5 Digital Skills to Blow Past Sales Targets

5 Digital Skills to Blow Past Sales Targets

Lead generation and qualification, building prospects, negotiating and closing a deal all take time and organization. Upgrading your team’s digital skills to manage sales pipelines, expand territory and bolster productivity has become the new norm when it comes to outsmarting the competition. Buyers are more open than ever to spending big through remote or online sales channels; with 35% happy to spend over a half million in a single online transaction, according to a recent McKinsey survey.  As the opportunities for closing sales through multiple channels continue to broaden, ensuring that your team is up to speed with the latest smart sales tools is critical to success.

Voice-to-CRM AI, app functionality and cloud-based software are at the forefront of smart sales tech essential to outpacing targets, but what digital know-how really makes all the difference in driving sales, from both on the road and at home.

1. Leverage Automation and AI

High performers only have the bandwidth to prioritize and optimize engagement if they automate time consuming data entry. Voice to CRM AI, such as Hey DAN, automatically transcribes all meeting notes and follow-ups into your CRM system and can be as accurate as human data entry. By logging calls, emails, in-person meetings and videoconferencing automatically through a fully synced CRM, you are giving your team the time and headspace to connect with customers and close more deals.

AI apps offer a quick and painless way to document critical details such as client preferences and opportunity sizes without taking 20-30 minutes out of every day to manage that administrative last mile of the selling process. Clean data is also notoriously hard to maintain manually. Mastering multiplier tech which automates CRM related tasks, expense reporting, building performance or forecasting data, promotes productivity and encourages sales talent to shine.

2. Embrace Omnichannel Engagement as the New Norm

Omnichannel buying, via face-to-face, remotely or online, is here to stay and the opportunity to shorten the sales cycle has never been greater. You can’t be everywhere at once, but you could build an online presence to create the perception that you are. Territory planning and management tools, such as Fugent, can provide microsites, enabling your sales and marketing teams to personalize branded content, events and other engagement hooks for prospecting in different terrioritories. A single platform could ensure that a financial advisor in New York is reading your white paper on insurance products, whilst a logistics buyer in Chicago has accepted your invitation to attend a webinar on supply chain risk. Accessible via app or a QR code on a business card, these microsites offer a one-stop shop for integrated marketing campaigns, prospect engagement and customer analysis.

3. Organize to Win Trust

In this mostly remote sales era, you need to be accessible 24-7, or the competition will win the business.  Clients and prospects expect to engage via the channel which is most comfortable; whether by videoconference, phone, email, or in-person. Appointments run your business and scheduling software offers the digital ease of access and personalized follow-ups essential for being heard above the noise. Familiarizing yourself with the latest calendar scheduling solutions also has the added benefit of gathering actionable intelligence on every interaction – this fosters targeted relationship building and saves valuable time and manpower.

Internal organization is equally important. The shift towards remote and online sales has required a good deal of sales team realignment and has created silos and disconnect between newly formed teams. If there is no longer a central repository for deal documents, communication records or standardized sales plans; productivity will suffer. Getting to grips with a synced communications to CRM system will avoid this pitfall.

4. Invest in Smart Tool Training

Institutionalizing a culture of life-long learning when it comes to sales technology will boost your team’s productivity. Collaboration tools are constantly evolving with new touchscreen and drawing features, whilst AI generated metrics can deep-dive into performance, touch point and conversion rates against benchmark. Creating a centralized learning hub ensures that your sales team can access the latest on sales enablement and performance tools.

5. Run the Numbers

It isn’t news that database solutions enable sales leaders to identify opportunity gaps for growing the business. What is striking, is the range and depth of data available to analyze. AI generated data has the ability to search for operational tweaks to boost output, predict leads that are most likely to convert, and it can also arm your team with the right information, to target the right prospects, at the right time.

Adjusting to AI and digital support is a commitment, but one which will reap dividends. Learning to automate, engage and analyze using sales enablement tools and software can be a game changer.

Author

  • Dave Kriz

    With over 15 years in wholesale distribution, Dave Kriz has a unique understanding of the digital challenges faced by distribution leadership, wholesalers and marketing teams. At Hey DAN and as head of sales at Fugent, which delivers leading AI-based voice-to-CRM transcription and territory management services, he trains Fortune 500 sales and marketing teams on pipeline management, CRM optimization, data mining and the use of AI and digital tools to shorten the sales cycle.

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