How to use technology to sell?

Companies around the world are taking advantage of new technological capabilities. Artificial Intelligence and other trends to strengthen their business processes. And also used to automate tasks that allow them to reduce operational efforts and increase results. In other words, companies are using technologies to sell more, but what are they doing?

In this article we are going to learn about the following topics:

• Social Networks and Social Selling
• Automation and Email Marketing platforms
• The importance of a website
• CRM: Customer Relationship Management
• Innovation and technology

What most companies are doing to achieve fabulous results in sales and in engagement with their audiences: social networks and Email Marketing.

The figures confirm this, in contributions published by Forrester Research, it stands out that 46% of marketers who work with consolidated lead management processes have sales teams that manage to close more business opportunities.

How to use social networks and social selling to sell

Social networks and email marketing are two of the strategies that companies use the most. The reason is very simple, these are low-cost resources, easy to use, and available to organizations of any level.

Marketing departments uploading their content to the social networks in the new spaces. They allocate for dissemination, such as the well-known stories and the living ones, and even the WhatsApp statuses on customer service lines.

This works not only because of the close tone, but because with this formula, companies manage to enter “intimate” spaces. At this moment in which we as network users dedicate ourselves to consuming this material. Have you thought about it?

We do it when we have time for ourselves, at that time of day when we take a break or check our mobile to satisfy a need.

And since we spend an important time in the networks, what better than to take commercial advantage of them! The Social Selling practice consists of a sales model in which we use social media to engage with potential customers.

Fundamentally, we leverage our commercial deployments on LinkedIn, and we can attest to their results, as long as behind our actions there is methodology and prudence.

It is about implementing a way of attracting customers based on the branding of the company we represent. Without leaving aside useful content for our potential clients.

Social selling must also be done under the premise of selling, without selling. It carries as its flag to humanize the brand, establish useful relationships with decision-makers, and remain in constant active listening. We identify business opportunities and become cautious observers of what is being said about our own brand, the competition, and new business trends.

Automation and Email Marketing platforms

The technology is here and it is to be used!

One of the sectors that have benefited the most from technology to increase sales is that of virtual stores. E-commerce is using technologies like virtual testers to reduce the gap between customer expectations and abandoned shopping carts.

This evolution has occurred thanks to the automation of processes and the analysis of the data collected. There is the importance of starting to put much of what we do on “automatic pilot”, as we will be able to make better-informed decisions.

An autopilot that helps classify my prospects and clients

Although the list of processes that in marketing terms we can automate to optimize time, processes, and reduce costs are extensive, this time I will share a checklist with my 5 favorites:

• E-mail Marketing
• Lead Scoring
• Lead Nurturing (Value relationships with our clients)
• Campaign Tracking
• Social Media Programming

We will go into detail on two of the ones we use the most: email marketing campaigns and prospect ranking. Let’s move on to review the rusty technique of mass mailing. This has nothing to do with conducting email marketing in an automated and effective way.

According to the Gartner Research firm, “Relevant emails generate 18 times more revenue than emails sent to the whole world, without a clear recipient”. The difference is that in the past, the marketing or sales departments were tasked with writing to all the customers in the database and sending them “the information”.

We proceeded with the classic copy and paste, everyone was placed in blind copy mode and the “send” was executed. The result was a ton of bounce emails, zero leads, and no sales.

The correct way, or at least the one that works for me with my commercial teams, is to use criteria, segmentation, and tools such as Doppler, MailChimp, ActiveCampaign, and SendinBlue.

In addition to considerably reducing time, these platforms allow me to have greater control over the results of what we do, as well as contextual information such as many openings, schedules, changes in databases, among others. (About the effectiveness of databases, I will talk to you in the next post).

So, with this first installment of a series of articles in which we want to tell you how companies can sell products and services using technology, there can be no doubt about the advantages that opening up to new tools brings to business processes.

The fear of the unknown is overcome by testing, researching, and approaching success stories that will allow us to identify best practices and use what is most needed and convenient in our own business model. If you already use any technology and have achieved good results, we would love to hear about your experience, share it in the comments; and if you haven’t done it yet, we’ll wait for you in my next installment.