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I recently met with Tip Top, one of Australia’s most recognisable brands, to discuss their sales transformation and how the adoption of cloud technology is improving operations.

If I told you that a cloud based sales app was the best thing since sliced bread, would you believe me? I would have been skeptical too, until I sat down with Paul Foster, Sales Director, and Fred Vrazalica, Head of Field Sales and Category, from Tip Top while attending Dreamforce 2017.

Tip Top baked goods have been a staple in homes across the country for the past 50 years and has recently undertaken a revolutionary transformation in its sales department with this app.

The app combined with a new sales process has boosted efficiency by 20%. Most importantly, field sales can now learn from and engage with their customers like never before.

Here are a few of the key lessons that I took from my conversation with the Tip Top team:   

Digitally transforming the sales processes  

It canbe incredibly difficult for a company to transform the mindset of its sales teams to meet the constantly changing needs of the connectected customer. Tip Top’s experience doing this is an interesting insight into how it can improve your results.

Until recently, an outdated sales process meant the majority of time was spent at a desk processing order forms, which significantly affected time spent in front of customers. Tip Top knew it was time to reassess.

They developed a cloud-based app, Daily Dough, which meant their reps were able to have all the information they needed about their customers’ orders in the app ready to go. This meant a speedier and seamless sales experience and helped boosted efficiency by 20%.

Creating a single view of the customer

 

Tip Top’s experience in developing their app and changing their sales process are testament to giving salespeople a single view of the customer.

I asked Paul about their goals in the sales transformation and what they’ve actually achieved in terms of measurable improvements in business outcomes. He said; “We recognised that in a low-margin business that’s ferociously competitive, we needed to do more with less and do it better than our competitors. We delivered an over 20% improvement in sales efficiency, while also improving service and satisfaction for our customers.”

However, from my many conversations with sales professionals over the past year, it’s worrying to hear that many organisations are still operating with disparate CRM systems and siloed data.

For Tip Top, the change was holistic and allowed the team to develop and grow, without affecting customer relationships - by no means an easy feat! Using technology to create this single view is key to any salesperson’s success.

Changing your sales culture takes more than an app

 

Effective training and management is crucial to a successful selling process.

Tip Top approached the process with a change management lens, instead of a simple tech implementation. Fred highlighted that they “invested significant time and effort listening to our sales people and understanding what they and their customers really needed. We identified champions in the field and elevated them within the team for training and coaching when we rolled-out the program. This was crucial to the success as it influenced the level of buy-in for the program.”

According to the Salesforce State of Sales Report, high performing sales teams are 2.5 times more likely than underperformers to utilise effective sales training processes.  When implementing any new technology platforms into your organisation, it’s important not to see it as just an addition to your tech arsenal. It should be part of a wider organisational change.  

As I learned from my chat at Dreamforce, Tip Top did this and invested significantly in understanding user experience, customer journey and the results they were trying to achieve and empowered their sales teams with the tools they needed to meet the new and every changing demands of their customers.

If you're interested in hearing more sales insights, you’re in luck. I’ll be sharing more insights into the new approach to business-to-business (B2B) selling that delivers real results in my session at Salesforce World Tour in Sydney on March 6.