Unlocking Sales Success with Personalisation: Creating Moments That Matter

By Malvina El-Sayegh

What is the biggest change you’ve seen impacting the sales world?

Sellers have got to work harder than ever. That’s because buyers are more informed than ever before. Buyers conduct a lot of their own research, which means they’re more than 50% along the sales journey before us sellers get in touch. The challenge for us is helping buyers make sense of what they’ve read online, but without knowing what they’ve been reading up on. Our role involves a lot of demystifying and helping the buyer continue moving along the journey to make a decision they feel comfortable and confident with.

Now that the likes of ChatGPT and other AI tools are coming to the forefront, buyers are only going to become more informed. But rather than making sellers’ lives more difficult, AI tools could empower us to have deeper relationships with our buyers. They’re like our co-pilot, giving us the information we need so that we can bring that personal, human touch.

Why do you think the human touch in sales is so important?

One piece of sales advice that I’ve never forgotten is that relationships do matter and, ultimately, people will buy from people they know, like and trust. It’s down to us sellers to build that trust, and we can’t rely on a machine for that.

Here at Reachdesk, we’re all about creating moments that matter. That’s what we help our customers to do – to send direct mail and gifts that create memorable moments all thanks to that personalised touch. So, it’s crucial for us that we can do the same with our buyers and show them the difference that personalisation makes.

How do you create moments that matter for your buyers?

We stick to what we know best and send clients gifts that are personalised to them. LinkedIn Sales Navigator is vital for us to do this. It helps us keep track of news that will be impacting our clients, like big changes at the company or a job move. With this information, we can reach out with the right message at the right time. This is a great example of one of my mottos: sales is a mix of art and science.

Can you explain what art and science in sales means to you?

So, the art part is the human touch. It’s that more creative part of selling. The science is the data. It’s the underlying facts we need to create a deeper level of personalisation.

But not any data will do. Surface level data (like names, job titles, tenure etc.) will only lead to surface-level conversations, which aren’t going to push buyers further along the sales journey. We need deeper data, like the insights that LinkedIn Sales Navigator brings. It enables us to look at things that are happening in the industry, in the particular vertical, at the specific accounts we’re targeting, and for each persona. This wealth of data allows us to identify the right intent signals from our prospective buyers and act on those relatively quickly.

Why are deeper conversations so crucial for sales today?

There was a time when discussing the features and benefits of a product or service was enough to win a buyer over, but that’s no longer the case. One reason for this is that the buying committee is evolving so drastically. Sellers now have seven to 11 people to convince. Not only that, but we are now having conversations with different personas in the committee. It is common to be introduced to CFOs, who are placing more scrutiny on spending in today’s climate and will have the final decision on whether to go ahead.

Evolving buying committees are challenging sellers to have more strategic conversations with buyers. We find that buyers no longer want to be asked ‘what keeps you up at night?’. They expect sellers to already know the challenges they’re facing. That’s why sellers have an opportunity to understand their buyers on a deeper level to have more meaningful and impactful conversations.

In your view, what are top-performing salespeople doing differently?

Top performers are putting the work in to really understand their buyers and look beyond the challenges they’re facing now to the challenges they’ll face next. Given that buyers do so much research themselves, they want sellers to tell them something they haven’t been able to find out. They want to know which icebergs loom in the distance and threaten their businesses, and how the product or service will help them overcome those challenges. A great seller arms themselves with information on what’s happening in the industry and the vertical, so they’re always thinking ahead and taking their buyers with them.

How do you motivate your team to adopt the traits of a top performer?

Sales teams around the world are under pressure to do more with less. It’s mission critical that we are strategic with our resources and tools, so here at Reachdesk, we focus on maximising the tech stack to achieve its fullest potential. For us, it comes down to identifying the challenges we’re trying to solve and finding a way to address them with the tools we have at hand. Seeing people in my team succeed with their tech stack makes me feel greatly rewarded and motivated to do more of the same.