It’s hard to imagine, but there was a time when products, services, and solutions were only sold in a physical sense. Salespeople were seen as the single gateway and go-to experts before, during, and after any sale took place.
Fast forward to today's digitally connected world, when people can learn almost anything they want about a product or service with just a few clicks of a mouse.
Today the world is driven by digital and as a result, almost all aspects of the sales process are strikingly different. Everything from prospecting, questioning, and meetings to presenting, negotiating and closing has changed.
Selling in the digital age means understanding the digital tools and technologies available to you so you can effectively leverage your online presence to reach, engage, and convert your target prospects and customers.
To do that, you need to begin by understanding digital marketing.
HubSpot says:
“Digital marketing encompasses all marketing efforts that use an electronic device or the internet. Businesses leverage digital channels such as search engines, social media, email, and their websites to connect with current and prospective customers.”
Sound familiar? It should. As a sales professional you have the same goal but you probably haven’t been thinking about digital marketing in this way.
Maybe you think you don’t need to know about digital marketing because you’re not the one researching keywords, executing campaigns, and optimizing results, but think again.
We’ve talked about the importance of sales and marketing alignment in the past, and we will continue to drive this point home because the lines are no longer blurred between these two departments.
The most successful marketing and sales teams have merged into one revenue-operations team. And for good reason:
To put it simply: Better team alignment = more revenue.
So, why should every sales professional understand digital marketing?
Because the internet has changed everything. Digital media has disrupted how information is created, distributed, and consumed. Your role as a salesperson has changed. It’s become more consultative and less transactional. And there’s an increasing need to be more data- and tech-savvy.
But with change comes opportunity. The opportunity to learn, grow, and improve.
From a sales point-of-view, when you have a firm grasp on digital marketing, you will know how to:
Now let’s dive into these one by one so we can explain how each applies to your sales process and approach:
In marketing speak, this means knowing your buyer personas inside and out.
A buyer persona is an essential tool for any marketer. They help you understand your customers, and ensure that your messaging (everything from sales emails and website content to trade show materials) is relevant.
A persona is a semi-fictional representation of your real and potential customers, based on market research and data. A persona uncovers your customers’ goals, motivations, behaviors, values and pain points.
While this is something that may seem obvious, I am consistently surprised by the number of salespeople who don’t have a good handle on the profile of their ideal buyer.
How will a better understanding of this help your sales approach?
When you start thinking of your leads, prospects, and customers from their point-of-view, it will help you more effectively connect and appeal to their emotions as people and not just as a buyer of your product, service, or solution.
You will also be able to better qualify and prioritize leads because you’ll know exactly who you should be talking to.
You can’t sell the same way to everyone.
Someone in the early stages of their journey has different needs than a prospect who is getting closer to making a decision.
HubSpot defines the buyer’s journey as: the process buyers go through to become aware of, evaluate, and purchase a new product or service.
The journey is a three-step process:
This seems like a fairly straightforward process, and it is, but the digital age has introduced some complexities to this process. Namely, the ability to search for and find your own information about a potential product, service, or solution.
For example, 60% of buyers would rather not communicate with sales reps as their primary information source. And 68% of B2B customers prefer to research independently online.
Selling in the digital age has introduced new ways of connecting and gathering information. While this is good in some ways, it also means your buyers are developing their own opinions and biases. So where does that leave you?
How will a better understanding of this help your sales approach?
As a sales professional you need to diversify your strategy and think digitally.
Mapping your sales process and approach to the buyer’s journey will allow you to deliver the right content at the right time, ask the right questions of yourself, and connect with prospects on the right social media platforms.
Conducting keyword research and having knowledge of SEM and SEO practices are critical to selling in the digital age.
If a prospect begins their research with generic terms (and according to Google, about 71% begin with a generic query) that means they are looking for possible solutions to their problem first, not your product, service, or company name.
While optimizing your website for this type of search is the responsibility of your marketing team, the sales team can learn a lot about buyer intentions and interests from this type of research and knowledge.
Consumer behavior research suggests that trust is essential to forming an intention to purchase. When trust is high, people are much more likely to take risks and engage.
How will a better understanding of this help your sales approach?
Your buyers want to work with someone they can trust. They are looking for a credible and affordable product, service, or solution.
From a sales point-of-view, you need to position yourself as a trusted advisor. Selling in the digital age will allow you to do just this but it requires a combination of perspective, digital thinking, and networking.
Digital marketers understand the importance of creating experiences that are relevant and personalized.
Selling in the digital age means higher expectations regardless of selling in the B2C or B2B space. It means your prospects are making decisions about you and your services long before they ever make contact with you or a fellow sales rep. This makes personalization even more challenging but all the more necessary in order to stand out among your competitors.
Consider these statistics:
How will a better understanding of this help your sales approach?
Everyone likes a personalized experience. Your B2B buyers are no different. They are still consumers influenced by how they purchase everyday items. The convenience of Amazon, the ease of Uber - all of the experience affect their expectations - and they now expect the same easy purchasing experience from you.
You can personalize the B2B experience through preparation, technology, and targeting.
Measurement is the first step in understanding your results: what was the reach and effectiveness of the campaign? How many people saw, clicked on, and converted from various marketing channels?
You can analyze your marketing campaign data to understand how your campaign performed on a high level as well as a more granular level. This way, you can understand both the minor and major components of the campaign and whether they were successful or not.
Highly data-driven organizations are three times more likely to report significant improvement in decision-making yet, 62% of executives still rely more on experience and advice than data to make decisions.
What gets measured gets managed. That’s why organizations that are focused on data and measurement are honed in on how to optimize and improve. They are able to analyze data and identify actionable insights.
How will a better understanding of this help your sales approach?
Sales and marketing data is a treasure trove of information. The better you are at analyzing, interpreting, and making a decision, the better you will be at managing your time and reaching your goals.
As a sales rep, you have revenue targets or a sales quotas, but is this all you’re tracking? You need to track your sales activities and create goals around each.
For instance, you might have numerical goals for qualified leads, phone calls, meetings, proposals etc. Some of these may be weekly goals. Others may be monthly or quarterly.
You can’t sell the same way to someone who is at a different stage of the buying journey. You need to understand where they are and then adjust your strategy accordingly.
Customer-first thinking translates to support, offers, and products that are appropriate to the buyer’s precise location on the path to purchase.
Meeting expectations requires a comprehensive view of the customer, fostered through a good understanding of data as well as sales and marketing alignment. In this way, alignment benefits both customer and company alike, with 54% of sales and marketing pros citing collaboration as a booster of financial performance.
You need to know a lot about sales and digital marketing to excel at selling in the digital world. Sign up for our bi-weekly newsletter, Finally Friday, to start your day by laughing and learning with DMT!