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Top Sales Experts’ Predictions for 2017 [Weekly Roundup]

Jamie Shanks
Jamie Shanks

top-sales-predictions-2017.jpg

Welcome to the weekly roundup for January 1-7. This week we’ve got 9 expert sales predictions about the new year, how sales teams can leverage video content, 13 highly personalized email templates and highlights from Salesforce’s new State of Service Report. Enjoy.

2017 Sales Predictions from 9 Selling Experts

Vidyard, a company that provides tools to help business leverage video content, has put together this informative Slideshare on what sales teams can expect in the coming year in terms of sales processes, technology and training. Here are some key takeaways:

  • Thought leadership is about to become a lot more tactical, meaning practitioners will get a lot more mindshare (Koka Sexton).

  • Organizations that do realize the benefits of social selling will create positions dedicated to owning the program. However, many companies (about ⅔) will still ignore the ROI of social selling entirely. (Jill Rowley)

  • Marketing teams are about to start seeing more direct ties to sales quota attainment. (Jamie Shanks)

 

The 5 Benefits of Using Video Content for Sales and Social Selling

It’s 2017 and if you’re not on video, you’re missing a huge sales opportunity. This is exactly what LinkedIn’s original social selling expert Koka Sexton highlights in his latest post.

1) Video Targets Non-Readers. Blogs are time-consuming to read. Most people, Sexton says, will just read the headline or skim the post. Video demands attention and can interruptive by popping up when people click on certain pages of your site. 

2) Video Is More Engaging. Salespeople love the path of least resistance. This is why video is the perfect way of engaging them. With video, you can speak directly to your leads and demonstrate how a product or service works. The whole experience makes your product or service that much more compelling, ultimately benefiting your pipeline.

3) New Advertising Channels. YouTube receives approximately 4 billion views every day, and nearly 80% of people watch at least a single YouTube video each week. If you ignore video content, you are completely ignoring these potential leads.

4) Video Tells A Story. With video, you can really get intimate with your leads and customers by conveying a full spectrum of human emotion that might get lost with text. Sexton points out this appeal to emotion is one of the most effective sales hacks you can ever use. 

5) Social Media Loves Video. Ever notice your LinkedIn and Facebook feeds are dominated by photos and videos? That’s because the platform and its audience prefer this type of content. Expand your reach and your sales by uploading a healthy stream of visual content.

13 Sales Email Templates Perfect For The New Year

The Sales Blog over at HubSpot compiled this spunky list of personalized emails so sales professionals can keep their prospects engaged and kick the year off right. This list is useful because it covers the prospecting, follow-up and breakup phases of sales cadences. Here are three our our favourites:

Prospecting
  • Short and sweet: It works because it’s concise. Sales leaders don’t have a ton of time, so get to the point, right? If they’ve already been educating themselves on the trend you’re mentioning, you’ve hit the nail on the head. If not, they’ll be intrigued by your insight.

prospecting-sales-roundup.pngHubSpot Sales Blog

Follow Up
  • No sales pitch, guaranteed: It works because it’s different. Act a free consultation, rather than a pushy sales person. After all, 74% of B2B buyers choose the salesperson who was first to add value and insight. Caution: If you say you’re not going to sales pitch, don’t do it. Prospects will feel gimmicked if you try to turn your consultation into a sales pitch. Request another meeting or provide them with insights to accelerate their buying process.

follow-up-roundup.pngHubSpot Sales Blog

Breakup
  • Reevaluating your strategies: It works because of its brevity. It offers prospects one last chance to consider your value prop before you turn your full attention to the next opportunity.

breakup-roundup.pngHubSpot Sales Blog

New Research: Service Teams Are Transforming the Customer Experience to Differentiate

Salesforce just released their second annual “Second Annual State of Service” report, which examines how service teams are adapting to heightened customer demands. In the age of the customer, the experience is what separates great companies from good, or even struggling ones.  Here’s four highlights from the report:

1) Service Teams Say They’re Forging the Customer Experience. More than two-thirds (68%) of service teams say they are leading customer experience initiatives across the business.

2) Companies Are Boosting Their Investment in Agent Success. High performers are nearly twice as likely (1.7x) as underperformers to agree their customer service agents have decision-making power to provide personalized solutions for customers.

3) New Success Metrics Are Emerging for Service Teams. Seventy percent of service teams say their strategic vision over the last 12–18 months has become more focused on creating deeper customer relationships. 

4) The Rise of Smart Tech Is Ushering in New Ways to Connect. High performers are 3.9x more likely than underperformers to say predictive intelligence will have a transformational impact on their customer service by 2020.

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