5 Ways to Drive Buyer Engagement During the Sales Process

In a world full of distractions, buyers are easily overwhelmed and disengaged, making it tough for sellers to move prospects down the pipeline. 

The self-serve buyer’s journey has made it even more difficult for sales teams to capture and keep buyers' attention. 

Creating a frictionless customer journey involves ongoing engagement and support from both parties, including all relevant stakeholders.

Without a systematic approach to engaging buyers, the sales cycle and funnel can become disjointed, leading to fewer sales and longer sales cycles. However, the right buyer engagement techniques can accelerate your sales process, drive more closed deals, and increase customer loyalty.

However, the right buyer engagement techniques can accelerate your sales process, drive more closed deals, and increase customer loyalty. 

Here are five ways to drive prospect engagement and successful sales outcomes in today’s dynamic digital environment.

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Personalize and empathize in your sales approach

Buyers today demand a personalized sales experience. Today's consumers are selfish - it's all about them. To improve prospect engagement, sales reps must learn about each prospect's underlying needs and motivations, regardless of how deep they have to dig.

It's proven successful for years: 77% of consumers have chosen, recommended, or paid more for a brand that provides a personalized service or experience.

Buyers are more apt to engage in a sales process if they feel the seller is genuinely interested in their individual problems and needs. Asking the right questions and listening with empathy can help sales reps identify buyers' pain points and propose a solution that meets their particular needs.

A great framework for finding the correct information early on is MEDDICC, which stands for

• Metrics and ROI
• Economic Buyer
• Decision Criteria
• Decision Process
• Paper Process
• Identify Pain
• Champion
• Competition

By identifying these data points in the introductory meeting, sales reps can personalize the entire sales approach, creating an engaging and effective demo, ROI calculation, and other customer experiences that drive buyer engagement.

Create engaging sales content

Prospect engagement begins long before the introductory call. Buyers are researching solutions and evaluating vendors online, so having an engaging website and compelling content is essential for drawing in prospects.

When creating sales content, consider what buyers will look for during each stage of their journey. Buyers at the top of the funnel may look for educational content such as e-books, while those closer to a purchase decision may search for case studies or product comparisons.

By producing targeted sales collateral, you can ensure that buyers find what they need quickly and stay engaged with your message throughout their journey.

Offering a system or centralized location to manage and update all sales content will also make it easier for sales reps to keep track of the latest materials, ensuring they can access content quickly and efficiently when engaging with buyers.

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Provide valuable proof of concept programs

Proof of concept (POC), also known as a technical evaluation, pilot, or proof of value, is an opportunity for buyers to see the solution in action and evaluate if it meets their needs before making a purchase.

When done effectively, the programs can provide tremendous value and be an excellent tool for engaging prospects in the sales process. Buyers are more likely to stay engaged when they can test the product and solve their needs, reaching the promised return on investment (ROI).

When designing a proof of concept program, it's important to set clear objectives and make sure that the process is aligned with the buyer's goals. Buyers should also be given enough time to explore the solution thoroughly before making a decision.

To learn more about Proof of Concepts, click here.

Collaborate effectively at every stage

In today's digital landscape, buyers have more control over their buying process. They want to feel guided as opposed to sold to, so it's important for sales reps to not only provide the information buyers need but also collaborate with them through every step of their journey.

To ensure prospect engagement throughout the customer journey, sales teams must collaborate effectively at every stage of the buyer's journey. Sales reps should loop in other departments, such as marketing and customer success, to ensure each customer experience is tailored to their needs.

A data-driven approach to tracking buyer engagement can also help sales teams make informed decisions throughout the sale process. This data can help reps understand which tactics are most effective and provide insights on how to engage buyers at each stage of the purchase process.

Tools like Recapped, which promotes a central-communication system for sales enablement, can help sales reps collaborate more effectively and manage customer engagement, documentation, task assignments, and timelines with ease.

Set timeboxed goals to achieve ROI

Timeboxed goals are milestones that enable buyers to measure their ROI throughout the buying process. Sellers should work with each customer to set time-limited goals or specific key performance indicators (KPIs) that must be achieved for them to be successful.

This may look like an increased customer satisfaction rating by 30%, a reduced customer churn rate by 25%, or increased revenue by 10% by the end of a quarter or year. Buyers should be held accountable for these goals, and sellers should track progress throughout the buying process.

By setting and tracking time-boxed goals, sales reps can set implementation deadlines to achieve this success.

To Recap

To keep customers moving through a frictionless sales pipeline, regular engagement is critical for success in the sales process.

Driving buyer engagement is never an easy task, but by taking the following steps, you can see the results:

• Personalize their sales approach
• Create engaging sales content
• Run a strong proof of concept
• Collaborate effectively at each stage
• Focus on sales enablement
• Set timeboxed

How can I get started with improving my buyer engagement?

To get started with improving your buyer engagement, begin by evaluating your current sales process and identifying areas that need improvement. Next, consider which tactics may help you gain better insights into customer behavior, such as data-driven approaches or engaging content.

Recapped's customer-collaboration platform enables a customer-centric approach that helps sales teams quickly align with customers to deliver a personalized, documented, and streamlined buying experience.

Ready to take control of your buyer engagement? Request a free consultation with Recapped: https://www.recapped.io/consultation

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