Global economic growth is expected to slow down before the end of the year, and most countries should begin preparing for a recession, according to the World Bank's latest global economic forecast. Will we as a collective catch a break? It'll take a while. Meanwhile, especially in the business world, the name of the game will be "survival of the fittest."
Let us not forget, it has already been over two years since the global economic recession that was sparked by COVID-19, and the world is still feeling its after effects. Pandemic-related disruptions, combined with the war in Ukraine, plus the added concerns over the upcoming recession, has led to rising costs across the board.
The rising costs go beyond that of distribution through global supply chains, as it also extends onto customer acquisition costs for businesses of all sizes worldwide.
Tech has taken it hard
In the case of tech companies, it can get particularly brutal out there. In fact, Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, Meta, and Google have lost more than $2.7 trillion in value this year, due to the recession. Once financial crises hit, it's universally known that internal restructuring takes place within tech companies, in addition to major budget cuts across all departments. They end up operating in a bare bones, safe-mode manner. This oftentimes means focusing on product development, while departments such as marketing and sales end up bearing the brunt of all associated burdens.
This approach might initially make sense, when viewed through the lens of "If you build it, they will come." However, sales budgets are strategically better off being amongst the last to cut, when considering the fact that they drive the main things that matters most in business: growth, revenue, and long-term profitability.
With that in mind, here are four tools that can be used by sales teams, to ensure that lasting impact is made with greater efficiency, in both a recession-proofed, and future-proofed manner.
The top four recommended tools to empower your sales team during a recession
Walnut: B2B sales experience platform
Walnut allows its users, which consists of sales, marketing, customer success, and additional teams, to create scalable and insightful demos with more prospects and less manpower. In addition to the increase in conversion rates, the empowered teams are able to enjoy frictionless sales experiences, which collectively will help the company come out of the crisis stronger than before.
Gong: Revenue intelligence platform for B2B sales teams
In a broad sense, Gong can be considered to be a sales enablement software. However, its core features make it more so a revenue intelligence platform. This is because it shines light into all sales-related conversations, by recording, transcribing, and the analysis of all calls in an effort to further drive sales effectiveness.
Outreach: Sales execution platform
Sales cycles can often seem never ending, and even counterproductive. This is where Outreach comes in. Their platform arms sales teams with the tools needed to unlock faster sales cycles, in addition to anticipated revenue thanks to predictive AI technology. This is best suited for intensely data-driven teams that are looking to turn their data into revenue intelligence.
Clari: Revenue and conversion intelligence platform
Clari is a very visual platform that gathers the data from everything from emails and meetings to outbound marketing and conversations-and uses AI to turn it into actionable insights, greater predictable revenue, and scalability.
Looking ahead
There are some that would argue that the worst is yet to come in terms of the global recession, while others claim we as a collective are already in the midst of "doom times in tech."
Over all, the most accurate statement would be that it is only the most recession-proof companies that will come out of these times on top. Thanks to the power and potential of AI blended with sales and martech solutions, the ability to become recession-proof is more attainable than ever. In most cases, it can even be done codelessly, thereby sparing your team of the time, money, and resources that go into creation and maintenance of such tools.
As stated on TechCrunch, "Data, when leveraged well, can help enterprises both rein in costs and generate more money, making it, over the long term, a recession-proof business sector." As such, there is no time like the present to get on board and make use of solutions that use data as a lever for growth and the sales experience.
* This is a contributed article and this content does not necessarily represent the views of sciencetimes.com