This year has been the year of adjustments. COVID has taught us that nothing is for certain, and if we want our businesses to thrive (or survive), we need to be one step ahead of what’s to come.

Here are 8 things you need to do in 2021 to succeed as a salesperson and marketer!

1. Bring Automation:

Investing in technology & automation can be quite a headache, but the end result can also save the day. If you automate mundane sales processes, it creates more time for reps to focus on what’s important: building a relationship with the customer

2. Sales reps will thrive with empathy and understanding:

Covid has not only hurt the economy but also the morale. Leaders need to understand this for their sales reps and sales reps needs to understand this for their customers.

To be the most successful, - sales leaders have to embrace empathy and provide personalized & detailed coaching techniques to help get teams back on track and confident

3. Converting on camera/ mobile screen will be EVERYTHING in 2021:

The basic principles of sales will never change. However, with the various ways COVID continues to affect our economy, businesses in every industry will need to learn & unlearn several new skills first, they will need to effectively identify and connect with ideal clients using social media.

The nuances of nurturing and qualifying leads will no longer take place door to door, or call to call, but in DM's and PM's or mail to mail - across a variety of social media platforms, so understanding how to do that will be increasingly important over the next 12-18 months.

Lastly, it will be important for businesses to master live video and sales conversations online. Whether selling to thousands of people in a Facebook group during a launch or one-on-one over Zoom, having mastery over the skills required to convert on the camera will be absolutely critical if you want to thrive during 2021!

4. Make sure every message you send via any channel are deep and provide value!

The pandemic has slashed traditional sales channels in half, meaning it’s harder to connect with prospects when an in-person meeting, coffee, or dinner is off the table — a huge problem for sales teams across the world as we go into next year.

Don't succumb to sending 1,000 emails/messages, but instead, send a few emails/message per week with very specific and powerful solutions to get the attention of your best prospects

In an era where people are begrudgingly more connected to their devices than ever, it’s easy to ignore an irrelevant or vague email, whereas solution-oriented ideas tend to stick

5. Integrate sales and marketing teams

For sales, the need for collaboration has gone from nil to necessary overnight, with distance selling necessitated by COVID-19 becoming the new normal and revenue-centric strategies taking center stage.

Marketing and sales teams have historically worked independently to drive revenue. During a global pandemic, however, it’s critical these two departments function as one to create a plan that works toward overall business goals.

Mere alignment isn’t sufficient anymore – the two teams need to be fully integrated in order to succeed. To integrate these two teams, businesses need to view and structure them as one revenue organization.

While individuals are still focused on sales tasks or marketing tasks, it’s important that they exist under the same umbrella. Being under this same umbrella fosters true collaboration – which will be essential for success in 2021 – and unites sales and marketing as one functional team.

6. Ask your customers how the pandemic has affected them

The pandemic has obviously affected every industry in a variety of different ways. So, ask your customer probing questions about how the pandemic has affected their specific business. You can use this information to craft custom-tailored solutions to their specific challenges.

For example, if your customer is a doctor, ask him how his business is affected – try crafting a solution for them. Help them go online or help them get into a good online consulting platform with a good base of patients to continue their business.

7. Any outbound sales strategy requires multiple channels

Up until recently, all you used to do was be inbound and build an outreach that systematically connected with prospects on multiple channels to help you stand out from the crowd. No more.

Connecting with your prospects on multiple channels will no longer be a differentiator, it is now a requirement and will become table stakes for even smaller-ticket sales.

You can't get away with just relying on cold email or paid ads; you’ll have to be doing it all. The easiest way to do that is to use a sales engagement platform. These platforms are user-friendly and contain a lot of robust personalization features.

8. Keep the team motivated and ready to fight

In a normal office setting, many salespeople occupy the same area of the office, which offers the opportunity to organically learn from each other. This could be listening to or shadowing each other's calls, sharing successful techniques, brainstorming new campaigns, or even just blowing off steam.

Now, in this covid time, you can take time to organize group video calls, to take turns shadowing calls, and connecting with your fellow salespeople, and share what's been working for you lately.

Sales can be isolating on its own so take time to connect with your fellow salespeople to uplift each other morally and share successes with each other & connect with their family to be a part of their family thus grow together and win together.