Looking to grow your business in 2020? Check out these 5 sales strategies that will help you ramp up your business and achieve your goals!
Are you a woman entrepreneur who is looking to grow her business in 2020?
Have you made your sales plan for the upcoming year?
Have you figured out how you are going to achieve your revenue targets?
Have you defined what business success looks like for you in the new year?
With the change of year, inevitably we get into the space of planning, goal setting and being ambitious with what we want to achieve and accomplish in the new year. Which is actually a very creative and nurturing experience for us both personally and professionally. And if this same creative and nurturing process is supported by research-based insights and actionable strategies for getting more sales, scale and sustainability in your business; you can definitely make 2020 the most remarkable year for yourself.
So here are 5 Sales Strategies that you should be working on in 2020
1.Your role in customer’s buying journey
In this digital era, the buyer is getting overwhelmed with too much information and choices. They are getting more restless, confused and demanding because if they don’t get from you what they are seeking, they are quick enough to move to another alternative.
In such a scenario, selling is certainly becoming more complex. As business owners and sellers you need to be the trusted friend, advisor and partner for the customer who can give insights and perspectives which helps the purchasing process for them.
They already know a lot of stuff, what new you can tell them.
They have too much to choose from, how are you helping them cut down the clutter and choose what’s right for them.
Your role is to get in the customer’s shoes and think what they are thinking, feel what they are feeling, see what they are seeing.
Know how they are making decisions, learn what’s important to them and how is it that you are helping them in moving to the next step in buying journey, how your messaging nudging her towards the desired outcome which ofcourse making the purchase. You have to now map your selling actions to customers buying journey.
STRATEGY:
Imparting education. Awareness buying is becoming the norm so imparting education has to be a part of your sales funnel.
For example: If you are into organic products, it is important for you to convey the benefits of using chemical free products in the attraction stage of your sales funnel. If you are an apparel brand using natural fibres and colors only, you may do a styling and draping workshop at engagement stage of the sales funnel. Or if you are in a B2B setting, you will have to share insights, industry trends, white papers or industry news with your prospect in the nurturing stage of the funnel.
Notable point here is that your customer wants you to educate them, give them that thought leadership which facilitates decision making.
2.Attract only what is the right fit for you
With digital marketing making lead generation cheaper and automated, you might have focused all your marketing efforts in attracting more and more leads through digital means. However, after focusing on the automation aspect of lead generation for the last couple of years it’s now time to focus on analytics of lead generation which means attracting the leads that are right for you. This calls for alignment of lead definition to fit the ideal customer profile.
You are going to spend resources, time and service on the person that walks into your store or going to meet for prospecting. So you have to make sure they are the right fit for your business.
A big part of you attracting the right kind of buyers or clients is your own personal brand also.
|| Consumers are 82 percent more likely to trust a company if the CEO is active on social media, but as it stands now, only one in five CEOs use social media to connect with their consumers ||
You as an entrepreneur have to the content marketer and brand ambassador who talks about what the brand stands for. Your personal brand adds to building your business brand.
|| People buy from people ||
So do not shy away from putting yourself out there on social media because your customer needs to see the face behind the business.
STRATEGY:
As you attract quality leads, you need to put your focus on improving the conversion rate at each step of you sales funnel. To do this, constantly innovate on the kind of activities you are having in each step of your sales funnel, measure what is working the best and do more of it.
3.Integrating technology to grow your business
Integration of Technology changes the landscape of what is possible by making you more effective and efficient.
For example: Proposals are being mailed via services and softwares which track the opening. This gives an insight into when, how many times and who read your proposal or mail. Having access to this type of data eliminates so much apprehension and the lingering question of whether or not a proposal or contract has been received or reviewed. Save templates right in your mailbox for the email sequences which only need a little tweaking around and personalization before sending. Using meeting scheduler links in the communication so that it’s easier to fix up and follow on meetings. Automating means reducing errors and saving time.
STRATEGY:
Integration of technology is the strategy itself. So look for places in your sales system or sales process to see where you can integrate tech. A few tools that I would suggest here are:
PandaDoc, Proposify, Mailtrack, Pipedrive, ZOHO, Templates extension from GMail, Linkedin Sales Navigator
4.The thing that matters the most in selling in digital era
Your customers will keep coming back to you if they have a good and personalized experience. The B2B buyers are no different. They are still consumers influenced by how they purchase everyday items. The convenience of Amazon, the ease of Uber – all of the experiences affect their expectations – and they now expect the same easy purchasing experience from you.
We often hear that it’s easier to do repeat business with existing customers rather than get new ones. And the secret to having repeat customers is treating them really well after they have made a purchase from you. In today’s digital era there are lots of distraction and disruption going around which makes customer loyalty a priced and precious diamond. It also makes personalization challenging but all the more necessary to earn that loyalty.
Here are a few statistics that emphasize the need of delivering a great customer experience:
65% of business buyers say they’d switch brands if a company didn’t make efforts to personalize their communications.
75% of business buyers expect companies to anticipate their needs and make relevant suggestions by the year 2020.
Personalized emails deliver 6x higher transaction rates.
75% of consumers are more likely to buy from a retailer that recognizes them by name, recommends options based on past purchases, OR knows their purchase history.
Deal closing cycle in the case of B2B sales is on an average 3.8 months with existing buyers as compared to 7.2 months for new prospects
STRATEGY:
You can explore having positions like customer success manager in your business or organization whose only job is to focus on the happiness quotient of the customer after they have made a purchase from you. Key account management is an important business vertical for big organizations into enterprise sales. But as a startup, solopreneur or small business owner you can start by having one personnel in this who focuses on the top 20% of your customer list.
5.Leveraging your existing customers
When you take your customers through a pleasant buying experience and give them a great after sales service, you are in full authority to ask them for referrals. Getting reference from existing customers to others that they know enables you to start the next sales process with an edge.
For example: In a B2B context if any of the individuals with whom you were doing business has recently changed the companies, you can reach out to them, congratulate them on the move and ask them for referral to the right decision maker in the new firm.
STRATEGY:
You should think about having an effective referral program in the business. Online businesses especially which have CRM solutions or Ecommerce websites have easy plug and play solutions available. But even those who are in personal selling should have a referral management system in place.
Another thing you can do is setting up a customer advisory board with helps you in determining the exact value you are creating for them. This is different from having a focus group or a user group. This is an advisory both which is painstakingly honest with you with the feedback which is good bad or ugly about whatever you are doing or delivering through your business as the product or the service.
Bottom line is you need to align everything to customer and how they wish to solve their business, health, learning, lifestyle or any other problem for which you have a solution.
Amy Franco author of book Modern Selling advocates that in today’s age of ceaseless change, sales reps in organizations need to develop entrepreneurial mindset for success in selling. But you as an entrepreneur by default have the mindset of problem-solving and customer-centricity.
So look ahead to see what’s possible in your business to have both the human and technology elements in sales. The key lies in excelling at the winning combination of effective sales process and deep customer relationships. The key lies in designing sales strategies that have people at the heart of it because people buy from people.
Wishing you a Remarkable New Year!!
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