Great article here, by John Hall on Forbes where he recognizes the fact that digital has changed sales and marketing, he starts the article by saying
"The goal of any business leader is, simply stated, to drive growth."
I would say, profitable growth, but we are splitting hairs.
The following three insights are crucial for leaders seeking sales growth.
1. Embrace Digital Buyers
"There is no doubt that COVID-19 transformed the B2B market landscape. Digital communication went from being a bonus to a necessity as in-person meetings ceased. Buying behavior also changed as customers more frequently use digital channels to encounter brands. Now, in a B2B sale, CEOs need to be certain that their team is prepared to enable omnichannel selling to meet the customer where they are."
This is 100% right, we know, as the data from Salesforce, Gartner, Hubspot all shows that the modern buyer is digital and on social. And for a business to be successful today, your C-Suite from the CEO down must be driving the sales and marketing teams to be digital.
In fact, B2B Pulse research from McKinsey, which shows ‘two thirds of U.S. buyers opt for remote human interactions or digital self-service at various stages of their decision journey, such as identifying, searching for, reviewing, and evaluating new suppliers, as well as for ordering and reordering.’
It's official, well official from IDC and SAP that your buyers are on social media looking for solutions to their business problems. Research here. There is also an article about it from MarketingProfs here.
Recent research stated that
67% of buyer will engage in social networks and communities to get information about a vendor, product, or service
That does means that if you business and your sales team are not digitally enabled you are missing out on these clients, "leaving money on the table" as the saying goes.
One of our clients where they have closed a $2.6 million deal, with social selling, they then took another $600,000 out of them six months later. Not a bad return on their investment (ROI).
2. Coordinate Your Sales and Marketing Efforts
Back to the Forbes article, "When sales and marketing are able to work in tandem, wonderful things can happen for a business. Marketing services allow sales representatives to more fluidly reach online customers. Sales representatives are able to help marketing teams better understand those same customers. Sales teams also provide data that can streamline crucial marketing efforts that lead to the retention of clients."
In my second book "Smarketing - How to achieve competitive advantage through blended sales and marketing", I explain how to merge sales and marketing to increase growth.
3. Establish Yourself as an Industry Thought Leader
We often ask the question of businesses
"who is the leading technical and commercial digital influencer in your marketing or vertical?"
Leadership teams look at us blankley. If there isn't one then you have a great opportunity to control the market and make it you, if there is one, then you are behind and have a lot of catching up to do.
John says in the Forbes article
"You’re in a position of power, a position of authority. You have the ability to use your voice and influence others. In fact, one common definition of leadership is the ability to have an impact on the beliefs and actions of the people you are leading — to influence them. Why should it be any different to influence customers and clients?"
This is about you owning and controlling the market, this is critical for a growth strategy and for your business to gain pipeline, market share, competitive advantage, but not just the modern buyer, but the modern job seeker. It will enable you to get the best clients and the best employees.
Want to know more about social selling, check out my new book
"social selling techniques to influence buyers and changemakers - 2nd edition".
In this brand new edition, I have updated all the text, I have also got 15 practitioners, so people who are doing this already to explain how they are get (practical) business benefit. From the CEO that has been running a digital business for over 18 months to sales leaders who use social selling every day.
Articles on how these business have and are implementing digital, from Mercer, Telstra Purple, Ring Central, Cyberhawk, Namos, Ericsson, Crux Consulting, DLA Ignite and more.
It's available on Amazon worldwide. Link to Amazon.com here and Amazon.co.uk here.
In most cases, driving growth means increasing sales revenue. However, as trends in sales and marketing are continually changing, CEOs and CMOs are required to work smarter to understand and relate to their buyers, so they can direct their teams. The following four insights are crucial for leaders seeking sales growth.
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