The concept of sales intelligence has a come along way and yet many organizations are still stuck in stealth mode using the same strategies and supporting tools they did a decade ago to interact with customers.
Investigating sales intelligence with a network of contacts at large corporations, many - to my surprise - told me there were more important business priorities. What could be a higher priority – if not the highest priority – to have the right insights at the right time to grow your business every single time you engaged with your customers? We all know customers are king and today, they are more empowered than ever before.
Sales organizations that have shifted to new strategies and technology have the clear advantage. They have the pulse on what buyers want – in some cases - even before they do. They understand that buyers are completely mobile, willing to change at a flip of switch, digitally-connected and savvy to seek advice everywhere before they even interact with a sales rep. They know how to stay ahead and consistently deliver value to the customer in every engagement. They do all of the above with better insights which are actionable.
So, what does better sales intelligence look like for successful sales teams today? Like any good investigator (or in my case marketer), I went directly to the source and spoke with aone of our customers in the high-tech industry. This company was looking to upsell their circuitry solution to their customers but didn’t know how to assess their buyers journey to know that their customers were getting mobile updates when parts were wearing down. They had contact lists and customer data housed in silo systems and realized it was critical to have deep customer insights anytime on any device to easily and quickly prioritize as well as be relevant to customers where they can derive and drive the most value.
This large company had also brought on new sales head who understood that no contemporary buyer wants to buy from a sales rep that lacks knowledge about their business let alone know what really matters to them. Leveraging automated “pushed” sales intelligence like newsfeeds and trigger events – real-time changes in social, economic or business climates of your customers - became the game-changer for impressing and keeping their customers engaged. Being relevant keeps them top of mind with their customers.
Finally, they talked about their challenge on lack of visibility into sales performance and revenue goals and realized that predictive insights matter. They looked at their top performing sales reps and teams and came to conclusion that all “A” sales reps are differentiated because they can make the most of real-time competitive intelligence, forecast pipeline accurately and collaborate more effectively with internal and external constituents.
Sales strategies and technology do evolve and harnessing new winning sales intelligence formula – that’s both repeatable and achievable – will help your team outpace the competition and grow customer love.
Read more on how to make the most of real-time sales intelligence with latest research report by Aberdeen Group.
