EdTech Sales Success: Improving Sales Process and Efficiency

In the Education Technology (EdTech) B2B space, traditional marketing means interrupting your potential customers by pitching your services to them through emails and sales calls. We call this strategy “Outbound Sales.” But today’s decision-makers are pestered with marketing emails and sales pitches, buyers are a lot more interested in finding services online by themselves before speaking to a sales rep.

81% of customers perform online research before buying. (AdWeek)When buyers have the ability to find your website and get the information they are looking for, they are one step closer to connecting with you. This is part of “Inbound Sales.” Inbound Sales involves making use of targeted content to bring in people using targeted content to spark their interest. The advanced technology leader Hubspot identified the phases of the EdTech sales success process as: Prospect: Doing research online to find new customers Research: Finding out more about the potential customers and their business Connect: Making a call to the prospective client Advice: Create a customized presentation or discussion of your produce Close: Negotiating, providing a proposal or quote, and making a sale Here are some ways to boost your Education Technology sales techniques:

Understand your ideal buyers

It’s hard to make a sale if you don’t know who you are selling to. The first step in boosting your process is to get more information on your potential customers and the companies they work for. The descriptions of your ideal buyers are called “Buyer Personas.” You can detail buyer personas by asking questions using online surveys or in-person meetings. Find out their needs, obstacles, likes and dislikes, and so on. You should also see if they are currently in the Inbound Sales cycle and where they are.

B2B buyers are 57%-70% through their buying research before contacting sales. (Worldwide Business Research) 

Create and offer relevant content for your EdTech sales success

Supplying relevant and useful content will make it easier for potential clients to find you online. It also develops your Education Technology firm as an authority in the market and builds trust with your leads. Through the earlier phases of the sales process, you could offer fundamental informative content through blogs and infographics. Keep in mind to use appropriate keywords in your page URLs, headlines, captions, and alt image text. This will enhance your search engine position and make you more noticeable online. In the last phases of the sales process, long-form content like whitepapers eBooks, and webinars could be great for transforming leads into buyers.

Enhance your landing pages

The landing page is the page where many site visitors come after clicking a call-to-action (CTA). It offers to collect the site visitors’ contact information for more lead nurturing. In return for giving their information, your leads will get free premium content like a coupon, special access, webinar enrollment, free reports, and trials. Make sure your landing pages are as brief as possible. Most of the time, the name and email address on the form is enough. Along with having a great landing page, the CTA that brings people to the page should be clear and engaging. They must develop a sense of urgency and get people to act. “Get started now” or “learn more today” are perfect examples of CTAs.

Train and retrain

According to a study by Get App, 92% of salespeople agree that sales trainings have helped improve their selling capabilities. To enhance your sales process, you will want to have regular trainings with your sales team. Keep them updated on new trends, products, and value propositions. Send them to workshops where they can get new information and skills. The more educated your sales team is, the more customers they can draw in. There are many clashing training programs out there, though. For B2B sales in Education Technology, we advise Hubspot’s free online training called Inbound Sales Training.

Update your information

The information you provide throughout the sales process can make or break a sale. You have to make sure that your salespeople have the most up-to-date and relevant information with pitching your services and products in the close phases of the sales cycle. This means updated info on functions, advantages, and rates of your product or services. Make sure to update this info as much as needed. Giving the ideal information in the best way will help make your sales process smoother and faster.

Align your sales process to the Buyer’s Journey

The Buyer’s Journey has three phases: Awareness, Consideration, and Decision. Aligning your sales process to the buyer’s journey will help make your job a lot easier and create more sales. Keep an eye out for signals that will show you that your prospect is ready to go to the next phase of the journey. For instance, a lead that fills out a form on your landing page is ready for the consideration phase. If a person asks for a meeting or trial, this prospect is probably in the decision phase.

Use the best technology

There are many tools, apps, devices, and software that can help make the sales process much easier and more effective. You can use a variety of tools to get the job done, however it’s, ideal to have an all-in-one device like Hubspot CRM to combine the latest features in marketing, sales, and customer success on one place.

The final word

Creating a reliable sales process is probably a big strength as a skilled sales rep. Nevertheless, just as kids grow into adults, the Education Technology sales market is continuously evolving to meet the needs of potential customers. As a result, it’s critical to match your actions with those of your leads when getting through the sales process. We’ve helped many sales pros like you to develop reliable, customer-centered sales strategies using Inbound. Don’t hesitate to book your free strategy session to help find ways to boost your sales process!

Also Read – 6 Sales Strategy for EdTech To Accelerate Sales Processes