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5 Important Business Tips and Practices to Help You Boost Sales in 2021

Business Tips

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Selling is the foundation of any business, no matter the industry, no matter the niche. We are all trying to sell something, and whether our goal is to make more money or help others, we can only achieve it by selling more. And most importantly, by selling more consistently. 

You see, whether you’re trying to optimize your B2B sales or boost your B2C conversions, you as a leader always need to stay on top of the latest sales trends and innovate your sales processes. After all, nothing lasts forever, and the sales practices that worked until now may fall by the wayside in the near future.

Typically, though, it comes down to keeping what works, throwing out what doesn’t, and replacing it with the new and improved sales methods, tools, and practices. And that’s exactly what you’re going to do right now in order to boost your sales in 2021 and beyond.

Today, we are taking a closer look at the most important tips and practices you can use to improve conversions, drive loyalty and repeat business, and boost your standing in the industry. Here’s what you need to know. 

Build an omnichannel sales structure

With the digital revolution in business came a whole new world of sales and marketing opportunities. Companies nowadays have a myriad of channels at their disposal to interact and engage with their target demographics. At first, there was talk of supplementary sales channels, then of expanding to a multi-channel structure, and nowadays, omnichannel is the foundation of a thriving sales strategy.

This should come as no surprise, of course, because the modern customer wants and needs to buy products and services on their own terms. What this means for you is that you have to use all customers touchpoints to incentivize and nurture leads, and ultimately make a sale on the channel that the customer prefers.

Remember, you can no longer force a customer to buy something on your site if they want to place an order via DM on social media. Of course, to manage a complex omnichannel structure, you need a comprehensive and centralized system.

This will typically be a robust ERP system. ERP, or enterprise resource planning, is comprehensive tool companies use to plan, monitor, and manage all their company resources. In an omnichannel sales setting, an ERP system can help you automate numerous processes, track and manage your inventory, since the demand for products, avoid overlaps and human error, and much more. 

Sales managers will need to adapt

In 2021, much of your sales success will come down to how well your sales managers adapt to industry shifts, consumer trends, and socio-economic changes that drive customer behaviour. Most importantly, though, adapting will mean optimizing processes within their teams, training their staff, and implementing the right sales tools and new practices.

Continuous training and education of your sales managers are now paramount to success, and you as the leader need to invest in their professional growth. After all, you can’t expect to sell more if you don’t invest in the development of your employees.

Your managers will need to learn the new rules of sales and focus on what matters to the customer. The needs of the customers come first, especially in a time of crisis like the COVID-19 pandemic. It will be up to your managers to ensure all members of your sales department practice empathy and understanding, provide concrete solutions, and learn the advanced sales techniques to close the deal.

Create and optimize your abandoned cart strategy

Abandoned carts are a sore point for leaders in every industry, as there is nothing quite as disappointing as a potential customer walking away from what seemed like a sure purchase. The reality is that the majority of your website visitors will, indeed, abandon their carts, but nowadays there are many things you can do to bring them back and incentivize them to finish what they started.

And it’s imperative that you optimize your abandoned cart strategy in order to bring those potential conversions to life. An excellent example of a well-optimized cart abandonment strategy comes from the Australian carpet brand Miss Amara that managed to automate this process and drive sales. Since 2019, the brand has been automating the retargeting process and leveraging creative copywriting to inspire lapsed customers to come back to the site.

Between April and June 2020, the company saw a respectable 190% increase in email revenue. Likewise, by automating and optimizing cart abandonment, the brand saw a rise in conversion by 51.6% with their abandoned carts and abandon checkout campaigns.

This one example out of millions of others just attests to the fact that you can drive sales dramatically by optimizing your cart abandonment strategy and focusing on bringing potential customers back in 2021.

Focus on marketing-driven sales

Marketing and sales goals, on a grand scale, tend to overlap – the key goal being to incentivize and boost conversions. However, these departments use different methods to achieve this, and many other goals. This is fine, each has its unique approach and set of objectives, but in 2021 it’s important to move on from alignment to full-on collaboration and unification of these two departments.

Your goal this year needs to be to bring these two departments together to centralize revenue generation, not try to boost revenue independently. Bringing the two departments together should, therefore, be one of the key sales meeting topics you need to run by your team, and soon.

Your marketing specialists can provide crucial data and insights to drive sales, while your sales experts and managers can greatly help your marketers optimize their campaigns and achieve specific goals. This year, you need to create a symbiosis between these two departments to see better sales results.

Leverage gamification to achieve sales success

Last but not least, make sure to switch things up this year and include more exciting and engaging sales methods into your overarching strategy. Given the fact that the COVID-19 pandemic is not going anywhere anytime soon, people need to find ways to stay engaged and motivated in lockdown, and gamification might just be the way to achieve that.

By gamifying your sales processes, lead generation, and use various little games to promote your products or services, you can capture their attention and inspire them to click the CTA when they finish the game. Use gamification to your advantage and bring a smile to their face in order to inspire a new, or repeat purchase.

Wrapping up

Selling in 2021 is not an easy task, but luckily there are many ways you can boost performance and build a stronger sales strategy. Be sure to implement these tips and practices into your sales approach to see immediate results, but also ensure consistently better sales in 2021 and beyond.

About the author

Claire Adams is a personal and professional development expert who believes that a positive attitude is one of the keys to success. She enjoys life to the fullest in the healthiest way possible and loves to share her insights into education, business and entrepreneurship. Feel free to reach her on Facebook and Twitter or read her posts about a healthy lifestyle on Ripped Me.