It’s that time of year! We’ve done a little bit of digging to see what the sales and marketing grapevine is saying, so let’s take a look at some possible upcoming trends for 2021.
Chat and chatbots
Chat boxes cater to the new on-demand mindset of customers, especially now businesses have gradually moved online and lots of people are working from home! HubSpot data has shown that chat volume has gradually increased over last year, and people have started using live chat more as a resource for real-time help.
With this option, visitors are expecting great customer service and responses to their queries faster and on their own schedule. It makes it easier for people to speak to you in their own time, leading to an increase in sales and a greater conversion rate. That’s why you’ve probably seen more of them around!
And chatbots are a valuable resource because they can reliably answer common and basic questions to automatically point prospects and customers in the right direction. This takes the strain off your real-life reps and allows them the time to focus on more complex queries.
Video for sales outreach
With the lack of face-to-face meetings and networking events this year, video was a godsend for sales outreach. And frankly, it was a matter of necessity, really — so HubSpot says it might be easy to write off its popularity as a product of special circumstances. But their Sales Director Dan Tyre believes using video as a sales outreach tool will continue this year:
“I am offering this [prediction] sheepishly because I made it in 2017 and was wrong. So I made it again in 2018, only to be wrong again. I followed that up with the same prediction in 2019 and 2020 and we’re almost there.
I’m confident that video will stick in 2021. The underlying statistics are undeniable — salespeople who use video will connect at three times the rate of those who don’t, reducing the inefficiency of the outreach process as a whole.”
Companies moving away from onsite presentations
Sales success in 2020 largely depended on how adaptable you are to change. Sales teams across the globe had to shift their processes, strategies, and methodologies to safely continue working through the various lockdowns of the pandemic.
And as businesses have been forced into remote work, it wouldn’t be unreasonable to suggest that this may become the norm for many — if not most — businesses in 2021.
A study from Gartner found that an estimated 88% of companies mandated or encouraged their employees to work from home in 2020. And that same study also found that roughly 97% of organizations have cancelled work-related travel.
This is no crystal ball prediction, however. We’ve been phasing out in-person presentations since last year, and since it likely won’t go back to ‘normal’ immediately, we’re expecting that trend to continue into 2021.
Hybrid remote sales models
According to Hubspot’s 2021 Sales Enablement Report, Sales leaders who adopted a hybrid or fully remote sales model hit or exceeded revenue targets in 2020.
“Sales leaders whose teams typically sold in the field faced a hard choice last year: Do I subject my team to massive change and enable remote work, or try to weather this storm? Those who invested in enabling remote work were rewarded––64% of those who transitioned to remote sales this year met or exceeded revenue targets, compared to 50% of the leaders who did not make the transition. Signalling a shift in how sales teams will be structured going forward.”
Sales enablement jobs
In periods of great change, successful sales leaders need to keep their reps focused. That’s why hiring a person or team dedicated to creating enablement materials like email templates for sales, call scripts and checklists will become more of the norm, instead of adding those tasks onto Sales Managers or Marketing team.
Of all the sales leaders surveyed in HubSpot’s Sales Enablement report, 59% have a dedicated sales enablement team or person. And 65% of sales leaders who outperformed revenue targets have a dedicated sales enablement person or team, showing just how an investment in sales enablement can lead to revenue growth, especially through changing times.
Empathy and meaningful relationships
Under the current circumstances, it’s hard to form meaningful relationships and establish rapport, even though it’s more important to you and your prospects than ever.
Empathy in sales isn’t just a current buzzword for quick-win deals, it’s about building relationships over time, caring about the customers and prospects you serve, and doing what you can to put them at the forefront of everything.
You need to be helpful in their time of need by staying up-to-date with the struggles and challenges your prospects face, being able to empathetically talk about those challenges, and provide meaningful solutions for creating and sustaining growth. A great way to brainstorm and note down these specific pain points is to create your buyer persona profiles for 2021.
Setting and managing expectations with OKRs and Dashboards
Remote work means it can be harder for businesses and individual salespeople to remain on the same page and work efficiently. In 2021, businesses will need to find a way to keep reps focused. A great way to do this is setting and managing expectations through Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) with the right tools.
HubSpot has an array of deal pipeline tools and detailed dashboards to help you track activity, assign tasks, see what’s working and what isn’t, and stay on the same page no matter where you’re working from.
Screentime fatigue
I’m sure you’ll agree that we’re all getting a bit tired of staring at our phones and computers all day every day.
In fact, there is a scientific link between increased screen-time and depression and anxiety, as well as physical body ailments such as sore eyes, neck, shoulders, and back.
So instead of webinars and other sales and marketing activities that require a screen to interact with your content, could audio solutions like podcasts and voice messages become the preferred way of consuming content and communicating this year?
Charlie Whyman of The Curiosity Key podcast says:
“2020 seemed to be the year of Zoom and throughout the various lockdowns and limitations, screen-time was increased for us all.
I don’t know about everyone else but screen fatigue is now real challenge yet we all need and crave BOTH random and intentional conversations.
I’ve really loved audio content for a few years now and love walking phone meetings, podcasts, audiobooks and sending people voice messages instead of typing (this has been really handy whilst keeping in touch with people at the same time as juggling parenting)…”
Outsourcing lead generation
Businesses choose to outsource for a lot of different reasons:
- Affordability
- Heightened performance
- Shifting capacity
- Flexibility
- Access to specific expertise and skills
- Efficiencies
As shifts have been made to a more on-demand marketplace and the importance of efficiently generating only the warmest of leads has risen, businesses are beginning to outsource their lead generation to expert specialists to find out who is buying right now, and how best to attract, convert and close them.
For example, Shortlist partners with businesses who have existing marketing and sales teams as well as those who don’t have anyone in-house to find and generate quality leads and support them through these changing times.
We don’t know what the whole landscape will look like over the next year, but these trends are a good place to start looking. Is there anything on this list we’ve missed off? Let us know what you think!
