I'm thinking about how (and when!) I can incorporate digital/social selling of the last two years into techniques that got tabled, and get budget for both! Such things as in-person events and traveling, doing roadshows and printing materials, sponsoring events, etc. It's hard to make commitments right now, but at the same time if we do these successfully, our conversion time to meetings is much quicker than only digital selling tactics.

Thank you for sharing, @Brooke B​! You pointed out such great and relevant points as the world slowly and safely opens up, and in-person meetings/events take place again.

Brainstorming and planning how to transfer the successful techniques you've seen in virtual selling back into the physical world of doing business now is great to ensure a smooth transition/process and, as you mentioned, important for budgeting those initiatives. Though we don't know for certain when the world would return to "normal," it's a good idea to be best prepared for the complexities and adapt accordingly if necessary.

I like all of those points @Eva Chen​ , and they do seem like overall priorities. I'm adding my own given our current status:

1. Mapping our ideal techstack. There's a mix of "SalesTech" and "MarTech", which I just call "Tech", coming from the tech world of course lol. What I've seen is a gap that is all too evident between the stacks and systems, that I can relate to the old question: when does marketing drop and sales pick up engagement with a person.
2. Focus on the customer journey. This is not just coming from point 1, but also from your point 3. Buyers are claiming control in a way we've never seen before, so we better understand how that changes their perception of value.
3. Deepdive into our own way of selling. We're "A&A" (adopting & adapting) a new way of selling...which will be key to actually understand how to engage and present value in a better way in this new world we're all into now.

This could be an interesting podcast now that I think of. :)

@Alejandro C​ , I have all those as well! I definitely have new problems/questions in the last year due to our sales tech stack growing tremendously. We used to have our marketing automation platform do all the work, and it's becoming less valuable (especially since we're B2B, don't do transactional emails, newsletters, etc). I have always been a pseudo 'systems integrator' while managing marketing, but now it's a serious gig!

@Brooke B​ I hear you! We relied a lot on our marketing automation platform + SFDC integration and also to be honest, but last year alone we evaluated at least 2 major new integrations and ultimately decided to just go with one given the amount of overhauling we would need to do without affecting what we already had working in the first place. I spent at least 30% of my time through the year facilitating workshops between IT, Mkt and sales just to get there!

These are such interesting insights, @Alejandro C​ and @Brooke B​! Thank you for adding to the discussion and bringing your perspective.

From the points you two made here, I can see how nailing down the right tech stack (for not just sales but also marketing) is critical for organizations moving forward, as everything becomes more virtual or automated.

Focusing on the customer journey and knowing when to best engage (or disengage) and figuring out what is the best method to sell to each buyer, segment, or buyer is highly important as well. A challenge I see there is what Alejandro pointed out in #3, that a lot of things are still changing so we can only do our best to "adapt and adopt" accordingly.

@Alejandro C​ — If you do host a podcast or have an episode on these topics, do drop the link in the Community! Would love to listen to it. 😊