A new year brings new opportunities to improve current methods of working. So, what does 2024 have in store for the sales sector? There are several developing trends in sales from last year, including the emergence of artificial intelligence (AI), an increase in video sales, automation of different sales processes, and more. In the year 2024, there will be even more changes, driving new trends further deeper into our lives.
Revamp your sales strategy and keep your business on track, with the top 7 sales trends to look for in 2024. If purposefully incorporated, with these upcoming trends, sales teams will head for success in 2024.
1. Creativity and Innovation
One of the biggest sales trends in the upcoming year is creativity. Salespeople must put in twice as much best to fulfill quotas and keep their businesses solvent. It’s risky to rely on only chance in a circumstance like this. It’s just a matter of time until competitors come up with a fresh concept and obtain the benefit of being first to market. Working smarter, not harder, is the only way to break the formula of sales success.
Look for the elements that set you apart from the crowd. Do the polar opposite of what your competitors are doing; even a minor shift in your sales technique may help you stand out.
2. Sales Automation
Some trends are so trendy that they just become the norm. An example of this is sales automation.
When you try to scale a process, there’s a prevalent belief that originality and personalization suffer. This isn’t the case. As you assign more difficult everyday activities to dedicated software, it stimulates creativity. You’ll have more time to discover new methods to promote your items and personalize your offers since you’ll have more time to do so. Hence, it is a win-win situation!
You just have to choose your CRM system carefully, finding the one that offers the most appropriate functionality to match your business’ workflows. A good CRM system can help you integrate and automate the sales process seamlessly.
3. Social Selling
Personal brand development will be one of the most popular social selling trends. CEOs, managers, and other corporate leaders should strive to create authority on social media, particularly LinkedIn.
Social media and other more informal communication channels now account for a large portion of the consumer experience (i.e. chatbots). Even if your business doesn’t have a large social media presence, it’s important to note that if a consumer needs to search up your company, they’re just as likely to look it up on Facebook or Instagram as they are on Google.
Buyers like simplicity and immediate gratification. Buyers may communicate with your firm through texts, chatbots, and social media casually and efficiently. Take the time to set up your social media profiles and communicate on your website. Your bottom line will appreciate it.
4. Video for Sales
Video made its great appearance in the world of sales and is likely to stay. It is said that a picture is worth a thousand words. The video standard is 24 frames per second, so you can imagine how much information can be conveyed in a short video clip! To express the value of your product, use video instead of extensive written material. You may use videos in your sales process in a number of different ways.
International lockdowns have sparked a worldwide video obsession, with Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, YouTube, Netflix, and Amazon leading the way.
5. Webinars and Podcasts for Lead Generation
The popularity of webinars and podcasts as a medium has skyrocketed. Despite the popular notion that the webinar craze had quieted down, this trend is projected to continue.
With the ongoing pandemic, offline conferences are likely to be postponed for another year. Online events, on the other hand, are risk-free. A single webinar may produce more than 500 leads, with 73 percent of B2B marketers believing the leads are of good quality.
Increase your lead generation by focusing on a topic that your prospects are interested in and where you have experience. Product advertising within webinars and podcasts is a successful technique to stimulate lead generation. While it’s not a good idea to focus fully on your products in webinars and podcasts, you may still promote your product as a solution.
6. Leveraging Artificial Intelligence
Forecasting and analysis are critical components of the sales process that cannot be overlooked. It is the backbone of sales to some extent.
AI is gradually encroaching into every part of our lives, and sales analytics is no different. Sales projections created with the aid of AI-powered software can be more precise, reducing the danger of missing out on market demand. Almost every AI-powered product provides knowledge into which actions are successful and which should be changed.
Some of the sales tasks that can be improved through the use of AI are data collection, client buying trends, dissemination of suggestions to customers, and buying and selling forecasting.
7. Conversational AI
Businesses often use live chat and chatbots to increase sales. This is a continuation of the preceding pattern. Conversational customer service is directly linked to the growing use of AI in sales. A conversational customer experience entails enhanced personalization of communication via a continuous business-to-customer dialogue. You can provide better answers to your consumers if you know their history with you.
52% of consumers are more likely to make repeat purchases if the company offers support via live chat. Moreover, 79% of companies say that live chat has led to positive results for sales and revenue. Furthermore, 47% of consumers would be open to making a purchase completely from a chatbot.
8. Growing Popularity of Digital Sales Rooms
Outside of call conversations, buyers and sellers exchange crucial information for future consumers to make informed decisions. This back-and-forth, however, may get overwhelming, and messages might get buried in inboxes, reducing buyer engagement. In this regard, digital sales rooms (DSRs) will become more popular as a means of facilitating seller-buyer engagement and providing a smooth experience for both parties.
DSRs give a centralized location where buyers can find and access all relevant material, case studies, videos, call records, and price information. Also, salespeople may find relevant resources and share them with DSRs, resulting in higher interaction and happier customers.
9. Data Integration to Build Greater Customer Relationships
Customers are willing to provide you with their information and preferences so they can access your systems. A powerful customer portal makes that process even easier. Hence, by integrating customer data with data in your CRM system, and making it available to your stakeholders – you can help your sales team build rich, deep customer relationships.
