In today’s digital age, sales professionals and business owners must adapt to modern prospects’ preferences and behaviours to expand their customer base. Instead of relying on traditional outbound sales techniques and hard selling, companies need to focus on engaging prospects and creating personalized, emotional connections with their brands.
This article provides tips and strategies to help businesses convert prospects into loyal customers, from using customer data to deliver personalized engagement to offering webinars and useful content.
Focus on Engagement, Rather Than Promotion
As sales professionals and business owners, it’s crucial that we acknowledge our modern prospects’ desire to interact with us on their terms, how and when they choose. There has been a fundamental shift away from outbound sales techniques and the ‘hard sell’ – cold calling, for instance. In fact I would say that the challenge for businesses like ours today is to sell without selling; modern consumers are simply turned off by what are perceived as old-fashioned methods, preferring to deal with suppliers who let them control the pace and direction of their buying journey.
Today’s smartphone society increasingly rely on social media, blogs, peer reviews and comparison sites to self-educate on products or services they are interested in. This is a trend which is accelerating fast, and is part of the growing appetite for engagement rather than overt promotion. People are seeking more authentic, personalised and emotional connections with their chosen brands, which of course is partially driven by the immediacy of the online world. A Forbes article recently stated that over 60% of Millennials “are more likely to become brand loyal if a company engages with them, sincerely, on social media.” This is likely to hold far greater sway these days than anything sent to them directly by a traditional sales rep.
As such, when prospects do reach out and make contact, they are further along in their decision-making process – with some commentators estimating that 75% of the buying journey is already complete.
From Hot Prospect To Customer
So with this in mind, how can you seal the deal and convert prospects’ interest into sales and revenue? Actually, the fact that prospects are further along their buying journey than ever before should make closing the deal easier. Here are some key points to bear in mind to avoid potential customers slipping through your fingers.
1. Personalization
Use the wealth of customer data already at your fingertips through business tools such as CRM to identify new prospects and to deliver the truly personalized level of engagement expected today. This involves profiling customer segments to paint a figurative picture of your likely prospects. But it’s important to go beyond this and drill down deeper into your company’s data to individual customer level, analyzing key information such as purchase, billing and service history alongside communication preferences such as which online or offline channel they use and at which time of day. It is this degree of insight which allows you to personalize the all-important final steps in their journey to purchase
2. Commitment
When building any relationship it’s always a helpful strategy to ‘stage’ commitment by breaking it down into manageable steps that feel less intimidating. Start by asking prospects to make small pledges of loyalty to you, such as booking meetings, engaging with you about an email you sent them or completing an online survey. These all help to pave the way for future, larger commitments, as well as giving you actionable business intelligence on their preferences that will influence the nature of future interactions.
3. Visibility
As we mentioned earlier, today’s consumer is likely to verify your claims through a range of online means, from peer reviews and press articles to demo videos and blogs. Improving your visibility and customer reviews on the right channels will help you to progress prospects to the next stage. Remember, over 80% of consumers seek peer referrals before making a purchase.
4. Reciprocity
Giving tends to inspire a reciprocal gesture, so bear this in mind in your interactions with prospective customers. You could offer consultancy sessions, webinars or useful content such as eBooks – all of which satisfy the prospect’s preference to self-educate but at the same time make them feel valued and help to create stronger, more enduring relationships.
5. Effective Sales Process
Research shows that the difference between a sales team that executes and one that struggles to hit targets is process, so the importance of a trackable and repeatable sales process can’t be emphasised enough. Teams who work in a consistent way are more likely to move deals through the pipeline and close them. Developing a Sales Playbook
will help define your process and provides a transparent, detailed, honed roadmap for you team to implement, evolve and adjust to your new customer journey and buying behaviours.
To Conclude
To succeed in today’s competitive business landscape, companies need to understand and cater to modern prospects’ preferences and behaviors. By focusing on engagement and personalization instead of promotion and hard selling, businesses can create authentic and emotional connections with their customers, resulting in brand loyalty and increased revenue. By following the strategies outlined in this article, sales professionals and business owners can effectively convert prospects into loyal customers, making the most out of their customer base and ultimately growing their business.
