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Join nowMichael Windeler
Global Sales Technology Leader, Honeywell
Build the sales tech stack of your dreams, and use technology to grow your sales.
Much of a salesperson's day is tied up with non-revenue-generating activities — manual tasks such as data entry, scheduling, and research. It's not optimal for business, and it's also tedious for the seller. Salesforce's State of Sales report found that the amount of time spent selling dropped as low as 28%, down from 34% in 2018. That's a trend in the wrong direction.
With so much time spent on non-selling tasks, sales software & technology is more important than ever. But what sales technologies are available, and how do you know what works for your sales team? Let's take a closer look.
Sales technology refers to the tools, software, and platforms used by sales teams to streamline and optimize their sales processes, track interactions, and analyze prospect or customer data for the best chance at making a sale. Sales tech includes customer relationship management (CRM) systems, sales automation software, analytics tools, and communication platforms — all aimed at enhancing sales efficiency, effectiveness, and driving revenue growth.
A sales tech stack consists of all the sales software that a sales organization uses to support the sales cycle. With one or more sales tech tools in place, you effectively create a sales tech stack. Some sales tech tools may address specific parts of the sales funnel while other software, such as a CRM, serve as the underlying foundation.
A sales tech stack is one component of a company's overall tech stack, which is made up of all the digital tools and software a company relies on to do business.
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Sales technology improves sales process efficiency and provides accuracy around record-keeping and analysis. For example, some technology allows sellers to easily see when they last spoke to a prospect, how the prospect interacted with the company's website, or whether they had a customer service interaction. This insight significantly lightens the mental load on sellers so that they can focus on what matters most: listening to the prospect, their needs, and more effectively positioning the solution you offer.
Sales technology helps create a better overall experience: for your sellers, your customers, and the business. How? It starts by enabling sellers, so they are more confident as they approach each interaction. Sales technology helps to:
The combination of sales tech and artificial intelligence can further amplify these benefits. Salesforce's State of Sales report found that only one-third of sales organizations are currently using AI, but a focus on efficiency stands to significantly raise that number over the coming years.
Here are five common types of tools or software that can help optimize specific parts of the sales cycle:
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According to Harvard Business Review, Generative AI is poised to revolutionize sales. But AI, whether generative or predictive, is already delivering change.
The most dramatic developments in AI for sales that I've experienced involve content generation and conversational bots, which can help provide service answers to routine questions. With generative AI, sellers can quickly craft meaningful messages to clients that include data from their CRM system and past email communications. In fact, Salesforce's Trends in Generative AI Report found that 58% of salespeople report that generative AI helps or will help them increase productivity. Even better, 61% say that it helps or will help them better serve customers.
As AI advances, it will become even more effective at making recommendations, providing personalized advice, offering a next best action, and classifying data. There is strong potential for AI to begin guiding reps with next steps — whether that's the best opportunity, who to call, or what to do. I know it goes without saying, but it's true: The more that can be automated, the more time sellers have to sell and focus on the nuances of the human interaction.
More to the benefit of the overall business, AI also helps with data security, as it can rapidly detect unusual activity and patterns within data. Additionally, predictive analytics help pave the way for preemptive actions.
Your sales tech stack may also include calendaring or more general project management tools that simplify a salesperson's day. Either way, these critical tasks are more time-consuming and prone to human error without the aid of technology:
The key to introducing sales technology is to evaluate tools based on the needs of your sales team and business needs. Will it solve critical pain points? Do you know which tasks are dominating a seller's time? Not every sales team needs every type of tool available. Instead, start with software that is foundational, such as a CRM, and build from there. The more you can ensure that each tool is fully utilized, the more streamlined your sales tech stack can be. Any sales tech you adopt should also come with an implementation and roll-out plan to ensure adoption and effectiveness.
For AI to be truly useful at providing accurate real-time analytics and sales forecasting, the underlying data needs to be reliable and well-organized. If data isn't clean and accurate, AI won't be able to generate reliable recommendations or content. Moreover, your data needs to be secured and airtight. When you have access to sensitive customer data, you're obligated to protect it. Still, many companies don't have the right technology in place to support this.
AI offers the potential to help sellers offer reliable predictions and rapid decision support, accelerating the sales cycle and keeping reps focused on the sales pipeline opportunities they are most likely to close — but only if companies work to improve and secure data quality.
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Most sales teams value technology that gives back more data than they need to input. This is especially true if it can do research for them, provide them with data they don't have, or integrate data they might need to look up in another system. Salespeople are also often on the go, so any tool generally needs to have a strong mobile component.
Choosing the best sales tech depends on your team's unique needs. Make sure you examine how your people sell, so you know what functionality is needed. More specifically, be sure to consider:
Help your sales team do the most with their time. Sales technology makes it easier to hit sales quotas and earn commission while building revenue for the broader business. Most important, every closed deal represents a new customer whose key challenge is alleviated with your product or service. Everybody wins.
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