As covered in our recent series of articles on B2B sales, today’s B2B sales landscape is radically changing. The sales funnel is being replaced by sales pipeline – with full understanding of, and a tracking with, buyer experience. Pitch selling is being replaced by insight selling, in which salespeople listen to and consult with buyers as helpful experts. Sales management is having to reorganize their sales forces to meet the challenge of buyers being 70 percent decided before ever speaking to a salesperson.
One might wonder what kind of technology it will take to support a sales organization in this new environment. It is a very valid question, for without the right CRM application a sales force will not continue to make its sales goals with these new and radical operational changes.
Here are 5 qualities of the CRM applicaton required in the new B2B sales model.
#1: Supporting Buyer Experience
Savvy sales forces, along with their sales managers, are learning that they must fully research and understand the general buyers’ journey within their industries. As the buyer experience becomes known, it becomes the pattern for the sales process—which today must include marketing as well as sales steps.
In turn, the sales process must inform the CRM tool. It has always been important that a CRM tool mirrors the sales process, but with a sales force that must closely adhere to the buyer experience, it now becomes mandatory.
#2: CRM Application Supporting Insight
As the sales cycle progresses, salespeople are gaining valuable insight into the target company, its particular issues, and potential motivations for purchasing your company’s product or service. This insight needs to be saved in such a way that it can be easily referred to when needed, by both salespeople and sales management. Insight data saved in individual rep spreadsheets or notes, or in a CRM software from which it cannot be easily retrieved, will be wasted effort.
A leading-edge CRM application, because it is arranged logically as the sales process, makes it possible for insight information to be saved to the precise step of the sales process to which it applies. Any sales rep or sales manager can then come along and easily find it when needed; a sales cycle is never interrupted or mishandled for a lack of the right information.
#3: Total and Easy Flexibility
If there is one constant within this new B2B environment, it is change. There will always be new information being discovered about the buying experience; and there will constantly be updated data coming in as the sales reps gain new insights into prospects and clients.
At least some of this information will influence the sales process. To keep completely abreast of the times and to not lose pace, the CRM tool should be altered along with the sales process. That can only happen with a CRM application that is flexible enough for this to happen.
#4: Rapid Onboarding of New Reps
It’s tough enough for a seasoned salesperson to completely change his or her approach in the new B2B world; think what it will be like for a new rep coming on board. If a great deal of explanation and walk-through is required, sales management will soon find itself quite overwhelmed.
With a leading-edge CRM application, onboarding is made as rapid as possible. Since CRM is intuitive, sales training on CRM itself can be done in hours, not days or weeks. Then, since all sales data is logically arranged along the sales process, a new rep can easily track with sales and understand how it is being done.
Such a CRM solution also allows for best practices to be placed in CRM at the sales process steps to which they apply. This functionality has a very positive impact on both new and experienced salespeople.
#5: Increase Sales Velocity
As sales management guides sales forces into the new paradigm, there is bound to be some slowing down of sales velocity—movement of sales through the sales pipeline and sales process. The last thing you need is a confusing or unwieldy CRM application that adds to this slowing down.
The right CRM solution, since it is logical, intuitive and closely adhering to the buyer experience and sales insight, can only result in an increase of sales process velocity, especially as sales reps become more expert in the new methods.
It’s a new era in B2B sales. From a sales management standpoint, make sure your efforts to embrace it aren’t hampered or wasted. Support them with the right CRM solution.
This CRM solution meets all of the above qualifications.
