Why traditional sales outperform AI/automation in B2B sales.
If you want to significantly increase the sales in your B2B business be careful not to fall into the automation trap.
The world is constantly moving towards automation and AI. Every process in your company is currently being improved with robotics or some form of AI but when it comes to new business sales development in my opinion traditional methods beat automation.
It is natural to want to automate and let a machine do the work and in a lot of use cases it delivers tremendous results. Where automation/AI falls short is trying to engage with C level, Directors and owners of companies. Decision makers have their own AI, it’s called their mind and if a message looks like it has been automated the chances of it going to spam have gone up exponentially.
What works best in B2B sales is traditional sales methods. Taking the time to establish the best target accounts, mapping out the decision makers within them, researching the companies, the decision makers and sending highly personalised messages based on this research that is relevant and engaging.
Personalised and thought out messages pass the decision makers AI of the mind and deliver great results. You will engage more of your target accounts, book more meetings and improve the reputation of your company with all prospects. If a decision maker doesn’t need your service right now your company has left a much better impression for the future when they do.
Did you know 83% of executives say they are happy to receive cold email as long as the message is personalised and relevant to their company. Sending a message where there are a few variable fields based on name and company will not work effectively these days. People are aware that tech exists to place a few common variables spread out in a message. The human mind can see those variable fields in 2 seconds and in a further 2 seconds your message in in spam. What gets past this is actually sending a personalised message.
Direct mail has is starting to have a renaissance.
Everyone thought sending a letter was dead but let me ask you if you received information from a company that was highly personalised, that offered valuable insights specific to your role/industry and that included a hand written note what would you think? Unless you are one of these people who hate all forms of sales I would dare say you would be impressed. When the sales person follows up to this message your connect rate will go up dramatically and the prospect will give you the time of day because you took the time for them.
There are no short cuts, it takes old fashioned time and effort. This cuts to the main point that in the B2B world what resonates is the opposite of automation. When someone knows you have taken the time to stop, think about them, their company and how you can help them this is what resonates. This is what breaks through in todays world of automation and AI. The human element.
This does take time and most sales people don’t want to spend their days researching and putting together personalised messages. It isn’t the sexiest thing in the world to do is it but what is sexy are the results it brings.
I can help your company drive more meetings and engagement through these old fashioned methods. connor@vouchworks.com
