Each new year brings new targets, new trends and if you’re lucky, new tech. We don’t need to remind you how much the past year has accelerated the rate of digital transformation in the martech world, and salestech is certainly no exception.
Salestech, you guessed it, is where sales and technology fuse together. Salestech solutions have the power to boost the efficiency of a sales team’s way of working and improve the effectiveness of their sales. And before you ask - no, this isn’t a dream, and yes, the tech really can do that – when paired with a capable sales team of course. It’s not wizardry.
From driving speed to lead, improving lead coverage to better understanding your prospective customer, here’s how the top 4 salestech trends of 2021 can serve as your sales team’s secret selling weapon.
ABM (Account Based Marketing)
Account based marketing (ABM) is a strategy that often combines both marketing and sales teams to deliver bespoke, personalised experiences to the highest-value accounts.
The 2020 State of ABM Report shows94.2% of respondents now have an active ABM programme (up from 77% in 2019) and this trend is only set to grow in 2021. Here’s why…
By identifying these high-value accounts, you can rule out wasted time attempting to sell to unqualified leads who aren’t going to convert. Instead, ABM aims to enable establishing meaningful relationships with the most valuable clients in your database who will deliver the highest ROI (return on investment) and ROT (return on time).
Dynamic salestech solutions including sales intelligence and analytical tools can help with the weeding and pinpoint high value companies for your team to target.
By enabling accurate customer profiling and data-driven prospecting through your tech, your team can properly prioritise the high-value accounts and harness the benefits of account-based marketing.
Video Selling
Another trend we see playing out in salestech is video selling.
In a recent survey conducted by Forrester, 40% of B2B reps reported that they plan to modify their tactics to adapt to remote selling activities. Traditionally limited to email, phone calls, and screen–sharing interactions, sellers will look for more dynamic ways to earn buyers’ attention.
Now you’ve identified your high-value accounts with a little help from your salestech, it’s time to reach out. It’s a competitive world out there for a sales rep and it’s no easy job ensuring your pitch stands out.
That’s where the up-and-coming salestech trend of video selling comes in. Last year HubSpot listed video prospecting as the number 1 skill every sales development rep needs to master. We’re not saying sales reps need to become the next DiCaprio. Customers won’t be looking for an Oscar winning performance. A short, engaging clip – no more than 2 minutes long to introduce themselves and deliver value with a quick tip and request to schedule a call should do the trick.
Video pitches and presentations can effectively communicate a message in a memorable way that is easily consumed by the customer. As video is becoming the preferred content consumption format, video is also becoming one of the fastest growing sales enablement tools on the market.
It could be time to start rehearsing the acceptance speech after all.
Social Selling
Social selling is another salestech trend also on the rise that can be harnessed for a successful ABM campaign. In fact, researching and engaging with potential customers on social platforms is becoming a common practice for sales reps.
Tools such as LinkedIn Sales Navigator provides company news, information, organisation structure and account activity. In fact, LinkedIn's State of Sales Report Pocket Guide reported that over 59% of sales reps use Facebook and LinkedIn to connect with prospects and close deals. And according to LinkedIn, 62% of B2B customers respond to salespeople who connect by sharing content and insights that are relevant to the buyer.
Whether it be connecting, commenting, liking, or sharing potential customers activity, sales reps can create meaningful relationships and increase their credibility on a personal level.
However, with several automation tools on the market it’s important to stay clear of spray and pray connections and smash and bash posts. Focus on keeping an authentic human element to your daily interactions and personalisation is the key.
Conversational Marketing & Sales
Our fourth and final salestech trend is conversational & marketing sales. Salestech solutions such as live chat and chatbot software can produce meaningful conversations with customers at different points in their buying journey – in real time.
This is great news for the customer as they can receive a response in seconds and even better news for the sales team as they can stop dedicating huge amounts of time sending similar responses to queues of customers.
According to Kayako, 79% of companies say that live chat has had positive results for customer loyalty, sales, and revenue.
And the story doesn’t have to stop there. The secret to customer experience success in this instance, lies within intelligent conversational solutions which can call an appropriate salesperson to take control of the conversation if the query is more complex and unable to be resolved by the automated responses programmed into the tech.
While customers won’t thank you for a long wait time when they need assistance, they won’t appreciate feeling fobbed off to an automated response if that doesn’t solve their issue. Luckily, there are several salestech solutions out there that are tailor made to deliver the best of both worlds.
In today’s digital world with increasing customer demands and increasing competition, the working life of a salesperson can quite easily spiral into a pretty stressful scenario.
But with the assistance of a couple of streamlined salestech solutions under their sleeves, it just might serve as the assistance your sales team needs to enable a more efficient and more effective way of working.
Hungry for more salestech? Check out our What, Why, How Guide of Salestech. We cover why you should sit up and listen to salestech, the categories that make up the Salestech Landscape, recommendations for using salestch right and so much more you wouldn’t believe!
And the best part? We’ve put all that lovely info into an even lovelier eBook that you can download and read to your heart’s content.