This year there has been an undeniable shift in the world’s professional landscape, especially for sales teams. With many companies going virtual, including our own, sales professionals have had to reframe their definition of success when it comes to creating business models and launching new products. Through these changes we have learned that in order to survive and thrive, sales organizations have to be agile. Here are three ways to adapt to the changing sales landscape in 2021.
Successful new product launches have become more important than ever, but remain a high-risk investment. You can, however, increase your chances of success with these new product launch best practices.
Working with a sales advisory firm can give you a serious competitive advantage. When you have experienced sales professionals developing a comprehensive sales plan, you will find the right markets and deliver the right message through the right media.
One proven way B2B firms are scaling revenue is by evolving how they think about inside sales pipeline generation. But even if you know the best practices that guarantee telemarketing success, executing them is another matter. To do inside sales right requires expertise and resources that you might not have right now.
Sales and marketing are constantly evolving, but the truth remains: to generate pipeline, you still have to pick up the phone. In the digital age, businesses must go beyond face-to-face meetings to achieve their sales growth targets.
In a company's early stages, the heavy lifting of sales often falls to the founder and core team. They step into multiple roles, from finding opportunities to qualifying leads to managing the customer after the sale. Driven by passion for the product and vision for the company, founders often enjoy astronomically high conversion rates—thriving on their deep expertise and experience to close deals.
At its most basic, a sales strategy is all about demonstrating to your market that your product or service can fulfil a need. And yet, even when your product is good and the need is urgent, there are numerous reasons why a potential customer may walk away. Among them, is simply a breakdown in effective communication.
Over 40 years ago, Xerox established the world's first sales operations unit: a dedicated team to help salespeople sell faster, better and more efficiently. Their job? To take on activities such as forecasting, sales planning and territory design. Or in group leader J. Patrick Kelly’s words, “all the nasty number things that you don’t want to do, but need to do to make a great sales force.”
A common misconception is that if you have certain skills and a good bit of experience, you can move between business-to-consumer (B2C) and business-to-business (B2B) sales with relative ease. However, selling to retail and corporate markets require completely different approaches and skillsets.
Chances are, you’ve had at least one of these thoughts about business-to-government (B2G) sales:
The process is too complicated.
The sales cycle is too long.
There’s only a small chance of success.