In the past, when someone wanted to buy a product or service, they’d head to a nearby retailer or company, analyze the available (and often limited) options, and make a purchase decision. Over time, technological advancements enabled consumers to access and acquire what they need from thousands of businesses worldwide, 24/7 utilizing internet-capable devices. Such conveniences altered consumer expectations and demands, requiring businesses to implement more effective sales strategies to generate revenue.
Managing the sales cycle is an all-encompassing and daunting task that involves prospecting, contacting, qualifying, and nurturing leads, presenting products and services, overcoming objections, and closing the deal. Ultimately using sales technologies like those listed below can help streamline processes, improve productivity, and jumpstart your 2023 earnings.
Customer Relationship Management Software
Data collection and record keeping are essential for marketing, sales, and customer service teams. However, traditional methods of maintaining multiple files, spreadsheets, and databases are time-consuming. These data collection and record-keeping practices also increase the risk of human error and hinder collaboration efforts. When teams can’t easily analyze, update, and share information, it translates to poor customer service, which reduces your earnings.
Customer Relationship Management Software (CRM) enables teams to collect, update, store, and share client data more efficiently from one platform. It keeps track of contact information, outgoing and incoming communications, documents, in-house notes, and purchases. CRMs save sales teams time, keep sensitive data secure, and enhance the customer experience, which leads to higher revenue.
Engagement Platforms
Sales engagement platforms are systems that optimize the sales process by providing a single application for marketing and sales teams to plan, execute, monitor, and finetune customer interactions. A quality engagement platform will connect to your existing CRM software, collect data, automate tasks, and track results. It enhances the buyer experience, enabling teams to close more deals and boost revenue.
Prospecting Tools
Prospecting is likely one of the most tedious aspects of the sales process. Representatives must identify and contact potential customers by mail, phone, email, text, or social media to develop a rapport and nurture the relationship. As you might imagine, prospecting takes a lot of time and comprehension to execute.
Sales prospecting tools save teams countless hours by simplifying the process. Advanced platform features include proven prospecting workflows, multi-channel communication, benchmarking, activity, goal progress reports, and incentivized strategies to improve lead engagement. Such features enable sales teams to save time, increase prospecting rates, and quickly close deals.
Sales Automation Software
Sales teams complete many repetitive administrative tasks that take time away from their core responsibilities – closing deals. It creates undue pressure for reps to meet quotas and accomplish company goals. As these tasks are essential to prospecting, nurturing, and converting leads to sales, finding a way to streamline monotonous tasks is paramount.
Sales automation software is a lifesaving tool for marketing, sales, and customer service teams. It streamlines mundane tasks, helping team members to save time and refocus their efforts on closing deals. Sales automation platforms can handle processes including lead qualification, quota setting, order management, follow-up reporting, forecasting, analytics, and pipeline management.
Coaching Resources
No matter how great your sales team is, there’s always room for improvement. While keeping up with the latest trends, career development programs, ecourses, and training can help your team members evolve, sales coaching software effectively reinforces the concepts they’ve learned in a real-world setting.
Sales coaching software allows sales teams to learn from their interactions with prospects and customers. It provides feedback during and after calls, tracks outcomes, creates departmental goals, identifies challenges, and offers personalized solutions to help reps improve. As your team improves, it opens the door to opportunities for more revenue.
Which Sales Tools Are Right For Your Team?
While the above sales technologies can help simplify and perfect your company’s sales process, investing in technology isn’t cheap. Not to mention, the more tools and resources you acquire, the more time and effort it will take for your team to manage each accordingly (ultimately defeating the purpose). So, how do you decide which sales technology tools best suit your team?
You could evaluate your sales process, identify areas of concern or hardship, and purchase the sales tool that offers the most effective solution. However, another option (and likely the best option) is to find a product that can handle the above tasks from one platform. For example, Salesloft CRM integrations include engagement, prospecting, automation, productivity, and coaching features on a secure, user-friendly interface. It saves your organization money, while perfecting the sales process to boost revenue.
The past few years have been challenging for many businesses. From the start of the global pandemic in 2020 to skyrocketing inflation and fears of recession, generating sales has been quite the rollercoaster ride. The above sales technology resources will help you start and finish 2023 in the green.