Coca-Cola recently made news by eliminating their company voice mail system. Now, instead of being asked to “leave a message after the beep,” callers hear a message encouraging them to “call back at a later time.”
As this Hubspot blog points out, Coke’s decision is indicative of a change in buyer behavior. Given what we know about B2B buyer behavior, relying on a single channel of communication in today’s connected world is detrimental to success.
Your sales team needs the ability to connect with buyers through a variety of modalities. Help them focus on building a robust network, and initiating connections on the buyer’s terms.
Today’s buyers are more educated, more social media-oriented, and more content-focused than ever before. They don’t want to receive cold sales pitches from someone with whom they have no connection.
Find out what social networks, LinkedIn groups, and other online communities your prospects spend time in, and encourage your team to join them there. Teach salespeople to build their networks online, paying attention to both quantity and quality of people. When you have ways to reach your prospects outside of voice mail and email, you can improve your chances of getting their attention.
Building connections with buyers also gives your sales people the ability to continually add value through engagement after the opportunity has closed.
A sales team that knows how to comfortably and confidently engage with prospects through multiple channels improves their odds of getting through and showing value to prospects. Provide your sales team with the tools and processes necessary to get comfortable with the vast and ever-changing array of communication alternatives now available.
Many professionals are buried in emails that they never read, but those same professionals may be active on Twitter, or happy to exchange through LinkedIn. If your sellers aren't comfortable engaging prospects and customers on these networks, they're missing a valuable opportunity. Your job as a sales leader is to give them the skills and tools that make them comfortable communicating with their customers and prospects through a variety of channels.
Once your team is spending time in the right places connecting with the right people, ensure they have an operating rhythm around articulating value and differentiation throughout the sales process. Buyers are more research-oriented than ever before, and more wary of “being sold to.” They want solutions, not pitches.
Teach your team to tap into the digital buying process by connecting prospects with valuable content and resources that demonstrate the value of your solutions as they relate to their most pressing business issues. We talk often about becoming a trusted advisor in the sales process. Trusted advisors add value because they're resourceful.. Your sales team needs the ability to be a continued resource for their buyers and current customers. Then, your sales team can escape the need to leave repeated voice mails or email chase, and focus instead on drawing qualified buyers to them.