What 8 Industry Experts Are Saying About Accelerating Digital Revenue

Today’s buying environment is undergoing massive, persistent and rapid change. Customer purchasing behavior is now driven by digital interactions with brands, as well as social connections, and successful companies are racing to capitalize on these trends. But what new marketing and sales strategies are they using to boost revenue this year? Here is what several leading experts in sales and marketing are saying.

Understand the Contemporary Buying Reality

Tiffani Bova of Salesforce puts the focus on creating a more effective buyer experience, by ending the misalignment between what customers want and what the sales team does. She explores the four parallel streams customers go through to make a buying decision: explore, evaluate, engage and experience.

Get an “Unfair” Marketing Advantage

Laura Ramos of Forrester places an emphasis on using data science to predict consumer behavior. She enjoys unpacking the mysteries of predictive analytics. Look to her for insights into how marketers will be leveraging big data into the next decade.

The Increasing Role of Social in Sales

Social selling expert Jill Rowley developed a framework she calls “5 Pillars of Social Selling.” Her model helps to explain why so many customers have already made up their minds even before they talk to sales, and why so many of today’s consumers are more likely to buy based on social media referrals.

Helping Reps With Complex Sales

Tim Riesterer of Corporate Visions is an expert on complex sales interactions. He breaks the customer buying cycle into two parts: the self-serve conversation (where customers engage with your online content) and the sales-led conversation (where the salesperson is adding value).

How to Do Account-Based Marketing Right

Account-based marketing requires tight inter-department integration. Marketing can manage some traditional marketing programs without the input of sales, but account-based marketing needs sales department’s input to succeed.

Teaching Is the New Selling

Jim Keenan of A Sales Guy, believes that “teaching is the new selling,” but he acknowledges that becoming a teaching organization takes a commitment. For some sales organizations, this will represent a significant cultural change.

The Rise of Millennial Marketers

Lauren Friedman of Adobe has new research to share about millennial marketers. Almost three in four believe we’re at the beginning of a “golden age” of marketing. This millennial generation is driving a move toward a seamless, physical-meets-digital mobile experience.

Adding Social Fuel to Demand Generation

Koka Sexton, who leads the Content and Social team at LinkedIn, is confident that enterprises can use social to drive demand. He analyses how smart organizations are leveraging LinkedIn to make better connections. And he lets readers know when to shift from automated messaging to a one-on-one dialogue.

Creating Marketing Content That Sells

Do you know if your content is generating revenue for your business? Jamie Shanks, CEO of Sales for Life, says there’s only one way to answer that question. You need to divide your content into two silos: original lead sourcing, or content that triggers new conversations; and lead influencing, or content that moves the buyer closer to a sale. With these two silos in place, you can begin to map the content consumption of every one of your buyers.

The buying environment is changing, and so is customer behavior. Smart enterprises must adapt their sales and marketing outreach to better match that new reality.

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Republished with permission from Heinz Marketing.