The world has changed a lot since March 2020. While some changes are (relatively) temporary, many have become the new norm for many parts of life. This is true for the new sales best practices for B2B: what worked in 2019 simply doesn’t work anymore. We’ve noticed changes in how we as a sales team operate and want to share three of those new sales best practices with you.
1.) Trade Shows and In-Person Interactions
Early on in the pandemic, tradeshows quickly pivoted to webinars, and in-person meetings moved to screen-sharing software like Zoom, Go-To-Meeting, and WebEx. While some tradeshows and in-person meetings are resuming in a post-vaccine world, that does not mean all. Some events offer hybrid in-person and virtual options, while others stay entirely virtual. Sales teams need to be ready to expand offerings and permanently adjust to virtual networking to meet these evolving needs.
With the advent of virtual meetings, timely follow-up has become critically important. Since it’s more challenging to interact individually in a virtual event, sales team members must leverage follow-up for one-on-one engagement. Teams should shift their focus to understanding who attended and how to reach different demographics post-event. If your team hosted an event, part of that engagement should include: data gathering, gaining information on what motivated attendees to join, what stood out to them positively and negatively, and any feedback they have on how to improve for future events.
2.) Email Marketing and Marketing Automation
One of the most impactful sales changes came from how teams use email marketing and marketing automation. Websites, while always important, became crucial during the COVID-19 pandemic and remain so today. That means teams now focus on driving traffic to their website with email and marketing automation campaigns.
This increase in web traffic opened up the data floodgates for savvy teams, providing insights on who is going to which page on sites, what content they’re interacting with, and what that means for their lead value. Sales reps prioritized the best prospects, increasing contact rates and moving pipelines with more data. Even as in-person interactions come back, many customers continue to favor self-selecting product and service providers and do so via their website. Sales teams should continue cultivating website traffic as a high-value pipeline.
3.) Sales Team Training
The usual way of doing business has changed dramatically, and most of those changes are here to stay. While it may be relatively easy for new hires to adjust, you need to update training for current sales reps to keep them prepared.
One of the most significant changes we noticed is that conference calls have shifted to web meetings, with a camera on attendees at all times. That means appearance matters: what the rep is wearing and what their background looks like during a call. Preparedness also matters more. Attendees can now see if you’re scrambling to find a document or look flustered when answering a question. Reps need to spend more time studying their material, so their confidence is reflected in their voice and face.
Preparation across the team is essential, too. Especially when multiple team members are on a video call, everyone must understand what’s happening and not be surprised by what another team member says or does. This means teams need to communicate better and prepare as a group for each interaction.
Let the Team at NuGrowth Keep You Up to Speed
There is no doubt that many of our relationships were strengthened during the lockdown period of the pandemic. At NuGrowth, we were able to see more clients face-to-face (albeit virtually) than ever before, and our team leveraged our many digital tools to gain and process data and stay more connected than ever as a team.
We’re bringing that knowledge and experience to our clients today, equipping them with the right tools and training to meet evolving customer needs.
Find out how to help your team stay productive and successful in this changing climate: contact us at 800.966.3051 today.
As Director of Sales Support & Development for NuGrowth Solutions, Brian McCann manages and leads the day-to-day sales training of NuGrowth Solution’s sales engagements and team members. Brian joined NuGrowth in 2013 as a sales rep and has earned multiple PEA monthly awards before being promoted to sales coach in 2015, Sales Manager in 2018 and his current role in February 2020. Brian focuses on training and mentoring NuGrowth’s greatest asset, our team members, promoting a culture that cultivates growth and drives innovation on behalf of the clients we serve.