As 2017 marches on, there are several new trends poised to have a significant and transformative impact on the business world and sales in particular. While sales isn’t a static entity, as it’s constantly shifting and always in motion, savvy businesses recognize and capitalize on emerging trends first.
Below are a few of the major sales trends emerging for 2017, each of which can make a big impact on the bottom line.
Becoming Subject Matter Experts as Salespeople
Salespeople used to have far more control over the flow of information about products and features when dealing with customers. Traditionally, customers did a huge amount of their research of a product or service through a dedicated representative.
Today’s buying process has evolved from the familiar linear path through a salesperson. With so much product information now readily available online, and opinions and reviews accessible through social media, sellers must be educators and be knowledgeable of all the sources of information accessible to their customers.
This is a critical turning point salespeople. Those who have expert knowledge about what it takes to do a particular job, sell a particular product, or engage customers in some meaningful way have a huge advantage. Today’s successful sellers go beyond the traditional role and now add proficiency in follow-through and management of the sales process as SME’s.
Future Growth Investment
Thinking two steps ahead is vital in today’s sales arena. In fact, the best leaders make sales trend analysis a formal part of the sales-planning process, and make forward planning part of someone’s job description. This positions them well to take advantage of opportunities that come about as a result of a volatile or changing environment.
Forward-looking sales will differentiate leading businesses from all the rest, but this takes a two-pronged approach: blending knowledge and the ability to make a transition from macro shifts to real-time impact quickly. Consider the fact that nearly half of fast-growing companies invest more than 6% of their sales budget into goals that won’t even come to fruition for a year or more.
Embrace Social Selling
Social selling is an inevitable and crucial tool in company sales arsenals for 2017. Social selling is a highly effective means to getting salespeople to learn more about the customers to whom they are selling? Embracing and engaging with social selling allows them to target companies and learn more about the pain points these individuals and their companies are experiencing.
Social selling, in a nutshell, allows sales teams to harness the power of social media to connect with prospective customers. This isn’t a quick fix; rather, it’s a way to engage buyers over the long term, fostering trust and loyalty with them along the way. According to LinkedIn, 78% of social sellers outsell their colleagues who don’t use social media. The flip side of social selling is the immediate nature of being able to reach out to a prospect at the very moment they need you.
How will successful businesses differentiate themselves from the rest in 2017? Getting ahead of these emerging sales trends is how many of them position themselves for strong future growth.
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