3 Sales Trends for 2019

Sales is an ever-changing industry that constantly keeps you on your toes. As a highly commission-oriented field, it is pertinent that managers and reps alike do all they can to maximize their revenue potential by optimizing performance.  To do so, strategically incorporating the latest trends in sales management and putting aside old school mentality is vital to stay ahead of the competition.

So, set your team up for success in 2019 by aligning sales and marketing, implementing sales technology, and establishing or reevaluating your sales strategy to get a jump on your quota in the new year. 

Align Sales and Marketing

Proper communication and alignment of goals between your sales and marketing departments will better enable your organization to successfully target prospects and hit quota next year. Marketing should know who sales is reaching out to, and vise versa, in order to establish effective campaigns and ensure that sales is making the right efforts towards the right people.

Account-based marketing is a trend we saw in 2018 that will continue to be big in the new year. Understanding who decision-makers are at companies is something that will benefit both sales and marketing over the phone and via email campaigns.

Further, to optimize productivity and time spent on the phones, marketing content should be stored seamlessly and always remain accessible for reps. The less time reps spend on administrative activities, the more time they can spend on revenue-generating activities like making calls.

Implement Technology

Technology that enhances the sales process has become the norm across the industry. Implementing a sales enablement tool will give your organization the ability to analyze a large quantity of data in a shorter timeframe and provide 100% accurate information to build your sales strategy upon. With a sales tool, rep activity becomes completely transparent, allowing managers to create more accurate forecasts and putting goals and quota in a more realistic, attainable perspective.

As we pointed out in our 2018 predictions, “Doing so has the potential to not only improve training and coaching but also increase ROI. Over 75% of companies using a sales enablement tool report that their sales volume improved over the past 12 months.” With sales enablement, automated activity logging becomes the norm, eliminating administrative tasks and turning rep focus back towards revenue generation.

Establish a Strategy

Even after implementing a sales tool and ensuring that your sales and marketing teams are on the same page, you can’t just wing it and expect to find sales success. Developing skills and improving rep performance don’t just happen overnight.  Successful cold calling takes practice and precision, and recording what works and what doesn’t for future training and coaching purposes will only make a manager’s job easier – and more effective.

Establishing a concrete sales strategy at your organization is the final step towards success. Use your sales tool to gather data, then analyze this data and implement its findings to set your playbook for sales success in place. Along with higher numbers you will find that a well-documented sales strategy will bring a smoother onboarding process along with stronger training and coaching for reps. After all, training is often the most overlooked aspect of sales enablement.

A sales enablement tool is a manager’s best asset to achieving top-tier sales performance, and in addition to aligning sales and marketing, connecting your sales strategy with this technology will help ensure your management standards are enforced and that you get the full potential out of this investment.

Learn more about how strategy and technology can increase the effectiveness of your sales team in 2019.