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As more teams become bullish on smarter tech, the sales industry will experience an entirely new way of selling. Flexible cloud technology tools now let you chart your own course so you can spend less time trying to work around a clunky sales process and more time closing deals. These trends and changes are exciting, yet it makes the task of choosing sales technology endless. At the same time, the basics still apply. As shared by Gary Vaynerchuk in a recent Leading Edge webcast, “In sales, you have to be good at your craft, and you have to love your craft. If you don't love sales, you have no chance.”
Consider advice from sales experts, including Gary Vaynerchuk, and Salesforce customers interviewed for a recent AppExchange ebook.
“Sales productivity is one of the reasons why Zillow is as successful as it is today. And a lot of the sales efficiency came as a result of putting better sales tools and information at the fingertips of salespeople.” – Tony Small, VP and General Manager, Zillow
“Eliminate time spent researching leads by using predictive scoring and profiling technologies to gather detailed information about each prospect, like whether they’re a fit for your product, or their likelihood to make a purchase soon. Use this information to create highly segmented lists based on specific attributes and data signals, and to personalize outreach for better engagement.” – Sean Zinsmeister, Senior Director of Product Marketing, Infer
“Salespeople spend hours every week on back-and-forth communication around calendaring. The most productive salespeople are now using tech to automate that entire process and make it a one-click-and-done situation.” – Trish Bertuzzi, Author, The Sales Development Playbook
“The first thing you should ask yourself: Is this going to make my sales team have to take an extra step? Is this going to introduce complexity into their daily routine, or is this going to simplify their daily routine?” – Travis Henry, Marketing Development Manager, BlueWolf, an IBM Company
“The thing about any company is the sales teams have to be able to do what they need to do without trying to restrain them, without trying to make their lives more difficult.” - Gina Baldazzi, Salesforce Administrator and Developer, Qualtrics
“You've got to put [salespeople] in a position to be successful. Give them the resources that they need at the time that they need it." – Matt Kraft, Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing, Associa
“If [your sales team is] experiencing a roadblock, you have to respond to that. Focus on helping your teams refine their processes so they can provide better, faster services to your customers.” - Corrine Cordon, President, Capella Mortgage
“The number one rule of salespeople is to listen to your audience.” – Gary Vaynerchuk
“I think most organizations have an idea of the areas where they could stand to make the engagement process better, faster, easier with their clients…So think through where you want to make the improvement. Then, prioritize those needs.” – George Gallegos, CEO, Jitterbit
“All salespeople must figure out how they best communicate. Is it written word? Is it audio? Is it video? Is it in person? How do you create the gateway drug to an in-person meeting?” – Gary Vaynerchuk
“Use the tools that work for you, NOT your co-worker, but you! Also, remember that sometimes technology can be a distraction to the sale. Know what to use, how to use it, and when NOT to use it.” - Jim Korpolinski, VP of Business Development, Chowly
“Understand not only what your current challenge is, but also what you want to accomplish in the future, and look for an app that helps achieve both.” - Gina Baldazzi, Salesforce Administrator and Developer, Qualtrics
“I'm not implementing any new technology unless the business is super excited about it, and it has a really strong business case around it.” - Karla Viglasky, North America CIO, Axalta
“Generally, companies aren't buying technology just because it's cool. You know what you're trying to accomplish. And usually, you have a sense of those performance indicators.” – George Gallegos, CEO, Jitterbit
“A lot of times I'm looking at the ability to integrate, and the flexibility of new technology…It's one of those things where I really think the devil is in the details, in looking and asking those integration questions.” – Karla Viglasky, North America CIO, Axalta
"The first thing you have to do is look at your sales process and not put any type of technology in that's going to significantly disrupt it. The last thing you want to do is have technology stand in the way between your salesperson closing a deal." – Matt Kraft, Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing, Associa
“We always ask ourselves, what are we going to impact? And what are those metrics that we can measure that show we are achieving that impact? And it's really as simple as that." – George Gallegos, CEO, Jitterbit
“I'm sure different businesses have different key metrics, but we've been especially focused on two key metrics. One is productivity, measured in orders per sales rep per day. The other is rep retention, which in our business isn't unrelated to the first one. Reps who make more money tend not to leave!” - Chris Laurence, Chief Operating Officer, Cydcor
“It's all about the reporting. Because once you get the execs hooked on the real-time data where they can make forward-looking decisions on it, they'll drive the adoption for you. We look at the results and then we look at the pipeline. And if both of those are strong, we're good.” - Matt Kraft, Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing, Associa
“I think like any good company investing in software, we were ready to run a test of impact and effectiveness of our investment, and see what change actually resulted. We had the forethought to set ourselves up in a good way to measure that.” - Travis Henry, Marketing Development Manager, BlueWolf, an IBM Company
Hear more from these sales leaders in the new e-book, An Insider’s Guide to Purchasing Sales Apps. And for more Gary Vaynerchuk, check out the Leading Edge webcast replay.
