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As the new year approaches, we may laugh about the “new year, new me” mantra of our personal lives, but as customer expectations evolve at the speed of technology, it’s important to create business resolutions that set sales teams up for success. Sales teams are no longer the gatekeeper of product information, as technology makes it possible for customers to learn everything they need before they ever speak to a representative. This shift puts new pressure on sales teams. They’re not just facilitating a transaction — they are creating a customer experience.
So, what do sales teams need to focus on in 2017 to provide an excellent customer experience and lead in their markets? Here are six New Year’s resolutions for your sales team, based on insights gathered from Salesforce Research’s “Second Annual State of Sales” report:
Many understand the importance of the customer experience, but without a method of measurement this will become too intangible to achieve. While customer experience is the top KPI type used by sales organizations to measure success, it’s also difficult to track. For those who didn’t list customer experience or success as one of their top three types of KPIs used to measure success, “not easy to track” was the top reason.
It’s important to arm your teams with the right tools to effectively track this metric. For example, high performers are 2.4x more likely than underperformers to rate their team’s analytics and insights capabilities as outstanding or very good. Click to Tweet.
This year it’s time to get serious about true cross-company collaboration. When your sales team can leverage marketing and service data, they can better understand their customers and tailor the sales process to their unique needs. Seventy-three percent of sales teams say collaborating across departments is absolutely critical or very important to their overall sales process. Click to Tweet.
Collaborative selling in 2017 should extend to your partners. Why? The extended reach of partners provides even richer information about your customers. Alignment with your partners can that facilitates a truly unique and holistic sales experience. Imagine an airline partnership with a hotel chain, or a hotel chain partnership with a ride service. Top teams are already focusing on their partner ecosystems: 76% of high-performing sales teams rate their partner and customer/prospect collaboration capabilities as outstanding or very good. Click to Tweet.
Personalization differentiates an “okay” customer experience from a truly delightful customer experience. While communication channels that allow for deeper personal interactions — like in-person or phone-based conversations — are still the most important channels for sales teams, it’s important for businesses to be able to scale personalization. Self-service options allow customers to engage on their terms while freeing reps to have more in-depth conversations when needed. High-performing sales teams are 2.7x more likely than underperforming teams to rate online communities as absolutely critical or very important and 1.9x more likely to say the same about knowledge bases. Click to Tweet.
Over the past 12–18 months, 70% of sales teams have become more focused on providing customers with real-time response and feedback as a result of changing customer expectations. Sixty-four percent of consumers expect companies to respond and interact with them in real time, according to the “State of the Connected Customer” report. Mobile enables sales reps to connect with customers from anywhere, at any time and collaborate with team members in an instant. Sales teams that arm their reps with mobile are better positioned to deliver a great customer experience. Below are the top benefits sales teams cite from using a mobile app:
On average, sales reps spend 64% of their time on non-selling tasks. The next frontier of sales is smart technologies, anchored by artificial intelligence (AI), that can help transform your sales team to be efficient, quick, and able to meet customer needs before they ever reach out. It may seem daunting to push your team toward this new technology, but the productivity impact is immense. For example, high-performing sales teams are 2.8x more likely to be outstanding or very good at predictive intelligence. AI is the top growth area for intelligent selling capabilities — 139% expected increase in usage in the next three years. Make smarter selling a top priority for your 2017 resolution list. Click to Tweet.
Don’t just write these down, kick off the new year by aligning your team around key goals that will help propel your company into the future. Want to learn more about how top teams are executing on performance-boosting sales trends? Download the complete “Second Annual State of Sales” report.
