Something big is happening in UK businesses.
The best sales teams are getting better connected, and more proactive. The best marketers are busily mapping journeys and doubling down on social. And the best service teams? They’re zeroing in on customer needs even before they take a call.
In short, today’s Sales, Marketing and Service trailblazers are all moving in the same direction: towards the customer.
And that means they’re also moving ever closer to each other.
We know this, because we’ve talked to over 1,000 UK Sales, Marketing and Service professionals over the last twelve months – grilling them about their challenges, projects, results and priorities.
Here’s the state of play, today.
Connected Selling in the UK
It’s official. We’ve reached mobile-selling tipping point. The power to have informed sales conversations, wherever, whenever, no longer belongs to the most forward-thinking organisations – it’s become the norm.
Indeed, over half of UK sales professionals (52%) say their company is using or planning to use mobile apps in the next 2 years.
The Top Three Use Cases for Mobile Apps
- Connecting with customers on the go
- Supporting selling in customer-facing situations
- Searching and accessing files
But UK salespeople aren’t just becoming better connected to their customers – they’re becoming better connected to their customers’ wants and needs.
A staggering 4 out of 5 UK salespeople say they’ve become more focused on being proactive and anticipating customer needs over the last 12-18 months.
Find out more in the full State of Sales report.
Journey-based Marketing in the UK
As channels and touchpoints have multiplied, effectively mapping your customers’ routes from tentative lead to loyal advocate has become ever more challenging – and valuable.
Why adopt a customer journey strategy?
- 77% of UK marketers agree it helps customer engagement
- 73% of UK marketers agree it helps drive revenue
It’s unsurprising, then, that in the UK today, over two thirds of all marketing leaders are actively mapping the customer journey. Are you?
One channel that’s cropping up again and again on those journey maps is social, as marketers really master its nuances, and realise its potential.
This is reflected in the fact social has done the hat-trick when it comes to dominating growing digital budgets – it accounts for every one of UK marketers’ top three areas for increased digital spending in the next twelve months. (That’s social media engagement, social media marketing and advertising on social platforms.)
Find out more in the full State of Marketing report.
Smart Service in the UK
Have you had an extraordinary service experience recently?
Our research reveals the majority of UK service teams are now using smart service technology to deliver sweeter service interactions. Some 55% are taking advantage of predictive intelligence tools, while almost three-quarters have embraced service analytics.
It’s hard to get smart about service when your customer information is siloed in separate systems and departments. Today’s UK service professionals also recognise, quite overwhelmingly, the necessity of giving everyone the same, 360-degree customer view.
4 out of 5 UK service professionals say having a single, shared customer view is very important or absolutely critical.
An even greater proportion also say this single view helps them provide more personalised experiences (83%), and more consistent experiences across every channel (87%).
Find out more in the full State of Service report.
Everyone’s moving towards the customer…
More connected, considered sales. Marketing that’s more closely mapped to paths and preferences. Service that strives to predict and personalise.
All these individual trends speak to one common theme: a tight focus on customer experience – throughout UK organisations.
A universal focus on customer experience
- Customer success and experience – now the #1 metric type for Sales
- Customer-orientated KPIs – are on the rise for 71% of service professionals
- Customer satisfaction – is now the #2 ranking marketing measure
…And everyone’s moving towards each other
The thing about a brilliant, end-to-end customer experience? No single department can deliver it alone.
As customer experience becomes a key metric for Sales, Marketing and Service, their shared focus is driving ever greater cross-department collaboration; or convergence as we like to call it.
- 75% of UK Sales professionals say cross-department collaboration is very important or absolutely critical to their sales process.
- 60% of UK Marketing leaders say they’re good at creating customer experiences across all business units.
- 59% of UK service professionals proactively provide Sales with intelligence on customer issues – and 60% receive offer and promotion alerts from Marketing.
But what’s happing in the world at large?
Read our full State of Sales, State of Marketing and State of Service reports to see the bigger picture – one that’s built on nearly 10,000 conversations with leading professionals worldwide.
You’ll discover what today’s best-performing sales, marketing and service teams are doing differently, and which future trends you should be planning for right now.
