It’s been all encompassing for our lives, loved ones and of course our businesses in 2020, Covid -19 has thrust us all (willingly or not) into an accelerated digital world. We meet our parents, children and friends via Zoom and Facetime, do our shopping online and endlessly pour over contingency plans in the hope that we might find a glimpse of stability to our own sales pipelines that have been so affected by the shift to different ways of working in this “new normal”.
Marketing and Sales teams have been no different and yet some have fared better than others thanks in no small part to their digital agility and ability to quickly pivot their businesses to better online performances.
If like many businesses you’re still unsure about how best to use digital to maximise your own revenue then read on – we’ll share our 4 top recommendations for performance in the new world order.
Data understanding is our number one recommendation for any business in this climate – get fully acquainted with all of your data and start to deep dive into the key measures that really impact your business. Forget “how much data do we have” or “is it enough to run this campaign” and start mapping it to your sales process:
Building a core dashboard that lets you see in real time what’s coming in and what’s actually converting will give you key insights to make better, more effective decisions.
Global social media ad spend rose by 56.4% in Q3 2020 compared with Q2 and display advertising grew to a whopping £2.84 Billion as businesses rode out the first UK lockdown – competing heavily for the increased online traffic. Taking an audit of your existing channels and evaluating a) am I getting the results I need from this channel and b) where could I be getting better results should be the first questions on the agenda. Similarly an objective look at existing and new channels for their reach, penetration and relevancy to your audience could give you and your sales teams a fresh revenue stream to rebuild from.
Ok – that’s probably a given but I’m always surprised at the number of business that continually waste money on non-effective channels, run campaigns that produce zero results and insist on maintaining activity for activities sake. If it’s not working stop hoping that something will come out of those 400 facebook leads and switch your efforts to LinkedIn or TikTok or Youtube. Get a good, intelligent audit done of where you’re really seeing results and bin activities that aren’t giving you what you need.
Necessity as they say is the mother of invention and if this disruption has taught us anything it’s that we need to be prepared for what may be around the corner. Now is the perfect time to adopt new ways of thinking and working. Take face to face sales meetings as one example:
| OLD WAY | INNOVATE |
| Meeting booked face to face
Meeting held Chase calls |
Prospect fully qualified prior to Zoom call
Content shared prior to call Prospect sees first hand your solution/ product Trackable proposal & pricing sent Sales Rep fully informed about prospect’ behaviour online Receives notification that prospect has opened email for 3rd time Perfect timing call Close |
Not only can your sales team help inform your potential buyers better but digital technology can help them really understand the buyer behaviour allowing them to tailor their experience and increase their close rates, becoming more effective as a result.
Getting the edge in a disrupted market will always be a challenge – but with the right tools, tech and partners at your side performance doesn’t have to suffer in fact it could just be the opposite.
Posted by Helen Brookes on Tuesday 7th January 2020
