Being a salesperson in 2020 significantly differs from being a salesperson in, let’s say, 1999. Customers have evolved. Products as well. The entire markets have changed. This means only one thing – salespeople must learn how to adapt their sales tactics to fit the new circumstances.
Even though it’s arguably harder to be a successful salesperson in 2020 (due to a fiercer competition), on the other hand, it should be easier for the top performers to differentiate themselves from the rest of the pack.
That being said, we’re going to present you with 7 common outdated sales tactics you should NOT be using in 2020. But before we delve into that, let’s first make a small distinction between two commonly confused terms – sales tactics and sales strategies.
Sales Tactics vs. Sales Strategies
Both sales tactics and strategies are used by marketers to persuade people to purchase a certain product or service. Even though these two terms are often used interchangeably (and, undoubtedly go hand-in-hand), there’s still some distinction between them.
A sales strategy is, basically, a game plan that defines how you’re going to market what you intend to sell. By answering the questions “what for” and “what if”, sales strategies determine how you will achieve your marketing goals and explains their purpose.
A sales tactic, on the other hand, is any action you undertake with the aim to put your sales strategy into action. For instance, printing business brochures or generating leads using online quizzes can be considered sales tactics.
While a strategy is there to explain your the purpose and goals of your marketing efforts, sales tactics show the process you use along the way.
That being said, we’ve identified 7 of the most common sales tactics mistakes you need to stop making right now if you want to be a successful salesperson in 2020.
7 Outdated Sales Tactics Successful Salespeople No Longer Use in 2020
1. Overselling your product or service
In the old days, sellers were much more involved in the entire sales process. As all the meetings were done in person, the sales cycle was a lot slower and more tiresome. But this also gave salespeople more flexibility in terms of what they could say to their potential customers. Often they would say whatever they needed to say just to seal the deal.
Six months later, no one would remember it anyway. And it wasn’t possible for a disgruntled customer to leave you a negative review on Yelp or TrustPilot.
Today, luckily, things look much better for buyers. And more difficult for sellers. In the fast-paced market of today, when the sales cycle often lasts much shorter and presupposes frequent contact with your prospects, overselling a product just doesn’t work.
That being said, there’s no room (at least not much) for lies in your sales tactics. You need to clearly present all the relevant details. If you don’t, you’ll quickly get caught. And publicly scarred, leading to your business failing.
2. Expecting leads to generate on their own
Okay, no one is literally expecting leads to generate on their own, but there are still people using many outdated and ineffective sales tactics to try to secure leads. Or using no sales tactics at all, for that matter.
Here are a couple of things you should do to proactively contribute to your lead generation:
- Take personal responsibility. Sitting in your office and whining about your poor lead flow is just plain lazy and nothing good can come out of it. The least you could do is reach out to your social media contacts and real-life acquaintances, reach out to your mailing list, attend networking events – in other words, establish your presence and ask how you can help your potential customers.
- Personalize your content. A step further from taking personal responsibility would be to personalize your content so as to fit your specific target audience. One of the best ways to personalize is via interactive content. And when it comes to interactive content, I’ve got only two words for you – online quizzes. If you’re looking to take your lead generation game to the next level, you should try creating your own online quiz right now.
3. Treating every prospect the same
Treating every potential customer the same way and expecting them to react the same way to your sales tactics is both old-fashioned and unrealistic. While some of your prospects will be ready to purchase halfway through your first contact, some will request to talk to an entire team of lawyers, engineers, and executives before even signing up for a free trial.
That’s why you need to learn to be flexible when approaching your prospects and adjust your approach to each individual’s specific needs. As already mentioned above, one of the best ways to treat prospects as individuals is by personalizing your content.
4. Moving down the sales funnel too quickly
The pace at which you move your prospects along the sales funnel is another important factor to consider. In the world of digital media, software solutions and online services, it’s often important to consider the big picture.
Closing a quick sale may seem like a great win at the moment, but that’s only if you’re thinking short-term. Long-term, it may not turn out to be such a great deal. If you’re in too great of a rush to seal the deal, you may miss out on potential warning signs that a prospect may not be a desirable customer.
That’s why you need to slow down your pipeline flow, delve deeper into your potential customer’s issues and make sure they know all the relevant information about your product or service before making a decision to buy. Only that way you’ll make sure to avoid having a high churn rate.
5. Thinking mere presence on social media is enough
Merely possessing social media accounts for your business won’t do you much good. You need to use social media to build brand awareness and promote your products and services. If you are not present on LinkedIn, Facebook for business, Twitter, Instagram, or Yelp, then you are missing out big time.
But even if you’re present on those social media, mere presence doesn’t mean a thing. You need to make sure you’re updating your profiles regularly, posting professional pictures and fresh, engaging content. Remember, social media is where your potential customers spend most of their time – make it count.
Interactive marketing has proven to be one of the best ways to engage with your audiences on social media. Let’s take online quizzes as an example. Due to their outstanding share-worthiness potential, quizzes go extremely well with social media – particularly Facebook. In fact, according to Buzzsumo, 84% of all social media shares of quizzes are on Facebook.
Even though you might not get Facebook quiz marketing on the first try, once you do, you’ve hit the lead generation jackpot. Do it right and it may prove to be one of the most effective sales tactics you’ve ever implemented into your marketing strategy.
6. Cold calling random prospects
Cold calling random prospects is tedious, hard, often ineffective, and can negatively impact your brand’s image. But it still doesn’t mean you should abandon it altogether.
It just means you need to change your approach and stop cold calling RANDOM prospects. Random meaning prospects that have expressed no interest whatsoever in the product or service (similar to the one) you’re offering.
As you still need to do call prospecting, of course, the right way to do so is warm calling. It simply means that before you reach out to a prospect, you should do research to find out what kind of an offer to make them. Or you could work with targeted leads generated using online quizzes, for example.
Finally, providing helpful insights to your potential customers on social networks is another great way of warming up your cold calls.
7. Thinking you don’t need to learn new sales tactics
In the digital age of today, things change in a much quicker and more unpredictable way than, let’s say, thirty years ago. If you want to stay on top of your game as a sales professional, you need to adapt to the times and adjust your sales tactics so as to fit the requirements of the today’s market.
In order to succeed as a salesperson in 2020, you need to possess enough knowledge about your product, your customers, and various sales tactics that will enable you to connect your customers to your product.
As already said, selling works a lot different today than it did 20 years ago. So, you need to stop behaving like it’s 1998 and bid farewell to these outdated sales tactics right away if you want to be a successful salesperson in 2020.
