You’ve come a long way, seller. First, you shed your primitive sales strategies to adapt and survive the shifting social sales landscape. Now, you’re leading an all-out revolt against traditional sales mindsets.
There’s nothing easy about change. However, sales teams like yours have an unprecedented opportunity to be among the first to be called thought leaders by customers and innovators by those following you.
How did you get here, going from dialing numbers to writing tweets, and where is sales headed next? Take a look at the journey of modern sales.
Evolution: Sales Adapts to the New Buyer
PGi’s first social selling eBook, “Evolution of Sales: The Survival Guide,” revealed some major revelations in the new buyer’s journey:
The educated consumer now makes between 60 and 90 percent of their buying decision before they even engage with sales.
Social media is now a leading factor in the number of closed deals for sales professionals.
Unlike the decreasing return on cold calling, inbound sales shows a faster growth rate and with much lower cost per lead (including for B2B prospects).
Those startling facts are enough to send sales professionals into a frenzy, holding onto cold calls, sales demos and lead qualifying for dear life. But instead of reacting to the shifting environment, sellers are evolving to face it head on.
“Sales 1.0” strategies are a dying breed. Traditional sales meetings that once put prospects into fight-or-flight mode are being replaced by much bigger sales conversations online.
Sales professionals now go to where the buyer is and reinvent online customer conversations with social sales tools like video, social networks, buyer education and very personalized engagement. Instead of pushing sales messaging, sales professionals are pulling prospects in with content.
Old-school selling is going extinct, but it’s OK. Social sales offers exciting opportunities to better target prospects using social media and to not just close new customers but also win fans for life.
Revolution: Sales Rebels Against Old Mindsets
After the evolution, it’s time for sales to do another first: to revolt. It’s up to sales professionals like you to blaze the trail for the next wave of change in modern sales.
PGi’s new eBook, “Join the Social Sales Revolution: Your Guide to the New Way to Sell,” exposes the new challenges sales must tackle to incite long-lasting change:
Posting to social media but wasting time on the wrong prospects.
Building online relationships but throwing away the full value of CRM.
Creating content but getting lost in the crowd online.
Going to where customers are on social but still moving slower than digital consumers.
Having online customer conversations but losing trust from behind a screen.
It’s time to not just engage prospects online but also make sure it’s relevant engagement with the right people. It’s time to really leverage CRM tools and use video to build trust.
When the average social post only last 4.2 hours, it’s time to find new ways to rise above the noise. To keep up with the pace of social selling, it’s time to build a culture of teamwork in sales.
Now that you’ve moved away from the cliché “Always Be Closing” it’s time to adopt a new mantra: “Always Be Connected.” It’s time to join the social sales revolution.
Embracing the sales evolution was just the first step. Get the free eBook today at PGi to take the next one.
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