It has been truly said that “Progress is impossible without change”. Change is a powerful energy that brings with it both hope and anxiety. And when this change comes in technology, it impacts every profession. Businesses have become highly dependent on technology as it helps them to run efficiently. Technology has also transformed the ways sales were used to perform in the past. It has streamlined the sales techniques and sales process through dramatic changes. From prospecting to finalizing deals, technology has influenced all stages of the sale process. Customers have new tools, new techniques, and new resources at their disposal, which makes it necessary for the reps to become more accessible, responsive and competent than ever before.
Let’s find out how technology has transformed the sales.
Targeting Prospects: There is no more sales calls or door to door sales service required to sell your products. Of course, there are exceptions, and negotiation skills are needed in business. Many sales representatives Consider negotiation training programmes that deliver powerful results with proven ROI for helping them close the deals better. Additionally, there are several social channels that give you a platform to find and connect with buyers. Social media makes it possible to shake millions of hands from around the world at once by sitting at your own place. With customers’ feedback on social media channels, businesses can refine and shape their sales tactics to ensure greater success in the future.
There are special tools like LinkedIn’s Lead Accelerator and Bizo that can help your sales team find clients in specific industries, companies, or job titles and endow with highly personalized, highly targeted messaging. Through direct messaging, it increases the probability of them becoming an opportunity.
Data-Backed Sales Process: It is true that every sales representative has its own style and there is no way to replicate them or those dominant leaders who teach their unsuccessful peers. Moreover, if a sales team has 5 individuals, then each one of them will have 5 ways of offering the same thing. Earlier it used to work, but now you must have a single business model for growth and success of the business. Sometimes it is almost impossible to find out which strategy is working well and which are not.
With the advent of technology and software systems, it has now become easy to combine a sales team and follow a common sales process. CRM can help all the members of sales team to see specific accounts, leads, and their contact history. CRM can help you find out which communication strategy is effective to use with the prospects. It can also let you know how individual efforts of a salesperson account to increase internal responsibility.
Technology has also played a crucial part in the new sales team’s training. As most businesses move online, it’s necessary to have your on-camera communication and connection skills built up. People nowadays do not want to travel for conferences, meetings, or presentations but would preferably use virtual presentation setups. For example, if you own a pharmaceutical company and want an employee to give a virtual presentation to a client, it’s obvious that he requires sales coaching for pharma/drug presentations. And that is the reason it is valid to say that we live in an era of internet and technological advancement.
Discover Almost Anything and Everything: Internet and cloud based software allow you to find any information just on a single click. You can find out the old records, past strategy and employee/employer information by simply searching on CRM or cloud based software. Prospects can also get complete information regarding salesperson’s products and services. They can check the company reputation, sales results and other information on just a single click. This has made salespersons to recite not only facts and figures but also customized solutions based on customer’s situation.
Internet and software programs are also useful for salespersons as they can qualify prospects whether they could be their ideal customer or not. With so much information, businesses can quickly and easily become subject-matter experts. To be an experienced and qualified sales professional, you don’t have to spend years in the industry. You can learn so many sales techniques and processes to available over the internet.
Sell Anywhere and Almost Everywhere: Now when you can access from your mobile phones, tablets, laptops and also from the internet, things will go more quickly. Now if you have to do a business meeting, attend conference or discuss your business strategy with client, you don’t need to be present physically everywhere. You can do that through online conferencing, emails, personal messages, calls, text messages and many more. You can be available for your company or your business 24/7. No more flights. No more travelling.
Align Your Sales with Mobile Devices: Earlier, it was difficult or nearly impossible to hit the deals when both marketing and sales department tried to unify communication with the prospects. They used to fail to develop joint practices. But now, organizations have completely eradicated the use of multiple systems and complex applications. They have condensed them all into digestible experiences with the help of mobile devices. Mobile devices has successfully aligned sales and marketing making salespersons see marketing funnel and let marketers have a view into deal management. Now it has become easy for both marketing and sales team to understand each other and their tasks, and maintain balance between both processes so that company hits the deal.
These are just an overview of how technology has changes the sales process. As the technology grows and becomes complex, it will make buying and selling processes more sophisticated. So, get ready for new challenges and stay motivated to offer something new to your customers.