an insider's guide_to_top_sales_software
Post on 19-Aug-2015
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While multiple factors contribute to a company’s ability to
successfully achieve their revenue goals – such as the right product,
market demand, a sound strategy – the key ingredient to sales
growth is the sales organization itself.
A survey by the Sales Executive Council of over 5,000 business
customers on customer loyalty drivers shared the following results -
19% for Company and Brand Impact, 19% for Product and Service
Delivery, 9% for value to price ratio and a whopping 53% for the
sales experience. This means that a company's productivity, and
ultimately, its profitability depends on its salespeople.
You could argue that every organization wants its salespeople to be
successful - that is, close more sales. Yet ask many salespeople and
they will tell you that their organization often makes it difficult for
them meet their quotas by requiring them to spend crucial time on
administrative tasks, complicated CRM systems or not providing
them with the right tools for success.
With all of today’s technology, sales teams can get bogged down
with the vast amount of information and tools they need to use to
do their jobs. Ironically, often sales tools put in place to increase
efficiency, actually hinder it.
It’s critical for organizations to implement the
right technology to streamline complicated
processes, simplify tasks, and support the sales
team so that they can focus on what is most
important – closing deals.
How does an organization go about finding the
right solutions and sales tools to support their
salespeople?
In this eBook we will cover:
The top 5 challenges that sales
organizations are facing
The new realities that are prompting
successful sales leaders to adapt to
customer and market forces while playing
by the new rules of engagement
A guide for choosing the right tools and
technology to accelerate sales performance
Why winning sales teams are using
performance support
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The pressure to stay competitive in a world where every deal matters, and
where the pace seemingly speeds up by the hour, is forcing companies to
take a hard look at how they view, mobilize, and enable their sales teams.
To survive and succeed, sales leaders need to rethink the game and refine
their performance strategies. Just wanting to have higher performance is
not enough. They need to dig deep and inspect the inner workings of
their sales organization and determine which levers will truly improve
sales effectiveness.
36-47% OF SALES REPRESENTATIVES ARE STILL FAILING
TO REACH THEIR ANNUAL SALES QUOTA NUMBERS*
*According to Accenture's 2012 Sales Performance Optimization Study
Sales people have the world at their fingertips, with anytime, anywhere
access to information thanks to innovations in processes, CRM systems,
big data/sales analytics and ever-advancing technologies. However, with
increased power there are also higher expectations for better and better
results. Add the fact that the approaches to selling and sales training that
worked in the past are no longer as effective in getting the job done and
the challenge is further magnified.
Difficulty sustaining and enabling consistent
revenue growth
The return on investment in traditional sales
portals, sales methodologies, training and
CRM doesn't go as far as it once did
Sales agents suffer from “information
overload” and need a support system that
can help them to deliver the right
information at the critical time and place to
move a sales opportunity forward
Many sales performance initiatives are
plagued with false expectations and are
missing a holistic approach that addresses
people, process, technology and knowledge
Retaining customers and building long-term
customer loyalty
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If you are leading a sales organization today, then you know that it is far
from easy. In the blink of an eye, new competitors emerge, products similar
to yours are released, and before you know it, your sales goals are hanging
in the balance. To remain on top, you hire the best sales team and teach
them everything you know about selling. And that's not all - you also invest
in the best training tools, CRM, and technology guaranteed to improve your
organization's sales performance.
Despite all this – or in spite of it – your salespeople are still finding it difficult
to meet their sales quotas; what they learned in training is forgotten shortly
after, locating the information they need in the CRM takes too much time,
and they are ironically overwhelmed by the complexity of technology that is
supposed to make their jobs easier.
So now what? Let's take a look at the new rules of engagement:
Focus on creating value, not selling tactics
Focus on online application guidance, not sales training
Focus on simplifying complex processes
Focus on sustainable change management
3
Customers are more demanding and aware of the competitive landscape.
Broad, tactical sales pitches are no longer attractive or effective in closing
deals. The key to sales success is creating valuable conversations that
help customers advance through their sales process with as little friction
as possible. Sales enablement is about ensuring your salespeople have
the right knowledge, at the right time, in the right place, tailored to the
needs of the customer.
Until recently, most performance management approaches consisted
primarily of classroom training programs and eLearning. With both
approaches, valuable time is spent NOT selling. To add insult to injury,
research has shown 80–90% of learning is lost one month after training.
Modern real-time sales enablement tools support the user within the
work environment so that employees do not have to stop for training
every time something is new or changed or forgotten.
Increasing organizational complexity, information overload and a 24/7
work environment are contributing factors that overwhelm employees,
undermining productivity and contributing to low employee
engagement. Recognizing that changes are imminent, organizations are
looking for ways to simplify complex or inefficient work practices and
systems so that employees can focus on getting the job done, instead of
sifting through the details to find what they need. Read more on how to
simplify the way we work here.
Savvy sales leaders realize that what happens after change is just as
important as the change itself. A great deal of effort goes into planning
and facilitating organizational change, but the problem is thinking that
it's all over once the application has been deployed and training is
delivered. Change and adaption is an ongoing process. Companies that
pair their change management process with sales enablement can feel
confident that their workforce will continue to perform at the level they
expect in order to achieve their business goals.
Create value, not selling tactics Simplify complex processes
Online application guidance, not sales training Sustainable change management
4
With companies spending billions of dollars each year
on enterprise applications, it is critical that these huge
investments generate the desired ROI and facilitate
the business results they were purchased to deliver.
Over the past two decades, companies have invested
in traditional sales performance systems such as sales
portals, training tools and knowledge management
systems to support sales enablement. They have also
invested in CRM systems to document buyer
engagements, gain pipeline visibility, and provide
better customer service. More recently, they have
invested in sales automation services to build
awareness, score leads, and drive higher quality
engagements.
However, these solutions simply do not meet the
requirements of today’s sales environment. Sales
productivity is suffering as reps waste valuable time
searching for information.
1 The platform needs to accommodate and support a user who is constantly "on",
has little time to spare, and typically needs things in the moment
2 Be able to support (not get in the way of) existing sales processes, CRM system
and/or business applications
3 Give access to the exact information or tools sales agents need in the very moment
they need it, anticipating sales needs based on where they are in the sales process
4 The ability to drive the sales process forward
5 Increase the overall quality of the sale, i.e., reduce errors, faster deal times,
improved customer service
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Almost 72% of employees said
they can't find the information
they need within their company’s
information systems.
Sales reps waste 10-20 hours per
week on unproductive tasks
related to information retrieval.
In a 1,000-person company this
leads to $50M in lost revenue
opportunities and a waste of more
than $5 million in annual salary
costs.
Time spent searching for
information averages 8.8 hours per
week, at a cost of $14,209
per knowledge worker per year.
Source: SAVO 2012 Sales Enablement Benchmark Survey Source: IDC Source: IDC and McKinsey
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Performance support is a new generation of sales enablement tools which was
designed for performance. These systems create a quick and lean solution to
address day-to-day performance challenges.
Like a GPS helps drivers get from point A to point B, performance support
helps your employees navigate enterprise applications while providing support
in real time. And similar to a GPS system where the driver doesn’t need to know
where every street and turn is, the sales person doesn’t need to know the
details for every process - the system does it for him/her.
Here’s how it works
Guides users through each step of an application (within
the application) to successfully complete online tasks –
like a GPS for business applications.
Understands user behavior and performs the actions/
steps for the user by moving/clicking the mouse,
stopping only for the user to enter variable information.
Sees the information on the screen, identifies errors in
real-time based on pre-defined rules, guides the user
through the correct task completion.
Applies business rules and logic according to the
situation in which the user is engaged.
Understand business rules to build sales processes that
work for each organization
Verifies that user input is in accordance with corporate
policies and/or regulations.
Some solutions, such as Leo, do not require any
integration or programming skills to deploy and can be
implemented faster (not by an IT user but by a business
user)
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Prevent costly errors
Even your "A" team is going to make errors. After all, we are only human. Unfortunately, these
errors can sometimes come at a high price, especially if you consistently notice similar errors by
multiple users. Performance support systems identify errors in real-time, based on pre-defined
rules. It alerts the user and then guides them through the correct task completion, preventing
costly errors. Simple mistakes can harm a relationship with a customer and even cause them to
leave. Fewer errors translate to happier customers and happier sales teams.
Accelerate productivity
Performance support offers context relevant support. This means that it applies business rules and
logic according to the situation in which the sales agent is engaged and then provides them with
the relevant information at the moment of need, thus reducing deal time. Getting information to
the customer faster, means the deal time is shortened along with an increased likelihood of a
successful closing.
Increase revenue (up sell/cross sell)
Performance support provides sales agents with next-best-action sales recommendations. It
identifies sales opportunities by analyzing the customer profile and eligibility for possible
promotions or sales campaigns while the call takes place. This helps find the high quality deals
faster, shorten deal time, and allows the sales team to focus on high value leads first.
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Simplify complex systems
Needless complexity can cause the best sales team to perform below their potential. Performance
support guides users through each step of the business process (within the application) towards its
successful completion. Think of it like a GPS for business applications, as long as you know the
destination it will get you there. This provides your sales team with both the peace of mind and
confidence they need to focus on the customer and follow through with the task at hand.
Focus on the customer
Performance support allows your sales agents to concentrate on the conversation with the
customer. Task automation performs the actions/steps for the user when they don't know what to
do. This not only helps seal the deal faster, but also the customer is thrilled not to have to repeat
their information over and over again.
Focus on the customer. Again.
Getting customers is hard. Keeping them should be easier. A successful company typically sees 80
percent of its business come from 20 percent of its customers. Add to this the fact that the cost of
attracting new customers is significantly higher than that of maintaining a relationship with existing
ones, and you have a powerful incentive to keep that core group of customers happy. Performance
support helps build and maintain customer loyalty by providing the scenario for easier
communications, great customer service and the attention for detail that will keep customers
coming back for more.
Sales organizations are endlessly challenged to perform better,
make more deals, keep their customers happier, and work
smarter. Thousands if not millions of dollars are spent each
year on enterprise applications that pledge to improve
productivity, efficiency and process quality, towards positively
affecting the business bottom line. Therefore, it is vital that
these huge investments generate the desired ROI and facilitate
the business results they were purchased to deliver. Continual
change, industry compliance and the requirement to increase
revenue compounds the challenge.
Performance support is a new breed of best-in-class sales
enablement tools which applies the right support at the right
time across the end-to-end business process. The result is a
supercharged sales team that performs better, feels that they
are well supported, has the potential to sell more and retain
more customers, and is generally happier and, most
importantly, lays the groundwork for a healthier bottom line.
HELP THEM SELL MORE
The best sales managers seek to inspire their team to
success and ensure they are supplied with the tools they
need to do their job. When selecting the right sales
performance tools, keep in mind these 3 E’s:
Efficiency
Your most valuable asset is your sales organization and
their most valuable resource is their time. Any time spent
searching for information is time that is not used to engage
with customers and close deals.
Effectiveness
At the end of the day, all sales organizations are measured
in the simplest of terms – "Did we meet our numbers?" The
answer to this question boils down to sales effectiveness
and will ultimately play the biggest role in deciding whether
a sales organization is successful.
Engagement
The way in which sales professionals interact and engage
will help shape the way a prospect or customer thinks about
an organization – and whether they choose to do business
with them.
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At Kryon Systems, we take a 360o approach to performance
support insofar that we don’t view performance support simply
as the deployment of a software application, but rather as the
implementation of an enterprise performance methodology
focused on facilitating the achievement of business results.
Our flagship product, Leo, provides performance support to
enterprises through online application guidance and/or process
automation on any business application. The purpose of
deploying Leo is to facilitate the successful completion of tasks
in the most efficient and accurate manner possible.
For more information, please visit www.kryonsystems.com or
visit our LinkedIn page or blog.
With performance support solutions in place, you can feel
confident that your sales people are able to successfully
perform their job in the timeliest, most efficient, and most
accurate manner possible.
Learn More >
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