“Digital” Selling:  A New Path for New Business Development

As the industry has shifted dynamically over the last 5 years, a major change has occurred where cold-calling, drop-by’s are no longer acceptable – nor are they effective.  Today, advances in technology have made it easier for customers to find vendors or buy online without engaging sales.

What Happened – What Changed?

The real answer – technology.  Technology has been evolving at a rapid pace for over 15 years.  Although, dynamic changes really did not occurred when the Pandemic hit… forcing many leaders, sales people and even customers to adopt the use of technologies like Teams or Zoom to engage… changing the way people engage worldwide.

Today, as customers have changed how they buy, they are harder to reach,  “Digital Selling” has emerged as the new norm for prospecting or developing  new customers, engage existing clients and networking the industry.  In fact, digital selling has become the standard, replacing old, out-dated selling practices such as cold-calls or drop-bys, where today’s customers expect to “see” or connect via online technologies like LinkedIn, Facebook, or even via email before ever connecting directly.  This has created road-blocks for many long-standing sales teams who struggle to change or adopt technology as a tool in sales… whereas many high performers have found these “digital” technologies as an asset, being able to reach more customer or prospects than ever before… without a cold call or even leaving their office.

Simply stated, digital selling is the process of using today’s advanced technology to engage customers, prospects or future clients through technology… using a strategy that includes email, LinkedIn, your website or other CRM technologies to create customer awareness, network or develop a rapport that allows customers (and prospects) to see you.   

    • A 2024 GDI research study of 1,100 manufacturers showed that 76% of them looked-up a company or contact online 1st… before ever considering contact.

    • 87% of the leaders that responded noted they looked at a persons LinkedIn account 1st as a process of deciding if they had an interest or before contacting them.

    • In 2019 it took approximately 14-17 touches to reach a customer, today it is 20-27.  

    • A study of 493 top performing sales people showed that 78% of all top performers used “digital” technology as a key part of their strategy for engaging new prospects or customers.

Top performers in sales realize that LinkedIN, Facebook, or other social networking technologies do not bring leads… leads come from developing a process where you deploy these technologies as part of your strategy for reaching a prospect.

    • To target and engage the “right” customers, highly successful sales people define their “Ideal Target Customer” and decision maker as the 1st part of their strategy.

    • Build a campaign that is designed to fit the customer target, and then deploy a staged strategy to engage, educate and inform a customers using staged process that includes email introductions, LinkedIN, “warm” call introductions or voice messages.

In today’s competitive business landscape, sales teams need more than just motivation and product knowledge to succeed, they need to have a strategy and process that targets the right decision makers with the right value proposition that drives awareness and interest, allowing them to navigate new business development with success.

Contact Growth Dynamics today to learn how we can help you with targeted solutions that arm you to better hire, develop and build the “right” sales organization.

In today’s competitive business landscape, employers need more than a sales team with motivation and product knowledge, they need to attract, select and develop the “right” team members who have the right industry experience, skills, maturity and motivation that FITS the sale and customer environment.

The Challenge – The Right Candidates

Rarely today does a job description or online ad accurately define the real role of sales, often it’s designed to attract any candidate resulting in average candidates that make for an average sales team.  To accurately hire and develop the right team, a company must 1st define the metrics or “Picture” of Top Performance in a role that accurately defines the skills, attributes, motivation and FIT of the right sales professional who fits the role, customer environment and role complexity.

Defining Top Performance in Sales

To accurately develop the proper metrics for sales success, a company must look carefully at critical aspects of the role that define success and failure. Analyzing a role correctly allows you to not only attract the right candidates, it allows you to effectively build and develop the right sales organization. These may include:

To define top performance, it is crucial to analyze the complexity of the sales role. This may include:

    • Ideal/target customer 

    • Sales complexity or difficulty 

    • Customer environment/market pressures

    • Customer buyer/decision-maker types

    • Ideal/target customer or sale

    • Sales process/methodology

    • % of current vs. new customer development focus

    • Competition/marketplace

    • Industry expertise required

    • Skills/technical knowledge required

    • Internal & marketing support 

    • Leadership resources

All of these critical topics must be evaluated carefully to put an accurate “picture” on the type of skills, experience, knowledge and capability the “right” team member must have to succeed.  And, most important… defining what percentage of their time will be focused on prospecting and new business development VS customer account management.  The mix is crucial because it defines the type of drive, motivation and expertise the team member must have to perform.   Sales people that are “Hunters” don’t do well with account management roles, and account management sales people don’t often survive a role focused on new business development. 

To attract, hire, develop and build the right sales organization, it all starts with defining the “picture” of top performance in sales.  This creates a foundation that establishes target recruitment practices, can drive training and development for your current team, or establish leadership efforts that help sales leaders guide, coach and drive team performance.

As the industry has shifted dynamically over the last 5 years, a major change has occurred where cold-calling, drop-by’s are no longer acceptable – nor are they effective.  Today, advances in technology have made it easier for customers to find vendors or buy online without engaging sales.

The real answer – technology.  Technology has been evolving at a rapid pace for over 15 years.  Although, dynamic changes really did not occurred when the Pandemic hit… forcing many leaders, sales people and even customers to adopt the use of technologies like Teams or Zoom to engage… changing the way people engage worldwide.

Today, as customers have changed how they buy, they are harder to reach,  “Digital Selling” has emerged as the new norm for prospecting or developing  new customers, engage existing clients and networking the industry.  In fact, digital selling has become the standard, replacing old, out-dated selling practices such as cold-calls or drop-bys, where today’s customers expect to “see” or connect via online technologies like LinkedIn, Facebook, or even via email before ever connecting directly.  This has created road-blocks for many long-standing sales teams who struggle to change or adopt technology as a tool in sales… whereas many high performers have found these “digital” technologies as an asset, being able to reach more customer or prospects than ever before… without a cold call or even leaving their office.

Simply stated, digital selling is the process of using today’s advanced technology to engage customers, prospects or future clients through technology… using a strategy that includes email, LinkedIn, your website or other CRM technologies to create customer awareness, network or develop a rapport that allows customers (and prospects) to see you.   

 

    • A 2024 GDI research study of 1,100 manufacturers showed that 76% of them looked-up a company or contact online 1st… before ever considering contact.

 

    • 87% of the leaders that responded noted they looked at a persons LinkedIn account 1st as a process of deciding if they had an interest or before contacting them.

 

    • In 2019 it took approximately 14-17 touches to reach a customer, today it is 20-27.  

 

    • A study of 493 top performing sales people showed that 78% of all top performers used “digital” technology as a key part of their strategy for engaging new prospects or customers.

Top performers in sales realize that LinkedIN, Facebook, or other social networking technologies do not bring leads… leads come from developing a process where you deploy these technologies as part of your strategy for reaching a prospect.

 

    • To target and engage the “right” customers, highly successful sales people define their “Ideal Target Customer” and decision maker as the 1st part of their strategy.

 

    • Build a campaign that is designed to fit the customer target, and then deploy a staged strategy to engage, educate and inform a customers using staged process that includes email introductions, LinkedIN, “warm” call introductions or voice messages.

In today’s competitive business landscape, sales teams need more than just motivation and product knowledge to succeed, they need to have a strategy and process that targets the right decision makers with the right value proposition that drives awareness and interest, allowing them to navigate new business development with success.

Contact Growth Dynamics today to learn how we can help you with targeted solutions that arm you to better hire, develop and build the “right” sales organization.

In today’s competitive business landscape, employers need more than a sales team with motivation and product knowledge, they need to attract, select and develop the “right” team members who have the right industry experience, skills, maturity and motivation that FITS the sale and customer environment.

Rarely today does a job description or online ad accurately define the real role of sales, often it’s designed to attract any candidate resulting in average candidates that make for an average sales team.  To accurately hire and develop the right team, a company must 1st define the metrics or “Picture” of Top Performance in a role that accurately defines the skills, attributes, motivation and FIT of the right sales professional who fits the role, customer environment and role complexity.

To accurately develop the proper metrics for sales success, a company must look carefully at critical aspects of the role that define success and failure. Analyzing a role correctly allows you to not only attract the right candidates, it allows you to effectively build and develop the right sales organization.   These may include:

To define top performance, it is crucial to analyze the complexity of the sales role. This may include:

 

    • Ideal/target customer 

    • Sales complexity or difficulty 

    • Customer environment/market pressures

    • Customer buyer/decision-maker types

    • Ideal/target customer or sale

    • Sales process/methodology

 

    • % of current vs. new customer development focus

    • Competition/marketplace

    • Industry expertise required

    • Skills/technical knowledge required

    • Internal & marketing support 

    • Leadership resources

All of these critical topics must be evaluated carefully to put an accurate “picture” on the type of skills, experience, knowledge and capability the “right” team member must have to succeed.  And, most important… defining what percentage of their time will be focused on prospecting and new business development VS customer account management.  The mix is crucial because it defines the type of drive, motivation and expertise the team member must have to perform.   Sales people that are “Hunters” don’t do well with account management roles, and account management sales people don’t often survive a role focused on new business development. 

To attract, hire, develop and build the right sales organization, it all starts with defining the “picture” of top performance in sales.  This creates a foundation that establishes target recruitment practices, can drive training and development for your current team, or establish leadership efforts that help sales leaders guide, coach and drive team performance.