Sales. It’s literally the lifeblood of a company, which is why performance is so critical. More sales means more growth, which means more profitability—a precursor to even more growth. A nice cycle, to be sure. While relationships still take the lead in sales, technology has become a close associate for sales teams to lean on. There’s no doubt it has influenced the sales process, but technology has also provided opportunity for improved sales performance. Especially the newer innovations now hitting the scene.
How Sales Performance Is Improving with Tech
Technology is changing the sales landscape from what it once was. Of course, this has its benefits, especially given the once-in-a-lifetime pandemic we now find ourselves in. New technological innovations lend themselves to a streamlined sales process—paying dividends in new leads, more conversions, and better strategies to succeed in creating those conversions.
Plus, new tech offers more benefits than just an enhanced conversion pipeline. As mentioned, relationships still rule the day in sales and marketing. But technology has shown itself to be more than helpful in these all-important client relationships, allowing for quicker responses, nurturing long-term partnerships, and establishing a firmer connection with prospects.
All this adds up to an obvious conclusion: Technology assists and improves sales performance, in both the development and maintenance of relationships as well as the creation of meaningful conversions.
The New Tech That’s Out There
Technology’s pace is hard to keep up with. This rings true not only in daily life but in marketing as well. Sales teams have to be agile in their technological outlook, and able to adapt as the winds change course. And sometimes they whip around fast. Here are some new-ish tech options available that sales departments would be wise to acquaint themselves with.
Voice Search SEO
If you haven’t heard it before, you will now: as a society, we’re going mobile. What does this mean? We’re moving away from desktops and laptops—and moving toward that arm extension you call a smartphone.
This isn’t to say that traditional SEO has gone the way of the dinosaur. Far from it. But it does mean that voice search optimization should be a part of your sales and marketing equation. How do you do this effectively in voice search? By using something called long-tail keywords, which are highly specific keywords relevant to your business. Another technique to help out your voice search SEO is keeping up with reviews and customer responses online, which does wonders for your page authority.
Cloud Computing
The ever-present Cloud. This secure way of storing data will likely be a sales staple for a long time coming. Going this route does some heavy lifting for a sales department: it promotes efficiency, flexibility, and collaboration. All three of these are critical in a sales team’s continued success.
That’s not to mention what it can do in terms of remote work, a common practice in a post-COVID-19 workplace. It provides an easier way for things to get done, allowing your team to focus more on closing sales than getting derailed by everyday tasks.
Sales Automation
Large chunks of the workday can be eaten up by repetitive tasks that aren’t directly contributing to sales. While common in many departments, it’s not an inevitable part of the job, especially with technology like automated sales CRMs.
A sales CRM, even one that’s relatively basic, can schedule and send follow-up emails in a flash, with messaging tailored to different client/lead relationship stages. Plus, further personalization can be added in as necessary. CRMs also tend to have a score of templates to choose from so your sales team doesn’t have to do much, if any, guesswork. With a CRM, emails become worth the effort, without much time invested.
The same can be said for voicemails as well. These can be automated and sent out to leads, prospects, and ongoing clients, alike. Sales initiatives, plans, and funnels can also be streamlined using a CRM, which might pay back in more conversions and bigger sales.
Artificial Intelligence
Yes, even AI is making its way into sales and marketing. AI is well positioned to help do things as mundane as data entry—and as involved as helping make critical first connections.
In fact, some forms of AI are helping create virtual assistants, who offer data-based advice geared toward best practices. This could prove influential in sales staples like upselling and cross-selling. You might have noticed chatbots popping up on more and more sites. This trend will likely continue (and innovate) as these nifty AI helpers gather and store key lead and prospect data from the get-go.
How Uptick Can Help
Need some sales performance help? Uptick’s Marketing Consultants work to ensure your company (and ROI) thrives. We work with you to come up with the best digital marketing solutions for your business, and we know what technological trends will help you make more connections, drive more conversions, and give back more return on your investment. Contact us to get things started.
