Top 7 Ways Technology Can Boost Your Business Sales

In today’s marketing and sales environment, there are many exciting tools that support and enhance the entire process, from generating lea...

In today’s marketing and sales environment, there are many exciting tools that support and enhance the entire process, from generating leads and qualifying prospects to designing compelling presentations, answering questions and closing the sale. High-tech tools make a lead flow faster and more smoothly through the sales funnel toward their purchase.

In this article, we’ll look at seven ways that technology has revolutionized the sales process.

The Changing Face of Sales: What Are Sales Professionals Doing Differently in the 21st Century?

Whether you’re in direct sales, inside sales, outside sales, B2B or B2C, technology has revolutionized the entire sales process. Being tech-savvy is the key to generating business and selling products or services. Smart salespeople have a professional website and a strong social media presence on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube, to introduce their products and services, illustrate features, promote benefits, answer questions and actively engage the public. It’s a multi-faceted approach that uses the latest technology to generate excitement and boost sales.

Top 7 Ways Technology Can Boost Your Business Sales

While in-person meetings can be what’s needed to close the deal, initial interaction with potential customers usually starts with online contact and research. Here are some tips for supercharging your sales process for greater results.

1. Online Lead Generation

The top of the sales funnel, where your future customer first discovers your offerings, bears no resemblance to the door-to-door salesman who wanted to demonstrate their vacuum on your carpet. Today, generating leads involves savvy content marketing, eye-catching online landing pages, search engine friendly website optimization, email marketing, webinars, social media posts and pay-per-click ads.

2. Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

Built around a database of your prospects, small business CRM software manages customer information coming from a variety of communication channels (phone calls, emails, website, social media, etc.), to enhance the relationship between you and your customers for greater loyalty and increased sales.

3. Web Analytics

The best known of these tools, Google Analytics, shows your website traffic and lets you track the popularity of website pages, videos, social networking sites and more, so you can better understand your customers’ actions. It integrates with Google Ads, which uses the pay-per-click model to generate website traffic from people searching on Google.

4. The Viral Video

People respond to a hard-hitting, well-produced video, and they’ll share it with friends and relatives to create the latest viral sensation. One example is the What is Amway? YouTube video, which is an introduction to the Amway Independent Business Owner Experience. This vibrant and punchy 1 minute, 29 second video has more than 4 million views, and the company's YouTube channel, which features testimonials, resources, information about its products and tutorials, has 94,000 subscribers.

5. Facebook, Twitter and Instagram

These powerful social media platforms have made a huge impact on sales. Through them, a salesperson can communicate with prospects, demonstrate a product to a wide audience, answer questions and turn leads into customers. Potential customers might ask their friends for purchase advice, or, as a new customer, they may review a product favorably and help generate an online buzz that could lead to future sales. Companies with an especially strong Facebook presence include Nike, Taco Bell, March of Dimes and Universal Studios Orlando.

6. Mobile Marketing

Smartphones have changed not only how people communicate, but how they shop for goods and services. It may begin with an ad targeting a certain demographic, continue with the prospect texting for more information and end with an online purchase. These mobile marketing campaigns from RedBox, Ford Motor Company, Lifetouch Portrait Studios, Starbucks and National Wholesale Liquidators resulted in significant conversion and opt-in rates.

7. Online Review Sites

Has one of your customers posted a glowing review of a recent purchase on a review site such as Yelp? This could have a greater impact on your sales than a pricey ad campaign. Online reviews are seen by many people and they’re extremely powerful in generating new sales. Bottega Louie, a Los Angeles restaurant, has racked up more than 16,000 Yelp reviews, helping it attract 15,000 customers each week.

The Future of Sales

What will the global marketplace be in 2025? What new tools will sales professionals be using to help them attract and retain customers? The world of artificial intelligence (AI), its foray into consumer products (Siri, Alexa) and customer demand for “instant information” means that salespeople must keep themselves informed about emerging technology to stay ahead of the curve. But with that challenge comes the potential for even greater opportunity.