Include Sales in Customer Intelligence
Arussy adds that one thing that can help speed up adoption is embedding all customer-related information into a single application that is easy for sales reps to use.
“We can’t waste our team’s time in going to different places to get the data,” he says. “An alert-based CRM system should feed the information proactively to salespeople on a weekly or daily basis and ensure that they plan their time accordingly. It should also track if the salesperson followed the guidelines or opted to do things less efficiently.”
Such a system can also measure the number of effective contacts per day as opposed to the number of cold calls made per day.
DEFYING AGE
A sales rep’s age might very well play a role in whether barriers to new technology adoption fall or remain standing.
“If you’ve been selling for 15 or 20 years, you have a selling process that you’re comfortable with and that has worked for you. As a result, you are more likely to be resistant to a new methodology,” Bova says. “But if you’re relatively new in sales, you are more open to new technology. If you hear a tool is smarter and faster, you’ll want to explore it.”
For this reason, Bova recommends that companies start new technology programs with younger sales employees who are just starting their careers.
There is also a general sense of fatigue that many sales reps, especially the older, more seasoned ones, experience that can make them reluctant to try new technology or sales approaches.
“We can get very burnt out telling the same story to prospect after prospect,” says Mark J. Ryan, a personal coach and therapist who advises clients in the fields of personal development, success, and small-business product generation. “When burnout happens, there isn’t much energy left to try something new.”
Bova points out that when sales reps are first presented with sales intelligence tools and automation that can make them smarter and more effective, they can often experience what she calls “a sense of fatigue in their psyche.”
In some cases, the objections go even deeper. “We are not talking about replacing people with artificial intelligence and automation. We are talking about enabling them so they can be smarter about how they use their time,” Bova says.
There is also an IT cost associated with sales channel tracking that is based on the number of data sources that need to be unified. “For large companies, it can be a pretty significant investment,” Arussy says.
At the same time, though, there are plenty of low-cost, low-effort ways companies can improve customer channel awareness.
“Use social media to learn more about your customers,” Arussy advises. “Start with LinkedIn to get to know your customers and build up from there.”
Customers today live very public lives; they share everything via Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, he says. “Ignoring their shared information might actually be an insult to them. They expect you to do your homework in this world of extreme transparency.”
Finally, before introducing sales intelligence, consider segmenting your sales reps. “We often break down salespeople into three different categories,” Bova explains. Group C is the least effective salespeople. Group A, which comprises about 14 percent to 17 percent of sellers, consists of the top salespeople, who can be difficult to manage because it is hard to argue with success. Then there is Group B, the mid-level performers who make up 55 percent to 65 percent of the sales force. This middle group is where you want to introduce sales intelligence that indicates the channels from which customers are buying.
“The common wisdom is that if you can move the sales performance of this group by 2 percent to 5 percent, you will experience significant revenue growth,” Bova says.
And that’s not a bad place for any customer journey to wind up.
Mary Shacklett is a freelance writer and president of Transworld Data, a technology analytics, market research, and consulting firm. She can be reached at mshacklett@twdtransworld.com.