3 Things Every Sales Team Needs to Be Thinking About in 2017

3 Things Every Sales Team
Needs to Be Thinking About
in 2017

Sales & marketing have been using the
same playbook since the 2000s.

1. Drive traffic to your website.

2. Force people to stop & fill out forms.

3. Follow up when you feel like it.

For years, that was the playbook.
But here’s the thing…

It’s 2017.
Times have changed.
Technology has grown up.

The plays in that old sales playbook
don’t work so well anymore.

So we asked our VP of Sales, Armen,
“What do you recommend that sales
teams start doing differently?”
Armen Zildjian
VP of Sales @ Drift

Here are his top 3 things sales teams
should be focusing on in 2017.

1) Adding
Messaging to Your
Sales Process

So you've got the phone, and email,
and maybe you’re even using social
as an outreach tool.

But these days, more and more of
your prospects are using messaging.

Share of Usage Time Spent in
Top 5 Email & Messaging Apps
Source: Andrew Wagner. #Converted16 Conference. Figures from 2015 and U.S. only.
Email Messaging
13-24 25-44 45+
8.00%
6.00%
4.00%
2.00%
0.00%
ages

The takeaway here isn’t that you
need to replace those other channels
with messaging.

But with billions of people now using
messaging worldwide, it should at
least be a part of your sales motion.

Pro tip for getting started:
Add live chat to your site’s pricing
page & other high-intent pages.

And if your sales reps are already
using Slack, they can respond to
chats right from there.

You can also integrate live chat with
your existing CRM, marketing
automation software, etc.

The bottom line: You don’t have to
change your current setup in order to
start using messaging for sales.
You can simply plug it into what
you’re already doing.

Most companies are running a BDR
process that is stuck in the 2000s.

• Grab a list of the latest leads.

• Spend the next 2 weeks calling them.

• Repeat.
That process looks something like this:

From a buyer's perspective, the
timing is usually terrible when a
BDR reaches out. Just think about it:

After being forced to fill
out forms, buyers don’t
sit around waiting for
follow-up phone calls.

That’s why on average it takes BDRs
9 touches over 2 weeks before
they're able to qualify a given lead.

These days, buyers would rather
have those sales conversations when
it’s convenient for them…

…while they’re live on your website.

So here’s a simple change: Start
having your BDRs run weekly chat
shifts.

We do this at Drift and call it chat
duty. Everyone has a certain day &
time when they’re responsible for
responding to chats.

And remember: You don’t need your
BDRs online around the clock in
order to drive results.

You can have them do a few hours
per week on chat, and then let bots
do the rest.

For example, at Drift we have a bot
that qualifies leads for our sales
team on our pricing page.

That way our sales team is only
talking to people after they’ve been
qualified.

3) Doing Account-
Based Marketing
the Right Way
(So You Can Stop Leaking Money)

Account-based marketing (ABM) is
amazing. But there’s now a growing
disconnect between…
A) the investment
companies are
making in
attracting leads
B) the investment
they’re making in
engaging those
leads
&

Cost-per-lead (CPL) has gone up,
but sales reps aren’t always closing
those pricier leads at a higher rate.

So companies are spending all of this
time & money getting the attention
of these super-valuable targets…

But then when they actually have
their attention, they serve them up
the same-old experience:

Even if you’re driving leads to
targeted landing pages, think about
how that translates to an in-store
experience…

If your best lead walked into your
store, would you give them a pen and
a clipboard with a form to fill out
before you started talking to them?

Or would you, ya know, treat them
like a human and say hello?

Instead of making
people fill out forms,
give them the chance
to chat in real-time.

With messaging, you can make the
sales experience simpler, more
enjoyable, and more human.

Using this new approach, you can
give your quality ABM leads the
quality experiences they deserve.

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3 Things Every Sales Team Needs to Be Thinking About in 2017

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3 Things Every Sales Team Needs to Be Thinking About in 2017