The tech industry benefited from this and saw growth and profit through the difficult period, while many other industries struggled to stay afloat.
However, the industry is now experiencing a plateau following the spike, and 2021 and 2022 are proving to be slower years for technology.
This is due to a number of factors, including but not limited to:
- Global inflation and general costs rising
- Supply chain and stock issues
- Sourcing and retaining skilled workers
For businesses of all sizes, there will be peaks and troughs. While continuous growth is ideal, sometimes it is important to focus on reinforcing and strengthening current opportunities, relationships, or markets.
In this blog, we are going to discuss how to protect the growth you’ve achieved over the last couple of years.
Plus, how to prepare your business for a slower patch in terms of profitability and growth wise.
2. Invest in key growth markets, to maintain and bolster your progress
While frugality is important during challenging periods, you must balance this with a reasonable investment.
Well-resourced businesses and teams are essential to withstand your market conditions and continue delivering outstanding service to your customers.
A way to achieve this with long-lasting impact is an investment in your people, and your business and sales operations.
While you don’t necessarily need a physical presence in territory to succeed, in difficult market conditions recruiting local salespeople pays off.
With a local salesperson you can:
- Continue to grow your network and relationships.
- Strengthen your brand recognition and build your reputation, helping to improve customer loyalty.
- Tackle problems quickly and more effectively to retain clients.
Leaders in the technology industry note that a key challenge for businesses in 2022 is employee retention.
Losing good employees can impose huge delays and setbacks on a business, especially smaller, or start-up companies.
To protect your future success you must provide your employees with the tools they need to thrive. Whether they are remote, hybrid, or field sales.
This includes additional training, upskilling your staff, and investing in CRM systems, data, and tech stacks.
The rate of digitalization is catching many companies out and leaving employees feeling left behind or out of date. Show your team you are prepared to get them up to speed and proficient in relevant skills.
It will benefit your business and empower your workforce, keeping them above the skills gap. Also, you’ll improve employee satisfaction, trust, and loyalty.
Equipping your team with the right knowledge and skills will reinforce your position in your new market, protect your progress, and even grow it further.
Build your sales team around desirable skills
While being digitally savvy is important in the technology industry, it doesn’t end there.
If you have taken your business abroad and need to build or invest in your team, it pays to have an individual who can speak the local language.
Being multilingual in the technology sector is increasingly important. For businesses with a presence in a foreign country, a native speaker in the business means:
- A personable way to grow networks and build strong local relationships
- Increased brand recognition with local prospects
- Excellent customer service, sales and technical support in the native language
- Awareness of local laws and regulations
- Greater cultural awareness to connect with customers in a meaningful way
Entering and getting a foothold in a foreign market is one challenge, however, maintaining your market share is another.
Hiring someone local, or who can speak the native language will help you continue to conduct business and retain your clients in these areas.
Also, you can conduct meaningful market analysis, position your business in the best way, and tap into the right networks. Furthermore, you will never be prevented from achieving stable business growth due to your lack of language skills.
Nurture your company culture and employees
Another challenge for the technology industry in 2022 that ties into recruitment and retention is building a great company culture.
Many companies have continued working from home or working on a hybrid model, which has made it difficult to keep employees engaged.
It’s easy to feel detached from a company when you aren’t physically in the office. Resulting in staff members not feeling a part of company goals, professional relationships, and a thriving work environment.
Spend time on team building and personal development to keep employees on track and invested in their work and the company journey.
Make it your priority in the second half of 2022 to nurture your company culture. As well as making the day-to-day enjoyable for your team, a strong company culture will help avoid employee burnout and ensure remote or hybrid workers are properly managed.
Also create a focus on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) and share with your employees why it is important, and what you plan to do to ensure your workplace is fair, diverse, and welcoming.
While many companies report greater creativity, innovation, and higher revenues with a diverse workforce, highly inclusive companies are also more likely to hit their financial target goals by up to 120%.
Get your company culture right, support your employees, and you’ll have a better chance of protecting your business growth and maintaining your position in key markets.
Equip your business with highly skilled employees, a great company culture, and sales tools to maintain market dominance
In 2022 as the market slows, we recommend you bring your focus back to the foundational aspects of your business, which above all, is your people.
Build a reliable team who can develop the relationships and accounts you’ve already won. When your salespeople are talented, driven, and invested in your business, you may even find you can achieve business growth in the later half of 2022 as well.
This is particularly true of new markets abroad where you do not speak the local language. A native-speaking salesperson is invaluable to your success and client retention.
If recruiting an entire team or additional staff members in international markets is out of reach for you, outsourcing could be an ideal solution. In a matter of weeks, you can have your team assembled and working on your lead generation and b2b sales outreach.
As well as rapid team assembly with people who have precisely the right skills to achieve your business goals, you gain access to a sophisticated tech stack. We have invested in the comprehensive tools you need to measure, track, and analyse your sales activity, so you don’t have to.
Furthermore, choosing an outsourced sales model to help carry you through, and even achieve business growth in a challenging period, means you have a team of sales experts in your corner.
We act as a partner, not simply a vendor. So, we’ll offer you guidance and recommendations based on what you want to achieve, and what the current market conditions and data suggests.
To learn more about the options available with an outsourced sales agency, get in touch.