Teams | Collaboration | Customer Service | Project Management

The pressure is on as a sales professional. You must keep up with constant changes in buyer behavior while connecting with potential customers, nurturing leads, and closing deals—all in hopes of hitting your sales targets. Handling so many tasks at once certainly isn’t easy, but you can thrive with the right set of sales skills and qualities in your arsenal. If you want to learn how to be a better sales rep, start by mastering these essential selling skills.

In many ways, the pandemic has forced sales teams to become more efficient. Many teams have switched to a digital-first approach, which allows for more interactions on a daily basis. It also means spending less time and money on commuting and traveling. However, remote sales teams have a bigger hurdle when it comes to forging genuine human connections—and not just between sales representatives and customers, but also between one another.

Customer acquisition cost (CAC) was on the rise for many companies prior to COVID-19. According to ProfitWell, CAC for businesses increased by approximately 60 percent between 2014 and 2019. But since the onset of COVID-19, brands have actually been acquiring new customers more cost-effectively. McKinsey & Company reports that the shift to digital sales led to 30 percent higher acquisition efficiency for businesses.

Remote sales have become increasingly common, but it took a pandemic to truly establish virtual selling as the new normal. A McKinsey survey conducted in the wake of Covid-19 found that over 75 percent of buyers and sellers alike now prefer virtual sales meetings over face-to-face interactions. And just 20 percent of B2B buyers said they wanted to go back to in-person presentations of the past. This would seem to be the evolution of the classic “road warrior” salesperson.

Picture this: You’ve just taken on responsibility for a new sales team. You set out to craft an annual sales plan, but you quickly discover that you’re missing key insights and data points. You don’t know what the market for your product looks like, how many sales agents you’ll have on your team, or how much revenue your company made last year. To write a successful sales plan, you’ll need that critical information.

Businesses of all sizes need to prioritize customer experience (CX), but it can be hard to know where to focus your efforts as we navigate uncertainty in a post-pandemic world. To help businesses make good, data-driven decisions, Zendesk partnered with ESG Research to build a framework around CX maturity and CX success.

Digital customer experiences are critical for surviving in a connected world. According to a survey of C-suite executives, more than 70% of CIOs increased investments heading into 2021 to improve customer experience. At an increasing rate, restaurants have adopted app delivery services, fitness memberships pivoted to virtual exercise experiences, retail now rely heavily on e-commerce, and office work accelerated business services like Zoom, Slack, and DocuSign.