First quarter is over. It's time to drive new sales opportunities and make sure your business is prepared to make all of 2018 successful. How do you do this when 68% of sales executive believe the buying process is changing faster than organizations are responding to the changes? The key to staying competitive is to look at the trends.

Whether you have a storefront, sell online, seek in-store placements of products, or go on-site to deliver services – you developed a plan and started with the basics of business. Everyone's business is different, but there are three trends that we see SMBs focusing on in 2018 to ensure success. As your business grows, you need to consider making changes to adapt and investments to accelerate your sales. Some changes are focused on the longer term but there are certain things you can do that will have an immediate impact to help your sales thrive.

Let's start with the three trends in 2019 across various industries:
 

Be FAST

Think about how your business can work faster. Take a good look at the processes and systems you have in place internally. Today, everything moves faster. Most businesses, for instance, are dealing with multiple channels of communication for sales, information requests, and support. Most customers have already researched before they even approach your company. And, on-demand access has become an important attribute in many industries.

You need to look at how well your processes are working today. Ask yourself these questions: 
 

• How quickly can you respond to your customers?
• How fast can you deliver your products and services?
• How speedy is your back office?
• Where can you make an impact to respond, support, and deliver at the speed your customers expect?

Be KNOWLEDGEABLE

You've worked hard to build a customer base – don't just sit back. You need to continually deliver a customer experience that will build loyalty. You can do this by not just tracking their contact details, but really knowing and understanding your customer: the products they need or want, up-selling opportunities, and how apt they are to recommend your business.

How well do you know your customers? Ask yourself these questions:
 

• Can you easily pull reports to understand buying patterns within your key accounts and industries?
• Do you track historical activity to know when you have the best chance to repeat a customer?
• Do sales and customer support have easy access to customer histories to drive a stronger interaction?
• Do you regularly ask your customers about their experience with your company?

Be SOCIAL

With Sales for Life reporting that 73% of salespeople who used social selling as part of their sales process outperformed their peers, you can't afford not to incorporate social media activity into your sales process. With social networks a major part of your customers' lives – social channels can be a major factor in your businesses growth and success.

Ask yourself these questions:
 

• Are you marketing on a variety of social channels to build awareness?
• Can you target, reach, and interact with customers on the social networks where they like to interact?
• Is your sales team using social tools to intelligently prepare for sales meetings?

A business that thinks smartly and prepares has a better chance for successfully driving sales within new and existing business. You need to consider every step along the customer lifecycle to ensure that you're building awareness, converting leads into customers, and providing a great experience along the customer journey. Happy customers are loyal customers – and loyal customers will do your marketing for you. Making investments today will pay off and prepare you for your future sales growth.  Call on GSG Capital to help at info@gsgcapitalllc.com