Page 147 - The Sales Acceleration Formula: Using Data, Technology, and Inbound Selling to go from $0 to $100 Million - PDFDrive.com

gave them a demo.” “Yes, I asked if they have budget.”

This process yields a seemingly full pipeline of activity. However, much of the
pipeline gets “stuck.” The pipeline does not convert to customers or revenue. In
reality, the pipeline quality is fabricated. It is not real.

During the lead engagement process, sales technology provides tools to assist
buyers with their natural buying journey, not jam buyers through the
salesperson's process. Ideally, the stages of a sales opportunity should not be
driven by actions the salesperson takes but by the actions the buyer takes. Did
the buyer confirm that the summary of the discovery call was accurate? Did the
buyer open up the proposal? Did a VP-or C-level executive attend a product
overview? Has someone in Finance reviewed the ROI study assembled by the
salesperson? These actions are much better indicators of the status of an
opportunity. In an ideal world, these buyer actions are captured by the sales
technology. Opportunities are automatically moved forward and backward as
buyer action or inaction is captured. This process eliminates the subjectivity or
“gut feel” of a salesperson, which often contaminates the accuracy of a sales
pipeline and forecast.

Aligning the opportunity stages with the buying journey also maximizes the
likelihood that the sales team is in lockstep with the buyer along the way.
Technology can assist the salesperson with this alignment. By truly
understanding both the buyer persona (e.g., Small Business, Mid-Market,
Enterprise) and the buyer's stage in their journey (e.g., Problem Definition,
Solution Education, Solution Selection), technology can recommend the
appropriate collateral to share with the buyer to help accelerate the process. If a
salesperson is working with a mid-sized health care company investigating its
compliance with a new FDA mandate, what is the most appropriate blog article
or ebook or webinar that the salesperson's company has produced that would
resonate with the prospect's specific buyer context? If a salesperson is working
with an enterprise manufacturing company looking to support its distribution
channel with a digital marketing budget, which case study would be most helpful
for this buyer context? As companies accelerate their content production efforts,
aligning sales collateral with buyer states represents a significant opportunity for
technology to improve the sales process. This type of sales acceleration is
beneficial to both the buyer and the seller.

Automated Reporting with Technology