Coronavirus has turned the world, especially the sales world, upside down. Traditional sales methods like face-to-face selling and in some cases, even phone sales, have been rendered pretty much useless. Increasingly sales reps are relying instead on email, social media outreach and video-conferencing.
But while our tools today are somewhat different, our sales & marketing goals haven’t changed — building relationships.
Now, more than ever before, it’s time to acquire virtual selling skills in order to Sell Greatly by being human first and transactional second. Now is the time to rejigger our use of traditional demand gen tools, like marketing automation, email, content marketing and more, to put the human touch back into what has become mechanical and rote.
How Do You Generate Demand Today?
Great question. One that I’ll be addressing next week — May 20th @ 11:30am EASTERN during my FREE session at CMI’s Demand Generation Summit.
You can register here.
Oh wait, you want to know more about what I’ll be covering before you dive right in and register? Ok… read on.
Everything Has Changed…But Nothing Is Truly Different
That’s right… while the tools may have changed, the goals and approaches that drive successful sales efforts really haven’t.
I’ll be talking about how our Sell Greatly approach is uniquely designed to work even better in today’s digital first selling world than maybe it was in a physical first world. Well, that’s assuming you don’t already think we were in a digital first world already
Specifically, the Sell Greatly approach breaks down into the 5P’s:
- Proximity — or as the social scientists who determined that this P is the most consistent predictor variable of future relationship formation call it – Propinquity. I’ll touch lightly on this one.
- Preparation — which is often the most overlooked P. Salespeople are so focused on closing today’s potential transaction that they forget that by spending even a little bit of time conducting even basic social reconnaissance they will be so much better prepared to succeed.
I’m going to spend a bit more time on this one because it’s more important than ever in our current Covid-19 world. If you’re not doing your homework. If you’re not planning your sales calls. You risk walking into so many different kinds of landmines.
- Presence — my personal favorite and the one most people, including salespeople, fall down on daily. We’re all so attached to those little computers in our pockets and the people they “connect” us to, that we forget to just be present in the conversation we’re having right now.
This is the place I’ll probably spend the next most time discussing because Covid has make it supremely important (and I already thought it was the most important P).
You see, normally when I talk about Presence, I focus on the need for the salesperson to remain present. But now that almost 100% of sales calls, nurtuing calls, etc., are virtual, we have to focus on ensuring our prospect is present too.
We’ll talk about a few tips and tricks to help you do this so that you can remain successful selling via digital platforms.
- Patience — not most sales managers’ favorite P — but the truth is, lack of patience costs companies and salespeople more money in lost profit and commission than most realize.
- Preference — the ultimate P — the one that every salesperson absolutely must achieve. It’s no longer enough to make sure your top-of-mind with your prospects, you have to be top-of-preference because your competition (or better stated their content) is literally at your customer’s fingertips 24/7/365.
5 Additional Reasons to Register for Demand Generation Summit
That’s right… there are five more reasons you should seriously consider REGISTERING for this FREE SUMMIT.
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Ardath Albee
CEO
Marketing Interactions, Inc.
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Mathew Sweezey
Director of Market Strategy
Salesforce
Context Now: How to Motivate Buyers in the Age of Infinite Media
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Tyler Lessard
VP of Marketing
Vidyard
Using Educational Videos to Generate and Qualify New Leads Faster
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Adele Revella
Founder & CEO
Buyer Persona Institute
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Mark Bornstein
Chief Webinerd and VP of Content Marketing @ ON24
So that’s it for today. Come join me next week over at the Demand Generation Summit and we’ll both learn a lot about creating sales opportunities today and in the future.
This post was originally published by Tom Martin on the Converse Digital blog.