Sales trends

Trending This Week: Here Come the Robots

If you use pop culture as a reference point, robots are to be feared. Most science fiction movies, books, and television shows seem to predict the fall of mankind at the hands of robots or some form of AI.

Luckily, we live in the real world, where the use of AI isn’t quite as dangerous. Advanced technology is helping salespeople analyze and organize data efficiently, freeing sellers up to invest more time into strategy.

This week’s trending sales content includes a look at how salespeople can use AI to their benefit. You’ll also learn how to turn cold sales meetings into sales wins, how to overcome negativity, and more.

Here’s What Sales Professionals Are Reading and Sharing This Week:

Beyond the Hype: How to Transform B2B Sales With AI

It’s hard to get too far into a conversation before someone mentions that AI will steal our jobs. Fear not, says VentureBeat, as they say AI can be a valuable tool for B2B salespeople. In fact, their post says 76% of companies leveraging AI are seeing greater sales growth.

The reason? Salespeople have more customer information and data than almost anyone. So much so that it can be difficult to analyze and use efficiently. AI can help you parse that data, and this post goes into more detail about how AI can help salespeople in four areas:

  1. Mining for prospects
  2. Anticipating customer questions
  3. Offloading administrative tasks
  4. Closing deals

How to Convert Cold Sales Meetings into B2B Sales Wins

A recent story by Promo Marketing Magazine’s Joseph Myers explores how to convert cold sales into wins. The piece notes that 58% of buyers find no value in their sales meeting. That’s a high number, so what can be done about it?

The crux of the story is that you need to look for ways to add value. The piece includes these five ways that buyers say sellers can add value:

  1. Focus on the value you can deliver
  2. Collaborate with the buyer
  3. Educate the buyer with new ideas and perspectives
  4. Provide insight into the industry or market
  5. Deepen the buyer’s understanding of their own needs

Using CRM Data for Lasting Benefits

Sana Ansari of 3Q Digital examines the variety of ways CRM data can be used for sales in this post for Search Engine Watch. She says it is important to take a high-level look to see what is driving sales results. This post is the third part in a series that goes into more detail about how you can leverage different marketing channels and audiences to jumpstart your B2B sales.

All three posts are worth your time, and this one on data analysis is especially beneficial as it gives a glimpse into how you can take the results of your campaigns and refine them to make sure they ultimately drive sales.

Protect Your Mindset From Negativity

Negativity can creep in for even the best salespeople. After all, sales is as much about hearing “no” as it is about hearing “yes.” Author and speaker Anthony Iannarino says accepting the negativity as a reality is the best way to protect yourself from getting too high or too low.

If you accept that being turned down is part of the job, you won’t see it as a negative, Iannarino says. Having a sales pitch turned down is just a job duty, and if you treat it as such you won’t spend as much time bouncing between highs and lows.

Easier said than done, perhaps, but good advice nonetheless.

What Sales Should Know About Modern B2B Buyers

Gartner recently published a post about the modern B2B buyer. It covers a lot of the common ground about adding value when selling, but it also hits on another key area: The prevalence of digital in B2B sales.

Customers are not only relying more on websites, they are relying on a bevy of digital channels at all stages of the buying journey. Gartner research showed that 83% of buyers were using digital channels even in the later stages of a deal. That means salespeople need to be leveraging digital throughout the sale, even if they have already had an in-person interaction.

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