In 2014 we saw a burst of sales enablement/acceleration/productivity tools enter the market, creating both myriad opportunity – and uncertain promise – for improving sales performance. Based on our work with some of the largest, most progressive and successful sales organizations in the world this year, here are the three top things we think you should expect in 2015.
1. Solutions that focus on the human side of sales acceleration will disrupt the prevailing industry focus on process and content automation.
For the most part we’ve squeezed the obvious “wins” out of process tools such as CRM and content management systems. While these have provided reasonable “command and control” over sales processes, they haven’t delivered the anticipated impact on sales productivity to say nothing of revenue.
That’s because they are designed to primarily solve problems for the folks in charge of supporting sales processes at scale, and not necessarily for sales people, sales coaches – or customers. To do that, we need to tackle a much bigger problem: what is in the sales person’s head. Is it the right set of skills, behaviors and knowledge? How do we know? What do they say – or are prepared to say – when addressing the unique needs of each prospect? Does it build credibility and win deals?
There’s little doubt that your sales people are the key to developing opportunities with the level of confidence and skill that today’s savvy enterprise buyers demand. Changing rep behaviors and knowing with confidence what they prepared to bring to every client interaction is the missing link for sales leadership in 2015, which led us to this first prediction.
It’s time to move on from the illusion that process tools like CRM, content management and machine-learning will produce magical results that can fix your sales force. In the real world, your CRM doesn’t close deals, your sales reps do.
What skills and knowledge they have – and their ability to apply it on the job – matters a lot. Recent research from SiriusDecisions shows that your reps’ ability to provide industry and business expertise is four times more valuable than product knowledge or developing good relationships.
This doesn’t mean more training. It means implementing a focus on ensuring that the training and skills they do have are put into practice with impact to the bottom line.
2. The consumerization of enterprise apps will increase demand for mobile-first sales enablement solutions.
The world has changed. Email is dying. Laptops going the way of the dodo. This isn’t just about the convenience of smartphones, it’s a whole new way to think and work. And the world has adopted it in droves.
Consumerization of enterprise apps will accelerate to the point that end users will see through “legacy applications in SaaS clothing” and only adopt those solutions that provide a simple, convenient ways to get the job done – period. In the next 12 months or so, the enterprise sales teams of Fortune 1000 companies will become 100% mobile, requiring new ways of thinking and working.
Simply moving a PowerPoint presentation onto a tablet and expecting someone to sit there for 45 minutes watching doesn’t work. Workflows must be designed to take advantage of the way we use these devices, not just shoehorn the old ways of working.
The best companies are not just handing out devices but adopting apps that natively take advantage of mobile devices and how we use them.
As industry watchers have suggested, this move is less about a BYOD model where IT groups ensure users’ devices can access the corporate network, than about users expecting systems to deliver a better way of working. Mobility will be absolutely pivotal to consumerization and many departments, particularly sales, will become 100% mobile, 100% of the time.
3. Sales performance analytics will move from simple to predictive and actionable, enabling radically new sales management models.
In 2015, a new category of business intelligence will enable the shift from artful sales management to one fueled by analytical rigor. This data-driven approach to sales management will give executives what they need to forecast sales performance with far greater confidence than ever before.
Fully integrated into mobile platforms, this new generation of predictive sales analytics and reports will meaningfully connect prescriptive actions that sales teams can take to effect change.
Such solutions will instantly and continuously synthesize millions of data points into sales fluency “heat maps” and highly targeted coaching actions that help sales managers proactively align the behaviors of their sales people with growth initiatives. Gartner and others have already predicted the power of analytics to fundamentally change the way that sales management is conducted in 2015 and beyond. And we couldn’t agree more.
For more information on data-driven insights that can be achieved using mobile productivity solutions, contact us today. And from everyone at Qstream, best wishes for the new year. We look forward to serving you in 2015.