5 Sales Techniques to Leave Behind in 2021
Saphyte Team
Are your sales techniques not working like they used to? Is your sales affected by the pandemic? Then maybe your sales technique is considered outdated and should be left behind in 2021.
The global pandemic has disrupted so many companies and has drastically reduced their sales. But some companies have been able to figure out how to navigate the complexities brought about by the coronavirus crisis. They’ve been able to discover new techniques that worked in 2020 and will more likely work in 2021.
But of course, this requires them to abandon their old techniques that no longer work in the “new normal.” Below will be a list of these sales techniques to leave behind in 2021.
What you should know:
Manually recording data is time-consuming and energy-consuming. The solution? CRMs. They can automate the performance of sales and marketing tasks.
Sending emails one by one and on schedule can also be automated using a CRM.
Cold-calling is outdated and is no longer responsive to modern preferences.
Buying email lists to generate leads is a big NO-NO!
Personalization is key to outperforming the competition
5 Sales Techniques to Leave Behind
Recording customer data using Excel or Google Sheets
Many companies still do this. You can’t blame them. It used to be the “most advanced” way of collecting and recording data from customers. Well, compared to using pen and paper at least.
According to research, around 84% of small businesses still rely on manual processes to perform tasks. But manually recording data using Excel or Google Sheets is already outdated. And there are so many disadvantages to this.
They can get messy, they are limited when it comes to functions, and everything seems manual and tedious to do.
The Solution?
Use software like CRM to gather customer data. Some CRMs are free to use and they can be extremely useful when it comes to recording lots of data.
They are also visually appealing compared to Google Sheets. Most of them also have dashboards that get updated in real-time so everyone on your team gets updated on the changes.
CRMs are visually stimulating which can help with employee productivity
Related Article: Sales is More Than Just Data
Manually sending emails to prospective clients or existing customers
While sending emails is necessary, “manually” sending them isn’t. It can be time-consuming to send one email per client. And it can be energy-draining if you have to constantly check your schedule if “it is time” to send an email.
Technologies have already been created for businesses to be able to send emails automatically.
Imagine after creating an email marketing plan, all you have to do is wait for the software to send emails automatically, on schedule or based on trigger conditions (like when a new client just registered, or when a lead makes a purchase).
You can save so much time by doing this, allowing your sales team to focus on other important tasks.
Related Article: The Power of Workplace Automation
Cold calling to gather more information from leads or clients
Cold calling is dead — or at least it should remain dead. It’s a practice of the past that’s no longer keeping up with the times.
According to the International Smartphone Mobility Report, in the US, Americans prefer texting over making or receiving phone calls.
In many Asia Pacific and Latin American countries, there is a strong preference for communicating via chat apps like Whatsapp Messenger and Facebook Messenger.
So abandon this practice in 2021. It’s now time to let your clients do this task for you.
HOW?
Create a feedback loop mechanism: send them out a form to fill out. This form should gather the data that you are looking for. Reward them for participating by giving out discount vouchers, freebies, or other sweet rewards to encourage them to do it again.
The data you will be collecting is indispensable in personalizing your interactions with them in the future. Personalization is EXTREMELY IMPORTANT as it improves the customer experience and can determine whether the customer would like to purchase from you again.
Related Article: The Power of Customer Experience in Sales
- Buying email lists to generate leads
There are plenty of techniques to generate leads and one of them is to buy an email list and hope they will respond to your email campaign.
THIS IS OUTDATED. And in fact, with the prioritization of privacy these days, it may be considered as intrusive.
Businesses that do this should abandon this practice. There are so many “healthier” ways of generating leads and most of them are free and organic.
For example, using your landing pages to generate leads is a healthy practice.
How does this work?
Easy. Using features like the Landing Page Builder can help you generate leads when visitors “land” into your website or web pages.
It also doesn’t require technical knowledge on web development to do, so you can do this on your own.
What’s more, Saphyte can also automatically collect the data your website visitors inputted in the forms and integrate them into the CRM database where they can pop as “Leads.”
There, the lead can begin his buyer’s journey and be part of the campaigns configured in the system so all you have to do is wait.
Related Article: Why Landing Pages are The New Automated Lead Generation Machines
Advertising using the shotgun approach
The shotgun approach is— like you can imagine it— scattered and not precise.
This means that when you advertise in the hopes of getting more sales, you don’t have a specific target. You just advertise anywhere you think it’d work.
This is costly. And totally unnecessary.
What should you then?
What you can do, especially in 2021, is to gather your customer data so that you can serve them better.
Why is this important?
Leads and customers today are already bombarded with thousands of information every day. So it’s easy to get lost in the noise.
To stand out from the crowd, you have to learn how to PERSONALIZE your services, giving them information about things they need and prefer, and ADD VALUE to their lives.
Now you may not want to conduct a lengthy interview to do this. But here’s the thing: your CRM can do it for you.
Just automate the sending of EMAILS to gather more data about your customers. Or, you can automate the creation of reports related to your sales and marketing campaigns so your company knows WHAT TO DO NEXT.
In effect, your company can start making data-driven decisions, allowing it to position itself strategically in the market.
Related Article: The Power of Sales Automation
Conclusion
Abandon these outdated techniques and welcome new ways of making sales. They are quicker, more efficient, and more reliable.
Contact us at Saphyte to learn more about how to increase your sales with a CRM.