merely finding the answers isn’t enough; marketers should answer these questions continuously in different platforms, targeting a diverse but identity-based audience. You, therefore, need to design systems that will allow you to explain it in better, more creative ways.
The change in consumer behaviour and progress in technology have given birth to modern marketing. Modern marketing is obviously targeted to the new breed of consumers who are tech-savvy—they perform most of the steps in the buyer’s journey with the use of internet-enabled mobile devices and other gadgets.
Modern marketing, therefore, is an evolved form that mixes strategic and traditional marketing with the internet and new media. Traditional marketing principles and frameworks are reshaped so brands can quickly adapt to any updates or changes. The business goals remain, but how to achieve it—with help from technology—has changed.
This doesn’t mean that marketers should forego traditional platforms and practices. It merely means that they should also embrace new technologies, much like their market, for a holistic philosophy – blending strategy, creativity, technology, and analysis to drive results.
To catch the attention of the modern market, you should start looking into your business’ sales process to find where you need to improve. Make your sales process appropriate for the contemporary market.
These suggestions can help you upgrade your organizational sales process to fit the modern market.
Educating your potential buyers on how your business can help with their challenges is a step to closing the deal. However, the wealth of information isn’t always easy to decode. According to Millie Blackwell, president of Showcase Workshop, businesses should be able to do more than just sell—they should also help.
Many companies don’t put in the effort to connect with their customers’ struggle because they only want to earn, but what they really should be doing is provide helpful, informative, and extremely relevant content. Prospects should see how a product or service can answer their problems.
Map out your current internal sales process to understand the measures needed to make a sale. Some of the steps include generating leads, negotiations, and sales confirmation, to name a few. From there, you can start creating an action plan. Answer the what, where, when, how, and why to come up with a clear pathway to your sales goals.
Positive communication between sales and marketing will help align both team’s objectives, which will eventually fulfil the goal of the business as a whole. Alignment can help improve ROI, productivity, and the customers’ experience with the company.
Take the lead in the game by finding out what they’re doing. It’s not about copying what they do, but rather offering something better so the consumers will choose you instead of your competitor. In the birth of the modern market, customer-centric marketing tools have also risen which can give you in-depth details about your target market. It’ll give you access to customer demographics, engagement, and customer insights.
This will surely let you stand out from the rest of the competition by tweaking and updating your sales that fit the modern market. You can provide better discounts and incentives or add more value to your prices. Be creative with your promotion, as well.
Tease your audience to pique their curiosity toward your campaign. Rather than revealing early on what your deals are, make your prospects anticipate for it so they would want to discover it themselves.
The easiest way to catch the audience’s attention is through social networks, so do not forget to utilize them. Aside from promotions, you can use Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and other sites to join conversations that will allow you to interact with the market. Don’t forget to include relevant hashtags, so your posts are easily searchable.
Technology in light of the sales process is more than just using social media. There are different software, tools, and apps that can be leveraged by your company to help sales adapt to the modern market. You can start with a CRM like Salesforce, a marketing automation software like Hubspot, and a social selling tool like Hootsuite.
More than just understanding and adapting to the current market, there are a lot of other benefits your business can enjoy from having an improved sales process.
A polished sales process can help your team filter out who the high-quality prospects are and who are not likely to push through with the purchase. High-quality leads are more likely to buy and become longtime customers. Therefore, your company won’t waste efforts on convincing prospects that are unlikely to close.
Speaking of wasted efforts, you won’t incur additional or high fees when you know where to put your resources into. For instance, you won’t have to spend on marketing to an audience who don’t need or want your products or services.
Your steps should reflect the customers’ movement through the purchasing journey. Anticipating and rushing to complete the process could create distrust, ruin the sale, and damage your relationship with the buyer.
Make sure that your teams don’t advance until the buyer is ready. This way, sales can lay the foundation for positive customer experience; and a better shopping experience means repeat customers.
When buyers are happy with you, your offerings, and its prices, you are unlikely to experience returns. It does help to understand your return policy, but avoiding having to execute those policies is the safer route. A refined sales process will tell you who your customers are and what their needs, wants, and concerns are; therefore telling you what the right products are for them, as well.
Repeatable steps in the sales process can give your sales team more consistency in winning deals. When you can easily track your wins, you can also forecast your expected sales from the number of leads you have, setting your expectation better.
A standardized sales process can help you track your wins and challenges. Data and feedback will tell you which steps to refine, remove entirely, or retain. It also ensures that your teams are focused on activities that generate the most revenue.
Having a sales process that can adapt to the requirements of modern marketing will help you gain an edge over your competition. In addition, your sales force must have ample, up-to-date mindset and skills, confidence, professionalism, and other essential proficiencies to generate huge returns through personal connections with your clients.
Reach your goals and exceed expectations by joining high impact selling and strategic marketing seminars, as helmed by Guthrie-Jensen Consultants. High Impact Selling: Strategies and Skills for Sales Excellence and Strategic Marketing will help you develop the best sellers and closers in your company.
Filed Under Sales and Marketing
