• About 3forward
  • Overview
  • Leadership
  • Resources
  • LinkedIn Dan
  • LinkedIn Matt
• Offerings
  • Lead Ready^TM
  • Everest Insights^TM
  • Custom Services
• Results
• Old School/New Tools
• Sales Leaders Blog
• News & Events
  • Events
  • Media Room
  • Press Releases
• Contact Us
  • Contact Us
  • LinkedIn Dan
  • LinkedIn Matt
  • Facebook
  • Careers

Digital Tools for the Sales Playbook

The new sales economy demands that we make major changes to the way we prospect and qualify accounts. In the not too distant past we had the luxury of going through what was sometimes a lengthy discovery/qualification process followed by a solution design phase and finally an evaluation and closing phase.  We were happy if we closed 15-20 percent of the opportunities we pursued.

The current economy and increased use of technology by buyers has changed that process forever. Buyers can now research companies, products, and solutions without even engaging with a sale person. Sales resources continue to be constrained and revenue expectations continue to rise.  Finding ways to gain actionable insight into an account is critical to increasing sales effectiveness.  Fortunately, there are highly effective new tools available to replace the old school methods that are no longer effective. Prospect analytics and integrated lead management are two commonly used methods of gaining insight to prospect digital behavior and will help guide the sales organization to sales ready opportunities.

Whether you are trying to expand existing relationships or win a new logo, effectively deployed account intelligence and will help you craft a winning playbook. Clearly understanding the client landscape by gaining in depth knowledge of the account’s sourcing process, current suppliers, and key issues will allow for better prioritization of sales assets.   As well, these lengthy, complex sales will require a combination of periodic “deep dive” assessments coupled with ongoing active surveillance to adequately monitor key trigger events.

Integrated lead management tools are solutions that monitor your website activity and report back to your lead tracking and CRM the digital behavior of who is visiting your site and what they read.  Knowing who these otherwise stealth prospects are, and what specific interests they have, can both shorten the sales discovery process and allow you to provide targeted information timed to their buying stage.  It also allows you to formulate stronger value propositions tailored to each unique visitor. Through the use of lead scoring you can measure when a sales opportunity truly becomes sales ready and a sales person should engage.  The integration between these systems also ensures that as leads and prospects’ sales status changes, the sales organization has instant insight and can act in a timely manner.

Embrace these tools and see your sales and paycheck increase!

Comments