Selling is never easy, but COVID-19 pandemic has caused even more challenges for sales teams. In the last year, connecting with customers became particularly difficult for B2B sales, which are typically driven by in-person meetings and complex deal cycles. The shift to digital was inevitable, and sales teams across industries had to quickly learn to improve sales through virtual meetings and online presentations.
Panasonic Life Solutions too was one such company that digitized its sales processes at the height of the pandemic. We are a company that believes in improving lives through innovation. Salesforce helped us reconnect with our customers, and since then, we have completely transformed the way we do business.
Drawing from the lessons learned in the last two years, here are three tips on how growing businesses can empower their sales teams to thrive in tough times:
Adopt speedy, data-backed decision-making
Markets today are incredibly fast-paced. The faster you make decisions, the likelier you are to grab more opportunities. It is equally important to be decisive, which comes from being clear about what you want to achieve. Take a leap of faith if you are even 70% confident about something, rather than risk losing out on business opportunities.
At Panasonic Life Solutions, for instance, with information like which leads are more likely to convert, our sales team is able to pursue the right opportunities with decisiveness and efficiency. Use analytics and automation tools to get real-time insights like leads that are ready to buy and those that are unlikely to close, powering data-backed decision-making at speed.
Enable sales teams to sell on the go
Today businesses are closing big-ticket deals remotely. It has become imperative for sales teams to use virtual engagement and selling tools to sell from anywhere. Keeping customers engaged, especially when times are tough, helps win customer trust and loyalty.
When the pandemic hit, it was very difficult for us to efficiently manage sales interactions and opportunities. But now, with a unified view of all customer interactions on Sales Cloud, our sales teams keep customers engaged and meet their needs remotely. We also get insights into business areas and customer accounts that can be grown with further nurturing. This helps us build better sales engagement strategies and increase cross- and upselling.
As mentioned previously, empowering employees to make informed decisions helps businesses persevere through all kinds of highs and lows. This makes an efficient Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solution vital for budding B2B companies like ours in order to set up the right systems and sales processes needed to succeed.
Adopt a CRM solution that is intuitive and customisable to streamline crucial sales processes like lead qualification, negotiation, and deal signing. The more flexible and innovative your CRM solution is, the better it can assist your sales team to turn disruptions into opportunities and keep pace with evolving customer demands.
Stay in sync with change to conquer sales challenges
Pandemic-induced changes are here to stay, and competition will only get tougher. Create a differentiating factor to make a mark in target markets where big, established businesses already exist. Equipping your sales teams with the right tools and technologies can help you make data-backed decisions essential for businesses to survive and row.
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