Sales Leaders: Top Trends You Need to Know About for 2019

With the new year upon us, it’s important to consider the defining trends for top sales representatives and growth leaders. With so many technological changes, new privacy laws emerging, and best practices being discovered, leaders must understand the biggest changes facing sales professionals in 2019 and learn which sales strategies they should put their money to give them the extra edge against the competition. As I think about 2019, here are the most important trends all leaders and sales and marketing teams should know about to win.

Customer Data Becomes the New World Currency

Major changes in the way companies leverage their customer data will heat up in 2019.

No longer will top brands hoard data as a competitive advantage. They will unlock the value of their data by combining it with third party sources to form a collective intelligence movement, helping business sales professionals tap into the power of artificial intelligence (AI) just like the consumer world. In this new world, data becomes the new currency. To understand the importance of this approach, consider Einstein as an example. On the surface it looks like a cool AI tool for Salesforce.com, until you consider it only looks at your own data to provide a view into the past–not the future. For AI to really work, you have to realize data is the key. Like Waze, your data is powerful but when you combine it with other people’s data, the insights and the recommendations become unstoppable. Look for InsideSales.com to continue to dominate this space with a ten year head start on the data for sales game.

The cloud data wars will intensify, with data now bought, sold, and traded as currency outpacing gold, oil, and even crypto-currencies.

The players in the emerging cloud data war are the largest companies on the planet, and in many cases, they have already secretly invested billions of dollars in a race to own the most and the most important data. This is not a new phenomenon. The battle over data documented began over 15 years ago as Cloud applications began collecting and aggregating data through web technology platforms. However, the data gold rush has intensified at an increasing rate, culminating in the 2018 Salesforce.com Dreamforce event.  

The power of prioritization will be realized at long last.

Sales prioritization will become a vital lifeline to increase growth with existing resources. I know, your marketing team has made up a marketing score that you think is garbage and I also know you’re using some company that uses black magic to put a 0-100 score next to an account or contact and you also think that is garbage as well. I get it, I do. Sadly, you have every right to think you’re better because it’s your team’s territory and ultimately your job is on the line. Shame on these lead scoring companies for being so damn difficult. For not telling you what goes into the scoring model, for not letting you be part of building the score from the ground up, and then not using something besides 0-100 that you would actually adopt. I promise you’re going to see some disruption in lead and account scoring because people want it and need it, there just isn’t a company who has figured out how to make it market ready, but somebody will.

AI will be Everywhere

AI moves from a technology category to a foundational capability in almost every tool we use.

A lot of sales technology maps have gotten this wrong. They put predictive analytics, AI, etc. as its own category but this is wrong. Is Netflix about AI? No. It’s about disrupting the way we consume entertainment. The same applies to sales technology. Companies won’t sell AI, but the companies who infuse AI into their technology will replace the ones who don’t.

AI should enable sales teams, not eliminate them.

Disruption is happening with AI and sales and you can’t stop it. It’s now moving from marketing into the sales development function in a big way. Know companies like scalex.ai or scalerep.com want to replace the outbound sales development rep but that’s not going to happen. These companies will continue to try and automate the tasks of sales development reps until the reps themselves have been replaced by technology but what they don’t realize is AI is here to enable sales development and make them smarter in their outbound targeted sales prospecting, not eliminate them.

Sales Engagement Tools Become Foundational for Every Tech Stack

Salesforce says goodbye to undifferentiated cadence tools like Outreach and SalesLoft.

As Salesforce prepares to enter the market with its sales cadence tool, undifferentiated cadence tools like Outreach.io and SalesLoft will see the beginning of their end while differentiated cadence tools like InsideSales.com will survive and compete.

Sales cadence tools finally have all eight communication tools available.

You know it and so do I, email and phone are nice but they can’t be all you do as part of your cadence strategy. Companies have faked integrations, but it’s sloppy and reps know it. There are eight methods reps need to consider using when prospecting to potential clients:

1. Phone
2. Voice mail
3. Email
4. Social media
5. Direct mailer
6. Text
7. Video with email
8. Chat

If you offer a cadence tool, just shut up, quit making excuses, and give me the ability to use all eight methods.

Communication Methods Continue to Evolve

AI makes cold calling cool again.

Cold calling is dead, right? Not anymore, thanks to the help of artificial intelligence. With traditional cold calling, you choose a random list of accounts and started smiling and dialing. Cold calling with AI says you choose a list of accounts that are likely to buy from you and that are also considering your product or service at that particular moment. With traditional cold calling, you call a lot of random 800 numbers. Calling with AI means calling proven phone numbers that have been tested by others. Traditional cold calling says you should call whenever you want, whereas calling with AI tells you the optimal time to call to maximize your ability to talk with someone. Traditional calling means calling blindly knowing nothing about your prospects. AI-based phone calls provides insights presented to the caller so you don’t have to spend precious time researching. Cold calling uses the same script on everybody, while AI personalizes your pitch based on the different aspects of the individual. Get ready for cold calling (with AI) to be cool again.

Direct mailer becomes a preferred tool for sales representatives, not just marketers.

Your parents used direct mailers for sales, but for a long period of time mailers fell by the wayside as HubSpot pioneered the inbound movement. With account-based taking back its reign as the dominant sales motion and automated direct mailer services functioning with a click of a button with tools like RocketNotes, direct mailer services will move from marketing departments to sales representatives and become widely adopted. 

Texting gets new features and breaks into sales.

Texting has been around since the ‘90’s, and even though about 97 percent of smartphone users send texts, it has not evolved much since then. That is all about to change thanks to new RCS technology (Rich Communication Service) in 2019. Why is that important to sales? Well, because the RCS protocol will actually allow some functions such as starting group chats, sending relevant content via video and audio messages, and sending high-resolution images. You’ll also be able to receive read receipts and even see when someone is replying to your message in real time. The old-fashioned SMS will basically get the same functions as iMessage, WhatsApp or Facebook messenger.

Long form emails make their way into the sales function.

Simple plain text emails rock, I get it, and most sales people know that as well but long form content is something your prospects associate with higher-value. I know people complain about short attention spans, but as long as your prospects are engaged, they will pay attention. Don’t believe me? Look at Twitter changing its character limit from 140 to 280 and the rise of binge watching.

The Evolution of the Sales Structure

The birth of the hybrid sales role.

The State of Sales report showed outside sales reps spend almost half of their time (45.4%) selling remotely. This trend is pushing companies to create more hybrid reps and ditch the name field sales because these reps spend so much time doing inside sales. This is a smart move for a lot of companies as they find the most cost effective way to sell, so expect to see more companies introduce the hybrid sales rep.

Companies will look to outsource more sales functions.

Certain marketing functions have long since transferred to outsourced vendors to ensure a level of professionalism and expertise is maintained, but sales has been slower to adopt outsourced models. Expect that to continue to shift as companies recognize certain aspects of sales can be done exceptionally well by outsourced vendors.

Gen-Z will pass Millennials as the largest generation and shake things up.

In 2019, Gen-Z is expected to pass Millennials as the largest generation and boy will that shake things up for sales leaders. Gen-Z is more entrepreneurial than Millennials and more tech savvy. In addition, co-creating a culture is a big thing that drives them. In 2019, expect sales organizations to start shifting to make room for more Gen-Z as they enter the sales floor.

Customer success gets a seat at the table.

Customer success has typically been the red-headed step child in many organizations, but in 2019 that’s due to change. In most organizations it doesn’t have an official seat, nor do they have any technology to support them. In 2019, more organizations will see the benefit of having good customer relationships and show their appreciation for it by designating specific executive leadership for this function and putting their money where their mouth is (in the form of technology) to support it.

The Changing Sales Technology Landscape

The sales technology space begins to consolidate.

Sales technology is becoming as rampant as marketing technology, and although that is not likely to change, companies will continue to acquire and merge to fight the bigger players in the market.

The simplification of the sales technology stack.

According to our data, the typical sales reps has 5.2 sales tools. That’s a lot, and companies are being almost forced to add more each month. Sales reps have a hard time adopting technology and companies are slow to recognize ROI on technology, so the problem has only gotten worse. Expect that to change in 2019 as companies evaluate their technology stack and limit it to the tools that drive the highest ROI.

The CRM starts to work for reps rather than reps working for it.

We completed a highly quoted study that says that sales reps only spend 36.6% of their time selling. That’s crappy. There are too many tasks that are still manual and CRM is not helping. Sales reps say they spend 18% of their time in CRM and they rate it as the most ineffective of all the systems used. I’m not surprised, are you? Time to change that and have the CRM work for us instead of work against us. Time to move away from CRM (systems of engagement) and move to systems of growth that actually help you sell.

The future of sales technology is moving beyond CRM, to AI Systems of Growth.

CRM software first emerged in the 1980s, before the internet was prevalent. To organize sales efforts it followed a linear construct, with opportunities following a single-threaded, phase-based path toward the close. But buyers are pursuing individualized and non-linear paths. So how can a sales rep trained in a single linear selling process possibly know the course of action that will suit individual prospects the best? Unless you’ve sold to the person and organization before, you don’t know how to get a deal done. CRM is simply not suited to deliver the answers to the questions “who should I engage?” and “how should I engage them?” These are things an experienced rep already knows, especially if they’ve sold to a particular organization before. But these answers are not within the CRM. So what is the future of CRM? Yes, CRM continues to exist in this new world. But it is relegated to its most fitting place as a mission-critical commodity, as its fundamental architecture prohibits it from being the brains behind a successful system for revenue growth. More on this from my friend Dave Boyce here.

No more blind sales forecasting.

Sales forecasting sucks. We did a research study that found that companies are 28.1% accurate in their forecasts 90 days from close. 90 freaking days from close! Can you believe that! CRM isn’t helping do this, so AI is needed to fill in the gap. 2019 is the year of the forecast.

Somebody will breathe life back into gamification.

Gamification companies have failed and it’s because they did it wrong. They thought it was all about keeping score and competition so every tool focused on that and they failed. What companies didn’t realize was that peer to peer interaction/feedback was the driving factor. Slack is probably the best gamification tool out there for sales teams as it allows reps to banter back and forth instead of look at stupid leaderboards that are nothing more than fancy salesforce reports. Somebody is going to crack the code on this in 2019 and gamification will be hot again.

Chatbots Spread like Wildfire

Inbound sales development reps get stiff competition.

Drift is the hottest thing since sliced bread, I get it. Last year’s trend was using Drift and if you’re not doing that you’re behind the times. Drift and other conversation bots are putting pressure on the inbound sales development rep to become better at their craft. I don’t see inbound reps getting replaced, but they will have to earn their keep as competition from chat bots is already here.

Conversation bots get ultra personalized.

Speaking of conversation bots like Drift, we’ve only seen the beginning of what these things can do. Expect these bots to get ultra personalized as they now disrupt account-based marketing and sales….having already done the same to inbound high-velocity models.

Conversation bots help you CLOSE deals.

Sorry, there is so much on conversation bots and for good reason…but they are hot hot hot. Conversation bots gain more traction in 2019 helping reps close more deals by optimizing the price, configure, and quote process. Apttus has the advantage here but others will be coming fast.

Messenger sales becomes a branded term.

We talked about chat in the top and the bottom of the sales funnel, but what about in the middle? According to Twilio’s survey, 66 percent of consumers now prefer to reach a brand (or be reached by brands) via messaging than by any other means. Do you have the ability to chat with customers or prospects as part of your sales process? You need it.

To read the rest of the article, go here...