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Designed for Growth: Scale your recurring revenue with the new Teamgate SaaS CRM. Explore SaaS Features →

Book a demo today and save 50% off your first month, or 20% off your first year.

Get a free sales audit to uncover hidden revenue opportunities!

As a sales leader or manager, you’re aware of how the landscape has shifted in terms of how we grow accounts and boost sales opportunities. In today’s environment, buyers are less patient than they were, so it’s important for sellers to impress them right away and throughout the process. If not, the buyer will move on quickly. 

To succeed in this landscape, you have to plan your strategy and focus on properly managing your sales opportunities. Companies who do this right are the ones that direct most of their energy on the most important opportunities and have a specific strategy for each. If you want to increase your success, ask yourself these 10 essential questions.

1. Does the planning stage involve the whole team?

It’s normal that sellers work on their own opportunity plans by themselves. This can actually be a problem. Sellers, like any other people, can be really good at one thing but not so good at another. When you work alone, you’re going to miss certain things or make mistakes that would not happen if you were collaborating. The best decisions and ideas happen when all the top players work together to create a sales opportunity strategy.  

2. Does your sales team use all the resources and people available?

Because sellers typically work alone, they can often fail to use all the resources and people available to them. Instead, think about your biggest sales and how you could improve these opportunities by leveraging people with industry experience, important connections, strength in negotiations, inside information, and much more. In terms of resources, consider referring to case studies, presentation material, buyer interaction possibilities, sales messaging resources, and so on. 

3. Are the most important sales opportunities chased down with maximum energy?

As explained by Belinda Darcy, a sales expert at Boomessays and UKWritings, “your sales team needs to build a sales opportunity plan and use their maximum energy to pursue each sale. Brainstorm with your team to come up with the best ideas, plans, and strategies to achieve your sales opportunities.” 

4. Do opportunities have a seller-assigned intensity rating?

You probably can’t dedicate maximum time and effort to each opportunity due to limited resources. Have your sales teams take a step back and rate each opportunity on a scale of importance to decide which opportunities require your time and energy. If you do that analytically, you’ll be able to better allocate your resources and maximize your opportunities. You can then focus completely on the more important opportunities, which should maximise profits for your company.

5. Are your sales opportunity plans designed to get the sale?

Sellers don’t often enjoy building their sales opportunity plans. However, it’s important to create the plan properly to maximize your chances. Plans should be detailed and compelling, especially for the most important sales, because once it’s written the seller becomes more likely to follow it. Writing it down also gives other sellers or sales leaders the opportunity to improve it or discuss it. 

6. Does the sales team simplify agreement in the buying team to progress?

When a seller is facing a buyer group, especially a larger one, it can be difficult to move forward. An excellent seller will identify and motivate an influential buyer within the group to take a stand and push for the sale.

7. Is the sales process as good as it can be?

It can be hard to have a successful sales process when the seller doesn’t understand the process and struggles to move the buyer through the stages, or the process simply isn’t good. It shouldn’t surprise you to learn that the companies whose sales processes are more mature tend to have a greater revenue growth, offer fewer discounts, and have better win rates. 

As said previously, your sales team needs to have your best, most experienced people on it.

8. Do your sellers satisfy multiple buyers’ criteria?

The reality is that many sellers in the B2B environment will be selling to teams of multiple people. The sellers who are the most successful with these groups facilitate buyer agreement and they identify and categorize the buyers into five decision roles. You may wish to review your approaches to selling to multiple buyers. 

9. Do sellers plan their insights in advance?

To be a great seller, you need to be able to educate or inspire buyers with fresh ideas and perspectives, what’s known as insight selling. It’s actually very important to plan these insights in advance to become a top seller. You could monitor which products are selling well all year, then focus on those next year, or set up a survey to see what potential customers may want.

10. Is your process for managing sales opportunities all about the customer?

As much as companies like to think they’re customer-centric, in reality, they often aren’t. Many companies use opportunity plans that are focused on sales missions, sales objectives, seller approaches, and more. If that seems familiar to you, it’s time to rethink your opportunity management process to make it more customer-focused. It’ll be impossible to focus your organization on customers when your tools and strategies are all about the sellers. 

A product that is personalised to the customer, even marginally, is substantially more likely to sell.

 

Why Social Network Is a Crucial Part of an Omnichannel Client Experience

Due to the fast development of web technologies today it is almost impossible to find a company that does not use the omnichannel principle of development. This event has affected almost all sectors of advanced companies, which for example led to the mass use of artificial intelligence, as well as a more productive search for employees with the help of HR-software. Thus, this method allows you to analyze much more data than it could.

Social Network Assists You Offer Wonderful Client Service

It’s no secret that social networks occupy a huge part of your customers ‘ lives, so when developing an omnichannel marketing strategy you need to follow clear standards to achieve maximum results. As a rule, sites such as Instagram are an illustration of your brand or product, as customers first of all pay attention to your profile, and specifically to the photos that reflect your brand. In other words, people pay attention regardless of whether your product is placed on the website or not, ie your goal is to give them the opportunity to see the specific prospects of your project.

The key feature of the use of social networks in this area is its simplicity and ease of use. Since a person spends a lot of time on social networks, it is more convenient to contact you there than to go to your site. If you take these arguments into account, it becomes clear that social media is an integral part of the client environment, and more importantly, it allows you to improve the level of service, despite their niche.

Customer Reviews Matter for B2B Brands

According to the TrustRadius resource, most of the decision-makers in the field of b2b (about 60%) do not immediately agree to make a purchase, before that they try to read some reviews. This means that user reviews are one of the most important tools for gathering information about the upcoming transaction. Typically, more than 90% of shoppers are more predisposed to make a purchase based on reviews from sources they trust according to a G2 Crowd study. But the whole resonance is that according to this resource, only about 20% of companies use reviews as a marketing tool.

Potential customers are usually aimed at obtaining p2p information. In this regard, there is a well-managed customer feedback program that allows them to get the information they need before making a purchase. As a result, many b2b brands could gain good competitiveness in the market, as the number of companies using a good feedback program is negligible.

By asking for feedback, you build some kind of relationship with your customers, get interaction, improve your offerings, and find potential topics for some kind of research and feedback. Positive feedback in the future can become an integral part of your social media or email marketing campaign. It follows from this that the more reliable your feedback program is, the more trust your brand builds around itself, which means that customer feedback can play other roles within the B2B marketing program.

It is worth understanding that customers first pay attention to fresh reviews, according to G2, so you should always have an influx of new reviews so that you always have feedback and some interaction with customers, as this is most important to them. Managing multiple review channels, as well as maintaining profitable marketing programs aimed at creating a stable flow of new reviews requires a lot of time and other resources. Based on this, such programs work best within the omnichannel method of attracting potential buyers which in turn uses automation to be more productive.

Social Media Contribute to Existing Clients

Let’s say your product is quite complex and raises a lot of questions for people. In this case, social networks are ideal for providing support and resolving any issues with existing customers. A good bonus is that you do not need to attract new people to your product page, you just need to notify your existing customers about the existence of this group, as well as its advantages and opportunities.

Social Network Helps You Gain Trust

First of all, please note that if you do not have a page in the social network, then, in general, you do not exist. Initially, people always collect information about the company they heard about for the first time. They immediately look through the reviews section of your company and study other people’s opinions, specifically what people say and think about this product or project.

Social Network to Show Your Values

The number of companies using social networks every day is only growing. Judging by this, it can be concluded that companies form a certain ideology, which in turn forms a number of tasks that help solve simple consumer issues, as well as in general has a positive impact on the world.   At the same time, this ideology contributes to the increase of reputation, commercial benefits, as well as the protection of your market position and increase demand, which proves the commercial effectiveness of the use of social networks.

Conclusion

Once your customers feel confidence in your brand, as well as feel the seriousness of your approach to the social network, the result will not be long in coming. Thus, you will create a base of regular customers, and they, in turn, will play the role of promoters of your business, which will further affect the increase in sales and revenues. Social networks will be a great tool for sharing experiences between customers for any business. As a result, we can conclude that you can not talk about omnichannel customer experience until you start to cooperate with social networks. The potential of social networks, as a rule, has no boundaries. You can use them both to increase your brand awareness and to develop your business as a whole.

Every business must make sales to survive, so it’s important to improve your sales and bottom line by focusing on your sales coaching. What is sales coaching and how can it help your business perform better? We’ll explore the A-Z of sales coaching here.

Sales Coaching in a Nutshell

Sales coaching is the process of teaching and helping sales reps improve their performance and meet or surpass sales quotas and benefit the organization. Sales coaching isn’t a one-time training session for sales reps when they join the company; rather, it should be an ongoing process that takes into consideration each sales rep’s individual qualities and strengths. A sales coaching program must be personalized, ongoing, and also focused on skills instead of numbers.

Integrating Sales Coaching

There are some great coaching scenarios you can use for your business to train your sales team into becoming top performers. These include pipeline reviews, where a manager would review a sales rep’s pipeline and manage the steps that need more focus. This means you can shorten the sales cycle but you’re also showing reps how to manage their pipelines.

You can also hold customer meeting debriefs, and sit down with sales reps to review meetings from start to finish and analyzing how each meeting went. Think about what went well and what can be improved, as well as the learning experience the rep is taking from it. Another option is call shadowing, so you can provide feedback afterwards or step in to help if needed. This helps new sales reps because they get personalized feedback to boost their self-confidence. Try not to do this too often as employees can start feeling micro-managed.

 

Sales Coaching Techniques

When you build your sales coaching program, you need to think about how you’ll provide the guidance and feedback, in addition to when you should be coaching, which we’ve just seen.

1. Account Maps

You can’t keep track of all your reps on a daily basis, so coach your sales reps to build themselves an account map for each deal which helps you monitor each one’s status. As per Jason Huntmar, a sales analyst at Brit Student and Write My X, “this should be their contacts, their role in the deal, and the relationship. It makes it a lot easier to review without wasting time.”

2. Tracking and Measurement

Because there are measurable outcomes, you must collect data on the process to help make decisions. As a sales rep coach, have a clear strategy to track what’s going on and your process for training your team members and tracking their sales data. Keep track and collect data on the quota attainment, the average deal size, their win rate, revenue, and sales funnel leakage.

You don’t want to focus just on numbers, as that’s just a small part of performance, but you do need to know their progress and what needs improving or what they’re doing well. Look into pairing this approach with a qualitative method, and use empathy as your baseline to avoid being a micro-manager.

3. Use Other Sales Reps

Coaching isn’t just about your one-on-one with the employee. Use some peer-review methods so your reps can learn from each other. Ask your top sales reps with best performances to hold meetings and share best practices, and review calls together for shared feedback.

4. Focus on Middle Performers

You don’t have endless time to invest in coaching your team. Sam Hillier, a marketing blogger at Australian2Write and Next Coursework, says that “managers often make the mistake of coaching only their lowest and highest performers, when they should be focusing on the middle 60%. These are the performers who have the most space to grow and improve and are worth the time investment.”

5. Ask Questions

You shouldn’t always just tell the sales rep what they are doing wrong or where they can improve. Instead, you should ask questions and have two-sided conversations, which is a proven effective method and helps the rep understand how and where they can improve and be more invested in the process.

These methods all have big benefits for the organization, from benefits to the sales teams, to the leaders, to the clients and customers, and the business as a whole. This is a process that’s more than onboarding and training and goes on throughout a sales rep’s career.

Reducing sales churn is the holy grail of every sales director. 

The more customers you lose – churn – the less likely it is that your company is going to grow significantly any time soon. You see, the cost of acquiring new customers is far greater than retaining the ones you already have.

Sure, of course, you need a constant supply of new leads and prospects entering the sales funnel, but don’t let that cloud the importance of existing customers and their likelihood to churn.

If your business is churning customers more frequently than you would expect, you need to find out why, and fast.

There are multiple reasons why your churn rate might be high – everything from a bad product experience to poor communications.

And that’s what you need to find out.

How to burn the churn

If you’ve armed your sales team with modern, smart, and efficient sales CRM software you’ve already taken the right steps to burn the churn.

Your customers came to you because you could provide them with a resolution to their problems. They stayed with you because you did something right, but now something has changed, and it’s your job to find out what.

Your CRM software can provide you with all the data you need regarding every lead, deal, and customer who has entered your sales pipeline. That information is golden, the more you know about your customer, the easier it should be to keep them on board.

In order to keep your valued customers on board, a good CRM dashboard can show you just where the churn may have begun to occur, and more importantly, what you might do to stop it.

Here’s a list of suggestions that can go a long way towards helping you retain your valued customers and greatly reduce churn rates right across your entire sales process.

 

Deliver on your promises

OK, this might sound like a no-brainer but, keeping your promises is the first step to reducing customer churn. Even at times when you can’t deliver on your promise your customer needs to know this immediately. Your inability to deliver might not win you any awards there and then, but your honesty and integrity will be remembered when it comes to your customer’s decision time. Trust is one of the major weapons in your armory in the fight against churn.

Onboard like a pro

Your customers are new to your product or service, that’s why they need you to take them by the hand and lead them through the whole onboarding process. It might take you time to establish the correct steps for a great onboarding process, but once that process is in place your customers will thank you. Anything that speeds up the learning process – tutorials, videos, one-on-one consultations, conference calls, or any other means of imparting the necessary knowledge – can really help to keep your customers loyal.

Never forget

To keep satisfied customers onside, keep them in mind. Try to remain in contact with them even when a deal is not on the table. Your CRM software can keep you reminded about dates of note – birthdays, anniversaries, events, etc. Take time to let your customers know that you haven’t gone away and that you haven’t forgotten them.

Get your customers’ opinions

Knowing your customers’ thoughts about your product and your customer service goes a long way towards understanding their mindset.

Send well thought out questionnaires, the answers will help you create the optimum overall sales process with reduced churn. Your CRM software can help you target specific groups with your questionnaires, thus ensuring you are getting the right feedback from the right people. This article will explain how to get customer reviews in detail. 

Featuring your satisfied customers’ testimonials on your website, in your newsletter, or in any other outlet is a great way of demonstrating the value of your customer. Prospective customers and existing customers – in danger of churning – can be revitalized by exposing them to the satisfaction of existing customers.

Once you know your customers’ satisfaction levels, along with their pain points, addressing any concerns which arise can reduce churn dramatically.

Segment your customers

Segmenting your customers into groups according to their place in your sales pipeline – recurring customers, new customers, customers at risk of churn, customers with special concerns, etc. – can be vital to ensuring that you stay engaged with their needs at all times.

A quality CRM will allow you to segment your customers in such a manner and ensure that they can be targeted specifically and exclusively. Personalizing communications with each individual group can nurture continuous engagement, more successful deal conversion, and cater directly to prospects in danger of churn.    

A CRM can also automate reminders and triggers, and it can also produce the metrics and reports you need to visualize your customers’ satisfaction levels. 

Keep the conversation going

Even when customers are not active in your sales process stay aware of their needs and offer them valuable free content – videos, testimonials, eBooks, etc. –  to ensure they stay engaged. Newsletters with informative, interesting, and engaging content is also another great way to remind your customers and your prospects that you still exist and still care.

Know your priorities

If you’ve accurately used your CRM for scoring and ranking your potential customers you can save yourself and your sales team a lot of valuable time and effort dealing with customers who show little prospect of converting.

Nurturing relationships with highly-ranked customers helps build a habit of being better equipped to identify leads and prospects with a higher chance of conversion.

Say it with flowers

OK, it doesn’t have to be flowers, but presenting small occasional gifts to valuable customers is a great way of saying that you still care and that you are open to engagement whenever they are ready. We all love gifts and free stuff, make the most of it.

Happy is as happy does

Use the value of your happy customers to the limit. Be sure to constantly (but not too often – your CRM can keep you reminded) make them aware of your gratitude for their support and continued loyalty. There’s no other form of marketing that works as hard for your benefit than your happy customer list. Invite them to events, awards, outings, and make sure they’re included first in any company news, improvements, or announcements.

As we said at the beginning, it’s a lot cheaper to retain your satisfied customers than it is to source new customers, so give them the respect they deserve.

Nurture is the enemy of churn

Armed with great CRM software, a little common sense, and a lot of respect for your customer base churn can become a thing of the past.

Sure, there’s always going to be someone who won’t be happy and will want to take their business elsewhere, the truth is that there’s very little you can do about that.

Retaining satisfied customers and converting prospects is all about the nurturing process – treating customers as valued associates with the aim of building long and lasting relationships. However you go about this nurturing process, it’s never a waste of time or effort and goes a long way towards keeping churn to a minimum.

Businesses remain in existence because they continue to make a profit. And they continue to make a profit through revenue from sales. And they grow sales through good people, lots of hard work, and, yes, technology.

And here’s the thing about technology. It is continually evolving and allowing organizations to improve their business processes, especially their sales functions. From data access to AI, to mobile, to social, e-signature and more, sales processes from beginning to end have been transformed. Companies that choose to embrace these new technologies will maintain a competitive edge.

Here are some of the most important technological advances, and their uses, that are transforming the sales process.

Data Analytics Tools

Oceans of data are out there for the gathering, but until recently there has been no way to gather unstructured data and then structure it in ways that make sense and allow businesses to make smarter decisions. Relative to sales, companies can have customer histories and purchasing behaviors charted and reported; they can gather information on those demographics that will make the best sales leads; they can even target individual customers based upon all of this information. What was once a human labor-intensive process is now streamlined and “served up on a platter” for the taking. Here are a couple of examples:

  • As soon as a customer enters the Amazon website, AI tools begin working. As a customer browses products, all is recorded. When a purchase is made, immediately that customer is introduced to products that others like him have also bought. He has become one of a pool of customers based upon current and even past buying behaviors. 
  • Banks use AI to categorize their customer bases and to analyze the loan products that have been most popular with those segments. They look at past behaviors and use AI to predict the types of loan products that will be most popular in the future, even down to what seasons of the year such products may be most in demand.

Any business can be like Amazon and banks, using the current big data gathering and analytical tools now available. If only for the lead generation potential, AI should be totally in use.

 

Customer Relations Management (CRM)

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Research shows that it is far more profitable for businesses to keep current customers than it is to convert new ones. And even when new customers come on board, establishing quality and satisfactory relationships with them is key to keeping them. 

So much of customer service can be automated today, it is a wonder that any business is not using the technology that will do this. It totally streamlines and improves account management.

  • First, there are tools to segment customers and potential customers based on where they are in a sales funnel. Personalized and segmented emails can be sent out automatically, from a simple thank you for an order to specials for loyal customers, and much more.
  • When consumers have common questions about products or services or commonly asked questions, such as how to return a product, there is no reason for humans to respond. This only slows down the process and frustrates the customer (can we say sitting on hold forever or waiting for a return email?). Businesses should be using chatbots infused with AI that can provide immediate responses, saving the company money and keeping consumers happy.
  • Complex and larger issues (angry customers, for example) can easily be routed to a human for resolution, if companies will use the tools they have access to.

 

Social Listening

 

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All companies know how important social media platforms are for connecting with their customers, for generating leads, for spreading their brands, and for developing relationships. 

Indirect marketing is a key function of social media. Consumers rely on one another for recommendations. And every happy customer a business has on social media becomes a brand ambassador with his community.

But even more is the social listening aspect of brand and customer management. There is a myriad of software tools that will alert a business any time it is mentioned on social media, providing time, place, and actual comments. This allows a company to address any issues or negative comments, as well as respond to and express appreciation for positive mentions.

 

Searches/SEO

 

Just as social media should be monitored so should search engine. Optimization is a key goal for ultimate sales. Using highly efficient tools to research those search terms that are the most popular in a business niche and ensuring that those terms are imbedded in all copywriting improves SEO. Small businesses especially need to be aware should be very mindful of their copywriting efforts, as Google algorithms are watching closely. Content must be fresh, unique, and provide real value. Any business can use available technology to identify critical topics and write about them in engaging and compelling ways. 

 

Globalization and Localization

 

Sales is now a global function, as consumers over the world have access to the web (especially through mobile devices) and the ability to purchase products from anywhere. Businesses should move into this global market, and to do so their websites and products must be localized for foreign audiences. While this was once a laborious procedure, again, technology has simplified and streamlined this process. Machine-generated translations have become much more sophisticated, and pros who can provide these services can be found at Pick Writers, a translation review site that evaluates the performance of the top translation agencies. 

 

Geolocation and Retail Sales

 

How Technology is Transforming Businesses and Their Sales Processes
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This technology is perhaps the most exciting for lead scoring, qualification of leads, and/or targeting potential customers where they are physical. When consumers use their mobile devices for searches or to look for products on a specific website, the location of that device can be identified in real-time. This allows for:

  • Location-Based Marketing: A company can be notified if a consumer is in close proximity to one of its retail stores and then send out push notifications with offers or coupons, or even an event reminder, such as a storewide sale going on right now.
  • Micro-Moment Sales: Red Roof Inn uses a combination of airline information and push notifications to grab customers in the moment. When a flight has been canceled, and consumers are on their mobile devices, they receive notification of the location of the nearest Inn and a special rate promotion. This is an example of what has come to be known as micro-moment sales – again, taking advantage of where a device I located in real-time.
  • Geo-Targeted Ads: Companies can now target specific countries, regions, cities, and even zip codes to decide where to best place their ads. Google AdWords, for example, has a feature that provides income levels of consumers based upon zip codes. This gives retailers a sense of the qualification of a target audience for products they are selling. But it also allows companies to send ads to those who live within a certain number of miles within one of its locations or for locations of consumers who are potential customers.
  • Improving the customer experience. Taco Bell has targeted specific audiences and has pushed the concept of ordering food in advance for pickup. It uses a chatbot to take those orders and make recommendations. But it also geo-targets that customer’s location, so that it can estimate the time of arrival, ensuring that the food is hot and ready upon arrival.
  • Identifying Actual Customers, in addition to devices: This may sound a bit creepy to consumers, but the technology is now available to identify actual people to devices that are “tracked.” Retailers can then personalize a targeted ad in real-time, especially if that consumer is visiting the website of a competitor.

 

Technology is sweeping the world of business, and certainly sales. Only those brands that keep up and use these technologies as they come to pass will keep a competitive edge in the market place.

As we move even further into the digital age, we need to recognize the almost-universal effect that our technology is having on our businesses. Otherwise, we may find our organizations left behind. Even though we can count on technology to constantly improve, the only thing keeping individual companies and businesses from falling behind is the willingness to improve as well.

 

Roll up! Roll up! Roll up! Nothing for sale!

If you’re involved in sales you might have wondered about this for some time.

Every Christmas and holiday season you come across the big name high-street department stores, with half a mile of street frontage, all advertising what appears to be NOTHING in their windows. At least nothing saleable that is.

OK, I agree (after all, I used to work in the business for a long time) the window displays themselves are spectacular, dazzling, traffic-stopping affairs; looking more like a big bucks Broadway production, or the set from a 1940’s Ziegfield Follies movie than a means of selling products. Money seems to be no object with these lavish creations.

So what’s going on? 

Where’s the value behind these extravaganzas which often take more than a year or two to design, plan, and execute?

A brief history of sales showmanship

Believe it or not lavish window displays began in the mid-eighteen hundreds, with the introduction of, wait for it… plate glass. I kid you not.

Suddenly, retail architects had the means to do something they couldn’t do before: to create window spaces that ran the entire length of a city block, places where the owners could visually attract the attention of the passerby in any way they fancied.

And that’s just what they did.

All of a sudden a new band of creative professionals – charged with maintaining the look of these commercial window spaces – appeared on the scene. At the time, they were known simply as window trimmers.

These window trimmers ensured that the products on display were arranged and shown in their most appealing and stylish manner. Many of the trimmers – coming from backgrounds in the arts, theatre, and fashion design – employed ever more creative techniques to appeal to the whims of the consumer. 

Specialist signwriters were tasked with extolling the benefits of the product in ever more fanciful ways. 

Lighting designers ensured the products always looked their best on the skyscraper darkened streets of the world’s major cities. 

Carpenters, painters and other craftspeople created specialist ‘sets’ to complement the season or product type. 

Some of the most famous artists of the day stylised props and backdrops with which to give life to the imagination of the window trimmers. 

Slowly but surely the profession evolved from being purely commercial to what it is today – a multi-layered crossover between psychology, science, salesmanship, retail management, and the arts. 

Visual merchandising was born. 

And then things changed

In 1874 R.H. Macey & Co. become one of the first recorded retail outlets to feature a designated holiday window display. The display was short on product, but high on imagination, playing out scenes from the hugely popular Harriet Beecher Stowe book, Uncle Tom’s Cabin across the entire shopfront and throughout the store’s interior. 

The crowds it drew were enormous and so was born the fiercely competitive battle for supremacy of the Holiday Season Window Display.

Things got ridiculous – and ever more fanciful – as Macy’s battled Marshall Fields, Lord and Taylor battled Neiman Marcus, and across the Atlantic, Selfridges battled Harrods. 

All was fair game, right up to the point in 1958 when Woodward & Lothrop – the progressive Washington DC department store – arguably stole the crown with a seasonal window display featuring LIVE PENGUINS, borrowed from the National Zoo. 

The gloves were off and the results can still be seen each holiday season in every major city around the world.

 

Window displays, live penguins, and CRM software

The black and white behind penguins and sales

But what have live penguins, winter wonderlands, scenes from a space-age fantasy, or display spaces adorned with nothing more than pure imagination and artistic playfulness got to do with the billions of dollars derived from sales each year?

The answer is simple. LOTS!

Whether you employ sales CRM software, website landing pages, email marketing and cold calling, or trade shows and social media, every business wants to get their brand name out there, recognized, and respected. And, they want to sell.

The truth is that glamorous high street retail outlets don’t really hope to sell diamond encrusted unicorns (as much as they’d like to), life-sized reindeer-drawn sleighs, or even live penguins. What they hope to sell is brand loyalty that spans the generations.

And that’s what you should be doing too.

 

Window displays, live penguins, and CRM software

 

Great customer service is your window display

Think of your customer success management strategy as your high street window display. 

Your customer success team is doing the job of even the most creative holiday window display artists, week in and week out throughout the year.

Instead of ribbons and bows, fairytale scenery populated by elves and woodland nymphs, or whims of fantastic imagination, your customer success people are out there every day creating the brand loyalty that you need to succeed.

Traditional window displays might attract prospective customers into your store, but that’s only the start of the journey. 

It’s the one-on-one conversations that they have with your sales and customer success team that get the job done and the cash registers ringing. That’s where customer success management is paramount.

Without the properly trained and suitably tooled human touch, no matter how many visitors you attract to your doors, the product is unlikely to sell itself.

In the busy high streets of B2B selling, sales and customer success teams armed with modern CRM software, are already aware of your customers’ journey, right up to the point of walking through the door of your sales process. 

Thanks to customer success SaaS systems they already know the customer’s background, their pain points, their persona, exactly what it is that’s attracted them to your premises and not your neighbors’, along with a whole lot more. 

That’s way more information than a sales assistant in a high street store is armed with, and the pivotal advantage that gives your people the edge.

Creating a sales wonderland all year round

Modern sales technology like website landing pages, CRM software bristling with tools, features, apps and AI integrations, all go a long way towards attracting the attention of the customer. These are the ‘plate glass’ windows that allow the public to see your product.

But, never forget, it’s the great people you surround yourself with that give your brand the voice that will ultimately attract prospective customers through your doors. 

Your sales and customer success team are the real window displays of your company. The ones who create and nurture the brand loyalty that will see you and product through the years ahead.

Season’s greetings and happy holidays to you and yours from all of us here at Teamgate.