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The Salesforce World Tour Sydney showcased a smorgasbord of technology choices and provided real, tangible insights across a diverse range of topics.
In brief my insights included:
How artificial intelligence (AI) increases productivity
We need to stop focusing on social to the detriment of building real relationships
The realisation that the seller burden is real
Identifying that sales, marketing and service need to align to create an exceptional customer experience
It’s not every day you get the opportunity to be the roving reporter at the largest technology event of the year, the Salesforce World Tour Sydney. But that’s just what I spent last Tuesday doing and the best part, apart from taking my own knowledge about everything strategic and operational to a different level, is having the privilege of bringing you with me.
I walked through the exhibition space and saw 60 partners – businesses that trust the platform and advocate the future-proofing and direction Salesforce is taking for a different world.
And I saw that Salesforce believes in fun! There was a constant buzz and healthy balance of work and pleasure – we packed food for the needy, watched Jessica Mauboy open the day, played games on the floor, and were kept in the moment by Trailblazer and Einstein characters bouncing through the crowds.
Of course, the real highlight was the speakers and brilliant range of topics, which saw people streaming into the breakout rooms all day.
I had the pleasure of interviewing some of those speakers, and the interviews prove again and again that change is here – that, as professional salespeople, we must want to be challenged and we must never stop asking ‘Why? What’s next?’.
Bestselling author and sales leadership expert Tony Hughes spoke about the rise of the ‘silent sales floor’ – he told us that it is killing results. He meant that salespeople are misinterpreting ‘social selling’, and using it as a reason not to pick up the phone and build relationships. I asked him if he thought relying on platforms such as LinkedIn to prospect was a procrastination strategy – he vehemently agreed.
Tony slammed home an extremely valuable point – we need to be clear about our narrative and the reasons we are doing what we are doing, as well as be able to articulate that value.
Did you know that 86% of people will pay more for a better customer experience, leading to the most meaningful outcome of a sales cycle? Greg Gsell, Senior Director, Sales Cloud Product Marketing at Salesforce, discussed this – how to achieve not just ‘lead to cash’ but ‘lead to advocacy’.
It’s about bringing intelligence into the sales process because we can’t rely on gut feel as much as we used to or as some are still doing today. Einstein is already increasing the accuracy of business outcomes by up to 80% through lead scoring, as one example.
Marketing can take the lower scores and nurture while sales can take the higher scores and sell. This is totally relevant, it’s productive and it guarantees the customer experience is better, driving further growth.
It was refreshing to everyone in the room when Matt Kiel, Advisory Leader and Director of CEB, spoke about the seller experience – the responsibility of businesses today to consider their salespeople and revisit some of their processes to make work easier.
Seller burden is real and the demand for more is no longer working – more ideas, more content, more options. Throwing resources at the issue is not fixing it. If we want our sales operations to be more effective, we can’t just look at the spreadsheets and numbers, we must look at best practice.
And best practice shows us that reducing distractions, streamlining workflow, easing resource navigation and focusing on selling support will increase conversion rates by 12% – massive, when you consider that over an organisation.
Being able to take data from CX, voice of customer, net promoter score and other datapoints to change the experience for the seller will not only impact the seller experience, but flow on to impact the customer experience, ultimately generating more business.
Tiffani Bova, Global Customer Growth and Innovation Evangelist for Salesforce, had us rethinking the alignment between different departments in any business – particularly sales, marketing and service – to improve CX. “Who is responsible for CX?” she asked. Everyone!
But for true alignment to happen, we need to look at levels of engagement as well as the metrics driving each division, and herein lies a fundamental roadblock to an exceptional customer experience. How are we capturing customer information, sharing it with each other and acting on it so that we are totally ready for the buyer when they arrive on our doorstep, (or through our email, our phone calls, our online presence). How are we making sure we can welcome them in a truly responsive and relevant manner, armed with all the information necessary for that conversation or interaction.
Analytics, predictive analysis and AI will provide that added intelligence and therefore engagement. Customer satisfaction is no longer enough. Customer experience is the sum of all touchpoints and personal, more relevant customer experience is where value lies now – not just is providing a good product. To do that, we need to review not just process, but people and behavior.
Change is upon us more than ever. Realising this and leveraging resources available to us – externally through technology and data and internally through growth and behaviour – is crucial for our business survival.
Watch all of my interviews with Tony, Greg, Matt and Tiffani at the Salesforce World Tour here.
To find out more about how Salesforce can help your sales team be more productive and collaborate for better CX, while reducing the operational burden, check out our demos.
