“Great salespeople are relationship builders who provide value and help their customers win” – Jeffrey Gitomer. As per this quote, today sales is all about maintaining good customer relationships and helping in their business development. The future of sales is also largely dependent on social selling processes. If your business has a product with a competitive advantage and a skilled, talented sales team, then nothing can stop you. In today’s faster world, you should try to shorten the sales cycle and close more deals in less time.
The decision-making process has also changed over the years. People have a lot of options. The faster you approach, the faster you can make a sale. Every chance you miss is a chance gained by your competitor. If you take a survey on top sales challenges 2022, then you will find adding value to the customer conversations, competitive advantage, reliability, etc in the list.
Positive Traits Of Successful Salespeople
The future depends on what you cultivate today. If you observe successful salespeople, you will understand that they are winning as they have the following good qualities:
- Time Management – Know the importance of time. Successful salespeople plan their day in advance, prioritize the tasks and meetings of the day, prepare the sales pitch well based on the customer, and have a good sleep and routine. This makes them ready for the day full of confidence and positivity.
- Listening Skills – Listen, listen, listen and then talk. This is the success mantra for sales. Only when you listen carefully to your customers, you will know their needs. Hence, you can clear their doubts easily and make a sale happen.
- Negotiation – Negotiating power is a helping hand for salespeople who want to achieve big. Sense the way the customer talks in the conversation early, and talk accordingly to convince them why they need your product. This trait is the biggest asset if you wish for a bright future in sales.
- Resilience – This is another crucial quality that every salesperson should possess. To handle rejections and stress, one should have a growth mindset. Also, thinking of what is not working in your approach and changing the strategies accordingly will help your success.
- Networking – There is a saying, “Your network is your net worth”. The future of sales post covid has shifted towards social selling. People buy from whom they trust, who add value to their business, and who do regular follow-ups and provide the best customer experience.
Sales Trends 2022
- Value-Based Selling
Gone are the days of selling your product by just explaining how it works. Today, people want to know what value it adds to their business. Explain through various channels like customer testimonials, insightful blogs, social media, etc. as well as your sales pitch. Educating people about your product through content marketing is the best way to increase organic leads.
- Automation At Its Best
Sales automation tools increase efficiency and save time. According to studies, salespeople spend 64% of their time on non-sales activities and it’s too high! Using sales tools like Lystloc to schedule and prioritize tasks, updating meeting notes, location-based attendance marking, etc will improve your productivity to the next level.
- Customer Experience Says It All
Improving the customer experience, shortly called CX, gives you the benefits like customer retention, high conversion rate, and customer engagement and also brings you new customers through referrals. The future of sales in 2025 and beyond largely depends on giving the best, personalized customer experience.
- Omnichannel Sales
Selling your products and services through multiple channels is called omnichannel sales and it is gaining popularity due to reasons like price comparison, reviews, and so on. People research about a product online thoroughly before they buy it. The future of direct selling in India is expected to become Rs 64,500 crore of the market worth by 2025.
- Power Of Analytics
Analytics and reports help in understanding customer behavior, buying trends, average sales cycle length, and so on. They give you deeper business insights that help make strategic business decisions. Also, you can look ahead to the future with better clarity of market ups and downs. Lystloc app provides a customized report feature named Lystdata which saves you ample time and energy. Based on your needs detailed attendance reports like login, logout times and total working hours, etc will be directly sent to your inbox upon subscription.
- Boosting Sales With AI
The contribution of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to sales is ascending due to its effectiveness. It assists salespeople in contacts and pipeline management, data entry, and other roles like chatbots, virtual assistants, virtual sales trainers, etc. In the next 3 years, AI usage in sales is expected to increase by 139%. The future of the sales profession is about more time selling and higher productivity.
New trends are emerging every day in sales. The future of sales and marketing depends on aligning with the trends which yield better results and increase ROI.
Takeaways
Like any other job, sales is also becoming a challenging career option because of various reasons like market instability, pandemic situation, the need to learn new tools and technology, study the trends, etc. To have a successful career in sales, you should possess the traits we discussed above and stay updated with the trends and technological advancements. Consistent effort and upskilling will earn you a rewarding journey in the future of sales.
