It’s no surprise that businesses are continuing to see an impact from the effects of the pandemic today. It’s likely that we will see these effects well into 2021 and beyond. While some businesses were more affected than others, it can be said with confidence that all are looking forward and thinking about the post-pandemic future. In the meantime, almost all organizations have worked to adapt to this new digital way of working. With this change has come a plethora of new tech for inside sales.
The Digital Shift
The pandemic has drastically changed the traditional way of making connections, “forcing a high-touch process to become digital-first” according to Inc.com. Due to this newfound digital focus, marketing and inside sales teams have been forced to adopt an entirely digital way of selling while meeting customers on their terms, getting through to customers amongst the rest of the digital noise, achieving new goals, and working to increase revenue—all at the same time.
Preparing for a New Sales Era
While the past few years have been slowly preparing us for an entirely digital way of life, only 56% of leaders feel that their marketing teams are fully prepared for digital go-to-market activity, based on EY research. Without the proper preparation, these teams are unlikely to meet their goals and drive revenue, and will only continue to fall further behind.
New tech tools for inside sales have allowed sales and marketing teams to handle the new challenges created by this shift to an entirely digital process. Sales, in particular, have always required a personal touch to be truly effective. Tools that increase personalization and require a hands-off approach allow for future growth while saving employees extra time that could be best spent advancing the sales process to work even better in today’s entirely digital age.
Below are our top inside sales tech tools that can help your team move forward in 2021 and embrace the digital era.
Tech Tools for Inside Sales in 2021
1. Email Marketing with Video
Email marketing has been around for a while, but the introduction of personalized video in the channel is relatively new. Videos can make an email even more personalized than it already is, and can aid in relaying information in a manner that is easy-to-digest for the recipient. Resources like Vidyard allow you to add personalized videos in emails, amongst other locations, or as part of a request for information that are extremely customized for the prospect.
Now, more than ever, digital communications have become the norm. Most people are inundated with emails that often all look the same because of this. Adding new types of personalization to an already familiar method of messaging makes it feel fresh and new, and shows that your company cares enough about its customers to go the extra mile.
2. A Quality CRM
A customer relationship management (CRM) tool can prove incredibly useful when it comes to organizing your contacts, no matter where they sit in the sales pipeline. If your company is looking to grow your customer base, utilizing a CRM like HubSpot offers the opportunity for scalability in a simple but powerful way.
A CRM with the means to assist sales teams, marketing, customer service, operations, and even business owners can take the weight of database management off of everyone’s shoulders while providing additional tools to help day-to-day tasks run quickly and smoothly. This offers more time for sales teams to do what they do best.
3. Scheduling Tools
Appointment scheduling can be tricky and time-consuming. going back and forth with a decision-maker via phone and/or email in an attempt to secure a time for a meeting is time-consuming and can result in mixed messages and crossed signals. Utilizing meeting scheduling software helps to eliminate the lengthy message exchange and can help you nail down meetings right away.
Software tools like Calendly are easy to use and take the uncertainty out of scheduling. It allows you to outline your availability and share it with the involved party, who can select a time that works best for them. The chosen appointment time is then automatically added to your calendar—no phone tag necessary.
Make a Real Connection
Breaking through the noise of inundated email inboxes and messaging systems with unique and personalized features like video in email is a great way to stay at the forefront of prospects’ and customers’ minds. Utilizing a CRM to stay organized is beneficial to internal employees, outsourced employees, and customers because you won’t miss a beat when there is a need to locate or update contacts in a scalable manner. And the ability to schedule meetings smoothly and efficiently allows you to meet quickly and establish a personal connection right away.
The goal with all of these tech tools is simple: to make a real connection. With users increasingly working in isolation and becoming more reliant upon the digital universe to stay connected, it’s imperative to update the methods you use to reach customers and the tools you utilize to stay on top of work.
If one thing is certain, it’s that there is no looking back to the past when it comes to conducting sales and we are embracing this digital era with open minds. The one thing that hasn’t changed is that everything we do is all about the customer, and we must adapt and adopt available digital tools in order to meet customers where they are right now.
