Sales are down right now, but the economy is preparing to bounce back - are you prepared to embrace it when it does?

We are seeing early indications of a swift increase in sales volume as restrictions are lifted and businesses that are not operating in an adaptable and frictionless way will see themselves struggle to make this rapid change work for them.

(Helpful reading: Driving customer growth through frictionless sales)

In order for organisations to succeed during this transition, they will need to be ready for their sales teams to hit the ground running when the time comes. By focusing on clients and internal processes, even small teams will be able to make great strides when opportunity becomes available.

Building relationships

The first place to start with positioning your sales team for success is building relationships. While many potential prospects won’t be ready to buy just yet, this is the time to put your best foot forward. 

This pause in spending has given many businesses the opportunity to take their time researching suppliers and service providers. 

(Helpful reading: How your customer success team can make or break your business)

Adding value

To stand out in the modern landscape, businesses must be thinking about adding value at all stages of the buyer journey. This means that salespeople need to be as focused as marketers on this! 

Increasingly, customers are looking to work with businesses that understand their needs and are able to provide them with answers and solutions. While this doesn’t mean giving away your whole proposition for free, it is important to recognise that adding value in the early stages of a customer relationship can change that dynamic for the better.

Businesses that are known for providing value, progress from being one of many to becoming a trusted adviser. This reliably translates to delighted customers and prospects, better conversions and more referrals. 

While customers may be in a holding pattern regarding purchases currently, they are not likely to forget the organisations that added value during difficult times.

Aligning Sales and Marketing

This is the time for bringing your sales and marketing teams together to work toward their shared goal: growing your business. These teams, which often function separately, work best when both their goals and ways of working are aligned. 

Both teams engage future customers through the buyer journey from stranger to customer, but at different points along the way. Looking at the process holistically can show your company a clear path for aligning these teams. 

When you bring marketing and sales together, your prospects are guided along a single coherent journey with a clearly defined path. There are simple ways to align your teams from Sales Enablement to creating an SLA between the two. 

For more ideas about how to align your sales and marketing teams to drive customer growth, check out our Sales & Marketing Alignment blog.

Utilising the tools available

There are an overwhelming number of productivity tools on the market at the moment. From project management systems to Pomodoro timers, it can be easy to lose track of the tools that actually make your job easier.

When it comes to sales teams, the key will be enabling them to have better, more effective customer interactions, despite restrictions on face-to-face meetings. Beyond video conferencing, sales teams find themselves spending time sending customer communications in inefficient ways. 

In HubSpot, there are a number of tools that streamline this process for salespeople. We especially like the Meetings link which takes out the back-and-forth email tennis that can crop up when trying to set up a call. HubSpot also introduces tools such as Sequences (for automating regular emails, like follow-ups), Templates (for emails that your sales team end up sending repeatedly), and Snippets (for short pieces of email that can be reused in multiple contexts and emails). 

These tools all culminate in a smooth, seamless communication system for your sales team interacting with prospects.

(Helpful reading: The best HubSpot tools for working from home)

So what’s next for sales leaders?

As we all come out of lockdown and businesses start getting into the ‘new normal,’ there will still be peaks and troughs of activity. 

Sales leaders will need to ensure that their teams have the tools they need to succeed, as well as keeping a customer focus. Teams that have utilised this time to ready themselves, however, will be able to ride those waves effectively.