In the new sales cycle, where the buyer is in a position of power, the role of a salesperson has undergone a paradigm shift. Salespeople can no longer afford to just focus on selling their products and services. Instead, they are expected to be advisers and guides to buyers, helping them make the right purchase decision. In order to fit into their new role, salespeople today need something much more than the basic sales collateral. What they really need is a whole new range of sales enablement tools fit onto a single platform.
Here’s what the Swiss Army Knife sales enablement software should contain:
360-degree Lead View
Help your salespeople understand what their prospects are looking for, so that they are able to present your products and services effectively. Your sales enablement platform should offer the sales team a syndicated prospect overview across all channels of interaction including websites, landing pages, emails, PPC campaigns, direct mails, etc.
Lead Segmentation
A good lead segmentation module will help your sales team chart out different marketing and sales strategies for each key segment–which in turn makes them more effective. Make it easy for your salespeople to classify their leads into meaningful sectors on the basis of their position in the sales cycle, their industry, their existing IT infrastructure, or whatever other criteria that works for them.
Lead Scoring
Having a lead scoring mechanism in place helps you prioritize your sales efforts. A lead scoring tool will grade your prospects based on multiple pre-defined parameters tied to their attributes and behavior. This will provide you with an accurate score for your leads. It also ensures that you don’t spend your time on leads who are not yet ready to sign a contract with you.
Lead Nurturing
Help your salespeople stay in touch with other leads even as they focus on leads most likely to close. Invest in a sales enablement platform that has strong lead nurturing capabilities. It should also automate follow-ups and lead nurturing efforts so that they continue to happen even while your sales team is busy dealing with active, hot leads.
Personalization
Offer personalization tools that enable your sales teams to engage in high-level personalization that cuts across both print and digital communication channels and helps them build a strong personal relationship with every prospect.
Collateral Creation
Give your salespeople complete control of their sales collateral by investing in a sales collateral creation tool. With a template-based approach to sales collateral creation, this convenient content management system will allow your sales team to make modifications to the final output using a built-in, pre-approved template. As a result, your sales team gains control over the sales materials without having to depend on marketing. At the same time, your corporate branding standards remain undisturbed.
Asset tracking and Analytics
Provide your salespeople with all the insight they need to know how their sales efforts are faring. Investing in a system that offers sales asset tracking and campaign analytics will help your sales team realize what sales pieces work and which ones don’t. Based on this knowledge, they can tweak their sales campaigns and assets for optimum performance.
Mobile Apps
Enable your salespeople to ‘go-mobile’ by offering on-demand access to their leads through any internet-enabled mobile device. It will alert them to key lead behavior such as newsletter sign-ups, appointment requests or whitepaper downloads so they can respond quickly even if they are away from their desk.
Sales Playbooks
Using sales playbooks, give your sales team all the information they need to have and share with prospects when making a sales call. That way neither you nor they have to worry about saying the right thing at the right time. Nor will they have to spend time looking through the sales asset database for the right sales material. One-click access to the sales playbook can make your salespeople more efficient and effective.
CRM Integration
For your sales team, the CRM is an information bank about their leads and existing customers. Hence, make sure that any sales tool they use integrates smoothly with the CRM that is already in place.
Social Media Integration
Social selling is fast catching up. However, building your brand on social media takes consistent effort. Your salespeople will find it challenging to make timely updates across all social media channels when they are busy juggling client meetings. Empower them by offering a social media automation tool so that they can be active on all social media channels, even as they are busy taking care of the more important stuff. Look for a social media automation tool that allows you to post relevant content across all major social media platforms including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, WordPress, Blogger, etc.
What prospects want today is a value-adding partner they can count on to provide the best possible purchase advice and assistance at the right time. And the Swiss Army Tool-kit for sales will help your salesperson make a smooth transition from being just another seller to a sophisticated sales advisor.
Interested in the Mindmatrix Sales Enablement platform? You can visit our website here.
