2018 is here! And if history repeats itself, just like 2017, we’ll see major developments in the sales world. You can either let these changes just happen to you – or you can be aware and prepare yourself to take advantage of them. I am guessing you’d rather do the latter.
To find out what it’s going to be like, I asked a couple of sales reps and leaders to predict the top sales trends for the year 2018.
Artificial Intelligence
Aren’t we all fascinated by smart homes deciphering speeches to turn on lights or schedule appointments? Those self-driving cars? And Amazon’s amazing ability to predict what we want to buy?
Artificial Intelligence is changing our daily lives; it’s not just the consumer world but also the B2B stage to playing a starring role. Majority of marketing teams are now using AI as it helps them gain deeper insights, digital assessment management, personalization of the content, and increase efficiency.
Perhaps the greatest impact of AI is its transforming effect on sales productivity. AI does this by automating the time-consuming and manual tasks that eat away all the time sales reps have in their kitty to give them more time to actually strategize and sell.
Personalization
Audience now is more accustomed to the personalized experiences from e-commerce sites to the Facebook, things are found dished up according to their preferences. That means, one size fits all is a concept out of the bucket now. So now it’s time for B2B marketers to realize that customers are people and are accustomed to customer experience which they expect when looking for B2B products and solutions.
So what does personalization looks like in a B2B Sales world?
- Personalized content
- One on one engagement on different platforms
- Increased use of the phone
- Personalized sales emails
Account Based Selling
With the growing trend and success of account based marketing, account based selling has also rejected the concept of one-size-fits-all selling mindset.
It’s all the more easier mapping and targeting the prospects with relevant content once you have identified the highest-value sectors and the key decision makers.
This approach not only reduces the pay-per-click cost but also the ROI gets pretty simpler to track.
And while most of the sales world is shifting, remember one thing – CUSTOMER IS KING!
