MarketStar Blog | Sales (2)

Key Takeaways

• Psychological safety contributes to an inclusive and diverse workplace

• A high-performing team values psychological safety as much as they do physical security

• Providing psychological safety is a team effort. Team members must take responsibility for improving the working environment for one another 

• Adopting an employee assistance program can help handle problems related to mental well-being 

The Covid-19 pandemic has had a varied impact on humanity. The weight of these unprecedented times was heavy and has dramatically influenced our mental health, whether transitioning to a new work-life situation, losing a job, or losing a loved one. 

Forced to take on these stressors while still having to work, many employees are experiencing unexpected difficulties with their mental health and need support while at their jobs. 

Covid-19 Challenges

The Covid-19 environment has created unprecedented economic and business challenges.

According to “The Future of Sales in 2025: A Gartner Trend Insight Report,” B2B buying behavior has grown even more unpredictable with COVID-19 and market volatility. The report quotes, “One client told us their quarterly deal pipeline shrank to nearly zero when their prospects suspended all nonessential expenditures.

Others report that without in-person meetings, their sellers don’t achieve the level of engagement required to validate their pipeline predictions.” (The Future of Sales in 2025: A Gartner Trend Insight Report, 2020). 

This has also placed business owners, leaders, and employees under more pressure and stress than many have experienced before. 

Most employee's psychological well-being has taken a hit, leading to decreased enthusiasm and productivity.  

Distributed, remote, and virtual teams have fewer opportunities for spontaneous, casual conversation; team members have more difficulty picking up non-verbal cues in conversation, and people are more likely to feel alone, anxious, unsure of what to do, and may even experience self-doubt or imposter syndrome.

The resulting consequence is an undercurrent of emotional disturbance characterized by rising levels of anxiety, depression, fear, and stress.  

In this scenario, sales and customer success leaders who understand the importance of psychological safety and the associated behaviours are more likely to adapt and succeed in a post-pandemic environment. 

According to Harvard Business School professor Amy Edmondson, “Psychological safety is a belief that one will not be punished or humiliated for speaking up with ideas, questions, concerns, or mistakes.”  

Research has proven that higher psychological safety in teams drives higher performance, innovation, and productivity. 

Psychological safety can be developed through small experiments based on a Neurosciences framework of SCARF – Significance, Certainty, Autonomy, Relatedness, Fairness developed by David Rock of Neuroscience of Leadership. 

The Importance of Psychological Safety

Safety is a basic human need, and psychological safety is the belief that you can freely express your ideas and thoughts without worrying about being degraded.  

Here are the top five reasons why psychological safety is important at work. 

1. Inclusive Workplace Culture

A safe workspace welcomes diverse teams, and it is critical to ensure that every team member feels included, especially after a pandemic. This enables team members to thrive regardless of gender, race, color, or political preferences.  

The outcome is a fruitful exchange of ideas and experiences where everyone feels connected and part of a common cause. 

Psychological safety is a key ingredient in promoting an inclusive workplace culture.  

When employees feel safe to express themselves without the fear of judgement or reprisal, they are more likely to bring their whole selves to work, fostering a more collaborative and creative environment.  

Employees who feel included are also more engaged and productive, leading to a positive spiral of increased inclusion and success for the organization. 

2. Better Employee Engagement

It is easier for team members to engage when they feel secure at work. This could be during a team meeting where members work on projects, brainstorm, solve problems, and engage with their peers and customers. 

Safe teams encourage workers to be completely present rather than dozing off or counting the hours until the day is over. 

3. Improved Well-Being

Developing a psychologically safe work culture contributes to overall employee well-being.  

When employees are psychologically well, they can work at their best and avoid pressures that prevent them from doing so. 

Promoting employee health and wellness at work requires first ensuring their psychological safety. When employees are mentally healthy, it means they can think, feel, and act in ways that help them perform well. 

4. Decreased Employee Turnover

Employees who face a high turnover are beginning to understand the importance of psychological safety.  

According to The Predictive Index, team members who feel psychologically safe are less likely to quit their jobs. Why will employees leave a company that makes them feel safe and valued? 

More and more organizations are embracing this concept because teams are becoming geographically dispersed, and psychological safety is responsible for motivating employees, retaining them, and promoting an inclusive culture. 

5. Improved Team Performance

According to studies, psychological safety promotes actions that result in improved team performance, such as taking moderate risks, expressing one’s opinions, being creative, and sticking one’s neck out without the fear of repercussions. 

Employees who work in psychologically secure environments view risk positively and know they won’t be considered stupid or inept. By taking moderate risks, teams can thrive and grow while learning new concepts. 

The 4 Behaviors That Build Psychological Safety at Work

1. Active Listening

Active listening is a powerful communication tool promoting psychological safety at work.

By actively listening to others, we create an environment where people feel safe expressing themselves and sharing their ideas. This, in turn, can lead to better collaboration, creativity, and productivity.

It also involves entering a conversation with an open mind and a pleasant attitude, and being willing to modify and adapt to the speaker’s line of thought without passing judgement.

2. Leading with Empathy

Leading with empathy shows employees that you care about their well-being and want to create a safe environment for them to work in.  

When employees feel psychologically safe, they are more likely to take risks, be creative and productive, and stay with the company. Showing empathy is also one of the best ways to engage with an employee and foster a feeling of belonging.

3. Focusing on Performance

Employees need to feel recognized at work and receive honest feedback on their performance. When we focus on performance, we create an environment where people feel safe to take risks and experiment.

This psychological safety is essential for innovation and creativity.

4. Welcoming New Ideas

Welcoming new ideas at work and promoting psychological safety so that everyone can feel comfortable contributing should be encouraged. It allows organizations to create a positive and productive work environment where everyone can thrive. 

Summing Up 

It is vital to make psychological safety a priority in organizations. An organization should be a place for learning and growth.

Psychological safety shouldn’t just be a “nice to have” benefit. It should play a significant role in the culture and future of every business.

The mark of a good company is its team members.

So, if businesses want to build a successful team, psychological safety must be one of the top priorities and ensure the team members feel safe to express themselves.

Key Insights

• While many organizations have transitioned from hardware-based data storage systems to cloud services, cloud adoption is still at its early stage

• It puts immense pressure on cloud salespeople to make a successful pitch

• Selling cloud solutions requires a definite change in how you approach your prospects who are looking for service providers

• You must emphasize the value to the business and not the underlying technology

When speaking with enterprise buyers about cloud solutions, you may have faced the same set of questions, repeatedly. Questions about compliances, security risks, and guarantees. 

Those involved in selling cloud-based solutions faced numerous barriers. 

In fact, the odds are stacked against them with only 18% of B2B buyers viewing salespeople as their trusted advisors.

If your buyers don’t believe in you, it would be a mammoth task for you to sell cloud solutions. 

But more and more enterprises are opening up to the idea of introducing cloud software to their environments. 

In such a scenario, you must proactively anticipate their concerns and address them. If you don’t, then you end up losing high-paying and reliable enterprise customers to your competitors. 

So, you have got your work cut out for you when it comes to selling cloud computing services. 

In this blog, we break down the best tips that will help you deliver results, from gaining a larger foothold in the companies out there or simply expanding your footprints in your existing accounts. 

What are Cloud-based Solutions?

Cloud-based solutions are any applications that can be accessed with an Internet connection through a provider’s shared cloud computing framework. 

On a pay-for-use basis, enterprises can get access to as many resources as they require such as storage space, software, networks, and other on-demand services. 

Consequently, you have three types of cloud-based systems at your disposal: 

• IaaS- Infrastructure-as-a-Service allows enterprises to rent storage, networks, virtual machines, and other resources from a cloud service provider

• PaaS- Platform-as-a-Service provides companies with a “space” to build, deliver, test, and manage various apps. The goal is to help such organizations to focus on software development and not the underlying infrastructure

• SaaS- Software-as-a-Service refers to the delivery of cloud-based solutions. In this case, cloud providers host the app as well as the infrastructure

6 Effective Strategies for Selling Cloud Solutions

With the COVID-19 pandemic, digital business transformation has entered a more urgency-driven phase. 

The sudden shutdown of offices, educational institutions, and enterprises has increased the demand for cloud-based solutions and services.

The cloud landscape is continually evolving. According to a report by Research and Markets, the global cloud computing market size is expected to grow from $371.4 billion in 2020 to $832.1 billion by 2025.

Sales organizations that make the necessary adjustments to successfully navigate through will benefit from the ability to capitalize on the growing market opportunities.

Let’s walk through some of the most effective tips for selling cloud-based solutions.

1. Start Small

Start with helping your prospects choose applications that are right for them and deliver the value they are seeking in the short term. 

This is especially important if you are dealing with an enterprise that has no prior experience in cloud implementation. 

For organizations not born in the cloud, the decision to bring off-premises technologies into the fold can throw up some challenges. 

Most enterprises, at this stage, can run into an overdrive– establishing business cases, scoping the project, and formulating the approach– leading to the cloud program tumbling down. 

When selling cloud-based solutions to such enterprises, identify and address any implementation-related challenges. Once your prospect starts seeing value in the investment, it becomes easier for them to ramp up. 

2. Know the Language that Your Lead Follows

Technology can be confusing to understand. 

Shifting your messaging and working is the key to selling cloud services to small businesses. 

If you assume your lead doesn’t know much about technology, you might come off as condescending. Your lead might also get lost in your jargon and feel overwhelmed or confused. 

Making a successful pitch will be incomplete without listening to your leads. Find out more about the cloud services that they are currently using. Know more about how they manage their data. Ask a few questions and listen intently. 

This way you will get to know where they are, and you can start using their language. 

This will also make your sales pitch more conversational and authentic, allowing you to connect with your prospects on a deeper level. 

3. Position Yourself as the Innovation Partner

Enterprises have many trust issues with those selling cloud-based solutions. This is why it is crucial that you showcase your innovative side and how your offerings are a mark above the rest. 

Your prospect wants to get a hold over the state of cloud adoption. Helping drive innovation requires approaching your clients and prospects with an empathetic understanding of the entire landscape. 

You can make this happen by regularly publishing authentic content that is tangible and actionable, helping you to be a trusted partner who understands the industry. 

When you do land your meeting, don’t just tell them the key features of what you are selling but speak about the entire cloud ecosystem. 

In this way, you can build a more future-centric approach to selling your cloud computing services. 

4. Work with Different Team Members

You must pitch to different stakeholders across various departments. It is not just one person who decides if your services are the right fit for the enterprise. 

Instead of seeing each member as a new obstacle to overcome, use this process to win more stakeholders and convert them into advocates for your cloud solutions. 

Additionally, work with stakeholders at all levels of your prospect organizations. 

A middle manager might have more understanding of the space than you can imagine since chances are that they are the ones managing such services on a day-to-day basis. 

5. Tie it to Concrete Benefits

You might be dealing with someone who doesn’t have an IT background and has limited knowledge about the cloud. 

In such cases, it is important to mold the pitch to their experience or something they would understand. 

Your solutions should make way for a better employee experience since poor technological solutions can lead to lower productivity, higher disengagement, and increased turnover rates. 

60% of workers said that new software had occasionally or frequently frustrated them in the last 24 months, according to a report by Gartner. 

Even if you pitch to a prospect who isn’t tech-savvy, you can still highlight the dangers of losing the very employees who are.

6. Alleviate their Concerns on Security

Most enterprises are deeply concerned about cybersecurity, creating unique challenges for selling cloud computing. It makes the job trickier when almost 52% of IT decision-makers whose company uses cloud services agree that their data is more secure on-premises. 

So, try out your cloud solutions as a strategic shift in risk and not as an additional risk. The idea is to help them understand that they are essentially putting the risk factor in you by choosing your services. 

The Way Ahead

Selling cloud solutions involves many challenges, whether security, risk, cost and lack of trust. These challenges are one of the few reasons why cloud adoption is still in its infancy. 

However, this does not mean that you can’t employ some effective strategies to turn the landscape to generate better results. 

To succeed in selling cloud services, be prepared with new services, combinations, and customizations. 

Keep a plan ready, and you can do it too!

Introduction

The tech sales industry thrives on growth and innovation, but achieving these goals requires focus, agility, and access to top-tier talent. This is where tech sales outsourcing comes in, offering a strategic advantage for companies looking to scale their operations and reach new markets. 

Key Takeaways

• For your business to scale quickly and increase revenue, you must learn how to generate high-quality business leads

• Generating new leads involves building a marketing experience that makes it easy for users to engage with your brand 

• Make sure that your lead-gen strategies result in the exchange of your leads’ contact details

• Identifying the right leads in your business with the right effort and focus can turn them into loyal customers

• Every business needs leads – use proven and foolproof tips and strategies to generate them

Lead generation is a constant need for all businesses. 

Whether you’re selling your products or services to customers or whether you’re a B2B company, generating leads is your top goal. Why? Because your sales team cannot convert prospects into customers without having leads. 

Lead generation can be time-consuming and tricky – but it doesn’t always have to be. There are several ways to generate leads and a plethora of advanced tools to help you speed up the lead generation process. 

Simply put, you must generate leads with the right strategies and tips for your business to thrive. 

What is Lead Generation?

Lead generation is the process of attracting prospects and increasing their interest in your product or service in the hopes of converting them into paying customers. Leads may come in from different sources, and content is one of the best tools to generate leads. 

Lead generation, along with lead management, is used to move leads through the sales funnel, called pipeline marketing. 

The Importance of Lead Generation for Your Business

Leads/prospects and lead generation are the two most important aspects that directly impact your business growth. Without leads, it can be an arduous task to maximize your revenue and achieve business goals. 

Reaching more individuals who might be future customers and generating interest in your goods or service is necessary if you want to make sure that your business keeps growing and expanding.  

So, by focusing on lead generation, you can drive traffic from your high-quality prospects and eventually convert them into valuable customers. 

How exactly does lead generation benefit your business? Let’s look at the top reasons. 

• Lead generation can help your brand reach target prospects better when done correctly with the right messaging and offer

• Lead generation helps generate quality leads by targeting specific customers

• Lead generation can control your spending by targeting only the most relevant target market 

• Online lead gen targets your prospects based on the rules you define and automatically finds new leads, saving time for your sales team 

5 Effective Tips to Generate Leads for Your Company

Many struggle to understand how to generate leads and believe that sales is a game of chance. Well, that’s not true. There’s more skill needed than luck, particularly regarding lead generation tips and strategies. 

Let’s look at the top five tips that can help you generate top quality leads. 

1. Optimize Your Web Pages

Your lead generation efforts always start with your website.  

What’s the point in driving traffic to your website (be it from ads, social media, Google, or word of mouth) if those visitors leave the site without taking any action? Your website must be engaging enough to users and persuade them to act. 

When it comes to lead generation, all you try to do is collect your prospect’s contact details to aid your selling process. 

How do you do this?  

Setting up a website is a not-so-difficult task today, but that doesn’t guarantee that the website is all set to collect leads. Hiring an expert can help optimize your web pages. They follow certain best practices to create high-performing web pages based on a proven success formula.

2. Social Media Paid Ads

According to Gartner, “Chief Marketing Officers spend more than 22 percent of their marketing budget on digital ads and 66 percent of that goes on paid social media campaigns”. 

Running a social media paid ad campaign involves capturing the correct data, getting insights, and using them to make your ads more powerful. It helps you reach out to the exact audience that you are targeting. If done correctly, paid ads can be a great lead-gen tool while saving your business time and costs. 

3. Engage With Your Leads Directly

Most brands choose the indirect way, such as FAQs, to engage with their leads – which is ideally not the best way.  

Direct engagement is the right way to reach your prospects, resulting in better word-of-mouth and more leads. 

You can directly engage and interact with your prospects by leveraging help centers, live chats, and forums. However, ensure that your customer support team has the right knowledge and skills and is always present to handle every query.  

4. Deploy Both Inbound & Outbound Marketing

According to marketing experts, outbound marketing is a tad more effective than inbound.  

However, it is important to deploy both inbound and outbound in a balanced manner – this will help you to generate more leads and eventually grow your business. 

If you are not active on online communities, you must start sharing informative and relevant content immediately. Solve queries, address customer pain points, and personalize your email and other communications. This will help you establish good customer relationships and build more leads. 

If you’re unsure about building a strong inbound/outbound marketing strategy, you can contact our experts for guidance and help. 

5. Create Top-Quality Content

Content has always been one of the best ways to drive traffic to your website, generate leads, and show your knowledge as a business. 

Most people misinterpret creating content as being restricted to just blog posts and articles. But, content is more than just that; it could be a video, ebook, infographic, guide, case study, and whitepaper, to name a few. 

The content can be gated, so prospects or readers can access your content in exchange for their contact details. Make sure to make it valuable and targeted, so the reader feels worthy of sharing their contact information. 

There are more ways to generate leads for your business, including 

• Personalized email marketing

• Investing in new technology 

• Automating your marketing 

• Guest blogging, 

And more… 

With the help of these proven methods, you can generate leads even with a limited budget

Wrap Up

Now that you know the top tips to generate leads, you can start implementing them in your business. The lead generation process is continuous and long-term and might seem overwhelming, but it’s worth implementing. 

Using the above tips, you can overcome the challenges in lead generation, streamline the process and implement an effective system. And as a result, high-quality leads start flowing in, and your business growth opportunities increase. 

Key Takeaways

Sales is vital to a company’s survival and growth. 

Key Takeaways

• Design thinking in sales prioritizes the needs and perspectives of customers, enabling businesses to differentiate themselves from the competition and improve customer engagement.

• The pandemic has disrupted sales across industries, leading businesses to shift to online sales and explore new sales growth strategies such as gamification, social media marketing, and subscription models. 

• Incorporating design thinking principles can help businesses redesign customer experience and empathize with customers.

Introduction

‘A satisfied customer is the best business strategy of all.’

Tagged by many as the most difficult achievement in business operations, customer satisfaction measures the utility derived from the consumption of goods and services. However, experts believe offering quality products or excellent customer service is not enough.

In addition, the pandemic has had a significant effect on the sales process across industries. Businesses have observed radical shifts to online sales, disruptions in supply chains and changes in consumer behavior owing to social distancing measures and financial instability.

At this critical juncture, businesses are more inclined to incorporate design thinking principles such as redesigning customer experience, fostering collaboration and empathizing with customers. This article highlights the multi-faceted nature of design thinking in sales and how it prioritizes the needs and perspectives of customers post-pandemic.

Understanding Design Thinking in Sales Processes

Since 1970s, design thinking has been a customer-centric approach to maximize customer satisfaction through understanding the needs and desires of customers, generating ideas, prototyping, and testing. 

In sales, design thinking involves

• using empathy to understand the customer’s perspective

• developing creative solutions to their problems

• continuously refining the sales strategy 

5 Core Design Thinking Stages

Design thinking focuses on understanding the needs and perspectives of the end-users to develop innovative solutions that meet their needs. The process of design thinking is divided into five core stages. 

• Empathize: The first stage of the design thinking process is to empathize with the end-users. This involves understanding their needs, desires, and pain points. The goal is to develop a deep understanding of the end-users' perspectives to create solutions that meet their needs. This stage involves conducting interviews, surveys, and observations to gather end-user data. 

• Define: The second stage of the design thinking process is to define the problem. This involves synthesizing the data gathered in the empathize stage to identify the core problem that needs to be solved. The goal is to define the problem in an actionable and relevant way to the end-users. 

• Ideate: The third stage of the design thinking process is to ideate solutions. This involves generating a wide range of ideas without judgment. The goal is to encourage creativity and innovation in the development of potential solutions. This stage involves brainstorming sessions, mind maps, and other ideation techniques to generate diverse ideas. 

• Prototype: The fourth stage of the design thinking process is to create prototypes of the potential solutions. This involves creating low-fidelity prototypes that can be quickly and easily tested with end-users. The goal is to gather feedback on the potential solutions to identify areas of improvement. This stage involves creating physical or digital prototypes that can be tested and refined. 

• Test: The final stage of the design thinking process is to test the prototypes with end-users. This involves gathering feedback on the effectiveness of the potential solutions. The goal is to identify any areas of improvement and refine the solutions based on the feedback received. This stage involves conducting user testing and incorporating feedback into the design process. 

LinkedIn reports that design thinking methodology is not restricted to large businesses alone. Small businesses reportedly saw a 17.5% rise in average sales when they invested in design.  

Empathy, agility and a customer-centric approach are the basic postulates of design thinking for sales teams across industries. 

Here is why you should be design-conscious: 

• Customer-centric approach: Design thinking in sales centers around the customer, enabling sales teams to empathize with their needs and motivations, and tailor solutions that best meet their requirements. 

• Improved collaboration: Design thinking fosters cross-functional collaboration and communication among team members, promoting the sharing of diverse perspectives and ideas, and breaking down silos.

• Better outcomes: Design thinking in sales leads to better outcomes such as increased customer satisfaction, higher conversion rates, and improved sales growth. Design thinking skills are expected to drive adaptive selling behavior in salespeople, as the approach involves customizing offerings to match customer needs. Additionally, the human-oriented nature of design thinking skills is likely to foster collaboration behavior, strengthening the relationship between salespeople and customers.

How Can Design Thinking in Sales Cushion the Effects of the Pandemic?

Design thinking can be a powerful tool for sales teams to respond to the challenges posed by the pandemic. By using a customer-centric approach, sales teams can better understand the changing needs of their customers and develop new sales strategies tailored to those needs.

Here are three ways sales teams can apply design thinking to cushion the effects of the pandemic.

• Developing New Sales Channels

The pandemic has changed the way people shop and interact with businesses. Sales teams have had to adapt to this change by developing new sales channels catering to customers’ needs. By using design thinking, sales teams can identify theircustomers’ pain points and develop new sales channels that meet those needs. For example, many businesses have shifted to e-commerce to cater to customers who prefer to shop online. By leveraging design thinking principles, sales teams can develop new sales channels that are efficient, customer-friendly, and meet the needs of customers in the pandemic.

• Reimagining the Sales Process

The pandemic has disrupted the traditional sales process, making face-to-face meetings less common. To adapt to this change, sales teams have had to reimagine the sales process. By using design thinking, sales teams can develop new sales processes that are more digital, flexible, and customer centric. This can involve using video conferencing tools, developing personalized sales pitches, and using customer feedback to refine the sales process. By putting the customer at the center of the sales process, sales teams can improve their chances of closing deals in the pandemic.

• Building Resilience

The pandemic has created uncertainty and disrupted the normal course of business for many organizations. Sales teams have had to build resilience to adapt to these changing conditions. By using design thinking, sales teams can develop a mindset of innovation and problem-solving. This involves being open to new ideas, experimenting with different sales strategies, and learning from failures. By adopting a mindset of resilience and continuous improvement, sales teams can cushion the effects of the pandemic and emerge stronger in the long run. 

What Does It Mean for the Customers?

In a post-pandemic world, organizations must comprehend their customers’ shifting needs, particularly considering the remote working paradigm. With complex B2B sales strategies now transpiring in home offices, sales representatives face new challenges that can sidetrack and distract them from understanding their customers’ requirements. This can result in the following:

• Improved Customer Experience: Design thinking in sales can result in a more personalized and engaging customer experience. Sales teams can use customer feedback and insights to develop new products and services that better meet their needs. Based on consumer behavior, customers are generally willing to pay a price premium of up to 13% (and potentially as high as 18%) for luxury products and services when they receive exceptional customer experiences. 

• Greater Relevance: Design thinking can help sales teams stay relevant in a rapidly changing market. By continuously adapting and innovating, sales teams can better respond to the evolving needs of customers and offer products and services that are more meaningful and valuable.

• Enhanced Customer Loyalty: By focusing on the needs and preferences of their customers, sales teams can build stronger relationships and foster greater loyalty. Over 85% of customers expect proactive communication and outreach from businesses. Customers are more likely to return to businesses that understand their needs and are willing to go the extra mile to meet them.

Generating New Ideas for Products and Services Using Design Thinking

75% of organizations apply design thinking methodology in their processes to generate new and innovative ideas for their products and services that are aligned with their customer needs and preferences.   

Businesses can generate new ideas for products and services that meet customer needs in design thinking sales through the following ways: 

Empathy Mapping

Empathy mapping is a powerful tool that can help sales teams develop new ideas for products and services that meet customer needs in design thinking sales. The Nielsen Norman Group suggest that by understanding the needs and preferences of customers through empathy mapping, sales teams can generate new ideas for products and services that are more relevant, valuable, and engaging. 

Empathy mapping can help sales teams identify the pain points of customers or the challenges and frustrations they face when using a product or service. Using this information, sales teams can develop new products and services that address these issues and offer solutions that better meet the needs of customers.

Brainstorming Sessions 

Brainstorming sessions are another effective means to generate new ideas for products and services that meet customer needs in design thinking sales. These sessions encourage creativity and free thinking, allowing sales teams to explore new and innovative ideas for products and services. 

Businesses can generate new ideas through group brainstorming sessions by encouraging creativity, diverse perspectives, and open communication. This can be done in cross-functional teams with individuals from different departments. 

Brainstorming sessions involve a collaborative approach, where sales team members can share their perspectives and ideas. This can lead to a diversity of thought and result in a more comprehensive and effective solution for customers. 

Prototyping and User Testing

Prototyping and testing solutions can aid in developing customer-centric designs in a sales process that caters to customers’ evolving needs in a dynamic market landscape. Such solutions allow companies to measure design success in real-time by garnering customer feedback within and outside the organization. 

Prototyping should be conducted in stages, commencing with low-fidelity prototypes used to gather feedback from users and stakeholders. As solutions are refined, higher-functioning and better-designed prototypes can be created for further testing in a realistic production environment.  

Prototyping ideas in this manner enables the design team to create and redefine marketing and sales operations that address customers’ evolving needs in a dynamic market landscape. In the long run, it facilitates the development of user-centric designs that drive business growth and success. Vox Media has outlined its design prototyping method that discusses remote user research methodologies. 

Testing is an integral component that runs parallel to prototyping. Prototyping and testing operate in a continuous cycle where a prototype is created, tested, refined, and tested again until the project is ready to deploy.  

Testing a smart application for an established company may require a more comprehensive testing process that involves the participation of current customers and includes user interviews and other rigorous evaluation methods. 

Instances To Show How Design Thinking in Sales Help Businesses

Empathizing with children’s pain points in terms of undergoing MRI treatments, GE Healthcare introduced the ‘Adventure Series’ as part of their patent design thinking project aimed at redesigning MRI with a creative solution. They successfully replaced the dark MRI rooms with flickering fluorescent lights with imagery of pirate ships and the ocean. It helped boost patient satisfaction by 90% and improved scan quality.  

In 2016, Netflix continued improving its user experience by incorporating short trailers into its interface, responding to customers’ needs and using design thinking principles to drive innovation. 

Airbnb invested in high-quality cameras and took photos of every room, highlighting special features like hot tubs and pools and showcasing the surrounding neighbourhoods. As a result, Airbnb’s revenue doubled in just one week, demonstrating the power of design thinking to drive business success. 

Bottom Line

In conclusion, the post-pandemic era has highlighted the importance of design thinking in sales. Adopting a human-centered approach to innovation and problem-solving can lead to relevant and innovative products and services that meet customers’ evolving needs. 

Sales professionals should embrace a design-thinking mindset to drive business success in the current and future markets. Thus, it is imperative to prioritize people and empathy in sales operations and design solutions that truly speak to customers’ needs.

Key Takeaways

• Pipeline management and sales forecasting are often confused – they’re closely related, but not the same.

• Sales pipeline management is about changing today’s activities, whereas forecasting focuses on predicting future results.

• Accurate pipeline management can help drive both short-term and long-term forecasting.

Sales pipeline management and forecasting are two terms that are commonly thrown around interchangeably in a sales force. They are significant to any business, and most companies invest big in the latest tools and technologies to manage these two activities.

However, pipeline management outshines forecasting when it comes to business growth.

Before we find out the top reasons why organizations should focus on pipeline management, not the forecast, let’s discuss the difference between them.

Pipeline Management vs Forecasting: The Difference

Sales pipeline management is tracking and managing incoming sales leads across the different stages of the leads’ journey until the deal is closed.

Forecasting, on the other hand, is the act of predicting future business activity/outcome. It is based upon specific assumptions, such as a defined sales strategy or targeted prospects.

The Importance of Focusing on Pipeline Management

Your sales team has the potential to double the current revenue they are currently generating. 

All you need to do is ask your sales managers to hold an additional meeting focused on pipeline management along with their regular data scrubbing meetings. This helps the sales team members evaluate the leads in their pipeline, retain the good deals, and release the bad ones.

Here are the top 5 reasons why it is important to focus on pipeline management and not forecasting:

1. Enables You to Know Your True Opportunities

Pipeline management encourages better conversations between your sales manager and sales reps.

Your sales force can go through the pipeline and understand what opportunities came in new, what left the process, and what opportunities are where in the process stages. This will enable your team to better understand the sales reps’ activities and ensure the right actions are performed to close deals.

2. Calculate Metrics Easily

It is easy to calculate metrics such as sales closing ratio, cycle length, etc. if you have an effective sales pipeline which is being tracked and managed with a defined set of steps.

The data thus collected will help your organization understand the current quarter’s closures and foresee future quarters, helping you make better business decisions.

3. Build an Accurate Forecast

With pipeline management, you can easily and accurately forecast the lead conversion probabilities based on current and past data.

Pipeline forecasting is a comprehensive approach to revenue forecasting that considers every factor of each potential deal. Sales pipeline forecasting calculates a deal’s probability, based do how long it has been in the sales pipeline compared to an average sales cycle.

Not only does this help predict future sales, but also helps improve pricing, marketing strategies, and product development. 

4. Nurture Leads

Using information gathered from a sales pipeline, it is considerably simpler to guide potential clients through the various stages of closing a deal.

A sales representative has greater freedom to create more tailored interactions with leads based on their requirements, wants, and interests when they have information about them. The bonus is that sales representatives can establish rapport more easily.

5. Provides Marketing Direction

Most organizations are implementing automation processes to keep their contacts warm until they become active leads and to keep existing customers engaged by providing customer success and upsell opportunities – this will help the sales teams actively work the prospects in the pipeline. 

Wrapping Up

Managing a pipeline is not as difficult as you imagine.

It can be a cost-effective and profitable business strategy. Some businesses rely on a healthy pipeline to succeed, expand their revenue and attract more customers.

Therefore, follow these best practices to build a robust sales pipeline and ensure it is in the finest shape if you want your company to triumph when it comes to outselling rivals in the sales game. 

The year 2024 paints a vivid picture of the future of sales: a turbulent landscape of intensifying competition, evolving customer expectations, and relentless pressure to adapt. To thrive in this environment, businesses must embrace holistic growth strategies that transcend traditional models. In this context, Sales-as-a-Service (SaaS) emerges as a transformative approach, offering unparalleled efficiency, scalability, and access to specialized expertise. 

The B2B landscape is undergoing a profound transformation. Gone are the days of siloed decision-making and linear sales cycles. Today, complex buying journeys orchestrated by multi-stakeholder teams, coupled with pre-purchase research that often bypasses sales reps, necessitate a drastic shift in approach. Sales leaders and their teams must become adept navigators, attuned to the subtle currents of change that will reshape the 2024 sales landscape.

Key Takeaways

• 2022-23 marks the transition to a post-COVID situation powered by artificial intelligence and automation.

• B2B sales prospects are rapidly gaining ground thanks to sales outsourcing and the use of CRM applications.

• Lead generation is as crucial as managing existing customers through personalized design campaigns. 

• Content diversification combined with SEO optimization will continue to improve user experience. 

Introduction

Business analysts and entrepreneurs around the globe resonate with Darwin’s theory of biological evolution by natural selection.

They believe that, like a species, business development undergoes a gradual descent with modification to create long-term value. But how can business enterprises thrive without sales?

Businesses that sustained their operations even after the global pandemic relied heavily on technological innovation. Management consulting firms like McKinsey suggest that COVID-19 has indeed transformed B2B sales.

The introduction of remote human engagement has unarguably multiplied even after situations have improved.

This article discusses the top 10 sales trends that will define the evolving sales landscape.

10 Key Sales Trends to Look Out for in 2023

The new year brings an array of hope, especially for B2B sales prospects.

A shift to virtual or hybrid sales strategies suggests that automation and artificial intelligence tools play a major role in reshaping the sales scenario.

Below are some key B2B sales trends that will help exceed sales targets and quotas in 2023. 

1. AI Adoption

In 2023, AI adoption is expected to become a major trend in the sales industry.  

With the rapid advancement of technology, businesses are looking to automate repetitive tasks and improve their sales processes with the help of AI.  

AI-powered chatbots are becoming increasingly popular to interact with customers and generate leads, while machine learning algorithms are used to analyze customer data and predict future sales. Additionally, AI-enabled sales assistants are helping sales reps to identify and prioritize the best leads, and even automate some aspects of the sales process. 

Companies are making better sales decisions by using AI-powered tools like Nytro.ai to help train and assist sales reps in all aspects of their job, from initial training to ongoing skill development and make better sense of the collected data and leveraging the same to boost B2B sales performance. 

2. Outsourcing Sales

Experts believe that a lack of expertise in B2B sales causes a sharp fall in lead generation.

Many companies engage their account executives in cold calling which is not cost-efficient and can cause scalability issues. Yet numerous businesses often stumble upon a fundamental question – ‘Is sales outsourcing accountable?’

The post-pandemic business situation shows that companies can reap profits despite budget or resource constraints by simply outsourcing their sales processes.

Outsourcing enables your business to improve its sales prospects through symmetric communication and continuous evaluation. The primary objective of sales outsourcing is to identify the ideal product/market fit.

In other words, outsourcing helps businesses realign with their go-to-market strategy thereby prompting salespersons to focus on strategy making. Sales outsourcing guarantees the successful attraction of prospects through specialized sales enablement tools like CRM and sales intelligence software applications.

3. CRM Tools That Matter

What if an emerging business is told that it can handle customer data, automate sales processes, and promote inter-departmental collaboration all in a single platform?

An average business can boost productivity by approximately 34% using a Customer relationship management (CRM) platform.

Moreover, CRM platforms can reduce the sales cycle by 8-14% by making customer data more accessible. CRM platforms help businesses target the right customers, especially for B2B sales and present a bird’s eye view of the potential leads and prospects.

As of 2022, CRM tools have caused a 30% increase in lead conversions and established more sustainable relationships.

4. Boosting Sales Prospects Through a Personalized User Experience

Nothing boosts business revenue more than a positive customer experience.

The post-Covid B2B journey has been highly nonlinear and without a definite personalized approach, surviving this volatile and competitive market is practically impossible.

A personalized user experience can be an effective way to boost sales prospects.

By collecting data on customers and using it to tailor the user experience to their specific needs and preferences, businesses can increase customer engagement and loyalty. Personalization can take many forms, such as recommending products based on browsing history, offering personalized discounts, or providing personalized customer service.

In addition, personalization can also improve the overall user experience by making it more efficient and enjoyable for customers to find what they are looking for.

Personalization can be implemented through a variety of technologies, including machine learning and artificial intelligence. By providing a personalized customer experience, businesses can increase customer satisfaction and ultimately drive more sales. 

5. Automation 

Nobody could have ever imagined the emergence of an ‘autopilot’ mode in a vehicle before Tesla introduced one.

Automation in technology has led to a drastic reduction in human intervention and finds application in factories, aircraft, and even electronic networking. But can automation fit into your B2B sales process

Statistics show that more than 40% of leading sales leaders have utilized automation in their sales pipeline by successfully interpreting market data.

An analysis by McKinsey shows that automation can find applications in at least 30% of all sales activities. Experts consider automation to be the guiding star of sales pipeline management and sales tracking activities including forecasting and sales analysis. 

6. Lead-Nurturing 

Experts believe that businesses cannot succeed in raising enough brand awareness until they nurture their leads.

Lead nurturing can not only generate more sales but also minimize costs by up to 33% through automation and creating targeted campaigns. Moreover, it helps develop and retain relationships at each sales funnel stage.

Lead nurturing programs can increase brand awareness and increase click-through rates.

A common lead nurturing technique is to send personalized messages to potential customers and encourage them to interact with your business. This can result in a 23% fall in sales cycles and higher response rates.

Lead nurturing is crucial if you want to survive in a competitive market and not be among the 65% of marketers who miss out on potential opportunities. 

7. Content Diversification

Content diversification is becoming an increasingly important trend in sales as we move into 2023.

This approach involves creating and distributing a variety of different types of content across multiple channels and platforms, in order to reach a wider audience and engage with potential customers in different ways.

Some of the key types of content that businesses are using for diversification include videos, podcasts, blog posts, social media updates, e-books, and infographics.

By diversifying their content, businesses can appeal to different segments of their target market, increase their visibility and reach, and ultimately drive more sales.

Additionally, this trend also helps to ensure that businesses can adapt to the ever-changing consumer needs and behaviors, that they are constantly providing new, fresh and relevant content to their audience.

Overall, content diversification is quickly becoming a must-have strategy for businesses that want to remain competitive and see continued growth in the sales landscape.

8. Role of SEO

Search engines like Google use over 200 factors to determine the progress of your online content and simple techniques like targetting the right keywords, on-page optimizations, and more can improve your search ranking by leaps and bounds.  

Hubspot reports that intelligent SEO techniques can boost content marketing by 75%. Yet, staying ahead in the Google algorithm is not enough.  

Organic research drives more than 50% of website traffic, which can be converted into successful leads. Statistics show that more than 70% of all purchasing research happens online.  

Thus, a successful sales conversion requires an SEO-optimized content strategy that appeals to the audience and restores a company’s reputation. So, if you want organic traffic in 2023, focus on creating content that delivers value and is optimized for voice search along with adding visual imagery for increased engagement.

9. Adopting Trustworthy Selling Strategies

Statistics show that most sales teams spend 64% of their time doing non-selling tasks like training, traveling, or any other task that hinders their sales progress.

Moreover, you can lose up to 12% of your annual revenue as a result of making strategies with inaccurate data. Revamp your selling prospects this year by designing selling strategies that actually work!

Business experts from the University of Minnesota suggest that there are four major selling strategies that you can adopt.

A script-based strategy uses a standardized sales pitch while a needs-satisfaction based strategy identifies a potential problem and aims to make personalized sales pitch. You may also consider a consultative selling strategy that uses special expertise to solve a complex issue while a partnership-based strategy involves a collaborative effort between you and your potential client.

Choosing the right sales strategy generally begins with identifying an approach followed by handling and implementing the same depending on customer requirements.

10. Manage Your Existing Customers

While devising strategies to generate high-quality leads surely work in your favor, you always run the risk of losing your existing clients. Reaching out to your existing customers is a valuable resource that can improve your branding and generate more revenue this year.

Data reveals that there is a 5-20% chance of generating a new sales lead while the probability of catering to existing customers is about 60-70%. On average, the customer retention rate is generally below 20% for most businesses.

In short, existing customers help strengthen your base by saving valuable time spent on promotion and marketing. Put stress on design campaigns that maintain your existing customer relationships and outperform your competitors. Online interactions and exclusive offers specifically for existing customers further add to your cause.

Conclusion

‘Growth and comfort do not coexist.’

Hubspot reports that 40% of businesses failed to meet their sales goals during the pandemic.

An even higher number of them barely managed to continue operations after that. With a sharp decrease in consumer demand, sales budgets stiffened despite technology being a major disruptor.

Despite those negativities, 2023 shines brighter, especially for companies looking to revamp their sales prospects. Stop shoving deals that can backfire; adopt measures that are sustainable.