We already invested time talking about how smarter sales content analytics impact and improve your business in our article “Sales Enablement in the Digital Age.” While we certainly see how analytics play a huge role in driving businesses forward, the digital age of sales management allows us to do much more.
It’s true that evolving technologies change the way that we do business by harnessing insights to improve our overall strategy – but they’re also changing the way that we develop more enriching customer relationships.
Every salesperson knows that engagement = opportunity. Lucky for us, modern sales enablement technology is all about fostering deeper customer engagements with the precise audiences you want to reach. Read on to see exactly what we mean.
Technology as a Springboard
The Digital Age has provided sales teams with boundless technologies that can help enhance our communication with the people who matter most. Still, it’s important to remember that technology is a launch point to fostering deeper relationships with buyers and improving sales performance.
We see it all the time: Without strong process, focus, and intention, the benefits of a modern sales enablement technology are inherently limited. The good news is, you can brush up on Sales Enablement Best Practices that are built upon this foundation.
When it comes down to it, sales enablement improves performance by helping reps have consistently effective engagements with prospects and customers throughout the buyer’s journey. And oftentimes, this does mean beginning with new technologies.
Options, Options, Options
For maximum success, any sales content strategy and its execution must be precise, data-driven, and in the format most useful to its target audience. Salespeople simply can’t afford to waste time digging for content, experiencing presentation disconnects, dropped calls, or not tracking their conversations. Luckily, they don’t have to.
Reps are using a combination of media formats and engagement options to hone in on each of these and maximize every customer touchpoint throughout the sales cycle – and sales enablement is at the heart of making that happen. After all, the end goal of a modern sales enablement tool is to allow companies to engage more effectively with their customers to close more deals… And this begins with having the visibility and insight that lets you optimize content for exactly when and where your customer needs it. Here are a few tools that can help:
• Content Management for Sales: An effective content management platform will use a modern search and browse experience to bring your content into the Digital Age. No more prolonged content searches; a modern platform should prioritize and organize the content you and your colleagues need at any given moment.
• Sales Playbook: A playbook presents carefully targeted content for each opportunity that a seller is working on. This tool can highlight the items that a seller is most likely to need, with insights on how effectively a piece of content has performed in previous deals. Plus, this type of content can appear as part of the opportunity inside your CRM, so you can spend more time selling and less time digging.
• Pitching Capabilities: Pitching is the lifeblood of any sales organization. And knowing what pitching strategies work and don’t work is even more important. This type of tool allows you to track engagement during a presentation and alerts you the moment a prospect clicks through to look at any piece of content, giving you the insider scoop as to what your customer might want to learn more on – and what information to skip next time.
• Engagement Analytics: You should be tracking your prospect’s engagement with your content at every stage of the sales cycle. Learn what matters most to them, and what is of little value to them. Measure the impact on conversion rates so that you can continually improve all the time, every time.
Bringing It All Together
It’s easy to get overloaded with the incredible number of new platforms that allow us to pitch, share, and customize content with our customers. In cases like this simplicity is oftentimes the most obvious, and best, option.
The best sales enablement tools and technology will consolidate all of the platforms you use into one simplified stage. Looking for leads in your Salesforce portal? You got it. Want to share a piece of content from your Google Drive? You’ll find it in your feed, organized and prioritized to your liking.
By allowing reps to find, customize, and share sales content from one easy-to-use interface, deeper customer connections can be established. And as these connections become stronger, so does your sales strategy.
Now it’s easier than ever to spend more time cultivating deeper customer engagements, so you can deliver more value for your customers.
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