The sales industry is incredibly progressive. There are always new tools to implement and new strategies to try. It is difficult to stay on top of it all. So, we decided to ask a group of sales experts this one question: What is the biggest trend you expect to see in the sales industry in 2019?
Sales Trends of 2019
Personalization
AI for Sales
Focus
The Rise of Omnichannel
More Sales Time – Less Sales Admin Time
AI Power
Buyer Enablement and Communication
Account Expansion
Sales Effectiveness vs. Noise
Personalization
Nationally recognized sales expert, Alice Heiman keeps her eye on the sales trends that will affect her clients who have a business to business complex sale. After 25 years in the biz, she knows that companies need to know what the future holds and follow best practices or suffer the consequences of flat quarters or worse losing ground.
One of the most important trends I see is personalization. We all know that selling is personal. People buy for their own reasons, even in a business setting. The salespeople who ride this wave and figure out how to personalize every touch with a buyer will move deals forward faster, be more able to help a buying team come to a consensus and will close deals more easily.
AI For Sales
Author | Speaker | Top 25 Inside Sales, Chad Burmeister speaks at sales conferences around the country, he’s written 3 books on sales, and he is CEO of one of the leaders in AI For Sales at ScaleX.ai and BDR.ai.
One of the trends that I see that’s going to sweep the country is the further bifurcation of the SDR and BDR function. In most cases, a sales professional who is great at digital outreach including email and social isn’t very good at telephone outreach. Companies who recognize this and create more role specialization in this area will be the winners in 2019 and 2020
Focus
Liz Heiman is the Chief Strategy Officer for Alice Heiman, LLC. She helps organizations that want to grow quickly to put the systems and processes in place to support that growth.
One of the trends I see for 2019 is focus. Sales enablement tools are being developed daily to help salespeople focus on what matters most. AI can help identify prospects that have indicated an intent to buy. It can help reps figure out who is most likely to buy and what to do to progress the sales. Sales enablement platforms help salespeople access current content quickly. Other tools remind salespeople who they need to contact or what activities need to happen. Sales leaders need to adopt the best tools and make sure they are implemented well.
The Rise of Omnichannel
Max Altschuler is the VP of Marketing at Outreach.io, the leading Sales Engagement Platform helping the world’s most innovative and fastest growing companies better connect with prospects and customers. He is also the CEO of Sales Hacker, the go-to educational resource and media company for B2B Salespeople.
We did our recent Sales Engagement Survey and found that LinkedIn messages and InMail are essential when it comes to modern outreach. Sales reps are understanding that you need to be where the buyer is, and tech is finally being built to make it easier than ever. A 1-1 video, direct mail, etc. New channels worth testing as phone and email get even more saturated.
More Sales Time – Less Sales Admin Time
Orrin Broberg, Modus CEO/President: We serve large enterprises by providing customized sales enablement solutions that increase sales, reduce costs, and improve workflows.
My frustration is with all of our sales enablement technology, salespeople are spending more than half of their time either looking for media or tending to their CRM. It recalls another famous quote: “Perfection is Achieved Not When There Is Nothing More to Add, But When There Is Nothing Left to Take Away” (Antoine de Saint-Exupery).”
Artificial Intelligence Power
Jamie Crosbie is the CEO and Founder of ProActivate. ProActivate partners globally with sales and marketing leaders to increase their revenue and productivity. They provide top-shelf sales, marketing, and leadership talent they need to change the trajectory of their success.
Artificial Intelligence has the power to disrupt entire industries – and sales is no exception. There are definitely a lot of ways that AI will continue to impact the world of sales in 2019. The more sales organizations implement Artificial Intelligence into their strategy, the bigger the impact on your productivity will be. Here are the main ways that AI can help salespeople be more productive.
Buyer Enablement & Communication
Howard Kalin is working tirelessly to help sales teams achieve revenue growth at their most important accounts. Helping sales leadership and sales teams plan and execute on their way to winning business.
1) Buyer enablement – sales executives need to provide clients with the right information and insights at the right time. 2) Increased face to face and phone communication. Data and intelligence are critical to the sales process but human beings working together make deals — people buy from people and buy more from people they trust. Customers are increasingly surprised and more importantly pleased when I contact them via phone rather than relying on digital methods.
Account Expansion
Sales leader, Christian Prusia, has been focused on helping connect prospects, customers, and revenue teams through identifying opportunities, clarifying points of contention, and bridging gaps that help accelerate learning and customer adoption. For 15 years, he’s been leading fast-paced and high growth sales teams through new acquisition and customer expansion.
One trend that never goes old is Account Expansion. Developing meaningful relationships within our existing customer base not only better aligns us with their goals and constraints, but positively impacts revenue and compliments our net new acquisition efforts. To make the impact lasting (i.e. a customer for life) requires genuine curiosity and empathy. When you show that you care more about a customer’s outcomes more than your own, you uncover worthy problems. And when you work shoulder to shoulder with your customer to solve them, amazing things happen for both of you. That is the magic we’re always trying to capture.
Sales Effectiveness vs. Noise
Kevin Quan has 20 years of experience working with enterprise B2B sales teams ranging from startups to $1B+. He is the founder and CEO of CloseQuickly, a sales playbook software platform that helps organizations scale teams with consistent and repeatable processes.
It’s a great time to be a buyer! Buyers now have access to more information than ever but are also faced with unlimited choices. Salespeople need to be more targeted, more personalized, and more human in order to build trust and relationships to help buyers on their journeys. Sales teams will need to be better trained and better equipped to effectively stand out from the noise.
What trends do you expect to see in 2019? Leave a comment below!
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