As 2019 draws to a close, it makes sense\nto survey the landscape and take note of the ideas and innovations that are\nmost likely to affect markets, and sales teams, in the year to come. With that\nin mind, here are five emerging trends we at Sandler believe sales\nprofessionals should be on the watch for in the year 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
1. Artificial intelligence (AI) will continue to\nchange the way sales teams work, get coached, and self-diagnose.<\/strong> AI is becoming more and more relevant to the world of the\nmanager and the individual salesperson. It is emerging as a powerful resource\nin support of the proposition that the most effective salespeople are made, not\nborn. When used properly, AI gives salespeople the tools they need to quickly self-diagnose,\nand gives managers the tools they need to become more effective coaches.\nCompanies like Gong provide software packages that allow salespeople to\nidentify the best phrases and tactics used by top producers within the company.\nThese packages also enable managers to coach to very specific points within the\nrecording of a real sales call, and to create portfolios of best practices that\ncan easily and quickly be shared with the entire team. In 2020, AI is going to\nbecome more important as a coaching and diagnostic tool for the top-performing\nsales teams, enabling individual contributors to ramp up and play at the top of\ntheir game more quickly than ever before. <\/p>\n\n\n\n 2. Partnerships and alliances will give some\nsales teams a major competitive edge. <\/strong>In\n2020, your organization\u2019s strategic relationships \u2013 or lack thereof \u2013 will make\na huge difference in terms of how buyers respond to you. So if you haven\u2019t done\nso already, start looking around to other organizations that can add value to\nyour current client base. You won\u2019t want to choose a direct competitor as an\nally, of course, but you will want to be able to point to relationships that\noffer relevant, complementary products or services to your target market. Strategic\npartnerships and alliances allow you to expand your offerings into entirely new\necosystems, giving you a far easier way to break into new ground than\napproaching buyers \u201ccold.\u201d This vitally important competitive factor will\nbecome more and more important as the year progresses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 3. The design and execution of digital \u201cdrip\u201d\ncampaigns will increase in importance.<\/strong>\nEven now, market leaders are creating sequential \u201cdrip\u201d campaigns for prospects\nand customers in their systems. In 2020, determining how, when, and with what\ncontent you decide to engage digitally with buyers and prospective buyers will\nbecome an even more important topic. You can choose the cadence that makes the\nmost sense for your market and your industry, but as a general rule, you will\nwant to send relevant digital \u201ctouches\u201d to people who have opted in to your\ncompany\u2019s CRM system about every two weeks. Identifying your messaging and its\nfrequency should be a major priority. You will want to send content that\nengages your base of contacts by offering relevant insight, advice, and\nupdates. These touches must cast a spotlight \u2013 not on your technical features,\nbut on the pains that you have resolved and the customers you have kept happy. (If\nyou simply recite your one-size-fits-all list of features and benefits, you\nwill succeed only in alienating the intended recipient and increasing his or\nher \u201cinformation overload.\u201d) The goal is to enable the recipient to see and\nbuild an emotional connection with your brand by engaging with relevant content\nthat offers different perspectives over time. Don\u2019t let the messaging become\nrepetitive. That\u2019s an instant turnoff. <\/p>\n\n\n\n 4. Sales teams who synchronize their efforts\nwith their own customer support teams will enjoy a significant competitive\nadvantage.<\/strong> Those who service your customers after\nthe sale are invaluable resources in your organization\u2019s never-ending effort to\nwin and retain customers. The sales professionals who understand this and act\naccordingly will have a major advantage in 2020. Too often, the support teams\nare siloed apart and don’t get the chance to communicate with the sales team as\noften or as directly as they should. Don\u2019t let this happen in your world!\nRemember that the members of the customer success team have a very different relationship\nwith the customer than you do. As a result, they are likely to hear important\nthings that you may not hear. Once you\nlay the foundation for a good relationship with your internal customer success group,\nmeet with them regularly and celebrate their victories as though they were your\nown. You will find that retaining customers, and expanding your reach within\ntheir organizations, will be much easier. <\/p>\n\n\n\n 5.\u201cTechnology\nfatigue\u201d will offer sales teams an unexpected opportunity.<\/strong> Today\u2019s buyers are bombarded by electronic messages\ncoming from all different directions. Much of this messaging is perceived as\nirrelevant, and there\u2019s a rising wave of exhaustion with the amount of data\npeople are expected to process. Yes, today\u2019s information technology has allowed\nsalespeople to \u201ctouch\u201d prospects without actually being physically present.\nUnderstand, though, what that means: buyers are being barraged with appeals\nfrom multiple salespeople! The sales professionals who stand out in 2020 will\nbe those who understand this dynamic and respond to it intelligently. The\nsimplest and best way to deal with this \u201cinformation overload\u201d problem is to\ngain a clear, direct, personal understanding of the specific business pains\nexperienced by each distinct subsection of your market \u2013 and to then speak concisely\nabout those pains to the people who are most likely to experience them. The\nmore targeted your appeal to the individual\u2019s pain, the more effective your\nmessaging \u2013 digital and otherwise \u2013 is going to be. Bottom line: avoid relying\non one-size-fits-all \u201cblasts.\u201d Target your communication to the specific\nbusiness problems you have solved for a discrete, narrowly-defined portion of\nyour market. The goal of making pain disappear will always be the driver that compels\npeople to tune out noise and take action. Your competition may rely on long\nparagraphs about features and benefits, but you don\u2019t have to. Stand out by\ngetting more specific about the problems you\u2019ve solved in a narrowly-defined\nsegment, and the dollar implications of failing to solve those problems. If you\ndo that, you will not only have more and better conversations than the\ncompetition, but you will close more sales.<\/p>\n\n\n\n These are the five big trends we see on\nthe horizon for 2020. Make it a great year!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" As 2019 draws to a close, it makes sense to survey the landscape and take note of the ideas and innovations that are most likely to affect markets, and sales teams, in the year to come. With that in mind, here are five emerging trends we at Sandler believe sales professionals should be on the watch for in the year 2020.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":167,"featured_media":12053,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1120],"tags":[1391,1463,1057,1154,1135,1406,1407,1408,1264],"class_list":["post-12052","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","tag-crm-system","tag-customer-experience","tag-professional-development","tag-professional-growth","tag-sales-development","tag-sales-innovation","tag-sales-technology","tag-sales-trends","tag-technology-in-sales"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n