The sales stack is a hotly debated topic in the world of B2B. Every week someone has ‘the solution’ to your sales process and the pain points addressed are quite accurate when communicated on a point-to-point basis.
Affordable Software as a Service (SaaS) solutions are turning into an executive nightmare as business leaders try to edge out the competition by using the newest and most innovative solutions.
Let's take a look into world of the sales stack to help you find and fix challenges for long term technology enablement.
Why the Sales Stack is on the Brink of Collapse
The Industry is Ballooning!
The B2B sales-support technology industry (sales engagement, productivity & enablement, sales intelligence, pipeline analytics, and people management) is ballooning, having almost doubled in recent years (Source: Venturebeat, 2015).
(Image Source: VB Profiles)
Sales Effectiveness… Is Not
The marketing technology boom was followed by a rise in marketing generated leads and adoption of inbound marketing; however, sales rep effectiveness has been steadily declining and represents one of the four major challenges in Chapter 1 of our Sales Enablement Success Series.
- Between 1998 and 2013, sales reps spend 25% less time in direct selling activities; and
- According to sales, 40% to 50% of their day is spent in sales preparation activities (Source: The Sales Way, 2014).
[RELATED CONTENT] To learn more, click the link below for a FREE copy of our eBook.
Who is to Blame?
Sales enablement solutions are continually addressing a fragmented sales model. The complexity of a business’ sales process grows with it and more specified roles spawn newer, more niche categories of sales performance management (Source: Saleshacker, 2016).
Nancy Nardin at SmartSellingTools points out that knowing how to pick the right sales stack involves a long term approach that resists ad-hoc responses to acute challenges (Source: SmartSellingTools, 2016).
Brian Balfour at Hubspot’s Growth team explains that people need to stop looking for tactics first, and start by establishing a growth process. A sale is not made up of tools used, but rather is a process. Sales enablement tools simply make the process scalable (Source: PersistIQ, 2015). This is exactly why we explained that more sales training doesn’t improve the sales process on a long term.
How to Fix Your Sales Stack
Whether you’re fixing your sales stack, or looking at sales enablement for the first time, consider the following steps:
1) Audit your Current Challenges:
Remember that a sales stack helps to scale the sales process. Bring your teams together and discuss the actual challenges that are top of mind for everyone. Don’t influence the sample but instead try to gauge the organic/natural challenges faced across the sales department.
You want to identify commonalities and patterns. A specific sub-dept. of sales may face a unique challenge, or broader systemic issues may exist.
2) Audit your Current Technology:
Remember to be surgical, as several niche solutions may be hidden among the customer-facing departments.
You want to get the right tools that will have the most impact with the lowest cost (Source: SmartSellingTools, 2016).
Depending on the size of your organization, several tools could be streamlined into one platform, but it starts with compiling a list.
SmartSellingTools has a great worksheet to get you started.
3) Plan your Technology-Based Value Chain:
You should never invest in tools for your sales stack that don’t clearly fit into your workflow and make sales reps more productive. Lay out an acquisition-to-close workflow that helps to identify bottlenecks and opportunities to streamline (Source: PersistIQ, 2015).
There is no right or wrong here - Bowery Capital uses 3 stages with technology outlined within.
(Image Source: Bowery Capital, 2015)
Blitzen.com used more specific stages: Contracted – Qualified – Demo – Proposal – Closed. They listed the technology needed within each for maximum success.
PersistIQ.com used broader categories: Lead Generation – Lead Management – Demonstrating the Product – Closing the Deal.
Sales processes are context sensitive, as are your sales enablement technology needs.
4) Investigate All Available Solutions:
At this point you understand:
- Top of mind pain points
- Current solutions on hand
- Process-specific needs
A new digital sales aid may mitigate multiple challenges, eliminate some current platforms, and integrate previously siloed solutions. An incohesive patchwork of solutions will cause friction, and this at this stage you work to eliminate challenges and strengthen an adaptive value chain.
[RELATED CONTENT] Chapter 2 of our Sales Enablement Success series provides 2 adaptive sales strategies to work towards with your sales stack technology.
Here’s a guide to help start your search, but the best strategy is to start investigating for yourself keeping in mind the above-noted criteria.
In our next post, we’ll detail the most important criteria for any sales stack technology. Subscribe to our mailing list to get it on release. I’ll hyperlink here that article here when it's posted.
5) Forecast ROI and Outcomes:
Finally, ensure that the long term value of the solution matches your expected outcomes. Don’t be tempted by a low cost quick fix. Technology efficiency takes time, and switching platforms down the road squanders the value of an investment today.
Are friction and point solutions damaging your sales process? Book a demo and let us show you what cohesive, integrated, sales enablement feels like.
