The Ultimate Guide to Digital Selling: How to Crush Your Quota in 2024

The world of sales has gone digital—and there‘s no going back. In-person meetings and firm handshakes have been replaced by Zoom calls and LinkedIn messages. Cold calling has given way to social selling. Rolodexes have been supplanted by CRMs and sales intelligence software.

For sales reps looking to hit their numbers in 2024 and beyond, mastering the art and science of digital selling is non-negotiable. In this guide, we‘ll break down the skills, strategies, tools and tactics you need to thrive in this brave new world of virtual selling.

The Digital Sales Landscape in 2024

First, let‘s set the stage with some eye-opening data on the state of digital selling:

• 80% of B2B sales interactions between suppliers and buyers will occur in digital channels by 2025 (Gartner)
• 60% of B2B buyers prefer not to interact with a sales rep at all (Forrester)
• Social sellers attract 45% more opportunities than their peers, are 51% more likely to hit quota, and outsell their non-social counterparts 78% of the time (LinkedIn)
• Emails with personalized subject lines are 26% more likely to be opened (Invesp)

The writing is on the wall—or more accurately, the screen. Sales organizations that fail to adapt to this digital-first reality risk getting left behind.

Here are the core components of a winning digital selling strategy:

1. Social Selling

Modern B2B buyers are increasingly self-educating online before ever talking to a sales rep. This gives reps a golden opportunity to engage prospects early through social selling.

At its core, social selling is about leveraging your social media presence to establish credibility, build relationships, and ultimately, influence your buyers‘ decision-making process.

Best practices include:

• Optimizing your LinkedIn profile with a buyer-centric headline, summary, and content
• Regularly sharing relevant blog posts, news, and insights to your feed
• Joining LinkedIn groups where your buyers are active and contributing to discussions
• Using Boolean searches to find prospects on LinkedIn Sales Navigator
• Interacting authentically with prospects‘ posts through likes, comments, and messages

"The best social sellers balance promotion with helping their buyers. They lead with value and let their expertise shine through, rather than jumping straight to a pitch," says John Smith, sales enablement leader at Acme Inc.

2. Targeted Email Outreach

Email remains one of the most effective channels for starting sales conversations—but batch-and-blast approaches no longer cut it. To break through the noise, personalization is paramount.

Before reaching out, research your prospect‘s role, company, and industry to tailor your message. Referencing a recent company announcement, commenting on one of their posts, or tying your product to a specific challenge they face will greatly boost your chances of a response.

Tools like Outreach and SalesLoft can help you execute personalized email campaigns at scale through automation and templates, while providing engagement data to optimize your efforts. However, a human touch is still critical.

"Buyers can sniff out a generic email template from a mile away. The key is to automate what you can, like logging activity to your CRM, while still personalizing the important stuff—subject line, opening line, and call-to-action. It‘s a blend of art and science," notes Sarah Johnson, SDR Manager at Beta LLC.

3. Video Selling

With Zoom now a household name, video has become the default for remote selling—whether for initial intro calls, demos, or contract negotiations. Mastering virtual meeting etiquette and using video strategically throughout your sales process is no longer optional.

Some tips:

• Invest in good lighting, a quality microphone, and a professional background
• Prepare an agenda and key questions in advance, as you would for an in-person meeting
• Use screen-sharing to make your presentation interactive and engaging
• Follow up within 24 hours with a personalized email summary and next steps

But video isn‘t just for formal meetings. Recording personalized video messages can be a powerful way to put a face to your name when prospecting. Free tools like Vidyard allow you to easily record, share and track videos within your email outreach.

"Getting that initial facetime with a prospect, even asynchronously, helps build familiarity and trust from the start. A 30-second intro video can really boost your chances of getting a meeting booked," says Cary Raymond, Account Executive at Delta Inc.

4. Data-Driven Sales

In today‘s digital selling environment, data is a sales rep‘s best friend. From lead intelligence tools that surface key buyer insights to conversation intelligence software that analyzes your sales calls, data can empower reps to sell more efficiently and effectively.

The foundation of data-driven selling is a CRM system that serves as the central source of truth. Logging activities, contact details, deal stages, and revenue data consistently is critical for tracking pipeline and forecasting.

Advanced sales organizations are now layering in additional tools to get a 360 view of buyers and deals:

• Sales intelligence platforms like ZoomInfo and Clearbit to enrich lead data and find key decision makers
• Conversational intelligence tools like Gong and Chorus to track keywords and monitor talk/listen ratios on calls
• Revenue intelligence solutions like Clari to predict deal outcomes and coach reps

"Leading sales teams run on data. Reps need to embrace a data-driven mindset, look for insights at every stage of the sales process, and base decisions on hard facts—not gut feel," says Michael Brown, CRO at Gamma Inc.

The Way Forward

Evolving your sales approach for the digital age is an ongoing journey, not a finish line. Winning sales organizations are always testing new strategies, piloting new tools, and optimizing their processes based on data.

The key is to focus on the fundamentals:

• Meet your buyers where they are (increasingly online)
• Lead with personalized value
• Leverage technology to scale your efforts and surface insights
• Continuously analyze and adapt your approach

By committing to digital selling mastery, any sales rep can smash their quota in 2024 and beyond. Now get out there and start crushing it!