Ever wondered why some businesses seem to effortlessly succeed while others constantly struggle? It’s time to unravel the mystery of the macro environment in marketing. Think of it as a detective story, but instead of solving crimes, we’re deciphering marketing puzzles. Intrigued? Let’s dive in.

What’s This Macro Environment Thing All About?

You’re probably asking, “What exactly is this macro environment in marketing?” Well, imagine you’re a ship’s captain. The macro environment is like the sea around you – it’s all the external factors that you can’t control, but must navigate. Things like the economy, social trends, even the weather. It’s crucial because it can make the difference between smooth sailing and getting caught in a storm.

The Big Six: Unpacking the Components of the Macro Environment

Let’s delve into the six components of the macro environment in marketing. These are the major players you need to know. Picture them as the compass, the map, the wind, the currents, the rocks, and the stars in our ship analogy.

1. Political Factors

First up, political factors. You might not be a politician, but here’s why they matter in marketing. Political stability, government policies, and trade regulations – all set the rules of the game. Ever tried playing a game without knowing the rules? Not fun, right?

2. Economic Factors

Next, we have economic factors. Ever heard of GDP or inflation? They’re like the wind and the currents in our ship analogy. They can propel your business forward, or they can make you work twice as hard just to stay in the same place. So, understanding them is crucial to setting your marketing strategy.

3. Social Factors

Now, let’s discuss social factors. Yes, society’s norms and values can impact your marketing. Surprised? Think about it. Would you market a luxury product the same way in a society that values frugality as in one that values conspicuous consumption? Probably not.

4. Technological Factors

Technological factors, are ever-changing and ever-important. They’re like the stars in our ship analogy. They can guide you, or they can lead you astray if you’re not careful. In marketing, staying on top of technological trends can give you a competitive edge.

5. Legal Factors

Legal factors, not the most exciting, but oh so important. They’re like the rocks in our ship analogy. You don’t want to crash into them. In marketing, staying compliant with laws and regulations is non-negotiable.

6. Environmental Factors

Lastly, environmental factors. Going green isn’t just a trend, it’s a necessity. In our ship analogy, it’s like taking care of the sea you’re sailing on. In marketing, it’s about being sustainable and socially responsible.

Macro Environment in Action

Enough with the theory, let’s dive into some real-world examples of the macro environment in marketing. Because who doesn’t love a good story, right?

• Example 1: The Rise of Sustainable Fashion
  Take the fashion industry, for instance. With growing environmental awareness, brands like Patagonia and Everlane have embraced sustainable practices, responding to the environmental factors in their macro environment. They’ve not only won the hearts of eco-conscious consumers but also set a new standard in the industry.
• Example 2: Tech Giants and Privacy Laws
  Or consider how tech giants like Facebook and Google have had to navigate the legal factors in their macro environment. With stricter privacy laws coming into play worldwide, they’ve had to adapt their data practices and transparency policies.
• Example 3: The Impact of COVID-19 on Remote Work Tools
  Consider the sudden shift to remote work due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This social and economic change in the macro environment led to a surge in demand for remote work tools. Companies like Zoom and Slack saw a significant increase in their user base, adapting their marketing strategies to cater to this new norm.
• Example 4: The Rise of Plant-Based Meat Alternatives
  Another example is the rise of plant-based meat alternatives. With growing awareness about the environmental impact of meat consumption, companies like Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods have capitalized on this trend. They’ve positioned their products as sustainable and cruelty-free alternatives to traditional meat, responding to the environmental and social factors in their macro environment.

The Macro Environment’s Impact on Different Industries

Every industry has its unique challenges and opportunities when it comes to the macro environment. Let’s explore a few examples.

The Tech Industry

In the fast-paced world of tech, the macro environment is like a roller coaster ride. Technological factors are the obvious ones, with constant innovation and disruption. But don’t forget about legal factors, like privacy laws and patent regulations. Or social factors, like the digital divide and online etiquette.

The Retail Industry

Retail, a sector that’s always in the public eye, has its own macro environment challenges. Economic factors like consumer spending and inflation rates can make or break a retail business. Social factors, like changing consumer tastes and shopping habits, also play a big role.

The Healthcare Industry

Healthcare, a vital industry with unique challenges. Technological factors like advancements in medical technology can revolutionize healthcare delivery. But they also have to navigate legal factors like healthcare regulations and patient privacy laws.

The Food Industry

In the food industry, environmental factors like sustainable farming practices and food waste reduction are becoming increasingly important. Social factors, like changing dietary habits and the demand for organic or plant-based options, are also shaping the industry.

The Automotive Industry

For the automotive industry, technological factors like the rise of electric vehicles and autonomous driving technology are game-changers. But they also have to consider environmental factors like emission regulations and the push for sustainable practices.

The Tourism Industry

In the tourism industry, the macro environment plays a significant role. Political factors like visa regulations and travel advisories can greatly influence tourist inflow. Environmental factors like climate change and natural disasters also have a profound impact. For instance, ski resorts have to adapt to shorter winter seasons due to global warming.

The Education Industry

The education industry is another sector heavily influenced by the macro environment. Technological factors like the rise of online learning platforms have revolutionized the way education is delivered. Social factors, such as changing attitudes towards traditional degrees and the growing emphasis on lifelong learning, are also shaping the industry.

How to Analyze the Macro Environment for Your Business

So, you’re ready to analyze the macro environment for your own business? Fantastic! Here’s a step-by-step guide to help you navigate this process.

Step 1: Gather Data

First things first, you need data. But where do you find it? Well, you’re in luck because data is everywhere these days. The goal is to gather as much relevant data as you can about the external factors affecting your business.

Here’s how to gather it:

• Government reports and industry analyses: These are great sources for information on political, economic, and legal factors. For example, the Bureau of Labor Statistics provides a wealth of data on employment, inflation, and consumer spending.
• Market research and trend reports: These can provide insights into social and environmental factors. Nielsen, for instance, offers reports on consumer behavior and emerging trends.
• Tech blogs, patent databases, and scientific journals: These are your go-to sources for information on technological factors. Websites like TechCrunch or databases like Google Patents can provide insights into the latest tech trends and innovations.

Step 2: Analyze the Data

Now that you have the data, what do you do with it? It’s time to put on your detective hat and start analyzing. Look for trends, patterns, and changes in the data.

Here’s how to analyze it:

• Identify key factors: What are the key political, economic, social, technological, legal, and environmental factors affecting your industry? For example, if you’re in the tech industry, you might look at factors like data privacy regulations, technological advancements, and societal attitudes towards tech.
• Look for changes: How have these factors changed over time? For instance, the rise of social media has significantly changed the way businesses market their products.
• Identify opportunities and threats: What are the potential opportunities and threats presented by these factors? For example, a growing trend towards sustainability could be an opportunity for a business selling eco-friendly products, but a threat for one relying on non-renewable resources.

Step 3: Make Strategic Decisions’

Data and analysis are great, but they’re not much use if you don’t act on them. So, how do you make strategic decisions based on your macro environment analysis?

Here’s how to make strategic decisions:

• Identify opportunities and threats: Start by identifying the opportunities and threats in your macro environment. For example, if there’s a growing demand for vegan products in your market, that’s an opportunity. If new regulations are likely to increase your production costs, that’s a threat.
• Consider your business’s strengths and weaknesses: How can you leverage your strengths and mitigate your weaknesses to take advantage of the opportunities and neutralize the threats? For instance, if you have a strong brand reputation for quality, you could leverage this to introduce a new premium product line.
• Make strategic decisions: Whether it’s entering a new market, launching a new product, or repositioning your brand, your macro environment analysis should guide your decisions. For example, if your analysis reveals a growing trend towards remote work, you might decide to develop products or services catering to remote workers.

Step 4: Monitor and Update

Finally, remember that analyzing the macro environment isn’t a one-time task. The macro environment is constantly changing, and so should your analysis.

Here’s how to monitor and update:

• Stay updated: Keep an eye on industry news and trends to stay updated on changes in the macro environment. For example, you could set up Google Alerts for keywords related to your industry.
• Regularly review your analysis: Make it a habit to review and update your macro environment analysis regularly.

The Risks of Ignoring the Macro Environment

By now, you understand the importance of the macro environment in marketing. But what happens if you choose to ignore it? Well, it’s not a pretty picture. Ignoring the macro environment can lead to missed opportunities, unexpected threats, and even business failure.

Here’s why:

• Missed Opportunities: By not keeping an eye on the macro environment, you might miss out on key trends and changes that could benefit your business. For example, a growing interest in sustainable products could be a great opportunity for a business selling eco-friendly items.
• Unexpected Threats: Changes in the macro environment can also bring threats. If you’re not aware of these changes, they can catch you off guard. For example, new regulations or shifts in consumer behavior can significantly impact your business.
• Business Failure: In the worst-case scenario, ignoring the macro environment can lead to business failure. If your business isn’t prepared for major changes in the macro environment, it might not survive.

So, it’s clear that analyzing the macro environment isn’t just a nice-to-have—it’s a must-have for any business that wants to succeed in today’s dynamic market.

Imagine playing a game without keeping score.

It would be hard to know if you’re winning, right?

The same applies to marketing. Without marketing metrics—defined as quantifiable values that indicate the effectiveness of marketing efforts—it’s nearly impossible to assess whether your marketing strategies are hitting the mark.

Marketing metrics are not just numbers—they are the story behind the campaign. They paint a picture of where a marketing strategy is succeeding and where it falls short.

Without them, marketers would be operating in the dark, relying on guesswork rather than evidence. With them, businesses are equipped with a roadmap that leads to more targeted, impactful, and successful marketing efforts.

In this article, we will take a look at the world of marketing metrics so you and your team know what matters most and how to start tracking your data to make better, more informed decisions.

The Role of Marketing Metrics

Navigating the vast expanse of the marketing universe can be daunting. It’s a world filled with constantly shifting trends, evolving customer behavior, and stiff competition. Yet, marketing metrics serve as our North Star, guiding us and helping us make informed decisions.

Let’s delve deeper into the role these metrics play in our journey towards achieving business goals and making strategic decisions.

Marketing metrics are the bridge between our marketing efforts and our business goals. They allow us to assess whether our marketing strategies are delivering the desired results and contributing to overall business objectives.

Be it improving brand awareness, increasing customer engagement, or boosting sales, every marketing effort must align with our broader business goals. The power of marketing metrics lies in their ability to quantify this alignment. They serve as the yardstick by which we measure the success or failure of our marketing initiatives.

Data is the lifeblood of decision-making and strategy in marketing. And marketing metrics are the vessels that carry this precious resource.

These metrics provide actionable insights that influence our decision-making processes, from selecting the appropriate marketing channels to defining our target audience, setting our budget, and more.

Marketing metrics help us answer crucial questions:

• Are we reaching our target audience?
• How engaged are they with our content?
• What is the return on investment (ROI) for our campaigns?

By shedding light on these questions, marketing metrics help us fine-tune our strategies. They guide us in allocating resources effectively, tweaking our campaigns for better performance, and ultimately, crafting strategies that deliver a stronger impact.

In essence, they are the headlights that illuminate our path, making our marketing journey not only successful but also fulfilling.

What are the Different Types of Marketing Metrics?

Marketing metrics come in various forms, each offering a unique perspective on different facets of marketing. Let’s dive into some key marketing metrics and explore their relevance in different marketing areas, including digital, traditional, and content marketing.

Here’s a breakdown of several important marketing metrics that marketers commonly track:

• Sales Revenue: This is the most direct measure of the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns. It quantifies the total revenue generated from all marketing efforts.
• Cost Per Lead (CPL): This metric helps understand the cost-effectiveness of your marketing campaigns in generating leads. It’s calculated by dividing the total marketing spend by the total number of leads generated.
• Customer Lifetime Value (CLV): CLV projects the total revenue a business can reasonably expect from a single customer account. It considers a customer’s revenue value and compares that number to the company’s predicted customer lifespan.
• Return on Investment (ROI): This is a measure of the profitability of your marketing campaigns. It’s calculated by dividing the net profit from the campaigns by the total cost of the campaigns.
• Conversion Rate: This is the percentage of users who take a desired action (e.g., making a purchase, signing up for a trial, etc.).

Although these are some of the most common metrics, depending on your business and industry there may be other metrics that are equally as important to track. Here are some examples for different industries:

Digital Marketing Metrics

In the realm of digital marketing, here are a few noteworthy metrics:

• Website Traffic: This measures the number of visitors to your website.
• Bounce Rate: This represents the percentage of visitors who leave your website after viewing only one page.
• Click-Through Rate (CTR): This measures the percentage of people who click on a specific link out of the total users who view a page, email, or advertisement.

Traditional Marketing Metrics

For traditional marketing, consider these metrics:

• Audience Reach: This measures the number of individuals exposed to your marketing message.
• Frequency: This quantifies how often your audience sees your marketing message.

Content Marketing Metrics

In the sphere of content marketing, these metrics are key:

• Engagement Rate: This measures the level of engagement or interaction your content receives (e.g., likes, shares, comments).
• Content ROI: This metric evaluates the revenue you gain from content marketing compared to what you spent creating and promoting the content.

While there are countless marketing metrics to track, it’s crucial to select those that best align with your business objectives and marketing goals. Remember, in the vast ocean of data, the key is not to collect every droplet but to capture the ones that hold the most value for your voyage.

Examples of How Businesses Use Marketing Metrics

Marketing metrics play a crucial role in shaping business strategies. Let’s dive into some fictional scenarios to demonstrate how these metrics influence decision-making processes and drive the success of marketing efforts.

Sharp Edge Corporation and Sales Revenue:

Consider the Sharp Edge Corporation, a company selling high-end kitchen gadgets. They recently launched a new line of smart cookware and implemented a comprehensive marketing campaign to promote it.

By tracking their sales revenue, they identified that their YouTube cooking tutorials featuring the smart cookware drove the most sales. As a result, Sharp Edge decided to allocate more resources to video content creation to boost sales revenue further.

Breezy Apparel and Cost Per Lead (CPL):

Breezy Apparel, an online clothing retailer, has been investing in both social media ads and influencer collaborations to attract potential customers. By calculating their CPL for each channel, they discovered that their influencer collaborations generated leads at a lower cost than their social media ads. Based on this insight, Breezy Apparel chose to focus more on influencer marketing to attract leads more cost-effectively.

Codex Tech and Conversion Rate:

Codex Tech, a software company, uses conversion rate to assess the effectiveness of their free trial sign-up page. After redesigning the page, they noted a 15% increase in the conversion rate, leading to more sign-ups without any additional advertising costs. This indicated that the design changes were effective and worth keeping.

Analysis of What These Examples Demonstrate About Effective Use of Metrics

These examples illustrate the powerful insights that can be derived from effectively utilizing marketing metrics.

• For Sharp Edge Corporation, tracking sales revenue helped identify their most profitable marketing channel.
• In the case of Breezy Apparel, calculating CPL for each marketing channel guided them to a more cost-effective marketing strategy.
• Meanwhile, Codex Tech demonstrated that tracking conversion rates could reveal the effectiveness of changes made to a webpage.

These scenarios highlight that there is no one-size-fits-all approach when it comes to choosing marketing metrics. Different metrics are relevant for different situations, and what matters most is that the metrics align with the company’s specific goals and strategies. Therefore, businesses need to be agile and willing to adjust their focus as their marketing efforts evolve.

Finally, these examples remind us that marketing metrics are not just numbers; they are tools for storytelling. They help piece together a narrative of what’s working, what’s not, and what could be the path forward.

Armed with these insights, businesses can make informed decisions and navigate their way to success.

How to Track Marketing Metrics

Just as important as understanding the ‘what’ and ‘why’ of marketing metrics is grasping the ‘how’. Tracking these metrics effectively allows businesses to make the most of the insights they offer. This process involves tools, techniques, and sometimes, the support of digital platforms.

Tracking marketing metrics requires a mix of tools and techniques, varying significantly based on the specific metric in question. Here are some common methods:

• Analytics platforms: Tools like Google Analytics, SEMrush, or HubSpot provide a wealth of information about website traffic, user behavior, conversion rates, and more. These platforms offer dashboards that display your metrics in an easily digestible format.
• Social media insights: Social media platforms come with built-in analytics tools that provide insights into engagement rates, follower growth, click-through rates, and other key social media metrics.
• Email marketing software: Tools such as Mailchimp or Constant Contact provide data on open rates, click rates, and other vital email marketing metrics.
• CRM systems: CRM (Customer Relationship Management) systems like Salesforce or Zoho help track sales-related metrics, including lead conversion rates and customer lifetime value.

Software and digital tools have become indispensable for tracking marketing metrics. They not only automate the data collection process but also provide valuable insights that can help drive decision-making.

For instance, digital tools can automatically gather data from various sources, reducing the chance of human error and saving considerable time and resources. These tools also often come with visualization features, making it easier to understand trends and patterns.

Additionally, software tools can provide real-time data, allowing businesses to quickly respond to changes in their performance metrics. This agility can provide a significant competitive advantage in today’s fast-paced marketing landscape.

However, the usefulness of these tools hinges on their correct usage. It’s essential for marketing teams to understand how to set up these tools to track the metrics relevant to their goals and how to interpret the data they provide accurately.

Tracking marketing metrics effectively is a complex but necessary task. With the right tools, techniques, and understanding, businesses can harness the power of these metrics to drive their strategies and bolster their success.

Common Mistakes to Avoid in Using Marketing Metrics

As potent as marketing metrics are, their misuse can lead to misguided strategies and missed opportunities. Understanding common pitfalls in selecting and using marketing metrics is crucial to avoid falling into these traps.

• Tracking too many metrics: In an era of big data, it’s easy to get caught up in the number of metrics available. However, not all metrics provide actionable insights. Tracking too many can lead to information overload and confusion.
• Focusing on vanity metrics: Vanity metrics, such as likes or followers, may make a company feel good, but they often don’t directly correlate with business goals. A high number of followers means little if they aren’t engaging with your content or converting into customers.
• Ignoring the context: Metrics don’t exist in a vacuum. For instance, a sudden spike in website traffic may seem like a win, but if it’s due to a negative news article about your company, it’s not a positive sign.
• Not aligning metrics with goals: The metrics you choose should directly reflect your business goals. If your aim is to increase brand awareness, tracking metrics like website traffic and social media reach is more relevant than monitoring sales conversion rates.

Decide on what is truly most important for the future of your business and get to work tracking those metrics. Don’t be tempted by the numbers that don’t add real value to your growth strategies. In order to keep on track with marketing metrics, here’s what to consider:

• Set clear goals: Before selecting your metrics, ensure that you have clear, measurable goals. These will guide you in choosing the most relevant metrics to track.
• Prioritize quality over quantity: Choose a few key metrics that offer actionable insights, rather than trying to monitor everything. Less can often be more in this case.
• Look beyond the numbers: Always consider the context of your metrics. Be aware of external factors that could be influencing them and remember to interpret them in relation to your specific business environment and goals.
• Review regularly: Your business goals and the marketing landscape can change. Regularly reviewing your key marketing metrics ensures they continue to provide relevant and valuable insights.

By being aware of these pitfalls and how to avoid them, businesses can ensure they’re using marketing metrics effectively and intelligently, leading to more informed decision-making and, ultimately, greater marketing success.

The Future of Marketing Metrics

As we venture further into the digital age, emerging trends and technologies continue to reshape the landscape of marketing metrics. Here are a few noteworthy developments:

• Artificial intelligence and machine learning: These technologies are revolutionizing the way businesses collect, analyze, and interpret marketing metrics. AI and ML can process vast amounts of data at high speed, providing real-time insights and predictive analytics. This can help businesses anticipate future trends, optimize marketing campaigns, and make more accurate strategic decisions.
• Big data: As businesses gather more data from a wider variety of sources, big data analytics become increasingly important. These sophisticated analyses can reveal complex patterns and trends, helping businesses understand their market and customers at a much deeper level.
• Customer experience metrics: As the marketing world moves towards a more customer-centric approach, metrics focusing on customer experience are gaining prominence. These include customer satisfaction scores, net promoter scores, and customer effort scores, all of which offer crucial insights into customer perceptions and loyalty.
• Data privacy regulations: With increasing scrutiny on data privacy, new regulations are influencing how companies collect and use marketing data. Future marketing metrics will need to balance data-driven insights with privacy compliance.
• More integration: As more platforms and tools become available, businesses will likely need to integrate multiple sources of data for a more comprehensive view of their marketing performance. This could lead to the development of new, holistic metrics.
• Increased use of predictive analytics: With advancements in AI and machine learning, predictive analytics is likely to become more accurate and more prevalent. This could help businesses forecast future trends and adjust their strategies proactively.
• Emphasis on quality over quantity: As businesses become more data-savvy, there will likely be a shift from simply collecting as many metrics as possible to focusing on the quality and relevance of these metrics. This will mean prioritizing the metrics that are most closely aligned with business goals and can drive meaningful insights.
• Greater focus on customer-centric metrics: As customer experience becomes a key differentiator for businesses, expect a greater emphasis on customer-centric metrics. This will likely involve more sophisticated methods of measuring customer satisfaction, loyalty, and engagement.

The future of marketing metrics is likely to be characterized by greater sophistication, more advanced technology, and a sharper focus on delivering and measuring customer value.

However, no matter how these trends evolve, the core principles of using marketing metrics – to inform, evaluate, and guide strategy – will remain as important as ever.

A seller’s life is full of hard knocks. Customers may buy a product, rave about it, then you never hear from them again. A hot lead suddenly goes cold, and you have no idea why. Or a list of “prospects” turns out to be a bunch of cold leads to begin with.

Every successful salesperson has to become accustomed to awkward pauses, difficult questions and closed doors. And remote and hybrid work environments have really shaken things up. The knock on the front door, the friendly eye contact and the firm handshake all sound like anachronisms in the modern selling landscape.

While remote selling has upended traditional selling and changed some of the strategies, the principles remain the same. Lest you journey into this land of hard knocks without a compass or a soft pillow, this post aims to go over:

• The fundamentals of a fluid sales process.
• The skill set and the hidden benefits of remote selling and how to develop both.
• The best online sales tools to perform a range of skills.

Consultative Sales 101: Sell, Don’t Tell

We’ve all been annoyed by a sales call that wastes our time pitching a service we don’t need or have any interest in. This smarmy cold selling gives the entire field of sales a bad rap.

But sales really isn’t a dirty word. Fundamentally, selling is about solving a customer’s problem. And we all have dozens of those that we’re looking to have solved every day. Consultative sales is a customer-centered approach to selling that studies the decision making process of the seller.

The best sales tools are worthless without a good approach. Before discussing tools and strategy, let’s cover the four steps to a customer-centered sales process that softens customers and primes them before you go in for the pitch.

Prospect & Disqualify

The very first step to a seller’s journey is to identify the right people. No one benefits when you pitch to whomever you manage to get yourself in front of. That’s a waste of your time and the other person’s as well.

Looking for prospects often entails market research. It means knowing the product market fit. Who is the audience for the product or service? This includes details such as the region, the income, the gender and the lifestyle of the ideal buyer. And it means filtering out those who don’t make a good fit.

Prospecting is proactive. Traditionally sellers find prospects at trade shows and conferences. In a digital world some of the best places to mine for prospects are platforms like LinkedIn and Facebook. A strong inbound marketing plan eliminates some of this prospecting work, as it brings the customer knocking at your door.

Discover

Discovery is uncovering all the fundamental information on the customer. What are their needs, and how does your product or service meet them? It’s about making sure you’re talking to the right people, and understanding how decisions are made in their organization. This discovery even gets down to knowing their preferred tools and communication systems in order to facilitate fluid ongoing communication.

This discovery goes both ways. It also means letting the prospect in on your process. Show them the contract, and co-create a solution together.

Pitch the Solution

This step is at the crux of consultative sales. It’s really easy to get caught up in listing all the features of your product, or telling them what you have to sell.

But when you’ve landed the right person and you understand where they’re coming from, it’s possible instead to pitch the product as a solution to their problems or needs. For example, let’s say you’re selling a beach front condo to a hard-working couple. You wouldn’t tell them things about how many bedrooms it has, or how large the swimming pool is. Rather, you’ll demonstrate how your condo is going to provide an oasis and respite from their busy lives.

How do you achieve such a close understanding of the customer? It’s about asking the prospect a lot of questions to unearth their problems and identify what really drives their decision making.

In a hybrid environment, it’s hard to make a pitch that glides right over home plate. Keeping a remote team engaged to the end requires a special skill set, which we’ll discuss more in the next section.

Keep Things Rolling

The sales process never really ends. As it’s far easier to retain customers than find new ones, a strong customer retention strategy is part and parcel to any sales process. Keeping customers in the loop includes things like emails, newsletters and exclusive promotion for repeat customers. Closing a sale is also the time for gathering feedback and requesting referrals. And with a new list of prospects, the sales process repeats itself.

As you can see, consultative sales means finding people who already have an interest in the product or brand and working to solve their problems. With these principles covered, let’s move on to how this process works in a remote sales environment.

5 Strategies for Remote & Hybrid Sales

Cultivating “virtual first” environments have become the norm in many organizations today. When a portion of employees cannot meet face-to-face, all the company’s processes and cadences center around a virtual system.

Fundamentally, sales works the same, whether remote or in-person. People buy because they like you. And so qualities like confidence, empathy and friendliness are always in demand. However, the dynamics in a remote environment are fundamentally different. An in-person relationship focuses on relationship building and reading body language, whereas a remote sales relationship focuses on superb content, product knowledge and virtual presentations.

Let’s go over some strategies to maximize the newer remote landscape and capitalize on its benefits.

Maximize “Free” Time

Remote selling has impacted many aspects of the selling process, and probably its biggest impact centers around travel. Back in the day, landing a sale meant traveling across town, across the country or into someone’s home. Whereas travel hasn’t gone away entirely, nowadays it’s just as common to make the big pitch from a video conference platform within a home office.

Not only does this free up money in the travel expense budget, it also frees up a whole lot of time in the day of a sales person. And time equals opportunity.

Rather than spending this time tracking down one lead, it can instead be spent finding more prospects. It’s also an opportunity to sharpen your sales skills and your pitch.

Too much free time, however, easily leads to many hours wastes. A daily routine helps to increase discipline and maximize the day’s potential. It’s also helpful to work toward results, not toward fulfilling a time quota.

Master Online Communication

Generally speaking, a hybrid or remote pitch is a steeper climb than an in-person presentation. It’s easier for prospects to tune out and get distracted with the myriad of other things they may be doing online. This isn’t any reason to call it a day, however. With the right skills and approach, it’s possible to reach just as high a summit with an online presentation.

An online pitch engages the prospect when it’s crafted more like a production than a presentation. What are some of the tricks to engagement? Usually it means adding creative tidbits, spicing things up with questions, sending out quizzes and polls and incorporating humor with jokes or magic tricks.

And while most communication tools offer chat, email, and phone calls, oftentimes these methods lead to weak communication. Video is a superior communication method as it captures tone and non-verbal expressions.

Finally, a thorough understanding of online etiquette communicates professionalism. This includes things like knowing all the ins and outs of a video conference platform, and using top-quality microphone for all online meetings.

Develop Content for Each Phase of the Journey

Whereas an in-person relationship leans heavily on building rapport and trust to move a client along a sales funnel, remote selling achieves this same end with high quality content.

White papers, infographics and blog posts all serve to keep the customer in the loop about your products and services. Matching content to the customer’s pain points addresses their concerns and confirms their decisions. Case studies help to demonstrate how you’ve solved customer problems in the past.

A customer is looking for a reason to move into the next state of the sales funnel, and in remote sales, content provides them with one.

Communicate Follow-up

In the world of remote sales, more often than not a hot lead goes cold once the video is turned off and the prospect gets caught up in the busyness of their daily lives. Out of sight, out of mind, as they say.

Communicating the next steps to the prospect prompts them to take action and stay in the loop. Making a practice for setting up the next meeting before one meeting ends, for example, ensures that the communication line isn’t dropped and no one falls through the cracks.

And this summarizes a few strategies to incorporate into remote sales. Now, let’s turn to some powerful online tools to find prospects and turn leads into sales.

10 Online Sales Tools

Have you ever handed over your money to someone without even realizing you’d just received a sales pitch, the process was so fluid? The mark of a true salesperson is an ability to solve a person’s problem and make them super happy with the overall experience.

As easy as some people can make it look, however, there’s a lot of work that goes into a successful sale. The seller’s tasks include prospecting, generating leads, building relationships, pitching and closing the deal. For each of these tasks, fortunately, there are plenty of excellent tools that accelerate and simplify the process. Let’s look at some of the top online sales tools out there.

Communication Tools

When you’ve found the right person and landed a big sale or project, communication becomes the lubricant that moves them smoothly along the sales funnel.

In-person communication, certainly, is ideal. It reduces miscommunication, builds rapport and increases trust. However, unfortunately in so many instances this simply isn’t possible.

Whether the aim is to brainstorm, pitch or share an update, the following tools bring remote communication up to par with in-person. They facilitate robust and fluid communications in remote sales relationships.

Teamly

Teamly makes it easy to have engaged and ongoing communication with a prospect, client or lead. This remote team software offers a medley of communication tools to suit a variety of objectives, including group messaging, direct messaging, screen sharing and video calls. Its kanban boards allow for collaboration and sharing work processes with clients as well.

Plus, Teamly offers the additional features of an all-in-one project management tool, including time tracking and monitoring tools. It even stores important files so that all your important information is accessible in one easy-to-reach platform.

Teamly offers plans suited for large and small teams alike. It even offers a free plan for small teams and solopreneurs. Visit Teamly and sign up today to discover what you’re missing out on!

Miro

The discovery and pitching phases of the sales process are all about getting to know the customer and their needs, then coming up with a solution. Sometimes this takes a good amount of brainstorming and collaboration.

Miro is a unique collaboration tool that pares collaboration down to the basics. The software is essentially one enormous white board for mind mapping, capturing ideas and brainstorming solutions. It’s everything that you’d expect from a physical white board and more. Miro’s white boards aren’t constrained by borders; they go on and on. It also offers all sorts of stickies, graphics and text for fun remote collaboration. And with Miro, you don’t have to erase all of your ideas and epiphanies at the end of a session. On Miro, all the brainstorms and mind maps can be stored away for reference at a future day.

Miro offers free and paid plans to suit a variety of needs.

Zoom

The last thing you want when making an important pitch is for the prospect to tune out and start checking their email, or turn off the video so they can get up to feed their dog.

Continual, ongoing engagement is key with online sales. And with so many distractions out there, capturing the prospect’s attention and keeping it requires a top of the line communication tool.

Zoom is a video conference platform with so many bells and whistles that it’s almost as good as in person communication. (In some respect, it’s even better). Some of its features include:

• Chat boxes to solicit and field questions.
• Polls and quizzes to break the ice and reinvigorate a long presentation.
• Whiteboards for brainstorming and mind mapping during a presentation.
• Breakout rooms for small group discussion.

As you can see, Zoom’s capacity allows its users to give top-of-the-line meetings and presentations. One of its drawbacks, however, is that it doesn’t offer a whole lot above and beyond its communication tools. This means you’ll have to subscribe to another software to plan and schedule projects.

Zoom offers four plans; basic, pro, business and business plus. Its basic plan is free and includes whiteboards and 40 minute meetings with up to 100 attendees.

And this summarizes some of the top communication sales tools. Next, let’s move onto the best prospecting tools out there.

Prospecting Tools

Cold calling is a chilling experience. It’s no fun to have people hanging up on you mid-sentence.

Prospecting puts potential sales into the queue so you’re connecting with the right people from the get-go. While a strong inbound lead strategy does a lot of this work for you, most sales people at some point need to spend some time hitting the pavement to find prospects.

Some of the best places to find prospects are from client referrals and online profiles. Once you’ve been connected to the right phone number or direct message, you’re well on your way to landing a sale.

Here are two tools that make it easy to find a list of hot leads for any product, service or industry.

Lusha

Lusha puts interested buyers in front of you in no time. It’s easy to develop targeted lists with its search features that filter by location and industry. Then, it’s just a simple click to transport a list to your CRM tool. It’s easy to add prospects to a drip campaign, or to warm up a pitch with a phone call.

Lusha updates your prospect lists so that your leads are fresh and current. It integrates with LinkedIn to monitor changes and transitions within the industry and marketplace.

With all these hot leads right at your fingertips, your sales will go through the roof. Whether you’re in hospitality, financial services or manufacturing, Lusha is the tool for you. It offers one free and one paid plan, depending on your needs.

LinkedIn Sales Navigator

Everyone is on LinkedIn. It has nearly a billion members in over 200 countries. This means that your prospects have accounts on LinkedIn, and they’re checking into it every day.

LinkedIn Sales Navigator is a prospecting tool that allows you to sift through all these accounts and pan for those choice golden nuggets. The search features on Sales Navigator filter by seniority level and function, to get you to just the right person within an organization. These lists can then be saved or transported for a calling session.

Sales Navigator’s plans start at $80 a month. While LinkedIn pricing is higher than most, it does draw from a large market pool. Some of its users wish that it offered the prospect’s email, and not just their LinkedIn account.

And this summarizes some prospecting tools. Now let’s turn our attention to inbound leads, which eliminates the need to prospect altogether!

Inbound Lead Tools

While prospecting is necessary, you don’t want to do all the digging yourself. Sometimes the mud is pretty hard and thick and there’s no gold nuggets to be found.

An inbound lead strategy frees you up from all this prospecting and gives you more time for making the pitch and the discovery call. It distributes valuable content to the right person, and brings them knocking on your door.

The challenge becomes creating the content, and then finding the right platform to post it. Should it be a video, email, blog post, or ebook? And is the customer going to be on Twitter, Instagram, YouTube or Facebook?

These tools assuage some of these anxieties. They direct you to the content to pitch, and the places to post it.

Tailwind

It’s such a hassle writing blog posts, editing photos and creating Instagram stories, day in and day out. Creating all this content quickly becomes a full time job.

Tailwind is a powerful sales tool that does all of this work for you. It plans content, schedules it and creates it to boot! Basically, it’s an all-in-one marketing software. Tailwind works with your personal brand and connects you to your ideal client.

Tailwind specializes in Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest. It’s also the perfect go-to for creating an email marketing campaign. Tailwind offers a free plan and three tiers of paid plans to suit a variety of needs.

Buzzsumo

Buzzsumo allows you to create engaging content that speaks right to the person you want to reach. With Buzzsumo, you can:

• Evaluate competition to determine the best content to create, by length and topic, as well as where to post it.
• Discover trending and shareable spinoff content from your core keywords.
• Evaluate top-performing content to identify the best publishing times and discover powerful backlinks to boost hits to your site.
• Monitor online conversations. See what people are saying about you, your brand, and about any other topic so that you can get in on the conversation as it’s happening.

Buzzsumo makes it easy to store searches and discoveries. Its tools integrate with several platforms including Facebook, Twitter, Reddit and YouTube.

Although Buzzsumo costs a pretty penny, it’s worth it. Your inbound leads will redouble with this powerful tool!

Sprout Social

Sprout social is an all-in-one content scheduling and analytics tool that’s a popular go-to tool for any inbound leads marketing campaign. Its services are suitable for large and small businesses alike. Sprout Social makes it easy to:

• Engage online. Connect all of your social media profiles to Sprout Social, so you can respond to messages and monitor what people are saying about your brand on multiple platforms.
• Plan content. Its content calendar allows teams to create and schedule content in advance, using trending keywords. This content can be published straight from Sprout Social, eliminating the hassle of switching between platforms.
• Analyze. Sprout’s analytics tools allow you to improve content strategy by evaluating what is working and what isn’t. It keeps an eye on your top competitors, breaks data down by region, and also makes it easy to share data and reports with team members and stakeholders.

This robust tool is popular for a reason. It nearly eliminates any need to prospect for clients ever again.

CRM Tools

A customer relationship management (CRM) tool is like the Swiss Army Knife of sales tools. It solves all sorts of necessities and provides multiple benefits. As just a sampling, a CRM:

• Manages a client from the beginning of the sales funnel all the way to the end.
• Frees up time by organizing contact info.
• Builds promotion and retention strategies based on client data.
• Finds the hottest leads based on market research.

With the right CRM tool, you won’t have to fret over retention scores and low turnover rates again. Let’s look at some of the top CRM tools available.

Keap

Keap is a CRM tool that eliminates all of the hassle of leading a customer along a sales pipeline. From identifying leads to billing clients to sending thank you notes, Keap has you covered from end-to-end. Here’s some of the heavy lifting that Keap does for its users:

• Tracks a deal through the sales pipeline using drag and drop tools.
• Provides 1:1 coaching to onboard new users.
• Transports data from your company website.
• Researches markets and reaches out to your ideal clients.
• Personalizes all your interactions with automation tools.
• Sends quotes to clients.
• Implements retention strategy through loyalty offers, thank yous and referral requests.
• Integrates with multiple apps.

Keap has already served 200,000 previous clients. It cites that it saves its users 10 hours per week in busywork! It offers two paid plans, Pro and Max.

Hubspot

Do you ever receive an email that tries to be personalized, but the copy is so stale you know right away it’s a template that’s been sent out to hundreds of leads? Even though it’s annoying, who can really blame the sender? As if anyone has the time to send a hundred personal emails in one morning!

Although it may sound too good to be true, Hubspot lets you not only reach out to even more prospects than you do currently, but it also enables this correspondence to sound personal and genuine! Its template and email tools make it simple to establish an email sequence for a series of hot leads.

This CRM also rates each email you send, assigning it a personalization score. It indicates those areas where you might add personal touches, so that the recipient can see that you’re speaking right to them.

This is just one of the many tools this CRM tool offers. It also follows sales along a pipeline, collects and organizes all lead contact information, and allows users to collaborate deals with other users.

While Hubspot serves as an all-in-one marketing and sales tool, they certainly make its users pay for it. Their plans cost either $800 or $3600 each month.
And this covers some of the top tools to accelerate your selling journey. As you can see, there’s no need to compromise on quantity or quality of your sales in remote environments.