1. Creativity is the new sales hack

One of the biggest sales trends in 2021 is creativity. In the face of an economic crisis caused by the pandemic, salespeople have to work twice as hard to ensure their business stays afloat and meets all the quotas. In a situation like that, it’s risky to rely on chance. Markets have become more and more crowded. Usually, competition drives innovation; it’s only a matter of time before your competitors come up with a new concept and gain an advantage of moving first. No matter how hard you work, if you employ the same methods as everyone else, there will inevitably be someone who’ll outcompete you. The only viable way to crack the code of sales success is to work smarter, not harder.

As a salesperson, you need to look for the things that will differentiate you from everyone else.  Do the opposite of what other companies are doing, and you’ll leave a lasting impression. Even the slightest bit of character in your sales strategy can help you stand out from the crowd, especially since a lot of salespeople have failed to recognise this. A jarring number of professionals simply use foolproof tips and strategies they find on the Internet without changing them. As a result, prospects receive the same outreach over and over again, which gives them an incentive. Therefore, you should always adjust the strategies to represent your business and be you.

Remember that there’s a thin line between silly and different when it comes to creativity. At the end of the day, your creative efforts must remain respectful and based on some research. You can’t just roll out a new concept and expect it to work. You should identify your target audience and come up with something they’d appreciate.

2. Implement Thorough Sales Automation (CRM)

Some trends remain popular throughout the years. They might not even align appropriately with other current trends, but because of their importance, there’s no way the community will go off them. An example of this is sales automation.

Okay, so sales automation is not really a trend, but rather a necessity you must implement for your business workflow to maintain a competitive advantage. A lot of people talk about automation taking away from creativity and personalisation as you try to scale the process. The truth is, it allows you to spend more time coming up with creative ways to sell your products and to personalise your offers better because all the routine tasks are delegated to dedicated software.

ABC’s Tip

The best way to automate your sales process is to implement a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system. It allows you to automate your outreach, set drip campaigns, visualise your sales pipelines, and manage them more efficiently.

You just have to choose your CRM system carefully and find the one that offers the most appropriate functionality to match your business’ workflows. Still, it isn’t just a CRM system integration that can help you automate the sales process. Everything related to the sales process optimisation with the software and/or hardware means falls under this category.

3. Value-based Selling

Although it sounds counterintuitive, the best tip for boosting your sales in 2021 is to stop trying to sell! The days when you could shove an offer into a prospect’s face and expect them to accept it just because it’s ‘an offer they can’t refuse’.  are far away from us. In 2021, customers are sick and tired of being treated like “cash cows”, especially in the B2B world.

The only way to attract your customers’ attention and push them towards making a purchasing decision is to convince them you prioritise their satisfaction over your profit. The most sincere way to prove that is to lower the price of your product, but let’s be real here… Every for-profit business’s goal is to generate as much revenue as possible. Giving out discounts like there’s no tomorrow is likely to make you go bankrupt before anything else. Instead of changing the price, you should change your leads’ perception of your offers. One way to do that is to implement a value-based selling strategy.

Too often, prospects shut down your offer without even giving you a chance to elaborate on it because they think the price is too high. Value-based selling helps you overcome this problem. All you have to do is to identify your prospects’ needs and wants and tailor your offer to them. Make the offer appealing to them by highlighting the benefits they’re going to get out of it!

4. Social Selling is essential

The rise in popularity of social selling further proves that the concept of ‘obvious selling’ is dying out. If you want to increase sales, you need to be delicate and unintrusive.

The idea of social selling has been in heavy rotation for a couple of years now. However, if in the previous couple of years it was merely advisable to wrap your head around the concept, in 2021 social selling is a must-practice for your business to stay afloat.

Instead of trying to sell your product right here and now, you should plant an idea into your prospects’ heads and keep developing it. Move into their heads by always being there for them, answering their questions, and showcasing your expertise online. When they’re looking for a product to buy, you should be the first business to come to their mind.

If you have a business profile on any of the social media platforms, you’re already engaged in social selling. But, if you’re not in control of it and don’t employ the correct strategies, social media activity can do more harm than good to your sales. More and more businesses are getting in on the trend and sell socially on purpose, so unless you match the effort, they can easily steal your sales from you.

The most popular social selling techniques in 2021 are:

• Social listening through monitoring posts
• Posting relevant to your prospects content
• LinkedIn Groups activity
• Go through more social channels in parallel

 5. Customer success over customer support

Another way to provide value to your customers and convince them to make a purchasing decision is by ensuring them that you’re genuinely interested in their business success. Instead of just focusing on ensuring outstanding customer support, you should prioritise providing a more positive, holistic customer experience. Shifting your focus towards customer success lays the foundation for it.

This trend emerged in early 2020, and was predicted to reach its full potential by the end of the year. However, the importance of implementing a strong customer success strategy has been multiplied by the change of customer priorities caused by the pandemic.

It’s no longer enough to produce a high-quality product and promote it to your target audience. Customers have become more demanding than ever before. Unless they’re a hundred percent sure the solution they invest their money in will work for them, they aren’t going to settle for it. You must be the perfect fit for your customers to stay loyal to your brand and keep generating your sales.

33% of customers claim they’d walk away from a brand they love after just one negative experience.

You’re not waiting for a problem to occur so you could showcase your expertise and solve it promptly. Instead, you’re proactive and reach out to customers first to educate them about your product and how it benefits their particular business. In 2021, the role of a sales rep and a customer success manager is to personalise the business’s product offer in a way that appeals to the customer’s specific workflows and processes.

ABC’s  Tip

In 2021, you must increase the number of demos and walk-throughs to show customers how to reach their full potential and get the most out of a product. On top of that, you can also enrich your communication strategy with assessment calls to review your customers’ accounts and suggest improvements.

6. Bringing All Your Teams Closer Together

Sales are no longer just about the Sales team. Since the customer journey has mostly transferred into the digital plane, all departments have a role in ensuring conversion. The Customer Support team helps you to provide added value to your offer, the IT department keeps an eye on the website and other channels of communication, the Sales team manages sales pipelines, and the Marketing team…well, does the rest of it!

It’s the Marketing department you have to team up with. To provide value to your customers and boost your conversion rate, you need to give them exactly what they want. Who’s there in your company that has a better understanding of the needs and desires of the customers than the marketing team? Monitoring the market and staying up-to-date with the latest trends is their direct responsibility, so they know everything about what makes your prospects’ head tingle. It wouldn’t hurt to consult them before you reach out with an offer to your next prospect.

ABC’s Tip

The best way to ensure your Sales and Marketing teams are always on the same page. Then, both departments have access to all the relevant information about the leads, their position in the sales pipeline, and what marketing activities are needed to to move forward. ABC Consulting has merged a successful combination of Consulting and Marketing with Dutch Synergy.