How to Build Pipeline and Keep Selling During a Recession [“Sales Shot” Workshop]
How to Build Pipeline and Keep Selling During a Recession
[“Sales Shot” Workshop]
Prospecting
How to Use Sales Intelligence to Close Deals and Boost Profits
The buyer’s journey is evolving quicker than ever before. Prospects want personalization at every level of the sales cycle, yet customization is impossible without accurate and relevant data, as every salesperson knows. This is where sales intelligence comes into play.
Sales intelligence is a word used to describe collecting and analyzing customer data to enhance lead generation, boost conversions, close extra transactions, and offer you a much larger and more precise picture of the sales process.
Finally, the primary purpose of sales intelligence is to improve your understanding of present and future consumers. Any information you acquire will be unique to your company.
Sales intelligence data goes far deeper than traditional customer data, allowing you to get customer insights such as demand data, buyer journey duration, source of acquisition, and improved customer persona profiles.
This article explains why and how sales intelligence is crucial for your business to close more deals and boost profitability.
Why is Sales Intelligence Important?
The sales intelligence platform can provide new ways to obtain new sales. Here are a few reasons why sales intelligence is so important for your business.
Discover Your Market Potential
You can access diverse prospects within your target market.
During talks with their target audience, many businesses merely nudge the tip of the iceberg.
The good news is that sales intelligence provides a highly complete, comprehensive perspective of your industry, guaranteeing that you don’t miss any prospective possibilities today or in the near future.
Identify Your Target Audience
Wouldn’t it be nice to get rid of most (or maybe all) of that significant research you have to do to find out what your target audience is looking for? It’s possible with sales intelligence. Static data and dynamic data are combined to make it easy for you to identify your ideal customer.
Monitor Your Competitors
Sales intelligence platforms can assist you in identifying your competition. It can also assist you in keeping track of what they’re up to.
Sure, you definitely know who some of your rivals are, but can you honestly say that you know who every one of them is?
Sales intelligence can assist you in locating each competition and monitoring their market performance.
Find Out Decision-Makers
When reaching out to your prospects, you must know the decision maker or the right person to help you reach the decision maker. It simplifies the procedure and helps you appear more professional.
Sales intelligence tools assist you in determining who the best point of contact at a firm is. You may search and filter by position titles and hierarchical levels to choose who to contact directly.
How to Use Sales Intelligence Tools to Boost Revenue
Build Your Ideal Customer Profile
One of the most critical and early phases in lead generation, qualifying, and nurturing is creating your ideal customer profile (ICP). However, because business is so fast-paced, the typical ideal consumer profile will not suffice. This is where sales intelligence can help.
By understanding more about your customers, sales intelligence data can increase the overall accuracy of your ICP. Insights such as intent drivers, content consumed, purchase triggers, region of operations, company size, and more may be obtained.
Enhance Sales Prospecting
Getting straight into the minds of your buyers and knowing what drives their buying decisions is one of the most important sales intelligence strategies. You may contact them more effectively if you understand their goal and are confident in your facts.
When intent data is integrated into sales intelligence software, you may begin to get notifications with specific purchasing signals when a prospect has the potential to convert into a client. These are hot leads on which your sales staff may zero in and provide modest nudges to persuade them to convert.
Assume a potential customer has had a fundraiser and is looking for expertise in your sector. What does this have to do with you? It signifies they are in need of and have the money to spend on the goods or services you are offering.
These insights might serve as a trigger for your sales team to contact the most relevant individual in the organization for a quick talk.
Better Lead Quality
The goal of the sales game is to obtain more leads. Many rookie salespeople believe that the goal of click funnels is to get more individuals into the funnel. In reality, the sales funnel assists in filtering out folks who aren’t yet ready to buy! When a customer becomes a possible qualified lead, sales intelligence tools alert you. This is due to the solution’s ability to track prior sales. It will also assist you in forecasting their future requirements.
You may also use website analytics with sales intelligence tools. This allows you to see what goods consumers are interested in rather than what they’ve purchased. This information can then be entered into your CRM.
These analytics can function in two ways. The first is to gather cookies and use them to reverse engineer where the user has visited. The second method is to utilize cursor trackers, which detect a user’s location and correlate it with what’s on the webpage. To process this raw data, both current methods employ AI.
Acquire Key Competitor Insights
While one of your company goals may be to sell a significant quantity of products or meet particular revenue targets, the truth remains that success depends on a variety of things other than how much you sell and how much income you generate. You must keep an eye on your opponent to stay ahead of the game.
Your competitive intelligence program can provide you with critical information. One crucial piece of intelligence you may get is the expiration date of contracts with your competition. This information is important since it allows you to create a sound strategy to entice them away from your rival and toward your brand.
You may accomplish this by demonstrating the benefits of your unique selling proposition, addressing their issues more efficiently, or simply providing a better value. With the correct tools, you can detect new competitors in real-time, monitor their campaigns and behaviors, and evaluate past data from your competitors.
Boost Revenue
When working with customers or clients, you must guarantee that your company remains relevant in the marketplace. This implies you’ll have to keep working on your brand. You’ll also need to expose your company to as many customers as possible continually. In short, you must continue to prod people with the brand to remember it.
Unfortunately, a company’s marketing budget is limited. You may increase your income by using sales intelligence technologies. They aid in determining whether or not a person has previously dealt with your firm. Following that, they choose the optimum moment to give them promotions.
It’s also a good idea to develop a filtering procedure for your customer list. Self-exporting is a big deal in the market. This may upset them and drive them away from your rival.
Final Thoughts
In the B2B arena, sales intelligence and sales intelligence tools are crucial not just for businesses because they help complete more transactions. Still, they are also vital for consumers who want to acquire a product or service that adds value to their business and alleviates their pain points. While several sales intelligence firms provide various sorts of sales intelligence tools and sales intelligence software, you must choose the one that is best for you.
The litmus test you should use is to look at how they can assist you in completing more business with less effort. Suppose they do not provide reliable information on prospects, their interests, and insights into their behavior patterns to help you plan your follow-up activities. In that case, such tools may not be the best fit for you.
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10 Virtual Sales Tips Guaranteed to Add Faster Revenue [Webinar Recording]
10 Virtual Sales Tips Guaranteed to Add Faster Revenue
[Webinar Recording]
Beyond the Keyboard: Tips for Prospecting via Phone and Video [“Sales Shot” Workshop]
Beyond the Keyboard: Tips for Prospecting via Phone and Video
[“Sales Shot” Workshop]
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What Is the SWIIFT℠ Selling Methodology?
Every 2 years there’s a new airport sales book, am I right? The longer I’ve been around, the more I’ve watched them cycle through. Ask questions! No, share insights! Add value! Wait, actually challenge instead. I don’t think I’ve read one I find incorrect, but I’ve also never aspired to be an airport author.
To me, the methodology is always secondary to the process. Also, the sales methodology only addresses the decision-maker conversation, and in virtual selling, the conversation is less than half the battle.
I take pride that Factor 8 content helps sellers find the right people, capture new contacts, figure out who to call, how to get (and keep) their attention, and get a call back – and all of that is before conversation one! (and yes, you can buy a tool to help with nearly all of that, but trouble ensues when tools replace strategy – that’s a different blog).
All that said, we don’t have a sales call where we aren’t asked about our methodology, and this is fair. You don’t want us teaching your people something counter to your culture, your process, or your existing methodology.
So for the first time in 15 years, I’m finally defining Factor 8’s methodology. It’s called:
SWIIFT℠ Selling
No, it isn’t a typo. SWIIFT℠ stands for, “So, What’s In It For Them?” and it’s the opposite of WIIFM (“What’s In It For Me”, in case you needed help with that one 😉 ). And although nobody purposely teaches reps to use the WIIFM methodology, it’s what happens in sales calls when we don’t teach them not to.
If you’re unsure what I mean, check your inbox. 99.9% of sales messages are about the rep, the company, the product, and what they want.
“I wanted to check in with you to see if you were getting enough leads because my company is helping others get leads and we’re the leading provider of leads and we’re doing an event about leads…”
Enough!
This is what happens when we onboard reps with company and product information only. They go out and parrot that information. Instead, SWIIFT℠ Selling teaches sellers to always first ask, “So, what’s in this call for them?” And to re-focus a message, a call, a value prop, or a call intro into one that leads with value for the customer.
If you’re thinking, “wait, I thought value-based selling is dead,” just try letting your 24-year-old rep lead with a challenge. Ouch! Also, SWIIFT℠ Selling doesn’t mean it’s ONLY about value, it means we use value and customer centricity to get and keep attention for our discovery call and our product demo, and our closing call.
Of course, SWIIFT℠ Selling also implies speed. Bingo! This is absolutely critical in virtual selling.
- If my email is too long OR all about me, we’re dead in the water.
- If my intro is too long or all about me, we’re dead in the water.
- If my discovery is too long or all about me, we’re dead in the water.
You know I could go on, right? Voicemails, value props, solution proposals, objection handling…
I can’t think of a single place where keeping our focus on speed and what the customer cares about hurts us in sales.
Wait, maybe there’s a book in this after all.
Wondering what customers care about? Watch our video on Factor 8’s SWIIFT℠ Selling Six below!
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10 Tips for Sales Success from a High-Performer
I’ve been to a lot of places, sold a number of different products, and won quite a few awards. Along the way, I have found a rhythm for my sales success. While everyone’s rhythm is different, there are certain keys to sales success that I have found to ring true for all.
Here are my top 10 tips for becoming a high performer:
- Persistence – On average, it takes 18 calls to get someone on the phone. Don’t give up, and be sure to have a voicemail and email cadence.
- Consistent Prospecting – A salesperson should always be busy. If you’re not closing, you should be opening (aka prospecting).
- Trust, but Verify – The information we receive, whether from online resources or a mutual acquaintance, is not always accurate. Verify your contacts, titles, needs, etc., directly.
- Track Your Cadence – Be sure to switch up the voicemails you are leaving and emails you are sending. Also, be sure to show Salesforce (or your CRM) some love. Tracking which voicemails and emails you use, when you use them, and which ones work can help in fine-tuning your cadence.
- Have a Conversation – Open with your SWIIFT℠ Pitch (So, What’s In It For Them), then ask the prospect a question. Relationships are built on two-way conversations.
- Let Them Tell You What They Want – Yes, you’ve researched a lot. Once you find out what their challenges are, you can show them everything you know.
- Penetrate Your Accounts – The truth is people leave. So, the more people that know you, the more likely you’ll keep the account when turnover happens.
- Objections are Good – You’ve engaged the prospect and they are seriously considering your solution. If they agree with everything you say, ask an unexpected question (called a pattern interrupt). Don’t be scared of objections, it means they are listening.
- Closing With Flexibility – Set upfront contracts and let prospects know it’s okay to say no and choose another solution. While we want to win every deal, that’s not entirely realistic. The easier you make it for the prospect to say no, the less time you’ll spend chasing dead deals. You can use that extra time to prospect new accounts that will cross the finish line.
- Feedback is Gold – Get feedback on every deal, if you can. No matter if you win or lose, the reasons behind the client’s decision are invaluable. It will help you close future deals and it will make you better. I promise.
Finally, winning the deal is only the beginning. Now you need to deliver on the trust they put in you. Exceed expectations and create those win/win situations.
It’s up to each of us to develop mutually beneficial relationships with our customers. To be the people they know, like, and trust.
About the Author:
Victoria Brooks is a Protégé in Generation 4 of #GirlsClub and a Technical Sales Representative at Dell. She moved into sales to better support her daughter as a single parent and found her confidence by creating win/win situations. She’s passionate about diversity, technology, and animal rescue. She’s usually roaming around Austin, Texas taking pictures to post on social and sharing sales “war” stories to anyone who will listen.
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One-Two Punch: Email + Voice Scripts That WORK When Prospecting [“Sales Shot” Workshop Recording]
One-Two Punch: Email + Voice Scripts That WORK When Prospecting
[“Sales Shot” Workshop Recording]
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How to Use Storytelling to Engage Prospects and Customers [“Sales Shot” Workshop Recording]
How to Use Storytelling to Engage Prospects and Customers
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