Sales people are in a constant whirlwind of activity. They’re prospecting, building pipeline, nurturing prospects, and closing business. And just 29% of their day is devoted to core selling activities. With such busy schedules, it’s no wonder sellers want extra little edges to increase their available time.
At the peak of the industrial era, manufacturers faced a similar challenge. They were looking to reduce inefficiencies across their production processes. Pioneering industrial researchers like Frederick Taylor looked to measure how time was spent on key processes in a manufacturing plant. By understanding where time was being lost, they could eliminate inefficiencies and focus on boosting output.
One way forward-leaning managers used this data was to eliminate aggravations and delay-inducing work while allowing workers to focus on higher-order activities. An example was the location of tools. If a worker had to leave their work station, walk to a remote location, find a tool, and then return to their table before they could re-start work, that was a significant waste of time.
Sellers experience a similar problem with tool-access. They too have tools, which are in the form of content, information, and other sales resources. Searching for that case study you need, or re-building a presentation that already exists, or researching a product question that has already been answered by another team member — these are all tasks in the sales world that are wasteful.
To solve for this similar issue requires a similar response: make it easy for sellers to get quick access to the correct tools that they need for a given situation where they work. Let’s look at two scenarios.
Sales enablement content in the CRM
CRM is an important focus for sellers. They update pipeline information, refer to account insights, and keep their contact data current. While the seller looks at an opportunity, they’ll want to know what the next step is that they should take to advance the deal.
What can keep the opportunity moving? What sales enablement resources make sense? It could be multiple types of content – collateral that can be shared to engage and move prospects forward. It could be sales training and guidance material that helps the seller to position and discuss challenges and solutions with the prospect. It could be product insights that help the buyer understand the ROI they can generate.
Critically, it’s not just any content that they want to access. It’s content that matches the seller’s role and sales situation. Seismic makes it easy to get the most relevant content right from the CRM. Our most recent release extends this capability further with a beautiful, user-focused design, intelligent recommendations, and access to the broad array of sales resources that sellers need — going beyond only marketing content. The result is sellers are more equipped to advance their prospects to close. Read about the 5 things your sales enablement strategy needs to succeed.
Opportunity information in the portal
A seller resource center — or sales portal — is a critical nexus for sales people. It provides a one-stop shop for sellers to immerse in sales enablement resources, guidance, and marketing content. Sellers should know that when they need competitive questions answered, content to share, or information about the latest product release, they can visit their seller resource center and get relevant insights.
Because it acts as their hub, sellers return to the portal again and again and see it as vital to their success. And just as sellers are more effective when they have the right tools in their hands at the right time, Seismic saw an opportunity to make sellers even more efficient. Now, sellers can access CRM-based opportunity information and context-driven recommendations where the seller lives.
A seller can be browsing a resource center dedicated to product guidance, and that information can be instantly tuned to suit the seller’s sales situation. Using information from the CRM that gives context, content, and other resources can be suggested to the seller. Much like in the manufacturing factory example, it’s as if the tools knew when the factory worker needed them and appeared on their workbench.
When tools are matched with a seller’s needs and when they are accessible where a seller spends most of her day, she gains massive efficiencies. We’re seeing customers adding the equivalent of 8% more sellers to their organization through these efficiency gains.
