Five Ways to Humanise Your Sales Processes

Sales and business development professionals have been dealt with a huge amount of change in the past few years. 

From the switch to virtual sales to the rise of AI and automation, it feels like the way we do business with one another has changed forever.

There does indeed appear to be little appetite from buyers to transition back to face-to-face sales when they feel they can make effective decisions on a virtual basis.

This shift has led to a significant increase in de-personalised, automated sales activities. There’s been an explosion of new sales ‘tools’, all designed to make this transition to virtual sales easier, and shorten sales cycles. And now AI is becoming the hottest new sales trend. 

But this also means that every day, people’s inboxes are flooded with badly thought-through pitches and irrelevant sales requests. 

The result? Buyers are turning ‘off’ at a time when their attention is needed more than ever in what is a very volatile economic climate. 

How can sales leaders strike the right balance? Can we find a way to humanise the sales process, whilst also making it an efficient use of time and effort?

Emotions still drive sales, even business-related decisions. Trust has to be earned before buyers will invest. Customers want to feel valued and listened to before they buy into new products or services. 

Some businesses are getting ahead of their competitors by differentiating themselves in the market with a humanised sales process. They are standing out in a sea of sameness.

Here are five ways you can do this in your business today.

1. Put the buyer first

It’s all too easy to get bogged down with what it is you’re selling, rather than the person you’re trying to sell it to. Take a step back from your product and focus on the person you’re talking with, thinking about them as a human and what problems they have.

More than ever before, a buyer-centric approach to sales is absolutely key. This runs all the way through the sales cycle, from clearly identifying who you need to target to building a trusted relationship.

It’s crucial to get your ideal customer profile (ICP) nailed down before engaging in any sales activities. Look to lead conversations with curiosity, by discovering what goals your buyer has and how you can help to achieve them. 

Aim to be where your buyers are, online and offline, and build relationships rather than just pitching all the time. See point four below for more thoughts on this.

As salespeople, we need to be improving our communication skills all the time, including how to create engaging email copy or have valuable interactions that resonate with our buyers. The key is creating communications that are highly personalised and relevant so people want to open up and engage with them.

This in turn, will make your buyers feel valued, and that their individual needs are being met by your product or service. And when they are ready to buy, you’ll be at the forefront of their mind.

2. Use the phone at strategic times in the sales process 

We totally get it. You don’t want to make a sales call for fear of there being an awkward, stilted conversation. For fear of being seen as an intrusion. For fear of being rejected. For fear of not hitting your self-imposed targets.  

But the thing about the telephone is that it offers a fantastic opportunity to grow relationships in a meaningful and authentic way – when done right! Hearing a friendly voice on the end of the phone immediately creates a stronger bond, compared with hiding behind the words of an email. 

Despite a leaning towards de-personalised sales, the telephone is still a key sales channel for many businesses. It is a powerful tool which shorten the sales cycles and qualifies leads more quickly. 

Rather than positioning them as ‘sales calls’, they can be ‘useful warm conversations’ that will help to shorten sales cycles. When utilised strategically, phone calls can transform a businesses ability to get in front of a decision maker and use that as leverage, to move them quickly through the sales pipeline. 

The subsequent follow-up emails and messages after a phone conversation are much more likely to be opened and taken seriously as the initial ‘trust’ and a good first impression has been established. 

Want some tips on how to make effective calls?

Download our free guide: ‘How to Make a Confident Sales Call and Get Results’ for top tips and strategies on boosting confidence, transforming potentially scary sales calls into meaningful opportunities for business growth. 

3. Ask questions first, sell second 

Customer surveys and market research are incredibly important to uncover what differentiates your business from your competitors.

Doing this is proven to lead to better success rates, enabling sales teams to generate warm leads and referrals for future business growth. 

This will also help you to hone the ‘why’ of your business. And as Ed Garrett of Garrett Creative so succinctly puts it in our Ultimate Ethical Sales Handbook (p12):

“Your ‘why’ should take centre stage across marketing, sales and internal culture. This will help to ensure that your brand and communications go to the heart of what you stand for, engage customers to journey with you and align everyone with your goals for people, planet and profit.” 

Don’t forget to ask your buyer for help as well. In a complex sales environment with multiple decision makers sales leaders can sometimes shy away from asking key questions for fear of disrupting the sales process or ‘putting them off’. 

In fact, buyers that have demonstrated their willingness to become internal champions will love being helpful and are happy to provide clarity, and advice on internal processes or tenders that help to strengthen the relationship. It always pays off to ask the right questions!  

4. Nurture high-value relationships 

Every business must have a key account strategy, particularly those selling enterprise-level services. There are no shortcuts to sales success here, as it requires deep online research and highly personalised approaches at all times in order to generate trust and interest in the business.

Firstly, it’s important to create an ideal customer profile (ICP). This can be used to research and identify multiple contacts within one business to nurture. Some may become champions and provide access to the final decision-maker, and others will be influencers. Stay abreast of their current news, events and company financials to spot business development opportunities.

Use a range of communication channels to start conversations such as LinkedIn, email and telephone. 

It’s crucial to play the long game here. Don’t just ‘connect and pitch’, but instead aim to start a conversation and be curious at all times. Work hard to build trust and add value first, rather than just trying to sell. 

CRM and sales enablement tools can help to stay front of mind, by diarising tasks or marketing automation that show the prospects you’re engaging on a regular basis. Try and be where they are, whether this is online or at events in person.

When this qualification process is done properly, it’s about using those strategic business development skills to know when it is the right time to pitch or ask for a meeting.

Businesses that start with a ‘relationship first’ approach to sales will enjoy long-term sales success and have a higher customer retention rate. But also be realistic, as these types of relationships can take time and persistence to develop. Don’t give up!

5. Be smart with ‘smarketing’ 

In an ideal world, the sales and marketing functions of a business would work seamlessly in harmony with one another. The reality is often very different, as sales complains to the marketing function about passing over lousy incoming leads, while marketing heads get frustrated with sales’s scattergun use of the CRM systems.

But there are definite benefits to getting the two departments to be more harmonious. According to MarketingProfs, alignment of sales and marketing drives value, with companies reporting 38% higher sales win rates and 36% higher customer retention. 

In order to establish a better ‘marketing’ function, we advise:

• Scheduling weekly meetings with sales and marketing teams to discuss the current calendar of activities and results of the latest campaigns.
• Analysing the results of campaigns together and discussing ideas for future ones.
• Setting up systems that enable both teams to talk to one another and enable sales success. 
• Keeping lines of communication open, even when things get difficult. 

Have you found these tips on humanising your sales process useful? 

If you’re looking for more insights and ideas for your purpose-led business, download our free The Ultimate Ethical Sales Handbook. By sharing experiences and insights from business leaders, we widen the debate around what it means to sell effectively while still leading with your values.

Book a meeting to explore if our ethical sales methods could work for your business.