{"id":11598,"date":"2019-03-05T03:11:22","date_gmt":"2019-03-05T03:11:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sandler.dsstaging2.com\/case-study\/ways-to-implement-technology-into-sales-process\/"},"modified":"2023-07-17T21:05:08","modified_gmt":"2023-07-17T21:05:08","slug":"ways-to-implement-technology-into-sales-process","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sandler.com\/blog\/ways-to-implement-technology-into-sales-process\/","title":{"rendered":"Three Ways to Use Technology to Support Your Sales Process"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n

This is a truly amazing period of history for sales professionals. The information tools that help us to identify, connect with, and sustain ongoing relationships with buyers are more powerful than ever, and they allow us to do things few could have imagined just a few years ago. But there’s a challenge we all face: We mustn’t let the extraordinary technology we now have blind us to the importance of having a clear sales process.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

It’s part of our job to document and follow a sales training playbook<\/a> \u2013 an effective, proven process for identifying qualified buyers and securing commitments from them. That means using our powerful information tools strategically, as a means to an end, in a way that supports the goal of qualifying<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0disqualifying<\/em>the people and groups who do and don’t really belong in our pipeline. Technology that distracts us from that goal isn’t serving us.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Below are three powerful ways you can make technology support your selling process. As you read them, bear in mind that the whole reason to use technology in the first place is to spend as\u00a0little<\/em>\u00a0time as possible with leads that aren’t truly qualified.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

ONE: SYNCHRONIZE<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Whatever system we use for keeping track of and prioritizing business opportunities must synchronize precisely with our team\u2019s sales process, and must support that process at every stage. So for example, if we sell into enterprise accounts, and we use a CRM tool, and our CRM platform keeps track of which accounts we\u2019re about to deliver a presentation to, then the CRM tool should also prompt us to complete any necessary action items before we schedule that presentation. For instance, if our team requires that we identify at least one sponsor and three business allies within a target company before we present a formal recommendation, and we haven’t done either of those things, the CRM should alert us and leadership to\u00a0keep<\/em>\u00a0us from scheduling the presentation meeting\u2026 until we have fulfilled those requirements.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Any contact management system that doesn’t synchronize with our sales process in this way, and doesn’t also serve up the tools and resources we need to interact effectively with a customer at a given stage, needs to be reconfigured\u2026 or replaced.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

TWO: DON\u2019T TRY TO TRACK EVERYTHING<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

It\u2019s sometimes instructive to compare salespeople to doctors. Medicine is a science, but it’s also a bit of an art form, because there are any number of judgement calls that are going to come up. Sales is precisely the same. It’s a balancing act between art and science. We have judgement calls to make in \u201cgrey area\u201d situations that sometimes call on us rely on our own intuition\u2026 but we also have plenty of situations where hard numbers can point us toward the best decisions and the best processes.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Here\u2019s the challenge. Today’s powerful data collection and analysis tools may sometimes tempt us into trying to track\u00a0everything<\/em>, or nearly everything, there is to track about our prospects, our customers, and our own activity. The problem is, we only have so many hours in the day. So no matter how much we may want to serve the \u201cscience\u201d component of our job by tracking down\u00a0all<\/em>\u00a0the potentially relevant information, we have to prioritize our efforts.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

We need to limit the amount of data analysis in our daily and weekly routine so that it doesn’t interfere with our\u00a0pay time<\/em>\u00a0\u2013 the time we have set aside specifically for activities that are proven to directly generate revenue. Spending four hours a day tabulating and categorizing the hits your LinkedIn posts receive may not be the best investment of your time, and odds are it\u2019s not something you should be doing during pay time. Set\u00a0scheduled time limits<\/em>\u00a0on your number-crunching sessions.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

THREE: TRACK THE\u00a0RIGHT<\/em>\u00a0DATA<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Once we\u00a0are<\/em>\u00a0in analysis mode, there are certain kinds of things that we\u00a0should<\/em>\u00a0be measuring, based on the data our tools can gather for us during our selling day. Here\u2019s a possible list.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n