MarketStar Blog | Marketing (3)

Sales training is a multi-billion dollar industry. The global workplace training industry reached an estimated market size of 370.3 billion U.S. dollars in 2019.1 Organizations spent an average of $2,326 per salesperson on sales training annually.2 But how successful have these training programs been?  Seemingly, not very successful.  Consider this. A 2018 study3 revealed that just over half (53%) of all sales organizations hit their target numbers, and this figure has been on a decline over the past five years. 

Introduction 

As we slowly come to terms with the reality of living in a COVID-19 world, there is growing recognition that the pandemic will for better or for worse permanently change the way we live and conduct business. For sales organizations that adapted to the demands of physical distancing and work-from-home by merely executing existing processes through remote conferencing tools, there is a need to recognize that remote work is the new normal within which they must transform themselves to function effectively in a totally new paradigm. Not only do sales operations have to be restructured, but so do other processes such as onboarding, training, and coaching of sales teams.  

A well-structured and efficient onboarding program is the key to getting new recruits up to speed on their jobs. Such a program will determine the sales rep’s journey toward full productivity and is crucial for the organization’s revenue development and growth. On the other hand, poor or inefficient onboarding can result in high attrition costs and lead to the revolving door syndrome that plagues many organizations. 

When you think of social media marketing, the first name that comes to mind is Facebook, followed by Twitter and then the rest. But you also know that Facebook is relevant as a social tool to generate business when you are reaching out to your potential B2C customer base. 

So, what should you do when you have to reach out to your B2B audience and generate business leads, some of which may turn into revenue for you?  

According to new research by Forrester on Mastering Omni-Channel B2B Customer Engagement, 63% of B2B buyers are spending more time online in digital channels to search for services and solutions. The same report also shows that 65 percent of them are spending more on services that they’ve found through digital channels. The Forrester report further illustrates that for B2B sellers, 70 percent of their B2B revenues are being generated from digital and social media channels. 

That’s where LinkedIn comes in. In a recent Research Report, State of B2B Social Media Marketing 2016, we found that 89% of B2B marketers have rated LinkedIn to be the most effective social media channel for reaching out to prospective clients. LinkedIn is not just a place where you set up your professional profile for networking; you can use your LinkedIn page for greater good: lead generation for business. 

In a recent study of over 5,000 B2B businesses done by HubSpot, it was seen that LinkedIn is 277% more effective than Facebook and Twitter in converting business visitors to your site or page into effective business leads. Today we find that LinkedIn is a place where you can easily set up shop to reach out to potential clients and do business. 

Sales and marketing teams always struggle to penetrate and sell to enterprise decision-makers. Since the traditional methods of cold calling and carpet bombing rarely work in B2B marketing, reliance on account-based marketing (ABM) is increasing every day. Different companies use different tactics and channels to execute and measure ABM. Further, a standard ABM strategy may not work for all since the requirements are not the same. 

Creating a compelling product video is one of the most effective ways to communicate the benefits of your offerings. But even the most enthusiastic creator can stumble into pitfalls that render their video ineffective. Here’s a list of common mistakes to avoid, to ensure your videos deliver the desired impact. 

In today’s digital age, online videos have become the go-to medium for information sharing and consumption. According to comScore, 182 million U.S. Internet users watched online video content last year, averaging 23.2 hours per viewer. YouTube alone reached 4 billion daily global views, marking a 25% increase in just a few months. This rapid rise in online video consumption highlights its growing popularity among digital natives. 

B2B selling, in the digital world, has become an uphill battle. With easy access to information online, buyers are better informed than before. Purchase cycles have gotten longer compared to a year ago,1 and the number of people involved in a purchase decision has increased.2 Not surprisingly, a majority of buyers have rated their latest purchase experience as being extremely complex or difficult.3 

While selling has never been an easy job, the growth of digital has made sales a herculean task. Power has moved from the seller to the buyer. With the explosion of information online and the number of channels for peer interaction and crowdsourced research growing, buyers are better informed than ever before. In their sales conversations, buyers expect sellers to have an intimate understanding of their industry and their business needs, and demonstrate strong knowledge of the solutions that they have to offer. 

Sellers, on the other hand, haven’t been able to embrace this change fully. Much of their sales conversations continue to be on the product or technology that they are promoting. At the seller’s end, sales and marketing are often at loggerheads over what they need to communicate to the buyer. This has resulted in as much as 80% of the content created by marketing going unused by sales.1 It comes as no surprise, then, as revealed in a 2018 study2, that just over half (53%) of all sales organizations hit their target numbers, and this figure has been on a decline over the past five years. 

Sales enablement has evolved as a solution to this problem. It provides sales organizations with the tools that they need to enable their sales teams to perform more productively. But sales enablement isn’t just a productivity tool for sellers. It is an organization-wide shift in perspective that brings the buyer into focus.  

Organizations that have embraced sales enablement are more buyer-centric. They put the needs of their buyers at the center of everything they do. Here’s how. 

If there’s one aspect that defines the sales conversation in recent years, it is the rising level of buyer expectations. It’s not only what the vendors sell, but how they sell that marks the key difference between wins and losses. Buyers expect sales reps to have an intimate knowledge of their industry, understand their pain points, and guide them through the evaluation process with relevant and timely information. This is where sharing high value content at the right time plays a critical role.