Technology has had an impact beyond just a seller’s ability to connect with their prospects. It has allowed for better tracking and more efficient workflows for sellers. Salespeople can be better organized and more efficient with their limited time.
Sales managers can have a much clearer grasp of what is happening with their sales teams. These tools allow for better coaching and more effective intervention when needed.
Many companies, however, make the mistake of focusing too much on getting the “right” tech stack and often ignore the overarching goals that technology is supposed to enable. For example, sales management tools should help make sales coaching and managing easier. There are a lot of applications and tools that sound exciting but don’t necessarily have a direct impact on activities that determine the bottom line.
There are many overarching goals that sales and marketing technology can help achieve, but in this article we will focus on one of the main engines of sales: conversations. Conversations with a prospect or a client are what move the deal forward.
The tech stack should be a tool that helps sellers have more conversations that are effective at moving a sale forward.
With that in mind, here are three sales areas that technology can impact on improving the rate and effectiveness of a seller’s conversation with their prospects.
Technology For Research
One of the biggest advantages technology provides sellers is access to information. Before the internet was prevalent, sellers had to dial blindly or knock on doors without knowing much about the prospect. Thanks to tools like Linkedin and other social media platforms, sellers can learn about prospects and their companies before ever reaching out to them.
At this point, researching a prospect is standard for any high- performing sales organization. On top of tools like LinkedIn, technologies like ZoomInfo or DiscoverOrg allow sellers to get the most accurate contact information for their prospects.
Companies should be aware of the mistake of thinking that merely providing access to these tools is enough for their sellers to be successful. Sales leaders need to ensure that sellers know the purpose behind these tools. The training also needs to cater to leverage these tools to increase the rate of effective sales conversations.
Technology For Organization
Another way that sales and marketing technology can enable more sales conversations is through its ability to help salespeople stay more organized. People have been using calendars for a long time, but many aspects of sales can be automated. Follow-ups can be scheduled and automated.
CRMs and outreach tools can help sellers by reminding them to reach out to a prospect that’s gone cold. It’s common for prospects to tell sellers to reach out to them at a different time. It is also common for sellers to forget about these follow-ups after a few months. Tech tools can help sellers stay organized and ensure these tasks don’t fall through the cracks. Sales tech that helps sellers stay more organized allows them to have more conversations that close deals.
Technology For Continuous Learning
One of the most underutilized tools in sales is call recordings. Plenty of sales and marketing tools in the market allow sales teams to record their conversations. Companies might record their conversations, but many must leverage them for training and coaching.
Using call recordings is just one example of technology that enables continuous learning. Many learning platforms easily integrate with a company’s existing CRM. This is a great way to add skill development and learning as part of a regular cadence for salespeople. Sales conversations are a skill, and like any other skill, it needs to be practiced. Technology can certainly be leveraged to help sellers continuously learn and hone their conversation skills.
Having better conversations is a goal. Helping sellers gain more prospecting skills is a goal. Buying as much technology as possible is not the end goal of the tech stack. Sales teams should always remember the results they are trying to achieve and use this as the lens to determine if they need additional tech tools. When evaluating which vendors to partner with, sales leaders should consider these end goals.
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