4 Ways Technology is Giving Sales Pros Superpowers in 2023

“While consumers have always had the ability to vote with their feet, or with their wallets, they have more power to influence not only what they buy, but also what others buy.” —Nigel Wixcey, Lead Partner, Consumer Business at Deloitte

Selling to a customer has changed dramatically over the years. It’s simply not the same straightforward process that it used to be. Today, growth-oriented companies aren’t just selling to a single customer—they are also geared to tap that customer’s extended network.

That’s why getting the customer’s attention quickly and building a strong relationship are both critical for businesses of all shapes and sizes. Not only do you want the customer’s attention—you want their loyalty too.

If you are looking to scale faster, you need two things in order to succeed. First, your sales team needs to be great at identifying good prospects; second, they need some serious Jedi skills when it comes to closing the deal.

In this post, you are going to learn some ways that technology is giving sales pros superpowers, allowing them to work more efficiently, close more leads and achieve better results. Read along…and the force will likely soon be with you.

1) The Ability To Reach More Sales Leads At Scale

Ask any sales team about their biggest challenge when it comes to scaling, and chances are reaching more sales leads will dominate the conversation. Data supports this: A recent report says that generating traffic and leads remains the primary challenge for companies.

So what can you do to ensure that your sales team has enough leads and the pipelines aren’t dry? The answer is: equip your team with sales-oriented tools. Having these tools is like having superpowers—your team will be able to reach more prospects than ever before, faster than ever before.

Tools such as power-dialers and customer relationship management (CRM) software can significantly simplify your team’s outreach process.

Sales dialers have become smarter thanks to technology. Now they give sales reps the ability to call several numbers at one go, meaning teams spend less time waiting to get connected with prospects. Teams with sales dialers have reported a significant increase in their productivity and outreach.

Don’t just take our word for it—Sarah Haselkorn, director of sales operations at MakeSpace, has this to say about the company’s adoption of Close predictive dialers:

“The early results are indicating that we're leveling up to a new level of efficiency. It has driven up our reach rate [which means] we drive up our end-to-end conversion rate.”

CRM software is another tool that’s a boon for sales teams aiming to scale faster. CRMs store lots of relevant information about your customers so that your team can access it at any time. Having a CRM as part of your sales process simplifies communication, enables automation, facilitates effective team management, and makes other tasks more efficient.

What does this mean? It means that your team has all the data to provide a better experience to your customers. Not only that, your sales reps are more productive and can focus on closing leads rather than worrying about other things that clog their schedules and slow their progress.

Apart from the benefits mentioned above, the best CRMs can integrate with other software, and they make it easier for sales reps to send highly personalized emails at scale, reach more leads by phone with less effort, and increase reach rate when texting customers.

Try a free 14-day trial of Close (no credit card required) today and start scaling faster.

TRY NOW

2) Better Insight Into What Your Buyers Want

The biggest mistake that sales teams make is focusing on what they think is right for their buyers rather than on what their buyers really want. When sales professionals adopt the former approach they miss in three critical ways: They don’t have data to back up their decisions, they can’t visualize the performance of their outreach, and they fail to find and take advantage of valuable insights about their buyers.

Not long ago, the process of collecting and analyzing customer data was extremely time-consuming—sales teams had to spend hours navigating between multiple tools and documenting everything in spreadsheets.

Thankfully, technology has transformed this process. The best inside sales tools provide extensive reporting and analytics that allow sales professionals to quickly and efficiently do a deep dive into their prospects.

Take emails for example. Using Close, a sales rep can easily download a report about what their users prefer when it comes to email—what they clicked, what time they opened the email, whether the content resonated with them, and so on…

You can use technology to see how often sales reps say certain words when they’re pitching over the phone. You can use technology to see which elements of a proposal your client looked at the longest. You can use technology to see who at a company viewed a document that was sent to just one lead.

If this kind of intelligence isn’t a superpower, then what is?

3) Video Messages That Engage Leads & Prospects

The beauty of inside sales is that reps can sell to anyone, anywhere; however, the sales process often lacks facetime between the buyer and the seller. Now, I know a lot of us modern folks will say that facetime is not important anymore, but you can’t deny that people connect with people. (And it’s harder to ignore someone when you have to look into their eyes.)

People prefer personalization, they want human contact—and being able to put a face to your name only adds to the experience! Which is why sales videos are an emerging superpower that sales teams can use to build stronger connections and increase their close rate.

While a tool like Close helps sales teams send highly customized and personalized emails, by adding videos to your outreach you can take it up a notch.

How is that, exactly?

Through video, salespeople can better handle prospects’ objections, improve negotiations and build a more meaningful conversation—all of which increase the likelihood of closing a deal.

For example, Soapbox by Wistia is a great tool for sales reps looking to nurture relationships with existing prospects or initial leads. With Soapbox, sales teams can demonstrate the real value of their product or service through a medium that’s the next best thing to face-to-face. Video doesn’t just work for leads and prospects but also for existing customers, helping sales teams build stronger relationships and sell more products or features.

Here are a few ways that sales teams can take advantage of video:

• Use it for cold outreach to inform potential users about the value of your product
• Use it to create a customized demo that matches your buyer’s use case
• Use it recap a call and close the loop on a conversation

Video as a superpower? You better believe it.

4) One-On-One Relationships Via Text Message

It’s easy to believe that SMS is dead when the sales conversation focuses on chatbots and AI. If you think the same, I don’t blame you.

However recent reports confirm that good ol’ texting is here to stay. Mobile messages are read in under three minutes and the global average open rate for SMS is 94 percent. That’s crazy high—and even better than email.

Not only is SMS effective; it’s a channel preferred by customers—77 percent of consumers ages 18–34 with texting capabilities are likely to have a positive perception of a company that offers texting.

So if your company can scale the process of texting prospects and customers, it is nothing short of having a superpower!

This might sound simple, but it isn’t—SMS marketing comes with its own challenges, like having to switch devices in order to send messages. That’s where Close's SMS tool comes in handy; it allows sales teams to increase their reach rates with less effort.

Wrapping It Up

There you have it: four ways that technology is giving sales pros superpowers.

1. The ability to reach more sales leads at scale
2. Better sales insight into what your buyers want
3. Video messages that engage leads & prospects
4. One-on-one relationships via text message

Scaling isn’t easy, but by incorporating these insights into your sales strategy, you can not only boost your sales but also win brownie points from your customers and prospects. We hope that you are able to use these superpowers to scale faster in 2019.

Ready to put these superpowers into action? Sign up for a free trial of Close today.

TRY NOW