If you’ve been living under a rock for the past few years, things have changed, especially in sales. The way we’re selling is changing, the way customers are purchasing is shifting, and the way we interact is evolving. Depending on which way you see it, we have digital acceleration to thank or to blame!
Regardless of your stance, now is a great time for sales professionals to refresh their approach and look to embrace a digital-first methodology.
Why?
44% of millennials and 33% of buyers say they prefer a seller free experience, and by 2025, 80% of sales interactions between suppliers and buyers will occur in digital channels, so it’s a bit of a no-brainer.
The “everywhere” customer wants to self-serve, when, where and how they want. As a sales professional, anticipating and understanding their needs is critical. So, how do you influence the sale if they have what seems like everything at their fingertips?
1. Review your “digital” customer journey
The digital sales journey explains the process a customer takes from the moment they first notice you right through to purchase, and hopefully loyal customer.
Complete an audit of this “digital” customer journey and ask yourself, are you adding value to the customer at each interaction?
This could be as simple as the user experience on your website, a weekly e-newsletter they receive, a lead magnet they download, to the quality of a podcast episode. It all matters because it now takes, on average, 15 touchpoints to get a prospect to convert.
So, at each interaction in your digital sales funnel make sure you’re adding value and aiming to resolve their greatest pain points.
2. Take advantage of data
Thankfully the digital buying process generates a great trail of data. This creates an epic opportunity to capture important behavioural insights into our prospects and customers, which can be leveraged to optimise the overall customer experience at each funnel stage.
3. Boost customer confidence
We now know that B2B buyers spend a tiny 5% of time with a sales rep throughout the customer journey. (Gartner) We also know that close to 70% of the B2B buyer’s journey is complete before a prospect ever reaches out to sales. (Foleon, 2020) This means they have done the research through digital channels before reaching you!
This can be scary, considering the minimal time you have to influence the purchase decision; however, you can add value by helping them to cut through the noise.
There is such a thing as too much information, and you can provide value by knowing your customer intimately and reducing buyer uncertainty by helping them to understand the resources at their fingertips.
Hopefully, this has given you some prime examples of how a digital-first approach can influence sales!
Hungry for more? Check out our new guide, Unpacking the Future of B2B Sales, which explores the future landscape of sales and how to get a first-mover advantage. Or, if you want red-hot (G-rated) videos on how to get your sales firing, subscribe to our YouTube channel!
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