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Match Your Sales Strategy to Revenue Growth Drivers [Roundup]

Jamie Shanks
Jamie Shanks

Welcome to your sales weekly roundup for June 16-23. This week we’re circling back around to some valuable sales posts that snuck past our radar: how savvy sellers can react to customers’ information overload, how CEOs can match their sales strategy to revenue growth drivers and some key definitions you should know as they relate to social selling.

Create Customer Value Through Commercial Insight

CEB has created this awesome infographic illustrating how an B2B buyers are experiencing an information overload, and how savvy sellers can react. Some highlights: 

Align Sales and Marketing to Create Value Early in the Purchase Process

Before you even speak to a customer, they are already 57% through the purchase process. Rather than acting in accordance with a traditional sales funnel, where marketing precedes sales, work in accordance with a modern one aligned for commercial partnership. In this model, sales and marketing work together to disrupt a customer’s’ current thinking and shift them off the status quo.

Marketing Sales Strategy Example: For improved sales & conversions, a right mix of sales & marketing is a must. Always be aware of the marketing qualified leads who show their interest in your business. An effective marketing strategy is to build a Marketing Automation Program for your MQLs. 

Teach Customers Now to Win Loyalty Later

The most business goes to the salespeople who teach the customer something new about his/her business. The greatest driver of customer loyalty is “Sales Experience,” so make sure you do everything you can to make the purchase experience enjoyable for your buyer.

Build Commercial Insights that Teach Customers About Their Business

 True commercial insight must do four things:

-Lead to your unique strengths

-Challenge customers’ assumptions

-Catalyze action

-Scale across customers 

Check out a competitive sales strategy example:  Customer is a king. Therefore, all your focus should be on satisfying the needs of the customer. A right approach is always important to know your customer’ s needs & preferences.  LinkedIn can be a genuine source to connect with the prospects. For instance, LinkedIn can help customers get commercial insights about your business & you can find perfect-fit opportunities for your business.

Rather than just general or accepted information or even thought leadership, try to create commercial insights that “disrupt your customers status quo and lead uniquely back to you as the preferred supplier.”

Create Customer Value Through Commercial Insight

*This is a summary of Create Customer Value through Commercial Insight by CEB.

Don’t Bring A Knife to a Gunfight—Match Your Sales Strategy to Revenue Growth Drivers

How many times has your sales team failed to hit their number? It doesn’t take long for the finger pointing to begin, but according to Associate Principal at SBI Tom Maloney, corporate strategy is often to blame. Different strategies require different growth drivers, so make sure you’re allocating resources in the right places to get the right results:

Market expansion: In order to meet the strategic objective of expanding market segments in your current portfolio, you might, for example, need a new product. Maloney points out that if the corporate strategy does not allocate properly for product and marketing resources, it’s unlikely your sales will be able to hit their number. 

New market exposure: If there are highly profitable niche markets overturned in corporate analysis, you need to provide the right strategy to conquer these markets. Allocate accordingly for new hires and channel partners, and forecast a revenue target for these new hires. 

Market share gain: Increasing share in an existing markets involves, in Maloney’s words, “a distinctive type of sales professional.” This means the corporate strategy should incorporate a talented component, which means notifying HR and sales to make talent recruitment a priority.

*This is a summary of Don’t Bring A Knife to a Gunfight—Match Your Sales Strategy to Revenue Growth Drivers by Tom Maloney.

The Ultimate Social Selling Glossary

Judy Tian for the LinkedIn Sales Blog has created this useful blog post “to help beginners and veterans alike improve their social selling strategies.” For young SDRs to experienced AEs, every salesperson can gain value by getting back to the basics and reflecting how to better understand, prospect and educate the modern buyer. 

Some key phrases you might want to know (Tian’s definitions):

Cold Outreach: More familiar to consumers as “cold-calling,” cold outreach is the process of reaching out to unqualified sales prospects via phone or email. According to Harvard Business Review, 90% of decision makers say they never respond to cold outreach. 

Pain Point: The pain point for a prospect represents a need that can be solved by the products or services you offer. It’s important to frame your sales conversations in a way that addresses your prospect’s pain point.

Social Selling: Social selling is about leveraging your social network to find the right prospects, build trusted relationships, and ultimately, achieve your sales goals. This sales methodology is rooted in relevance and value, eliminating the need for sales pros to perform cold outreach.

*This is a summary of The Ultimate Social Selling Glossary by Judy Tian.

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The Ultimate Guide to Social Selling