Technology has come a long way in recent years and is evolving faster than ever before. We now have tools that can affect all stages of the sales processFrom identifying decision-makers to recommending relevant content. However, while organizations are building their sales teams and pursuing more aggressive sales targets, they are not necessarily scaling their sales processes, best practices, and tools effectively, resulting in a drop in sales productivity across the industry. This is where the sales enablement technology comes into play, which, by nature, empowers and enables sales reps to work more efficiently.
Here we see 7 Indicators of Need for Sales Enablement Technology in your company and the solution provided by these tools.
Your onboarding time for new representatives is longer than expected.
The Onboarding program seeks to accelerate the learning curve without sacrificing the quality of the process. It usually takes about 7 months to recruit a new salesperson and fully prepare them for their role. However, 87% of that training is forgotten in a matter of weeks.
Solution:
With the right tools in place, an organization can decrease ramp-up time by at least 30-40% while increasing productivity and reducing errors. Sales Enablement tools further empower your sales team with just-in-time sales content and guidance, enabling them to learn about complex products and services quickly and with a level of knowledge deep enough to close the sale.
Lack of productivity in the sales team
Sales force productivity has a direct and significant impact on revenue.
Sales productivity is the #1 challenge for 65% of B2B organizations,
The Bridge Group
Solution:
Less than 33% of a rep's time is focused on the direct sales process. Time spent on unproductive, repetitive or impractical tasks is time spent not selling. Any tool that helps automate your processes adds sales time to your reps.
For example, a CRM can streamline sales processes and automate workflows, increasing productivity by 32%.
Sales process not focused on the customer
In today's sales environment, it is not enough to offer good products and prices. Buyers are more informed than ever and expect an individualized buying process and a solution that takes into account their challenges and priorities. It is important to understand your customer and focus the sales process on the relevance and value of your value proposition. Over 40% of sales reps are unable to manage a 1:1 sales process effectively.
Solution:
Offer training programs based on sales methodologies that are more customer-focused and less focused on tactical convincing models. In addition, it is important to measure adherence to your sales methodology through CRM and occasional audits of processes and proposals. Finally, you should have a library of content based on needs by industry, applications, etc. to facilitate the salesperson's management.
Opportunities do not advance
The longer an opportunity is stuck in a pipeline stage, the less likely it is to close. Sales reps must offer relevant and impactful reasoning to move the sales process forward and highlight the impact of not taking action. That is, the cost of NOT BUYING
Solution:
Contar con las herramientas para identificar con prontitud las oportunidades inactivas o estancadas y desarrollar planes de cierre inteligentes. Con el coaching just-in-time, puede asegurar que los representantes tengan la guía que necesitan para agilizar el proceso.
In this case, it also helps to have a library of success stories with the impact your products or services can have on customer success.
A high percentage of opportunities are closed as lost due to lack of decisiveness
Studies reveal that 25 to 50% of planned bids do not result in any decision. The Sales Referral Index shows that 58% of stalled transactions are lost to the status-quo, i.e. it is easier for the customer to do nothing.
Solution:
One of the best ways to overcome the status-quo is to offer value. B2B buyers are looking for suppliers that understand their business objectives and pain points and the effect they can have on their companies.
Sales teams that effectively challenge the status-quo are twice as likely to achieve quota.
Content Marketing is not used
An IDC survey found that 90% of content and marketing resources are never used, and 88% of missed opportunities were due to marketers not being able to find the right internal resources. In addition, sales reps spend up to 30% of their day searching for or creating content to share with their prospects.
Solution:
When 95% of B2B business is content-driven, reps must know what content to use and when. Using real-time data to determine what content is most effective in advancing opportunities has become an essential factor in the sales process. This requires having the right tools in place.
This allows sales reps to deliver the right message at the right time (within the sales process) which contributes to a smoother sales process and a higher close rate.
Visión nublada de lo que funciona y no funciona
CIO Insights studies have found that making decisions without data reduces sales. 40% of respondents indicate that limited data visibility adversely affects sales performance. A data-driven sales strategy helps lower costs, increase productivity, optimize efficiency, and drive revenue.
Solution:
Organizations that make data-driven decisions achieve their quotas 4x faster than those that do not use data analytics for decision-making. A good Sales Enablement program creates predictive analytics to determine specific actions and then replicates best practices throughout the organization. With AI, this will be even easier, autonomous, and powerful.
These insights enable the entire sales team to increase their productivity and help reps understand what factors influence their success, how and when to deliver relevant content, and what specific changes will improve their performance.
