Over the past 30 years there has been an ever-expanding number of sales technologies competing to be a part of a company’s stack. Once Salesforce.com demonstrated that cloud-based applications made sense, there was an explosion of SaaS applications all clamoring with a similar value proposition; "seamless stack integration" guaranteed to "reap a huge return", "expand revenue by 300%", or "make your sellers more productive."
In the beginning of this trend, the focus was on force-multiplication through increased efficiency. Whether it was an auto dialer for the BDR team, or proposal writing applications for Account Executives, email applications for Marketing, or information sources for Account Managers, almost all initial emerging SaaS sales applications were directed at saving time for prospectors and sellers. As this trend matured, each new application appeared to focus on an ever-narrowing dimension of the overall sales process. As a result, many companies now have five or more applications working on top of their CRM. To-date nearly all these applications are focused on increasing efficiency; though the rise of AI-based applications has started a new trend toward greater effectiveness.
In this blog, we'll explore the intersection of sales technology and the importance of maintaining a human-centered approach to the sales process.
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The risk of over-automation can perhaps be seen most clearly in the use of AI to drive sales effectiveness. Whether sales managers see AI as a threat that will eliminate salespeople, or they rely on AI as a substitute for human-to-human interaction, both of these common sentiments pose the threat of a reduction in overall sales effectiveness/productivity.
There's still no data to support the idea that buyers are comfortable with non-human interaction when they are seeking to make a complex buying decision. If sellers understand the many factors involved in "winning fast, losing fast", it is unlikely that AI will be able to satisfy the need for a dynamic customer-centric sales strategy, nor will it be able to satisfy the expectation that a human being will be their primary channel for discerning how to make the best purchasing decision.
In addition to the dangers of over-leveraging AI tools is the implicit burden that multiple applications put on a salesperson’s time and learning curve. There is a recognizable point of diminishing returns where additional applications impede/slow a seller’s productivity and make onboarding new sellers more challenging than the payoff is worth.
If we accept that there is currently a strong buyer preference for human interaction with skilled sellers, and that this preference shows no signs of disappearing anytime soon, it remains important for sales organizations to identify the point at which technology has a deleterious effect on sales productivity. This requires affirmations of two important points:
This means sellers that are equipped with fundamental communications skills such as:
The most fundamental skills evolve from the first two discoveries when the scientific process of investigation was applied to investigating sales best practice:
Selling is an interactive skill, meaning it is about exchanges between human beings. The psychology of human interactions has been thoroughly studied. Among the more important conclusions these studies have uncovered is the determination that all decisions are made at an unconscious and emotional level before the brain begins the process of analysis or conscious evaluation. To-date, no technology has demonstrated the ability to accommodate this reality. The example of the following gives a sense of why this is important: "Modern AI can learn to become unbeatable at chess in four hours, it can’t determine when it is best to let your 10-year-old niece win." There is, however, an important role where technology can amplify a seller’s effectiveness.
As stated above, technology can be faster and more efficient than any human being in areas of data collection/display, repetitive tasks, even filling in key fields in CRM records. Technology can also provide insights into areas of seller job satisfaction and can provide insights/measures of areas where a seller needs to improve or would benefit from training or coaching. Technology can also help sellers get a better understandings of the services/products they sell. For example, technology can help a seller understand customer’s issues that can be addressed by the service/product they represent.
The key to ensuring maximum benefit of any given technology requires evaluating areas where sellers are investing considerable time in recurrent tasks. For example, if sellers are producing a high number of proposals each year and much of the content is repetitive, having a proposal drafting app could be a force multiplier. Too often, sales managers are looking for a performance enhancing magic bullet. There is no such thing no matter how seductive any app may appear.
An often-underutilized asset in seeking high-performing, humanized sales teams is the power of peer-to-peer collaboration to build trust and rapport. The effort to grow these important aspects of relationships needs to include training in tactics that have the greatest impact. However, once these techniques have been introduced, discussions about the use of these tactics should become a routine part of regular team meetings.
In addition, simple things, such as always having the camera on when connecting via a platform like Zoom or Teams, always using the phone over email as the primary communication medium, and developing a breadth of relationships inside prospect companies is essential. Working as teams (properly) will always outperform a group of individuals. The only caution in this regard, is to aggressively prevent individual sellers from declaring that they know "best practice" from their own anecdotal experiences.
The curse of CRM’s is that every constituency in an organization wants their chunk of data. Inevitably, this causes a burden on sellers that slows down performance and often causes them to resent the CRM. The structure of sales metrics that serve to improve performance and bring benefits to sellers are best structured as ratios of Success over Effort.
"Success" in this case does not mean a closed sale. Rather, it is defined by achieving interim steps that move an opportunity toward a close or toward the earliest possible identification of a prospect that no longer belongs in the funnel. "Effort" refers to the frequency with which a particular tactic or set of tactics is performed.
It is vital that these sales metrics be limited to no more than four to six ratios, including one or two metrics that focus on efforts to develop and build relationships.
There is no technology substitute for the human touch in sales. However, if technology applications are chosen carefully with an eye toward enhancing performance and not burdening sellers with excess reporting and/or too many apps to master the results can be extraordinary.
Tyler Vance works closely with the participants and managers of Funnel Clarity’s training programs to ensure they achieve their expected results. Throughout Tyler’s career, he has experienced both a seller’s and buyer’s point of view bringing a unique perspective when working closely with Funnel Clarity clients. Whether Tyler is answering questions from participants, running a coaching session, webinar series, or working with managers to develop a reinforcement plan, he brings a unique and fun element into every part of his role.
