Simple Marketing Strategies to Address 3 Common Sales Challenges

As a business owner, you have a lot to gain by listening to your sales floor and aligning your marketing solutions with their day-to-day challenges.?

When?your?top?performers are telling you it's time for a change, then maybe it's actually time for a change!?Marketing can do a lot of really great things for your sales when properly aligned. Here are three problems your sales teams are facing and ways you can elevate them with marketing.

All or Nothing...

During my prime in sales, I was subjected to the same outdated quota targets as everyone else. The higher-ups seemed unconcerned with my success, even when I surpassed expectations by employing unconventional sales techniques that senior management dismissed as "unproductive behavior."

Instead of making 50-100 calls a day like my colleagues, I chose to prospect and connect with leads on LinkedIn, making only 10 calls. I also took the initiative to repurpose corporate marketing materials and engage in goodwill-building projects, such as co-authoring a white paper for an association that eventually generated millions in business referrals for us.

However, instead of receiving recognition for my achievements, I would often face criticism. I was told that if I could achieve sales leadership with just 10 calls a day, I could accomplish even more with 50.?

It's frustrating how my approach was not understood. While it may have been possible to increase the number of quality calls I made in a day, doubling or even tripling my volume and, in theory, my sales, I couldn't do it alone. I needed corporate support to reduce the time spent on prospecting and preparation.

So, let me ask you: how do you evaluate the performance of your sales teams? Do you focus on the number of calls they make each day or the impact they have on the bottom line? Are you aware of the challenges they face in the field that make it increasingly difficult for them to meet their quotas?

Here are three common sales problems they encounter regularly and how, as a business owner, you can address them effectively.

1- Prospects won't take their calls!

One of the challenges faced by sales teams is the difficulty in getting prospects to engage and take their calls. Prospects are inundated with numerous sales pitches throughout the day, and as a result, they often ignore or reject calls from unknown salespeople. Businesses are actively implementing measures to protect themselves from unwanted sales outreach, making it harder for sales teams to break through these defenses.

Let's face the reality for a moment - you probably employ similar tactics, don't you? Administrative assistants are instructed to keep sales calls at bay and may even resort to creating fake voicemail accounts to avoid persistent cold callers who refuse to accept "no" for an answer.

So, what can you do to overcome this challenge?

Social media marketing can be a valuable solution. Take the initiative to curate content that resonates with your target audience. By establishing a strong social media presence, you provide your salespeople with engaging material to share and use as conversation-starters. Sometimes, they can initiate meaningful discussions in online forums with their potential prospects, leveraging your social media example to facilitate genuine sales conversations. As a business owner, it is crucial for you to support your sales teams by actively engaging in social media marketing efforts.

By leveraging social media platforms effectively, you can enhance your salespeople's ability to connect with prospects, build relationships, and foster meaningful conversations about your products or services. Ultimately, this contributes to their overall success in driving sales and meeting targets.

2- Outdated leads - Complete waste of time

Sales teams often struggle with unqualified leads, making it challenging for them to achieve success. When corporate offices send a "hot list," it is disheartening to discover that the majority of leads are a complete waste of time.

In fact, the reality is that a large majority of these leads (let's say 19 out of 20) are simply not qualified to become customers. They may not meet the necessary business size requirements, have gone out of business, or the provided contacts may no longer work there.

The prescribed solution for dealing with this situation is usually to refrain from conducting in-depth research and simply make calls based on basic company details. The emphasis is on volume, assuming that success lies in reaching out to as many leads as possible.

However, instead of blindly following this approach and wasting time on unqualified prospects, I took a different path and ended up facing reprimand. I opted to prospect 10 qualified leads on LinkedIn, thoroughly researched both the individuals and their companies, and made contact through calls, emails, or messages. Although this approach required the same amount of time as calling 50 prospects, it allowed me to focus on quality rather than quantity. By targeting these 10 quality prospects, armed with sufficient information, I was able to spark meaningful conversations that led to better outcomes.

The moral of this story is clear: it's essential to stop inundating your sales teams with garbage leads. Instead, focus on providing them with qualified and relevant leads.

So, what can you do to overcome this challenge?

Now, you might be thinking that achieving this is easier said than done. However, this is precisely why people spend a significant amount of time discussing the possibilities of inbound marketing with me. By implementing an inbound strategy, you can transform your website into a powerful magnet that attracts qualified and engaged leads. This approach ensures that your sales teams are consistently presented with leads that have a higher likelihood of conversion and success.

In addition to generating new leads, you can nurture and rate them based on their closability.

3- Eduation before offering

I have an experience managing sales and commercial desks in various Technology fields that range from commoditized to conceptual services and R&D to unconventional projects. Education played a crucial role, albeit for different reasons in each single case.

In this industry in various sectors, where low-rate bid wars were prevalent, Achieving successful placements required recruiting and matching the right skill sets, which necessitated educating prospects about the process and highlighting key factors to consider. By providing this education, it became easier for prospects to understand the value of investing more in specialized services rather than opting for generalist competitors.

In businesses that offer more conceptual services, such as SaaS and specialty accounting, education also played a significant role. However, customers often perceive salespeople's intentions as driven by commissions, leading to skepticism. Simply cramming an educational sales pitch into the first breath after saying "hello" is not the solution.

So, what can you do to overcome this challenge?

Blogging,Articles, Case studies. Make your website rich with blogging and case-studies try to write articles about the pains your business solves and for sure don't make it a forum for advetorial gobbeldygook

TEACH. If you frame them around good keywords, maybe you'll even get more traffic to your site. What matters here is that people will be able to diagnose the problems that your company solves using your assistance, so when it's time for the business development individuals to make those calls, they're not being accused of pitching snake oil.

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