3 EMERGING SALES AND MARKETING TRENDS FOR PEOS

The B2B sales and marketing landscape evolves constantly, influenced by technological advancements, shifts in buyer behavior, and the need for personalized communication. For PEOs, adopting innovative sales and marketing strategies is crucial to drive growth and maintaining a competitive edge. Outlined below are three B2B sales and marketing emerging trends that high-growth PEOs are leveraging: podcasting, sales playbooks, and omni-channel integration. Each trend not only enhances communication and engagement with prospects, but also significantly impacts top-line revenue growth.

PODCASTING: ENGAGING CLIENTS THROUGH AUDIO CONTENT

Podcasting has surged in popularity over the last few years, emerging as a powerful medium for B2B communication. For PEOs, utilizing podcasts offers a unique opportunity to connect with potential clients and showcase expertise in HR management, compliance, and employee benefits. Podcasts can serve as a platform for discussing industry trends, sharing case studies, and providing valuable insights that resonate with target business leaders.

Benefits of Podcasting for PEOs

1. Audience Engagement: According to the latest data, there are 464.7 million podcast listeners worldwide, equating to 22% of all internet users. Podcasts offer a more personal and authentic connection with the audience, making them feel like they’re having a casual conversation. This personal touch can be particularly effective in building relationships with potential clients.
2. Broader Reach: With just a few clicks, podcasts can reach a global audience. This broad reach is invaluable for PEOs looking to expand their market presence.
3. Credibility and Expertise: Launching a podcast can help PEOs establish themselves as experts in their field. By sharing insights and expertise, they can more quickly build trust with their audience, which is crucial in the early stages of the sales process.
4. Building Authority and Trust: High-quality podcast content can position PEOs as thought leaders in HR and employee benefits. This authoritative presence attracts potential clients and instills confidence in current clients, enhancing client retention. When businesses see a PEO as a trusted advisor, they are more likely to seek out their expertise when HR related issues arise in their businesses.
5. Targeted Marketing and Outreach: Podcasts allow PEOs to tailor their content to specific audiences, addressing unique challenges faced by different industries or business sizes. This targeted approach ensures that potential clients receive relevant information, leading to higher conversion rates, and more robust sales pipelines.
6. Creating a Community: Just one podcast can be cut up into several shorter snippets that can easily be shared on social media, included in 1-to-many email campaigns, and 1-to-1 prospecting emails. This helps build an audience. Further, a sense of community among listeners can be fostered through online comments, social media discussions, and listener questions. By building a loyal audience, PEOs can create a network of potential referrals and leads, further driving revenue growth.
7. Staying Current: By launching a podcast, PEOs can demonstrate their commitment to staying current with marketing trends and technologies, positioning themselves as innovative leaders in their industry.

SALES PLAYBOOKS: STREAMLINING THE SALES PROCESS

Sales playbooks are structured documents or digital platforms that provide sales teams with guidelines, strategies, and resources to effectively engage with prospects and close deals. Each sales play in a sales playbook can be designed to help salespeople identify the “shortest route to revenue” for unique scenarios often encountered throughout the sales process. Implementing a sales playbook can take the sales process best practices out of the heads and laptops of your seasoned salespeople and make them scalable and repeatable across the entire team.

Benefits of Sales Playbooks for PEOs

1. Consistency and Efficiency: A well-designed sales playbook ensures that all sales team members follow a consistent approach, leading to more effective sales conversations. Consistency in messaging and strategy helps build a cohesive brand image, making it easier for potential clients to understand the value proposition of the PEO and makes it for potential clients to trust their perspective.
2. Training and Development: Sales playbooks serve as valuable training resources for new sales representatives, reducing the time required for onboarding. By providing a comprehensive overview of products, services, and effective sales techniques, PEOs can empower their sales teams to engage more confidently with clients quicker, thereby increasing overall sales efficiency and revenue potential.
3. Data-Driven Insights: Elements of sales playbooks can be integrated with CRM, and marketing tech stacks to leverage AI, automate workflows, and optimize performance over time with up-to-the-minute analytics and performance metrics. By analyzing data on conversion rates, sales cycles, and client feedback, PEOs can continuously refine their sales processes, ensuring they remain agile and responsive to market changes.

OMNI-CHANNEL INTEGRATION: ENHANCING CLIENT EXPERIENCE

In today’s digital age, customers expect seamless interactions across multiple channels, whether through social media, email, phone calls, events, in-person meetings, and even “snail mail” (USPS). Omni-channel integration refers to the strategy of providing a unified customer experience across all these channels – inbound or outbound, marketing or sales-driven, digital or hard-copy, and virtual or in-person. Imagine the potential impact if the message conveyed in an online ad is the same as the message in the header on the website homepage, in the signage at the event booth, in this morning’s LinkedIn post, in the post card received in the mail, in the voice mail message received from a salesperson, as well as the follow-up email. Adopting an omni-channel approach has proven essential for engaging clients effectively and driving revenue growth.

Benefits of Omni-Channel Integration for PEOs

1. Improved Customer Experience: A seamless customer experience ensures that clients receive consistent messaging and support regardless of the channel they choose to engage with. This eliminates confusion, helps build the company brand, and fosters memorable story telling in the marketing and sales process.
2. Personalization and Targeting: Omni-channel integration allows PEOs to collect data on client interactions across various touch points. This data can be leveraged to personalize marketing efforts, tailoring communications to individual client preferences and needs. Personalized marketing efforts improve engagement rates and increase the likelihood of securing first meetings with qualified prospects.
3. Enhanced Lead Nurturing: An omni-channel approach facilitates more effective lead nurturing by ensuring that potential clients receive timely and relevant information at every stage of the buyer’s journey. PEOs can engage leads through targeted email campaigns, social media interactions, and informative webinars, guiding them smoothly through the sales funnel. By providing valuable consistent messaging with valuable content throughout the decision-making process, PEOs can significantly improve their conversion rates and revenue potential.

In the dynamic landscape of B2B sales and marketing, PEOs must adapt to emerging trends to remain competitive and drive revenue growth. Podcasting, sales playbooks, and omni-channel integration represent three impactful strategies that can enhance engagement, streamline processes, and improve customer experiences. By leveraging these trends, PEOs can engage new prospects, close more business, and drive profitable revenue growth.