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s sales representatives, particularly in the B2B category, we know that the sales process is anything but simple and filled with many critical steps in order to close a deal. From prospecting and qualifying through to closing, a salesperson is required to wear many hats and perform each and every task with expert skill throughout the “buyer journey”. Performing these tasks poorly can spell failure, while skillfully maneuvering through the sales cycle can expedite success and increase overall win rates.
Today’s buyers are sharper and better informed than ever, and often conduct most of their homework on their own, prior to them even contacting a salesperson. In fact, 60% of buyers connect with sales representatives only during the long after they’ve researched their options and come up with a short list of viable contenders. Casual in person customer meetings and lunches are becoming a thing of the past, as buyers become smarter, busier, and better informed. Smart sales people know that client meetings present a much greater opportunity than ever before, offering a chance to solidify your company and brand in the mind of your buyer, and successfully progress a deal in your favor.
So, what are the critical ingredients to making the most of face-to-face time with prospects and customers? Here’s what our customers have told us, and what we have engineered into the very soul of the Beehivr field sales solution:
1 – Advanced selling tools/technology
Let’s face it, with over 41% of sales reps claiming their smartphone as their #1 sales tool, mobile technology has fully changed the game for field sales professionals. As a leading sales technology provider, we would certainly be remiss if we didn’t hit this requirement front and center – it’s critical. As salespeople rely increasingly on a variety of technologies to do their job (smartphones, Internet/social media, online contact databases, CRM, marketing automation tools, etc.), sales enablement software has exploded on the scene over the last few years to help sellers do their job better, smarter, and more efficiently. Not only do sales enablement solutions provide easy access to necessary sales collateral, pricing, and product information, SE platforms have made huge strides in automating a variety of behind the scenes activities that historically hurt sales productivity.
Whether automating client emails, calculating content usage and views, or automatically updating CRM records, sales enablement content management solutions are truly enabling sellers, with more time spent in front of clients AND better quality meetings. Which in a numbers game like sales can mean the difference between hitting or missing quotas. Enough said.
2- Be knowledgeable, be prepared
As buyers become smarter and more informed before agreeing to meet with a sales person, it only makes sense that sellers arrive to meetings on top of their game to answer questions, offer new insights, and be fully prepared to expect the unexpected. Mobile-ready learning and field sales app encourage on-the-go and just in time training about new products, services or customer needs, and provide remote access to training content, video coaching, and other learning features to help support smarter sales folks, which translates into better, more productive meetings.
3 – Quick, organized access to relevant sales content
Having access to the right sales content during meetings is important for a variety of reasons. Not only does content support productive face-to-face conversations but can prove equally critical in advancing the sales cycle to the next stage – a critical focus of any client meeting. Content quality and engagement are growing increasingly important as well. With so much material available on the internet, the last thing a prospect wants to see during a meeting is standard pdf’s, PowerPoints, websites, and forms.
Today’s sales enablement platforms are designed to modernize your brand with support for informative, interactive content that can be easily created and accessed to boost meeting engagement. Interactive sales content is table stakes for today’s buyers, and successful sellers shouldn’t disappoint. Beehivr professional services creates interactive content for most every one of our clients. Our platform also makes creating interactive content fast and easy on iPad.
4 – Presenting vs. Conversing
As we indicated earlier, clients are smarter and do a lot of homework before they ever meet a sales professional, and appreciate sellers who aim to do the same. Great meetings (from both buyer and seller perspectives) are often the result of great conversations, packed with questions from both parties in attempts to learn as much as they can about business issues, key challenges, and possible solutions.
These meeting conversations can travel in many directions, so sales reps should come prepared with effective content (interactive presentations, demos, and videos), with the ability to quickly shift gears to neatly address client concerns and discussion points. Successful sellers create great meeting experiences by thinking with their brains but being quick on their feet. Your sales enablement technology should follow the same rule during meetings.
5 – Great meeting follow-up
You worked hard to build the relationship, you ran a stellar meeting, you built the start of a solid relationship with key decision makers. So now comes great follow-up to successfully move the opportunity through your pipeline. Today’s field sales platforms can automate a variety of follow-up tasks including tracking key meeting details or sending documents, presentations, price quotes, even surveys to help sellers present a more polished and professional experience.
Some SE apps can be seamlessly integrated with Salesforce.com and other CRM systems so that updating records is easy and more importantly, accurate, for better reporting and forecasting.