How to Avoid Sales Tool Sensory Overload
This trend is readily apparent in the banking industry, according to Gonçalves. Financial services firms, he says, have been “under pressure from all sorts of angles—from the regulatory angle, [and] from newcomers coming in from other industries.” Bank managers, he notes, “are relationship managers that are responsible for cross-selling to and extending relationships with each of the clients. Of course, there already is a migration to digital channels, to Internet banking and so on, but there is still an important space for the advisory element for bank managers.”
For instance, a customer who is about to make a big purchase that requires financing will usually want to better understand the level of credit he can expect given his unique profile. Sales reps shouldn’t have to stop and look at a complicated or cumbersome screen, or multiple screens, to have that dialogue. “The interface needs to be quite simple and really [highlight] the points that can be relevant for that particular moment,” Gonçalves says.
FACILITATING THE CONVERSATION
It’s no secret that customers today tend to interact with sales representatives far less than they did in the past. Typically, a savvy buyer will have researched a product or service or become well aware of it and competing options long before ever speaking to a rep. When a salesperson talks to a prospect or customer, the pressure is on to deliver new information that is of value and gives potential buyers a reason to stay interested.
But while it’s certainly true that consumer technology has evolved to the point where sales reps can more easily search for and find the content they want to share, it’s not always easy to determine what will be most effective in moving a customer through the funnel, software vendors have noted. Finding the exact content that is best suited to each customer at the particular point when a rep meets him has been so frustrating that many sales reps have taken to creating their own content. In fact, Aberdeen Research data reveals that reps spend an average of 440 hours per year searching for the right content to use during customer conversations. And CSO Insights found that 55 percent of the content used by sales is also created by the department, rather than by marketing. An unfortunate result is that a given rep’s message might conflict with the message other team members are delivering to customers.
A number of technologies have been developed to address this conundrum by giving salespeople access to collateral that will help them communicate in captivating ways. Some of the leading sales enablement vendors, for example, offer tools whose primary aim is to surface the right content to salespeople to enable them to create more memorable and worthwhile interactions.
Most importantly, the leading platforms are also using advanced technologies, such as artificial intelligence and machine learning, to help salespeople make the right decisions in the moments when they need guidance.
GETTING A CLEAR-EYED LOOK AT CONTENT
To succeed, it also helps if salespeople have a better idea of how the content they’re using is performing. Many vendors are stepping up their offerings with this in mind. ClearSlide, for example, now offers a sales platform that can show exactly how long customers spend engaging with the materials reps send them, and in which channels. If someone opens an email that includes a coded link to a slide deck or a white paper, the system can track and monitor how long she spent looking at it and which portions of it caused her to linger, so sales reps can get a better idea of how to follow up. Perhaps there was a point in a video where prospects disengaged by shutting it off, for instance. Armed with that information, sales reps can go back to the drawing board and improve that part of the video. And, with such a system, reps can get a better read on which customers are likely to churn so they can focus on winning them back. They can also gain a better understanding of the deals most likely to close.