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The Personalization Engine for Busy Sales Teams

Jamie Shanks
Jamie Shanks

The_Personalization_Engine_for_Busy_Sales_Teams

As the demand for personalized products increases, efforts to deliver a well-tailored experience on the first take have quickly become an industry standard.

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By changing the user experience to fit the needs of the individual, selling strategies have now gone through a trial-by-fire scenario to meet success. This exhaustive approach has left sales professionals drained in meeting the needs for the buyer-group on the micro-level.

In following this trend, businesses have been conditioned to expect similar styles of service. Today’s buyers now desire the automated experience of an online retailer without regards to calendar or convenience of the sales representative. In this day and age, traditional sales approaches and pitch tactics are too generic or vanilla for today’s buyer group.

The B2B sales professional must discard the textbook methods of an older era and move into the new digital era.

A modern successful salesforce should utilize the newest available sales technology paired with the information found on social platforms to gain the leg up on a competitor’s digital strategy.

Transparency Online Leads to Improved Lead Quality

With the abundance of social media platforms and large-scale user bases, buyer information has never been so readily available.

By incorporating social media into a digital strategy, sales teams may now separate digital buyer groups by “the potential buyer” and the “action-ready buyer.”

Information gathered from extrapolating the details of the buyer at the individual level will be incredibly beneficial in planning the next step in investigating and learning the buyer’s needs.

Digital Signals of Intent

Modern sales professionals are always on the lookout for hints and clues given by the buyer on social networking platforms. These are commonly known as “intent signals,” and can be a secret weapon of effective sales if used wisely.

Intent signals are subtle yet very effective ways to understand the buyer. These intent signals can often be a clear indicator of the best possible opportunity to implement and utilize a digital strategy.

If the buyer at the individual level posts on a social platform, a successful sale professional is obliged to investigate and extrapolate motive.

Looking Deeper into Postings by Buyer Groups

For example, when a buyer posts about a recent occupational transition, this may indicate a habit in their ability to take risks, making them a clear and surefire lead for the sales professional.

Many times, social media platforms are outfitted with advanced filters and lead-bots that can expedite processes and aid on the level of the individual in mining information for larger potential buyer groups.

Taking advantage of these tools is of little extra work to the sales professional and can only strengthen the relationship to the buyer.

Keep the Branding Singular

The buyer group, more times than not, will assume that a company is nothing more than the single entity of the brand. Although companies diversify various buying channels, a buyer will normally simplify what has been given to them especially when the company has an intelligently organized customer experience.

Never forget that a buyer who crosses B2B channels will ultimately spend more than a single channel buyer. The average B2B buyer goes through a decision journey involving six channels or more, and conflicting experiences drive them to the competition.

Cross-channel integration, facilitated by digital interoperability, can have an enormous impact on your bottom line.

Get Closer to the Source for Better Results

Nearly a quarter of all deals go dark because sales reps simply stop adding value part of the way through the sales process and so the buyer moves on.

When the sales rep is unable to provide appreciative value in the transaction, the buyer feels little to no responsibility to keep the relationship going. This directly limits the relationship’s strength and can damage the mutual trust of the buyer to the sales professional.

When the buyer is approached on the individual level, excellent sales professionals will use available email-tracking technology to see where the buyer hits and misses, providing the sales team with accurate feedback with no effort wasted by the buyers.

This gathering of information will only make the buyer interaction on the individual level more personalized and tailored to the buyer’s specific needs.

Report the Results

Reflect on the information and data collected. Sometimes, an unnoticed finding can be a saving grace, bringing one nearer to closing the sale.

Companies that recorded leading indicators such as time spent on social media in preparation for communications as well as meetings arranged through online social engagements often use this information integrated with a modern CRM system to learn everything they can before reaching a close.

Negative indicators driven by digital strategy can also be researched to give the sales professional the necessary advantage in today’s business environment.

Use the Right Tools to Personalize at Scale

Today’s busiest sales reps know that buyer groups expect personal attention and a customized purchasing experience. By using the latest in sales tech, sales organizations can adapt to the ever-changing needs of an increasingly digital market.

As the buyers ratchet up their customer experience expectations, sales teams must bring their A game using all of the most advanced sales enablement tools and techniques on the market. Social selling and shared information across platforms form the heart of a repeatable, flexible sales process that delivers personalization at scale.

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