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Sales

Are You Using The Right Sales Channel ? Here’s What You Need To Know

Are you using the Right Sales Channel for your Websites

With the increasing competition in the business world, new companies are getting launched in the market almost every day.

In an already saturated industry, customers already have their set of preferences for a product or service.

Therefore, to make your business stand out you not just need to understand your target audience but also ensure that you are using multiple channels of sales to reach out to them.

Benefits of employing multiple channel sales strategy to work

  • It helps you to reach new customers who do not buy directly from the vendors but prefer buying the same product from resellers or consultants.

    If an efficient channel sales program is put to use, your business can easily tap into this market.

  • If a proper channel sales strategy is used with the help of third-party marketplaces and managed service providers, you can leverage the sales for your business.

  • Lastly, starting your business in a new location can accentuate your business if the correct channel sales strategy comes in handy along with it.


Types of sales channels

There are numerous businesses nowadays and each of them has its own needs and requirements. That being said, it is obvious that every business would have a different approach to satisfy their needs and therefore, the channel of sales would also differ.

Earlier, the channels of sales used to be a physical presence like a shop and then a website but now the possibilities are almost endless. Basically, there are two types of selling – direct and indirect.

While direct selling channels allows a customer to buy goods or services directly from the manufacturer, an indirect sales channel makes the product reach the customer through other distribution channels. Listed below are some of the most chosen options by entrepreneurs.

Ecommerce website

ECommerce Website

 It can be a good idea to sell your product or service online as 2.14 billion people worldwide spend hours on the internet for shopping.

Having a website means cutting the cost of having a physical space. However, there are other costs like hosting and development.

Retail outlet

The population of high street shoppers has declined over the past few years. As a result of the cruel blow of the Covid-19 pandemic, the already struggling retailers had to face subsequent lockdowns, thereby leading to the closure of the shop’s doors to the customers.

However, as the nationwide lockdown was revoked, the businesses of bricks and mortar retail stores started bouncing back to life.

Shops selling furniture, homeware, and home improvements are all thriving as people are staying more in their homes and taking interest in decorating them differently.

Also, last year, there was a trend of supporting independent businesses and shopping local to help them thrive.

Third-Party Websites

Third-party websites are those organizations that sell your products in lieu of commission. For each product sold by them, you have to pay a monthly fee to them.

These websites have a usually vast and different audience than your own. Rendering the services of a third-party website allows you to introduce new people to your brand.

Some of the most prominent examples of third-party websites include Airbnb and Booking.com which tie up accommodation providers and offer discounts and offers to customers for staying at a property.

One of the best examples of marketplace retailers is Amazon. Though selling on Amazon might look easy, in reality, it requires a lot of hard work in terms of determining the pricing strategy and advertising to ensure that you can give tough competition to other sellers.

It is mandatory to create a balancing strategy while putting the third-party websites to use.

Then this balancing strategy can be employed for introducing new customers to your brand and then trying to convert them to buy direct through your website next time.

This can be done by sending out physical marketing collateral, like promoting your channel or through leaflets.

If you have your customer’s email address, then that can be used to add them to a nursery email program – GDPR compliant.

Things to consider while choosing your mix of sales channels

costs and benefits of ecommerce

 It is not necessary to have every sales channel at your disposal. However, it is imperative to sit back and consider if you are using the right sales channels for your products.

This would ensure that your product, service, and most importantly your brand is one the right track to maximize the business’ potential.

You should determine the cost-effective parameter as well as the performance angle while deciding which sales channel is the right one for your business.

It is also essential to continuously test different sales channels as markets change. Here are a few things you should consider when you are deciding which sales channels to choose:

Type of Product

 You know your product and you would also know about the target audience more than anyone else.

You should begin by conducting some market research about your customers or potential customers and find out how you can provide them with lucrative offers and what would go against your product.

Market

Think about the market of your product – if you sell it directly to consumers or B2B. It is also important to determine the efficient ways of selling your products by making them easily viable to your customers.

Are your channels competing with each other?

Your sales channels should work towards a common goal instead of competing with each other.


For instance, a business based on network marketing depends on personal relationships between the executives and customers.

Now if they decide to launch an E-commerce site, customers can order food online because of the pre-established relationships. Other websites might also compete with your business by pushing their ranking on Google.


Therefore, it is important to keep a check that your website isn’t suffering if you sell your products somewhere else online.

Costs and Benefits

 Determine the costs and benefits of each sales channel before you decide on finalizing them.

You can also take advantage of any trial periods before you fully commit to putting a sales channel to use. You can also keep a track of which sales channel your competitors are using.

Also Read: Top 5 Benefits of Google Workspace for Your Online Business

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Sales

How to Better Align Your Sales Process with the Customer Journey

how to better align your sales process with customer journey

The process of buying and selling saw drastic changes over the past few years. Earlier, the sale was a universal approach.

Now, it is more fluid and dynamic.  Both business and buyer’s journeys thrive on understanding the ultimate goals, transparency, and an inquisitive tendency.

You may think that both of the parties share more similarities. Although, it’s quite the opposite. Both have contrasting expectations from one another.

Customers usually look for services or things to fulfil their needs. On the other hand, sellers incline more on reaching revenue targets and satisfying customers.

In simpler words, lets see “How to Better Align Your Sales Process with the Customer Journey ” your marketing teams should understand these basics to make sure both enjoy a mutual advantage while growing your business.

Moreover, it is indeed true that the market is ever-changing. Simultaneously, a customer’s journey is also ever-changing. It has become a much more customized process.

However, many fall under the pretence that customers are likely to follow a well-worn trail. In reality, the whole process is a random leap of faith.

Additionally, in the initial stages of a customer’s journey, marketing remains resolute. Similarly, decision-making in the case of complex purchases also remains unvarying.

It is easier to spot the shortcomings that your sales team might be facing when you set the strategy against your customer’s journey.

Why is the buyer’s journey important?

why is the buyers journey important

A well-planned sales strategy allows a business to avoid miscommunication with the buyers.

Transparency with your customer will help your business grow. But how can you ensure that? Well, this factor depends on how your sales rep handles the buyer’s journey.

Also, the only solution to guarantee alignment with the customer’s journey is to personalize the sales processes.

For marketing teams to establish consistency, sales process revision is the key. This will help you to understand the needs of the target audience.

Moreover, to make your business more demanding, focusing on a scripted sales strategy is primitive.

Instead, businesses with aligned strategies ensure to guide their customers through their journey. This also contributes to gaining credibility and reaching more target audiences than usual to leverage sales for maximum gain.

Personalizing sales strategy to align with the customer is a powerful visual tool. You can understand market trends and figure out the steps taken by your customers before making a decision.

This allows you to recognize the stages of communication with your business. Moreover, this is an important factor for the sales team.  They will base the sales strategy on this information. 

Moreover, you can gain a clear insight into the bigger picture, their experience with the company.

This helps in comprehending the customer’s expectations alongside predicting the change in customer’s behavior.

Your customer’s decision-making process predominantly depends on the following factors:

  • Problem Recognition.
  • Information Search.
  • Evaluation of Alternatives.
  • Purchase Decision.
  • Post-Purchase Evaluation.

Steps guide to Align your sales process with the Customer Journey

Reconsidering goals and definitions

Misalignment is easily avoided through reframing stage definitions and targets. In simpler words, it is common for the sale process to “ pass” a stage.

This stage incorporates whether or not a customer will purchase at a given time. Furthermore, this qualification can be a sales perspective.

On the contrary, your buyer can perceive this as committing to change.

Reframing and resetting goals allows you to revise your customer’s targets and expectations. This helps you to build clear and valuable communication.

However, it is important to look at whether your buyers understand what to expect from the business.

Sometimes, your customers face confusion. Providing guidance will go a long way to align your business while you attract more target audiences.

Recognizing Value points

Identifying the value points is another important step on the list. Map out all the possibilities that can help you offer value to your customers.

To align your business correctly, think about analyzing solutions, make sure multiple opinions or issues for your buyers are answered.

Testing and Validating

Changing your strategy is a great step. So, better safe than sorry. Before you venture out, seek consultation from high-experienced personnel.

They will help you give the feedback you need. Moreover, they can also suggest ways to improve your strategy.

Besides, validation also incorporates testing. Run a pilot program to check whether the strategy is worth it.

Although, if it is a complex process, testing can be difficult. However, your sales team can help you with predicting the possible outcome of the strategy.

Aligning your business with SNWN TECH SOLUTION

Aligning your business with SNWN TECH SOLUTION

Among the thousands of companies offering business alignment services, SNWNTECHSOLUTION is the best. Why? They have a plethora of services tailor-made for your business.

They help you through their Tech Support System. Moreover, they also varnish caching to accelerate HTTP boosting website performance and saving storage.

Here are the services they offer:

SERVER MANAGEMENT

  • Server Management
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  • Data Center Management
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How to Better Align Your Sales Process with the Customer Journey, So they also ensure that the correct message is delivered to the right set of audience.

To put this plainly, this platform can help sales rep avoid chaos and attract target audiences in a productive way.

ALSO READ : Time Management is the Key to Being a Successful Sales Rep

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Sales

5 Ways How To Simplify And Must Do To Your Sales Process

Sales Process
Sales Process

Ask any Sales personnel and they will tell you that salespersons are amongst the most overworked and stressed professionals and that, Sales is the most unforgiving career options one can choose in the current economy.

But it doesn’t need to be so. That is why, in this article, we will try to understand the reason behind such conclusions, and how we can simplify a sales process, thereby improving our work environment.

Living in the 21st century, we are privy to the rapid advancement of technology, which has also reached the Sales industry with much impact.

At first glance, it is supposed to make things easier for sales reps and managers, but in reality, the opposite is true.

5 Steps of the Sales Process :

  1. Approach The Client
  2. Assessing your best leads
  3. Automate tedious admin works with a CRM system
  4. Consider investing in Marketing automation software
  5. Complete The Sale And Follow Up

1. Approach The Client :

The Nature of the Approaches can varies according to your sales methods , which you are using on daily basis , for approaching new clients.

You will never see most of the client on Phone Calls, whereas you want a firm sales executive person , who had well knowledge of dealing with complex minded person and get with the positive response from the client.

But for this, the first step is to build a Good Relation with the client and then approaching the sales good according to the requirements.

This can be done, by introducing yourself and telling them, who you are and what kind of work our company does, so that, their level of trust can increase on yourself first, then gradually you can sale anything, for the profit margins.


2. Assessing your best leads :

The success of any business relies heavily on lead qualification and prioritizing. This is because unqualified leads can be very frustrating for your sales rep and this can lead to a decreased rate of deal closures.

The reason is quite straightforward – not every lead is your prospect.  This is why adopting a structured approach to lead identification and qualification becomes so crucial.

With such an approach, one can integrate developing buyer personas for lead identification that can prove to be a very effective method for your sales teams.

Buyer personas help your sales reps to sort out which leads they need to prioritize and which not to. This can impressively decrease the need to focus on everyone.

There are many sales tools available for simplifying these steps even further.

3. Automate tedious admin works with a CRM system :

In this age of technology, your sales reps need not bury themselves into tedious admin works that tend to pile up with each lead.

The last thing your sales reps want to do is investigate each potential leads manually to bring out their prospects.

This can easily be automated using various Customer Relationship Management or CRM tools that are readily available in the market.

The best thing about these tools is that your sales reps can learn from each result. While choosing who you should focus on, the most useful thing to do is to assess the best marketing campaign for them.

With CRM tools, you can automate this process altogether as these sales tools use the existing data on your leads and give you the assessed results.

4. Consider investing in Marketing automation software :

Other than CRM tools, you can also consider various marketing automation software that is also available in the 21st-century world.

In fact, many successful businessmen recommend investing in this software. They are very powerful automation platforms that you can greatly benefit from.

These tools help your teams to automate various ongoing tasks like email marketing, social media marketing, and much more.

With these tasks being automated, a lot of the time, that was otherwise being consumed in executing these repetitive tasks, are now available to your sales reps.

They can now easily focus on the tasks that require their immediate attention, like following up with their best prospects in hopes of closing a deal that is almost at closure, etc.

5. Complete The Sale And Follow Up :

In this Final Phase, Just complete their order and on monthly basis, just take follow-up on regular basis, so that client will feel comfortable with your products.
With a simpler sales process, you can save both your costs and labor. This, in turn, makes your sales process more effective and efficient.

So, now that you know what you need to do in order to simplify your sales process, you can effectively draw up an action plan that suits you the best.

ALSO READ : Work Smarter: Live Chat Best Practices

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Sales

Personalize Outreach at Scale with Sales Engagement Automation

Personalize Outreach at Scale with Sales Engagement Automation

As a sales professional, you must agree that when prospects show interest in your services and/or products, they will always expect a fast and personal reply.

A study shows that most of the consumers consider this as one of the most important elements in any sales interaction.

However, in today’s sales environment, very few in-person opportunities arise for engaging with your prospects.

For this very reason, faster, more practical, and above all, personalized outreach programs have become very necessary in order to build up your sales pipeline and to establish a trusted relationship with your prospects.

But it is much easier said than done as engaging with your leads after following-up is very much time-consuming, not to mention the tediousness. This has led to the development of sales engagement through automation tools and software.

In this article, we will learn what exactly sales engagement means, why would your business needs sales engagement, and how you can benefit from adopting some of the best sales engagement practices?

What is Sales Engagement?

The term Sales Engagement can be defined as a collection of interactions and/or exchanges conducted between a sales rep and the target audience (prospects).

It is a measurable quantity and is done so by ‘contact-points’ (aka touches) or the time spent by both parties on each interaction.

Any action taken by the prospect, be it opening an email, clicking on a link, or even downloading an ebook or video, is considered as a form of Sales Engagement.

The rate at which the prospects complete these actions tell the sales rep how engaged each prospect is.

This is a very effective technique as it helps the sales reps to understand the requirements of the prospects more clearly and come up with the best support strategy.

There are many software and tools in the market that can help with Sales Engagement.

Why do I need Sales Engagement?

Why do I need Sales Engagement?

In order to understand this, we will need to look at some of the “pain-points” of sales and how do they affect the overall sales of your rep.

A quick survey would tell you that at least one of these seven “pain-points” is a worrisome issue for any Sales Manager.

Manual, time-consuming repetitive tasks are a sales rep’s worst nightmare

Even though the main responsibility of a sales rep is to close a deal as smoothly and efficiently as possible,  an array of related tasks are always associated with a sales reps job description.

Sending emails, following-up with prospects and making other calls, keeping the CRM updated, etc. are to name a few.

These manual, tedious, and repetitive tasks, by no means, contribute towards closing a deal. Rather these tasks are very time-consuming and eat up most of the work hours of every sales rep.

These tasks easily de-track a sales rep from selling. This situation has led to the automation of these tedious tasks. By automating these tasks, the sales reps can gain a bulk of time that was earlier being consumed by the manual operation.

In turn, the sales reps can focus more on selling rather than on admin tasks.

The necessity of personalizing at scale

Balancing the scale of one’s outreach programs with personalization is another very common challenge faced by sales teams globally.

Keep in mind that your customers or buyers will always expect and prefer personalization in your outreach programs. This goes to show that as a sales rep you know about their interests and who they are.

This approach is really effective as it impressively increases your chances of hearing back from them.

On the other hand, as a seller, you will need to scale your outreach programs so that you can attract a larger target audience, and hence, increase your prospect list.

This creates an instant tug of war that you cannot satisfyingly conclude. And this confuses your sales reps in choosing between whether to reach out to a larger bulk of potential customers with a lower level of personalization or to personalize every outreach initiative for each client?

This scenario has made it necessary for a platform that can aid in this dilemma and the answer to that was found in the form of sales engagement software that helps the reps to balance out their sales strategies.

ALSO READ : A Guide To An Ideal System Administrator’s Role And Ethics In The Concurrent World

Excess of sales tools have led to data clogging

Your sales reps may end up being overwhelmed rather than being overjoyed with the availability of a string of specialized sales tools available these days.

In today’s business world, most of the sales institutions have already engaged in multiple tools to support their sales reps and selling activities, hence improving their productivity.

These tools do not work by complementing each other, rather they operate independently. This ends up creating major issues for the sales teams as they end up toggling in between these tools.

As a result, a lot of data gets stuck in different storage locations or “silos” and hinders the sales reps from getting a clear picture at a singular location.

Instead, investing in a software or platform that can integrate the various tools is a much more effective support mechanism.

These are but a few of the challenges faced by sales organizations. Missing out on crucial business decision-driving data is another such serious issue that can be addressed and simplified with a Sales Engagement software in place.

Also, your CRM is not enough to efficiently handle customer engagement alone.

Benefits of Sales Engagement Software

Benefits of Sales Engagement Software

Personalized engagement with prospects

With such technology, you can simultaneously scale up your outreach programs and activities as well as improve the genuineness of each customer engagement with a higher level of personalization in each case.

With a Sales Engagement platform, you can easily set up an automated yet intelligent follow-up activity sequence(s), which, in turn, gives you better productivity and engagement.

Integrated platform

Data, existing in the different “silos” in an organization, are connected to each other cohesively into a single location with the help of this awesome technology we are discussing today.

This means that your CRM system is also integrated into this platform. This makes it much easier for you to select the best sales and marketing materials available to form up a grand strategy for executing your tasks smoothly and enhancing your productivity.

Sales reps are always privy to all their engagement needs like customer insight, communication execution, etc. in a single solution.

A stronger CRM system

As we said earlier that Sales Engagement software integrates CRM systems as well.

This means your existing CRM system will not be lost, rather amplified to a more effective aid to you. The CRM acts as a central repository while the Sales Engagement platform will act as a layer of communication that helps your reps to boost their productivity the smart way.

ALSO READ : 10 Mistakes Sales Representatives Makes Way Too Often And The Solutions To Avoid Them

It helps them conduct smart-work rather than hard-work.

So, now that you know how valuable this software has become in the current sales scenario, get started with your own!