Sales consultant and author Jill Konrath spoke with Jonathan London, co-author of “Using Technology to Sell: Tactics to Ratchet Up Results” (Apress, 2012) about what steps to take now to get maximum impact from technology. Her Q&A appeared on SalesGravy.com.
Konrath: What are the biggest mistakes you see sales organizations make relevant to technology?
London: The biggest mistakes are the siloing of technology. What I mean is that most companies only choose one technology, like CRM and don’t choose the most appropriate technology at each stage of the sales process. And in most cases whatever they choose is underused. The other big mistake is mistaking that technology is the answer vs. people, the process, skills and technology in combination.
Konrath: In your book you share several key things sales organizations / individuals should do to avoid these mistakes. What are they?
London: I think a salesperson or sales organization needs to take a holistic approach to the sales process and enable the sales organization in every phase. By enable I mean give them the skills, knowledge, technology at every stage of the sales process so they are most competitive and successful. I also believe salespeople need to be given more autonomy to do what they need since technology now allows them to do things they couldn’t do on their own.
Konrath: Aside from a CRM system, what are three “must haves” that not nearly enough salespeople are using?
London: I would say the three must haves are:
1. A strong foundation in how to use social media and online data. These are relevant throughout a selling process
2. Choosing a strong collaboration tool that integrates audio/video/web and that can also be used throughout the selling process
3. Mobility so that a salesperson can be a road warrior and do everything anywhere
Konrath: What’s the coolest technology you saw when writing your book?
London: The coolest category (vs. single product) was anything that enabled a salesperson to use, capture, create or present compelling visual media. So much is available for free or a very low cost. To name a few Camtasia, Vidyo, Bloomfire, Videoscribe, Xtranormal, Zinioreader are all interesting technologies. It is a shame salespeople and organizations are not using these more.
This subject is really about empowerment for the individual salesperson or sales organization. So much can be done now because of technology and people need to start taking advantage of it.
