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 ZildjianVP 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.

Just look at the numbers…

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.

2) Fixing Your BDR Process

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

Remember 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.

Thanks for reading! Want to stay up-to-date with our latest content?

Sign up for our weekly newsletter.

Drift is how businesses communicate with their customers.