Don’t let your reps fall behind. Spark your Digital Sales Transformation with the ultimate 3 best practices for skyrocketing revenue growth.
The last few years — particularly with the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic — have seen a rapid rise in online shopping. An online marketplace also means more and more options are available to consumers, as physical location is no longer the crux of a business. With this change in medium comes changes in the priorities that shoppers have: in the digital age, customers value speed, transparency, and authenticity. This necessitates companies to proactively optimize the digital landscape and adopt sales technologies that ensure smoother customer experiences for them.
In addition to improving the logistics of sales and related processes, the need for digital sales technologies is to keep up with the rapid growth of the market and evolving customer psyches. Digital sales channels and the increasing use of data analytics have become the norm in today’s businesses. Conversely, businesses that are slow to pick up on these trends are more likely to lose out on leads as well as the benefits these technologies bring them.
Here, we take a look at three important aspects to consider while implementing digital sales technologies in your company.
1. Assess your current sales processes and find a focused solution
Digital channels can be used to improve various aspects of the sales process — such as market research, customer relationships, and data aggregation. There is an abundance of options that address each of these aspects individually or in an integrated manner.
While researching and choosing what technologies are likely to improve sales, companies must assess the specific areas within their current sales process that require improvement or optimization. Being informed about this will allow decision-makers to narrow down on tools that are functional, cost-effective, user-friendly, and employee-friendly. As a research tactic, companies can also assess tools and technologies used by competitors or companies with similar operations.
2. Understand customer expectations and prioritize them
At the heart of any business operation is its customers. The advantage of digital channels is their agility and ease of access. Customers today are more digitally savvy than ever before and are likely to do some research before they settle on the brand of their choice. With countless options in the online market, they also value business interactions that are personalized, detailed, and quick. Digital sales technologies enable sales departments to keep up with these expectations.
They can be used to increase the efficiency of customer interactions. For example, customized chatbots can be set up to address client concerns swiftly. You can use analytics to understand customer expectations and pain points on a more specific level, allowing you to better anticipate the nature of interactions with them. This data can then be used to create automated response templates for more common queries/issues. It can also be used to create contingency plans for when sales executives need to manually address queries and issues that are more complex.
3. Focus on training and support for sales employees
Adapting to new technology can be overwhelming, so it’s essential that all personnel who will engage with it are trained properly.
Training and support can be provided to employees through comprehensive modules (off-site or online), additional reference material, demos from the vendors, etc. Beyond all this, it’s important to keep track of how well employees are actually adapting to newly introduced systems. This can be done through regular check-ins and feedback sessions.
By being proactive and involved throughout their training, companies can ensure that the transition process goes smoothly.
To sum up
To thrive in the global economy, it’s essential that companies adopt digital technologies that drive sales and ensure their relevance in the market. With the online world becoming increasingly fast-paced, this is unlikely to be a one-time effort. With each upgrade, companies must be considered in their approach to choosing the systems most suited for their operations and customer engagement. They must also invest in the right training and support so employees can successfully adapt to the new systems.
