The past fifteen months have brought many changes, from internal organizational improvements to reimagining and shifting outbound marketing. This evolution has fostered a new awareness of who we’re selling to and where they spend their time.
It’s crucial that we take what we’ve learned about virtual selling and continue to develop those skills as we begin to emerge from the pandemic.
In this episode, we’re joined by Darrell Amy, author of the best-selling book, Revenue Growth Engine: How to Align Sales and Marketing to Accelerate Growth, host of the Revenue Growth Podcast, and co-host of the Selling From the Heart Podcast.
The highlights:
- How companies should be adjusting their marketing and sales strategies to match the current environment.
- How to combat “pivot fatigue” and get better at virtual selling.
- How companies can set aggressive but realistic revenue goals.
The Mountain
Companies must first consider what customers are buying right now as opposed to what they were buying before or during the height of the crisis.
When we think of “buying the outcome” in the context of a new normal, specifically in B2B, we’ve got to remember that the outcome shifted when COVID happened.
Now that we’re starting to enter the next phase — whatever that may end up looking like — it’s critical that business leaders are talking to clients, paying close attention to the outcomes they’re looking for, and shifting marketing messaging and sales strategy to match.
The Message
Last spring, businesses had to pivot quickly. If you didn’t keep track of your marketing automation platform and someone visited your website in the summer and downloaded something and then started getting a string of emails that said things like, “In these troubling times, it’s more important than ever…” how offensive would that have been?
You’ve got to get the right message, to the right person, at the right time.
The best way to do that is to talk to customers, listen and pay attention to what they want. What are their goals? Their challenges? Speak to those challenges in sales conversations and in marketing messages. If you don’t adapt to pivot fatigue and change your sales message, you risk missing out on the wave of opportunity in so many industries right now.
“We had to pivot when we got into this, and we gotta pivot coming out. The world we live in is going to be different. There are going to be different problems, which means different opportunities. Right now is a critical time to have our ears to the ground, and then get to work changing the message so that it’s going to resonate.”
Darrell Amy, author of the best-selling book, Revenue Growth Engine: How to Align Sales and Marketing to Accelerate Growth
The Methodology
We’re moving into a hybrid world, and as a result, the way we sell is changing.
Clients don’t want to be face-to-face all the time, which means today’s salespeople have to learn how to build relationships virtually through various channels.
The job of the B2B marketer or salesperson is not just to get in the door with one person; it’s to win the hearts of the entire buying team. You now have new abilities to influence the buying team through digital interaction, whether sending personalized videos or jumping on a Zoom meeting for a digital cup of coffee.
The person that understands the outcome and is able to influence the buying team is the person who wins the deal. When you take value and combine it with a solid relationship, you wind up with competence and connection. Now you’re mastering the art of virtual selling.
Moving Forward
Moving forward in the new normal, marketing and sales professionals have the most opportunity for growth in three areas:
1. An improved understanding of business:
This is the art of looking across a buying team and asking, do I know this person? Do I know what’s important to them? Do I understand the high-level company outcomes? The more you hone those skills, the better conversations you’re able to have.
2. Better goal setting:
How can you set realistic but aggressive revenue goals? How many customers do you have right now? How many customers can you get in the next 12 months? What’s your revenue per customer right now? What could you grow your revenue per customer to?
3. An better grasp of the process:
Every company has an engine. The question is, how many cylinders are in your engine? And those cylinders are your sales and marketing processes. The more you can get in place and consistently execute on them, the faster you’re going to accelerate your revenue growth.
Originally published on Mastering the Art of Virtual Selling,
