Strategies for Better Customer Engagement [Webinar Recap]
Ricky Cookson
Demanding buyers come with the sales territory. Buyers across all verticals and departments crave an engaging experience that’s tailored specifically to them.
As these needs grow, sellers are turning to innovative strategies for customer engagement to optimize the buyer’s experience.
While interviewing sales executives for our Sales Buyer Trends, creating engaging, personalized experiences was one of their main priorities. Not just when they sell, but when they buy. We uncovered, not to our surprise, that Sales teams expect exactly what they’re trying to create within their own sales operations. That is, buyer experiences that eliminate mundane selling techniques and embrace new methods of connection.
During the webinar, “Innovating the Customer Journey for Demanding Buyers,” Skaled CEO, Jake Dunlap, and Skaled Partner, Matt Lopez, share what they’ve learned from years of working with demanding buyers and selling to sales teams. While the focus of this webinar stemmed from selling into sales, Jake and Matt’s tips and advice are a comprehensive guide on how to create strategies for customer engagement in any vertical.
Among the list of recommendations for innovating the customer journey, there were two particularly important points they hit that you should be focusing on in 2022:
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- You don’t sell to organizations; you sell to individuals (i.e., preparation and personalization are key)
- Technology is a seller’s companion for engaging buyers
Related Content: How to Build Customer Rapport in Virtual/Remote Environments
You don’t Sell to Companies. You Sell to Individuals.
On average, between six to ten decision-makers are involved in the buying process for B2B companies (Gartner), which makes it the seller’s job to ensure each interaction is engaging and valuable. Meaning B2B sales isn’t a one-and-done operation for talented sellers — in every account, you’re making six to ten sales, and sometimes more.
Beyond knowing your buyer at an individual level, there are a few things to keep in mind meeting-wise to also help you create engaging conversations:
More tips from the live event:
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- Pre: After booking the meeting, keep your eye out for any valuable articles, videos, LinkedIn posts, or other resources you can send to your prospect. When you find something that touches on a topic you know they have a vested interest in, send it over.
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- During: Be prepared both in your pre-meeting materials and prep (demo, personalized pitch deck, pricing, one-pagers, etc.) and how you’re going to share this information. More and more tools are available to make virtual meetings more interactive versus just sharing a couple of slides.
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- Post: Keep the momentum going. For example, try creating a 2-3 minute demo for each decision-maker that shows how your solution can add value to their day-to-day. This also means you’re going to have to get this information during the meeting.
All of these steps work together to help buyers easily connect ROI.
That’s the goal of these pre-, during, and post-meeting touches and conversations. When your prospect can quickly answer the question of ROI themselves (which can only be done if you capture their interest and keep them engaged), you’re doing your job right. And the sellers that implant those details into their process will be the ones who stand out.
Essential Tools to Guide the Buyer Experience
Technology is at the center of customer engagement right now.
Why?
Regardless of industry, sales teams are investing in technology that enables the engagement buyers want. There is a resounding consensus among sales executives that the following tools are essential:
Regardless of industry, sales teams are investing in technology that enables the engagement buyers want. There is a resounding consensus among sales executives that the following tools are essential:
A comprehensive, 360-degree view of the customer is valuable for sellers, but it becomes useless without action. The tools pushing sales forward are the ones that take that 360 view and allow sales teams to act on it. Combined, the tools mentioned above serve as a catalyst for empowering the connection between buyers and sellers.
“Sales tools need to guide the buyer’s journey while enabling Sales to do the right work at the right time and make an impact.” – John Eitel, Global VP of Sales & Success, Canva, Sales Buyer Trends
Related Content: B2B Sales Tech to Eliminate Constraints and Influence Growth
More Strategies to Innovate the Customer Journey
We’ve been saying this for years. Multi-threading, personalization, and research aren’t new ideas. However, today’s buyers are still desperate for it. Years of unenthusiastic outreach and “tell me about your company” have caused severe burnout for buyers. Now it’s time for the reps to take the reins and create strategies for customer engagement that encapsulate the many ways to innovate the customer journey discussed in the webinar.
Customer engagement is just one of the six priorities shifting what and how sellers buy in the current business climate.
If you sell into sales organizations, this is a unique chance to gain an edge. Download The Top Six Priorities Priorities of Sales teams to understand what and why they’re buying.
If you sell into any other group or industry and need more modern strategies for customer engagement, watch the webinar and download the in-depth version of the slides.