On this week in sales we’ll be looking at:
- Outreach proclaiming that email “open rates” and “reply rates” don’t matter anymore.
- How only 25% of sales organisations have defined their own sales metrics.
- If Will’s beard make him a better salesperson than Victor?
And much more!
This Week In Sales hosts:
- Will Barron – Salesman.org/Youtube
- Victor Antonio – Youtube.com/user/salesinfluence
TOPICS:
Zendesk Becomes First Customer Experience Platform to Join Unity Verified Solutions Partner Program
- Zendesk, Inc. (NYSE: ZEN) is building on its customer experience (CX) leadership by becoming a Unity (NYSE: U) Verified Solutions Partner. Being a Verified Solutions Partner (VSP) means Zendesk has been verified by Unity to ensure its SDK is optimized for the latest version of the Unity editor, providing a seamless experience for Unity developers.
- This partnership enables players to get immediate help without having to leave the game or interrupt their experience. The partnership with Unity, the world’s leading platform for creating and operating real-time 3D (RT3D) content, will provide integrated customer support functionality that can be set up in minutes, directly within some of today’s most popular games, such as Angry Birds 2 and Pokemon Go .
https://www.zendesk.com/company/press/unity-zendesk-partnership/
Outreach – Buyer Sentiment Analysis
Customers buy on emotion and justify their decisions with logic. According to a Harvard study, 95 percent of purchasing decisions are subconscious. So, why rely solely on “vanity metrics” — like click, open, and reply rates — to tell us whether our selling efforts work for buyers?
To solve this challenge, Outreach is excited to introduce Outreach Insights featuring Buyer Sentiment Analysis, a first-of-its-kind machine learning technology that classifies buyer emotions and signals to accurately measure sales engagement.
https://www.outreach.io/explore
Whatfix Is Recognized in Gartner’s Latest Report on Digital Adoption Solutions
- Whatfix, the leader in Digital Adoption Solutions (“DAS”), today announced it has been included as a “Sample Digital Adoption Solution Vendor” in the Gartner report titled, “Improve Employee Usage, Engagement and Productivity With Digital Adoption Solutions”
New research finds if you grow a beard, you can grow your sales
“It Grows on You: Perceptions of sales/service personnel with facial hair” was just published in the Journal of Business Research.
The paper reports on five studies that tested the “power of the beard” in the workplace. They found that customers consider bearded salespeople to have greater expertise and, therefore, more trustworthiness than mustached, clean-shaven, or stubbled coworkers. This was true regardless of race, ethnicity, attractiveness, or likability and also held true for both online and in-person sales.
If you do take the beard route, note that previous studies have found that facial hair does not increase perceived attractiveness, but does indicate masculine traits such as aggressiveness.
https://www.fastcompany.com/90587118/new-research-finds-if-you-grow-a-beard-you-can-grow-your-sales
Gartner Says Only 25% of Sales Organizations Have a Standard Definition for Sales Metrics
- Gartner State of Sales Analytics 2020 Outlines Steps Sales Leaders Can Take to Deliver Analytics that Help Organizations Overcome Important Challenges
- Only 25% of organizations have a standard organization wide definition for sales metrics, according to Gartner, Inc.
- In fact, The report reveals only 55% of sales teams standardize metrics across all business units, regions and teams within the sales function itself.
- In May through June of 2020, Gartner surveyed 299 sales leaders and found that 19% of sales organization still define sales metrics ad hoc.
2021 predictions: B2B companies will use decentralized tools to manage the role of influencers across the enterprise
A recent report, “Into the Mainstream: Influencer Marketing in Society 2020” from Takumi, quotes that 73% of brands have upped their influence marketing spend this year despite the pandemic.
Some predictions –
- Companies will create Centers of Excellence to formalize their in-house programs and place influence marketing (IM) at the heart of their marketing strategy.
- The continued growth of B2B e-commerce, with sales set to reach over $6.6 trillion in 2020 means that B2B companies have a unique opportunity to mobilize influencers for bottom of funnel campaigns.
- Influence marketing will become an essential method for B2B marketers to understand what content truly engages with the market (such as the explosion of corporate podcasting or streaming video via Twitch).
Gong.io Releases a SKO (Sales Kick-Off) Checklist for 2020 :
On Delivering Valuable Content:
- Celebrate the past year
- Make big reveals
- Disclose new targets
- Provide access to execs
- Encourage interactive learning
- Gamify the fun
- Nail the closing
https://gong.drift.click/virtual-sales-kickoff-checklist-typ?success
Gartner Survey Finds 90% Of HR Leaders Will Allow Employees To Work Remotely Even After COVID-19 Vaccine Is Available
Nearly Two-Thirds of HR leaders Surveyed Said They Will Continue All Safety Measures Currently In Place
A Gartner, Inc. survey of 130 HR leaders on December 9 revealed that 90% of respondents plan to allow employees to work remotely at least part of the time, even after the COVID-19 vaccine is widely adopted.
Sixty-five percent of respondents reported that their organization will continue to offer employees flexibility on when they work.
As discussions around the forthcoming COVID-19 vaccine continue, 109 HR leaders who responded to Gartner’s survey predict that about 50% of the workforce will want to return to the workplace – at least part time – once a vaccine is made widely available.
