Top 3 Sales Trends To Watch In 2018

CRM was a new concept in the world of sales in early 2000. During that time, millennials were still chatting on AIM and using compact CD players.

Coming back to 2018. When we see trends and technologies shaking the sales industry in today’s time, it becomes a daunting list. The top three sales trends that have a substantial impact are the ones that are listed below:

#1: Transformation of Sales; Artificial Intelligence (AI)
Technology has gone through a massive transformation in this recent era, and AI has been one of the most transformed technologies of our time which has played a significant role in the world of sales in terms of conversion and modification!

With the help of AI, you can prioritize your leads as it would tell you which leads are likely to close. In today’s time, Artificial Intelligence is one of the most impressive mechanisms for sales teams.

AI helps you with ‘whom’ to contact as well as ‘how’ to contact through a well-guided process with insights based on what we humans cannot predict due to our busy work schedules. According to a 2018 report, over the past few months, almost 78% of sales teams have started to focus on customer needs and requirements.

AI plays a huge role in boosting your organization’s sales productivity by adopting automatic methods over the old manual ones; thus you get plenty of time saved to plan and strategize your sales!

But all this cannot be achieved unless and until you install AI into your CRM system on which your sales reps are closing the deals. This will make them more efficient and smarter than before.

#2 Millennials are set to rise rapidly!
Millennials are on the verge of becoming a powerhouse with their constant increase in ‘buying and selling’ power.

As buyers, being always connected is a daily routine for millennials. According to a 2018 report, almost 84% of millennial buyers accept that their smartphone is essential for their work. This way of thinking will only expand if millennials influence flourishes in the market.

Millennials expectations have also been sky-rocketing lately. Almost 84% of millennials are expecting that organizations will interact with them through a customized and real-time business approach.

A 2018 survey states that almost 86% of millennial buyers believe that technology has played a massive role in the transformation of their organization’s business. Moreover, 83% of millennials feel substantially authorized as a business buyer than what they felt six to seven years ago.

Even being sellers, millennials are on cloud nine! They are much more adaptive towards sales mandates than the older generation. Over the past 12 months, around 66% of sales professionals and 43% of traditionalists have been focusing on giving a user-friendly experience to their customers.

Almost 60% of millennial sales professionals believe by using predictive methods to assume customers requirements and tasks is one of the most crucial steps in the sales process- compared to only 43% of traditionalists.

#3 All focus shifts towards Account-Based Selling (ABS)
One of the most exciting sales trends of 2018 is account-based selling (ABS). Why? If account-based selling is used accurately, it decreases the buying cycle and reduces customers acquisition costs. Also, you can track the ROI with complete ease.

Account-based selling rejects the universal concept of selling and focuses on an account-specific perspective. Other than selling in masses and considering every lead to be an asset in terms of invested time and money, accounts are classified with their tendency of becoming big customers. After this comes the process where you regulate the best ways to penetrate and expand relationships with, to those whom you sell.

To meet customer satisfaction, sales organizations are expected to connect across various divisions, mediums, and partnerships. A 2018 study states that up to 2.1x top sales teams were exceptional at having a single view of the customer.

According to 60% of the sales professionals, collaborative sales have boosted their productivity by more than 25%. Also, advanced technology has made the process less complicated and has increased scalability and profitability.