It’s tough to work in sales. No one would say it’s an easy job. However, there are certain changes that can be made to improve the entire sales process for the customers and sales reps. The major thing that needs to change is making sales a more humanized experience.

People predict that sales teams will eventually die out and everything sales will be done by robots. They think that because the sales reps themselves are becoming more robotic! And that needs to change.

Sales reps need to learn to make the whole experience more personable and relevant.

Even Though It’s Business, It Can Still Be Personal

The classic phrase ‘it’s not personal, it’s business’ needs to be a thing of the past. Why can’t business be personal? In fact, it should be.

In a recent episode of Digital Conversations with Billy Bateman, Dale Dupree shared his insights on creating memorable experiences and human connections when it comes to sales.

Let’s get back to the human side of sales. Having real conversations with real people can’t be matched, even with the greatest technology. And we are a software company saying that even the technology can’t be beat by real humans. We make and promote chatbots, yet we still recognize the value of conversations. Technology is there to aid in the process of creating relationships between customers and businesses.

Build Customer Relationships

Those relationships are key.

In order to form meaningful and lasting customer relationships you need to be different and stand out. Be creative enough to get people’s attention. Like we said, sales reps nowadays are becoming too robotic.

Even the sales process itself is starting to seem robotic. We all know how it goes. MQL’s come to the website. Then sales reps are dialing and emailing like crazy. Opportunities are created. Offers are made. Then they either drop out or make the purchase. That is the process that’s in place, but how do we make it more humanized. How do we get more personalized human interactions.

Primarily, we need to stop creating more confusion in the process.

You need clear, concise communication with people in order to create unique experiences that people haven’t had before.

Sales Training

Sales training is crucial.

Reps need to shift their way of thinking from just focusing on numbers and accounts, to recognizing that sales has success when you focus on having an impact on an actual human being.

We’ve all seen the office, right? Remember the episode about Dwight challenging the computer to see who could make the more sales in a day. Dwight out sold the computer!

You can’t replace the impact of a real human-to-human conversation.

Incorporate Automation

Humanizing the sales experience doesn’t mean you have to cut out all automation.

In fact, the best approach is to do the exact opposite! Leverage technology!

Better automation and more of it is key to making the sales process more personable. The technology is there to make the process flow smoother.

We love chatbots because they easily get prospects connected with the right reps. We have the technology in place to be a support to the agents, not vice versa. Without chatbots, sales teams wouldn’t have the time to form meaningful connections with prospects and customers because they would be too busy doing other things that should just be automated.

Chatbots help people initially engage. They start the conversation, which should then be continued with a real person.

Get Out of Your Comfort Zone

One major tip that Dale emphasized was to get out of your comfort zone!

Our comfort zones hold us back from allowing the sales process to flow more naturally. We have been conditioned to believe that everything business needs to be cold and formal, but it doesn’t.

Sales reps nowadays often make the mistake of being so formal to the point of being robotic.

On sales calls, you should talk like how you would on a regular call. Be authentic and relatable.

Dale’s classic line on calls would be to start out by saying ‘Hey, what’s up?’

He would be super casual and upfront. And it worked! People responded so well to it. You would be surprised at how taking this approach really pays off.

In short, the whole sales cycle needs to be more humanized. You should continue to incorporate technology to help it run more smoothly and leverage automation, but that doesn’t mean it needs to be robotic.

At the end of the day, sales is all about making real and authentic connections with people, which lead to strong and lasting customer relationships.