Know the key steps in sales & operations

May 12, 2021 3-MINUTE READ

Overview
Know the Ultimate Goal
Know the Key Steps
Leapfrog Maturity

Overview
Know the Ultimate Goal
Know the Key Steps
Leapfrog Maturity

Even if future-readiness isn’t achievable in the near term, it should be on the horizon for every sales organization. This requires improving data and the stakeholder experience, as well as scaling leading practices. Any and all ways of doing business that are recognized as enabling best-in-class performance should be embraced without hesitation.

Automate at scale to augment human talent

Automation ranks as the most important factor to digitization of business processes so salespeople can focus on better interactions and optimal outcomes. Key technologies include:

Seller assist solutions
Seller performance management technologies
Order automation software
Management dashboards

24_%

of sales leaders said speed of product and service innovation has significantly improved over the past three years; 49% said it’s somewhat improved.

32_%

of sales respondents said customer experience has significantly improved in the past three years; 39% said it has somewhat improved.

75_%

increase in lead qualification productivity is possible with automated sales support, and can improve lead generation and the conversion rate by 35% or more.

But AI is the critical element and, ultimately, leads to higher-value transactions. AI-driven technologies give sellers advanced capabilities to produce better interactions at the right times with the right people. These typically include:

Advanced lead-generation technologies
Feedback technology
Customization technology
Comprehensive customer-interaction solutions

Client case study

An industry leader in IT, network and cybersecurity wanted to develop a unified view of the customer, so every interaction would help sellers understand where customers were in their journey, as well as where they should go next. Accenture integrated proprietary AI and machine learning platforms with the company’s existing tech stack to create a consolidated view of the customer. Soon thereafter, sellers had real-time information delivered to them during customer conversations to help accelerate the sales conversation.

Sellers gained:

Automatically generated use cases and next best actions
Real-time customer research and industry insights
Automatically generated product and bundle recommendations

The integrated platform aggregated customer information and conversations to provide continuous, robust Voice-of-the-Customer business intelligence and a unified campaign performance view. It also ensured each sales interaction was meaningful and valuable for customers.

By creating an excellent customer and seller experience, the company is seeing extraordinary growth in interactions and revenue, particularly with key accounts.

Commit to making data-driven decisions with better data

Sales executives must develop a strategy that includes diverse data from multiple sources. Extracting and analyzing data from multiple sources enables sellers to better understand their targets.

This is particularly impactful because digitization follows data. 73% of sales executives say they currently have data in use at scale (100% expect to have data in wide use at scale in three years’ time); 77% say that digitization provides insights and decision-making for better business outcomes. Digitization, particularly digitized leads, is an essential enabler of high-quality customer experiences.

68%

of sales executives say they design their operating model based on data.

73%

of sales executives say they’re using cloud at scale. That’s on par with other functions, but there’s still room to run.

Scale cloud investments

Cloud infrastructures enhance data and analytics, which can be used to enable great customer experiences. Additionally, cloud solutions often provide advanced capabilities at an affordable cost that scales with consumption. The more a sales team can make cloud an integral part of the process, the quicker top-line revenue growth will be realized.