The pandemic modified the day-to-day processes of the B2B gross sales group virtually in a single day when the world went 100% digital.
A current ZoomInfo survey of about 600 gross sales and advertising and marketing professionals discovered that almost all gross sales reps mentioned they relied on in-person occasions for prospecting earlier than 2020. Final yr, nonetheless, many stopped utilizing occasions for prospecting, as an alternative adopting old style strategies like (gasp!) really calling individuals on the telephone.
Right here’s a more in-depth take a look at how gross sales rep processes modified prior to now yr and whether or not these new strategies will outlast the pandemic.
Adapting to vary at scale
Eighteen p.c of survey respondents reported that their groups shrank final yr, the most typical change, whereas 13 p.c mentioned they needed to shift assets from in-person to on-line (no surprises there).
In response to a 2020 Outreach survey, roughly 80% of groups with greater than 25 sellers reported a necessity for change when it got here to ongoing points comparable to visibility into promoting actions, productiveness, and gross sales and advertising and marketing alignment. With a big group, new change administration processes might be extra sophisticated and burdensome — particularly in a brand new distant working surroundings.
Prospecting within the event-less panorama
Earlier than final yr, most gross sales reps mentioned they recognized probably prospects by assembly individuals at occasions. Flash ahead to 2020: 41 p.c of gross sales respondents stopped utilizing occasions for prospecting and 19 p.c began utilizing video requires the primary time.
Gross sales reps are additionally leaning on extra conventional methods to succeed in out to potential patrons. And it wasn’t simply by Zoom conferences: 62% of respondents to ZoomInfo’s survey mentioned they used the telephone extra in 2020 than in prior years.
Probably the most oft-cited problem for gross sales actions stays connecting with certified prospects, with 33% of respondents citing “discovering correct contact data” as a key impediment within the course of.
And so it’s clear that one factor didn’t change all through the pandemic. Entry to high-quality knowledge about potential clients stays extra essential than ever earlier than.
Accessing high quality knowledge through channels that also work
Nearly all of survey respondents reported that their gross sales tech stack didn’t change a lot throughout the pandemic. Different approaches to prospecting — together with bulk emails, direct messages on social media platforms, web site chat messages, and textual content messaging — held regular as properly.
However telephone calls, video calls or conferences, and particular person emails had been used extra regularly by a majority of gross sales reps. And probably the most generally cited efficient technique to determine prospects? Inquiries on the corporate web site and engagement with advertising and marketing content material.
Which means that gross sales reps who’ve entry to certified, engaged prospects are going to shut extra offers than those who don’t. And that isn’t going to vary as soon as the world utterly opens up for in-person enterprise once more.
In conclusion …
So, what did reps do in a different way final yr? Briefly, they tailored.
Some reps are engaged on smaller groups, whereas others are filling their prospecting funnel with fewer enterprise playing cards in hand. Many switched gears by choosing up the telephone for the primary time shortly. All of them have one factor in widespread, although.
With out high quality intelligence to information them, even the most effective reps run the chance of failing to adapt to the brand new regular.
