Technology has transformed the world of B2B sales and marketing just as it has nearly every profession. The demand for pinpoint target marketing, invaluable customer data, customized content, multipurpose CRM and intuitive, on-demand sales training has B2B product and service providers investing significant amounts on technology.
InsideSales, makers of an enterprise sales engagement platform, estimates that companies spend $4,581 per rep annually on sales technology. Market analyst firm IDC estimates that worldwide spending on technologies and services that enable digital transformation reached nearly $2 trillion in 2022, a growth rate of 16.7% between 2017 and 2022.
At the same time, multiple surveys indicate that a significant portion of these investments may be wasted because marketing and sales professionals fail to use the tech tools they are supplied with. A recent Gartner survey stated that marketers report utilizing just 42% of the breadth of capabilities available in their martech stack, down from 58% in 2020. (See the story on page 4.) SuperOffice, a European provider of B2B CRM, reports that only 40% of all CRM customers have an organizational adoption rate of over 90%.
Mixmax, a sales engagement platform provider, offers these tips for adoption of the sales tech tools that you provide your team:
- Facilitate the user experience with a straightforward user interface.
- Offer a painless (and short, if possible) implementation
- Meet sales reps when and where they need it (for example, directly in their email inbox).
- Integrate with your existing systems (for example, Salesforce).
- Offer strong and easily accessible support and training material.
- Streamline/combine/automate
A group of marketing and communications professionals assembled by Forbes was asked early this year what tech trends they feel are increasing in importance. Answers included AI that increases understanding of the customer journey; real- time survey tools; lead-tracking and visibility tools; and data, data, data — to help personalize customer communication, reach prospects at the right time, and provide a bounty of broad customer insights that can improve everything from target marketing to customer service.
“B2B sales are on the verge of making a giant leap that will take them beyond all the traditional limits,” states a report from global management consulting firm Kearney. Kearney studied companies whose revenue and sales productivity grew faster than average and discovered they use technology to incorporate emerging practices that can be grouped in three distinct waves:
- Make buying simple and easy
- Maximize customer value
- Redefine customer value
This B2B sales and marketing technology report provides insights on specific ways that technology can be deployed to maximize your team’s efficiency and effectiveness. Technology’s role is broad and ever-changing. A single report will never be sufficient to summarize all that technology can accomplish.
That’s why we will continue to publish technology updates quarterly, and individual articles addressing technology topics are posted weekly at SalesandMarketing.com. Our webinar division, SMM Connect, also offers numerous presentations on technology topics throughout the year. Be sure to check the schedule of webinars and save the dates for those that can help boost your team’s performance.
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