20 Sales Industry Predictions for 2015 1

PREDICTIONS

2015 SALES INDUSTRY20 TOP SALES EXPERTS WEIGH IN

20 Sales Industry Predictions for 2015 1

IntroductionIn today’s rapidly evolving sales environment, it’s important to stay proactive. By the time your organization adapts to the latest trends, those trends are old news. The key is to stay connected with the sales community for new, innovative sales tactics that can be implemented quickly. To help, we’ve brought together some of the industry’s top thought leaders and practitioners to get you started on the right foot in 2015. We asked them: “2015 for sales leaders is the year for what?” In this eBook you’ll find the top sales trends and predictions for the coming year from 20 leading industry experts. Many also offer tips on how to adapt to position your team for success in the New Year.

20 Sales Industry Predictions for 2015

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2015 SALES TREND

Matt Heinz@heinzmarketingPresident, Heinz Marketing Inc

2015 is the year for sales leaders to embrace predictive analytics to make their sales teams more effective, efficient and successful by engaging with precisely the prospects who need them. This requires a better approach (selling the hole vs. the drill) as well as engaging the right prospects not just based on demographic profiling but also precise, timely buying signals and trigger events that lead to a mutually-beneficial conversation (not to mention higher lead to opportunity conversion). The smartest sales teams are partnering with their marketing counterparts to leverage predictive analytics tools such as Lattice, Mintigo, 6Sense and others to not just identify ready-to-engage prospects, but surround those future opportunities with great content, value-added discussions, peer validation and other messages that challenge their status quo, communicate a clear value translation, and drive measurable value on both sides of the transaction. This isn’t just theory. Some of your competitors are already doing this. 2015 is your opportunity to catch up, replace media with technology, and create the scalable systems that will propel your growth.

Sales Leaders will Embrace Predictive Analytics

#1

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2015 SALES TREND

Koka Sexton@kokasextonLeader of the LinkedIn #SocialSelling Movement

2015 is going to be the year that sales and marketing finally get on the same train. We will see a connected workforce unlike we have ever experienced, with employees becoming brand advocates. Social Selling will no longer be thought of as an interesting tactic but this year will bring on a new methodology for sales teams. The sales professionals already adopting this new era will become the next thought leaders of their space, their connections and influence will become an in-demand resource for the companies they work for. As social activity by sales professionals gets measured directly to revenue we will see new programs built in companies of all sizes. A data driven, socially educated and empowered sales team will drive awareness and build pipeline at a large scale. 2015 is going to be an inflection point for many companies.

#2

Data driven, socially educated and empowered sales teams

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2015 SALES TREND

Jill Konrath@jillkonrathBestselling author of Agile Selling, SNAP Selling and Selling to Big Companies

With constant change as the new norm, learning agility emerges as the crucial skill. Forward-thinking sales organizations will recognize it’s importance in on-boarding new hires, shortening the path to proficiency, adapting to changing conditions, launching new product/services and overall salesforce productivity.

They’ll start:

• Screening for agility in the hiring process.• Focusing on developing an agile sales culture.• Coaching reps on rapid learning skills and “getting better” mindset.

Those sales organizations who embrace this trend early on will dominate their marketplace.

The year of learning agility

#3

20 Sales Industry Predictions for 2015

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2015 SALES TREND #4

A mindset shift from selling to servingSales professionals need to move from using LinkedIn as their online resume, to managing their digital reputation. Instead of optimizing for the recruiter; optimize for the buyer. Here’s how:

• It’s no longer Always Be Closing; it’s Always Be Connecting. Your network is your net worth. Nobody likes to be sold to. We’re living in the Age of the Customer where buyers have choice and voice.

• Sales professionals need to read; read what their buyers read and share that content across their social networks.

• Sales professionals learn how to listen; listen to the conversations being had on the social web. Social Selling is about finding and being found.

• Mindset shift from selling to serving.

Social Selling training for your Sales team is NOT OPTIONAL because a fool with a tool is still a fool. Oh, and if you suck offline; you’ll suck MORE online. #Don’tSuck

Jill Rowley@jill_rowleyFounder and Chief Evangelist of #So-cialSelling

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2015 SALES TREND

Craig Rosenberg@funnelholicCo-founder and Chief Analyst of TOPO

2015 will be the year of the highly-optimized, process-driven sales force. For the last five years, sales leaders have been trying to make their teams as productive as possible. 2015 will be the culmination of all that: using a wide technology platform, focusing on enablement and creating that dream sales team everyone has been working on. In 2015 that dream becomes a reality.

Making your sales dream team a reality

#5

20 Sales Industry Predictions for 2015

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2015 SALES TREND

Trish Bertuzzi@bridgegroupincPresident & Chief Strategist, The Bridge Group, Inc

2015 is going to be the year that sales and marketing executives finally realize that inbound and outbound got married, they just never received an invitation to the wedding. We are doing a terrible job with our inbound leads; treating them like they are cars on an assembly line that warrant the same amount of time and attention. Shame on us! The person that responded to your content and/or filled out the web form, in all likelihood, is not your perfect buyer. View that contact as an arrow to opportunity. Make the assumption that something is going on at their organization that caused them to react and focus outbound efforts on getting to your perfect buyer. You have a story to tell about how to help them build a better business. Don’t waste one moment telling your story to the wrong person just because they stepped forward.

Inbound and outbound got married

#6

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2015 SALES TREND #7

Joanne BlackNo More Cold Calling®@ReferralSalesAmerica’s leading authority on referral selling

In 2015, sales leaders will be bombarded with even more technology tools. The problem is, salespeople are not productive with the tools they already have. We are fascinated by the next bright, shiny object. We race to be the first to get the coolest new gadget or app. And we forget that technology is only a tool. Relationships are actually what seal our deals.

For example, LinkedIn is the professional online network. Yet when I ask my clients if they’re connected to every single one of their clients on LinkedIn, the answer is usually, “No.” Some of them don’t even understand why these connections are critical for their business. Top salespeople build connections and relationships online and offline. They leverage technology to strengthen those connections, but they don’t rely on it to do their jobs. People do business with people, not with technology.

The year of technology challenges

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2015 SALES TREND

Jamie Shanks, MBA@jamietshanksManaging Partner, Sales for Life

2015 is the year for big data and success for Social Selling. The years 2012-2014 were about collecting enough empirical evidence to prove that social selling worked for every industry; every genre; every type of business. 2015 is taking all that empirical evidence and rolling it into programs. It’s about sales enablement teams, marketing and executives actually implementing a social selling program.

Here are three key elements to building a successful Social Selling program:

1. Establish measurable goals, or activity that can be tied directly back to ROI.

2. Make sure the social selling routine of your best reps is documented and reproducible.

3. Build out a prescriptive process, including “how” and “when” with stages of sharing specific content to different buyer personas at various stages of the buying cycle

Social Selling rolls out in a big way

#8

20 Sales Industry Predictions for 2015

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2015 SALES TREND

Aaron Ross@motoceoAuthor of #1 Bestseller Predictable Revenue

Outbound prospecting has been taking off like crazy over the past couple of years, now that companies have seen how outbound rocketed sales growth for companies like Salesforce.com, Acquia (#1 fastest growing private software company in the USA), and Responsys (sold to Oracle for $1.5 billion). There’s a lot of manual work involved in prospecting, and in 2015 even more apps will become available to automate it, streamline it and make it easier to measure & analyze, such as from Carburetor (www.Carb.io).

#9

Taking outbound prospecting to the next level

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2015 SALES TREND

Josiane Feigon@JosianeFeigonCEO of TeleSmart

Today’s millennials work at a different rhythm than any other generation and have already transformed our sales organizations. Keeping this talent engaged, inspired and motivated is very important. This ambitious bunch will create new possibilities that never existed before. So it’s time for them to get amped up in a new way, here’s how:

1. Peer-to-peer mentoring; take the time to win. Collaborate and mentor them.

2. Less talking head training. They want to do. They want to collaborate.

3. More competition, fun and recognition because they want to.

Kill the Red Bull!

#10

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2015 SALES TREND

Lori Richardson@scoremoresalesA Top Social Sales Influencer and Sales Strategist at Score More Sales

In 2015, successful sellers will get a handle on crafting better messages, using innovative strategies, such as video, and making them shorter, simpler and about the buyer, not about us. If we do this, we’ll make better use of everyone’s time; our buyers as well as our sellers. It’s going to be a fantastic year.

Better sales messaging

#11

20 Sales Industry Predictions for 2015

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2015 SALES TREND

Colleen Francis@EngageColleenFounder and President of Engage Selling Solutions

2015 for sales leaders is the year of the consumerization of the sales process. For the last couple of years, sales people have had to operate more like marketers. They have to find their own leads, curate their expertise in the marketplace and draw people to them. The best are no longer hunters or farmers. They are magnets. For 2015 and beyond the trend is that practices buyers use to make personal (consumer) buying decisions are spilling into the business to business (B2B) world. It’s no longer B2C or B2B, it’s B2All.

As a B2B sales person and a leader, you must figure out how to use those consumer selling and buying tactics to your advantage. If you ignore them, you will miss connecting with buyers and they will buy from your competition.

Using consumer sales tactics to your advantage

#12

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2015 SALES TREND #13

Peter Ostrow@PeterOstrowVice President and Group Director, Aber-deen Group

Using pure analytics and data to drive sales training and coachingNext year, we’re going to see an interesting confluence of Mr. Spock and Captain Kirk in the sales effectiveness space. The traditional emotion-driven, gut-driven sales coaching that we so often see with reps and their bosses is going to be replaced - or at least augmented - by the use of pure analytics and data.

We’re seeing a lot of movement in the marketplace where organizations are using data to drive a kind of coaching, training, sales effectiveness and career management that we’ve never seen before.

20 Sales Industry Predictions for 2015

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2015 SALES TREND

Anneke Seley@annekeseleyAuthor of Sales 2.0 and Founder of OracleDirect

2015 is the year for rethinking your sales organization and your sales model. We have done research recently with ZS Associates – a large global sales consultancy – that shows that 40% of companies over a billion dollars are shifting headcount from the field to inside sales. We also know that technology companies under a hundred million have inside sales as their primary sales channel and are generating more than 50% of revenue without in-person meetings. Some of the fastest growing businesses are generating revenue in new ways, so it’s time to rethink roles, territories, comp plans and your whole sales model.

Rethinking your sales organization and your sales model

#14

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2015 SALES TREND #15

The traditional selling model is changing!In 2015 we’re going to see Inside Sales teams move from a traditional team selling model to that of a discrete model. Specifically, instead of using inside sales to partner with and support their field reps, they will move to a discrete model where they carry their own quota, and are responsible for the full sales cycle with their own set of accounts.

Research is clear, decision makers want easy-to-use digital and virtual engagement with sales on their own terms. Virtual selling is on the increase, face-to-face is on the decline. Sales leaders – prepare your teams now. Develop them and train them on virtual selling skills and the full sales cycle so they’re ready.

Bob Perkins@rperk10Founder & Chairman, American Association of Inside Sales Professionals

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2015 SALES TREND

Nick Hedges@Nick_HedgesPresident & CEO of Velocify

2015 is the year that sales acceleration technology crosses a chasm.

It used to be that a lot of SaaS companies and technology companies embraced sales acceleration technology to build inside sales teams really quickly and successfully. What I’m seeing more of, is that industrial companies and manufacturing companies are adopting this trend as well. This is the year that the technology becomes mainstream.

The year that sales acceleration technology goes mainstream

#16

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2015 SALES TREND

Steve W. Martin@stevewmartin1Author, Heavy Hitter Sales Linguistics

In every customer conversation you will find yourself in one of three places.

• You can be in a submissive position, where you are not respected and the customer rejects or ignores what you say. When you are in this position, the prospective customer thinks of you solely as a salesperson who is trying to sell him something.

• You can be in an equal position, where the customer respects you and is interested in hearing what you have to say.

• Or you can be in a dominant position, where the customer accepts your arguments, internalizes them, and then acts on them. Situational dominance can be thought of as gaining the willing obedience of the customer. The customer listens to your opinions and advice, internalizes your recommendations and agrees with them, and follows your course of action.

Study Situational Dominance

#17

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2015 SALES TREND

Matt Sharrers@mattsharrersPartner, SBI (Sales Benchmark Index)

78% of sales forces are trending to miss the 2015 revenue number. We say this because in 2014, that was the number of organizations that had the wrong sales strategy. We define sales strategy as “An Operating Plan for the company’s sales force” . A sales strategy allows you to allocate people, money and time in the most optimal way to get the most out of your sales force. By doing so, sales leaders avoid the suffering that comes with missing the number. All of you are time starved and asked to do more with less. Some key reasons why your strategy is suffering:

• You have the same strategy as your competitors• You have tactics masquerading as a strategy• You have a strategy that misaligned with buyer needs• Your strategy is out of alignment with the product strategy• You don’t have a strategy

If you want a blueprint of what a best in class strategy looks like and a self assessment, try this.

Build and Execute a Sales Strategy

#18

20 Sales Industry Predictions for 2015

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2015 SALES TREND #19

Empowering your sales reps2015 is the year to empower your sales reps. You hear a lot about sales enablement solutions. Reps don’t need to be enabled - they need to be empowered! Empower your sales reps by giving them back their selling time so they can have real live conversations with real live prospects.

Identify the interruptions and tasks that keep salespeople from talking with prospects and commit to reducing, eliminating, or automating those tasks. Think of all the things, big and small that consume time. An example of a big task that consumes time is searching for the right contact or contact details. An example of a small task that consumes time is “cutting and pasting.” How many emails and presentations are done this way?

UPS saved millions of dollars in fuel costs by eliminating as many left-hand turns as possible from their delivery routes. You better believe that eliminating seemingly small things can lead to big outcomes. Address the “left-hand turns” in your teams’ day and empower them to generate more revenue for them and for the company.

Nancy Nardin@sellingtoolsSmart Selling ToolsForemost expert on sales productivity tools and strategies to drive revenue

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2015 SALES TREND

Jim Dickie@jimdickieManaging Partner, CSO Insights

Let me raise a yellow flag for CSOs. Over the past three years the sales rep turnover rates (voluntary turnover – reps leave + involuntary turnover - reps are let go) have been at historical lows. While it would be great if that continued, one trend CSO Insights research is tracking says we may well be in for an unexpected surprise in 2015. Based on the initial responses from 700+ companies taking part in our 21st Sales Performance Optimization study, 67% of firms plan to increase the size of their sales teams in the coming year. The source of new reps most companies are targeting is experienced sales people from within their industry. If sales organizations follow through with those plans, as they did in 2004, we will see a repeat of the spike we witnessed in voluntary turnover as companies poach the best reps in their marketplace from each other. With over 40% of firms reporting that it takes >10 months to get a new sales person fully productive, revenues will take a noticeable hit if all of a sudden you have to replace fully productive reps with new ones.

2015 for sales leaders is the year for rising sales turnover

#20

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Velocify IntelligentSales Automation

Lead ScoringFunnel Insights

Lead DistributionSales ActivityPrioritization

IntegratedSales Dialer

Lead De-Dupe

Lead Capture

AutomatedGuided Selling

Sell smarter and faster with Velocify in 2015!Give your sales team a competitive advantage this year with Velocify’s intelligent sales solutions. Velocify can help you increase the velocity of your sales environment and systematically improve sales performance through rapid lead response, increased selling discipline, improved sales team productivity, and actionable sales insights. With Velocify, your sales teams can respond to leads faster and smarter than ever.

Get your sales team on the right track this year with all of the intelligent sales automation features

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Web: velocify.com

Blog: velocify.com/blog

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velocify.comVelocify is a market-leading provider of cloud-based intelligent sales software, designed for high-velocity sales environments. Velocify

helps sales teams keep pace with the speed of opportunity and increase revenue by driving rapid lead response, increased selling

discipline, improved productivity, and actionable selling insights. The company has helped more than 1,500 companies across a variety of

industries improve customer acquisition practices and sales performance. Velocify was recently recognized as one of the fastest growing

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