holy-grail

The Holy Grail of Sales Acceleration – Part 2

In our last few blog posts, we talked a great deal about how the world is changing. Missing this train would leave you stranded while your competitors flourish exponentially. We also discussed up-and-coming software tools related to sales acceleration, actionable intelligence, and how companies were purchasing these tools for its salespeople to augment the sales cycle in the most important way:  speeding up sales and increasing sales altogether.

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Numbers You Can’t Ignore

Speaking directly to this point for sales reps in the field (especially in the healthcare industry), you may or may not be familiar with some of these sales acceleration tools, but the business of sales enhancement tools has exploded into a big business. The kind of “big” that makes you ask: “How much money are companies spending on these tools?!” The answer: almost $13 Billion. Yes, you read that right – $13 billion. That’s big with a capital “B”!

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Get In the Know

Insidesales.com, Forbes, The Huffington Post, and many other sources have taken notice of the rapidly growing usage of sales acceleration tools across various industries. In 2014, companies were already spending over $2,280 annually on sales acceleration tools per sales rep.  Folks… that was almost 3 years ago. Imagine where this is going.

“The sales acceleration technology category encompasses a large collection of innovative technologies that do not fit neatly under the umbrella of marketing automation or CRM. By definition, this emerging category is devoted to accelerating sales — enabling companies to turn their leads, prospects, and opportunities into paying customers faster than ever before.” – InsideSales.com Chief Marketing Officer Mick Hollison

The money spent by companies investing in sales acceleration technology directly correlated to bigger deals, increased revenue, faster sales cycles and higher close rates. Don’t believe me? Take a look at this information directly from the Insidesales.com report:


Bigger Deals:  Companies that close the biggest deals spend nearly twice as much on sales acceleration technology as the average company spends.

Faster Sales Cycles: Companies with the shortest sales cycles spend 28% more than the average sales communication and intelligence.

Higher Close Rates: Companies with the highest close rates spend 17% more than the average company on sales acceleration technology.

Increased Revenue: The top 50 percent of companies in terms of revenue spend almost twice as much as the average company on sales acceleration technology.

Become an Early Adopter

Earlier in this post, we said that companies spent an average of $2,280 per rep annually for sales acceleration technologies in 2014. Projected budgetary numbers for money dedicated to sales acceleration tools for 2017 are nearly three times that! If you want your sales team putting the competition in the dust, it’s time to start looking for the tool to REALLY help your field salespeople get ahead.

Check out the ProSellus Linx Software Solution here and email me at scottwalle@prosellus.com to incorporate the next tool to revolutionize your arsenal. After all, the more you invest in your field salespeople, the better the results they deliver.

 

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Sales Intelligence 3.0

Sales Intelligence 3.0

What if I told you that you could forecast and control your revenue more accurately, increase your upsell / cross-sell numbers, more easily maintain your contacts and their information – all with one word? With the exponential advancements in technology and the advent and popularity of various social media platforms, change has become part of our every waking moment. Globalization has also played a part in this phenomena and, regardless of industry or age, the world, as we knew it, has changed. By the way, that word we mentioned, ya’ know, the one word that would enable you to do all the things listed above…

That word: change.

Teach Yourself New Tricks

If you didn’t notice this transition over the course of the last 20 years, you’re not alone. Even the millennial generation has to play catch up these days! From your company’s perspective; look at the differences in your new hires today versus days or years past. What do you notice about them? Are they more well-read? More outspoken? Dare I say: distracted? Maybe they utilize techniques we’ve never even considered before. Maybe that’s a good thing.

No matter how you bake them, they’re some pretty different cookies from when you and I started in this business.  Fortunately, this means they bring an entirely different mind-set – an analytical mindset – a mindset that is being embraced throughout the healthcare industry and beyond.

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Adaptive Innovation

Anyone who has been in the healthcare sales industry for more than 15 years worked in this field when we utilized tried and true strategies and tactics to push our customers into the direction we wanted them to go, and it worked! We might be a bit older compared to a lot of folks, but many of those classic tactics are widely utilized today, but in an evolved variation on the original approach. Think of it like the Apple iPhone – think of how many revolutionary iPhone innovations have been consistently delivered time after time again. They listen to their consumer and adapt to their needs. The bar is always pushed higher.

The tools available to companies range from predictive sales technology to ever updating customer management systems and digital information dissemination aides. That was a bunch of fancy words, but what it means for you is that you must create your very own new version of the iPhone. Incorporate all the tools available to you and boost your sales, increase your client base, and give yourself some breathing room in one fell swoop.

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Actionable Intelligence

One of the greatest changes to have taken place in our industry is the access and availability of data and analytics. Whether you’re monitoring your contact list, tallying sales numbers, or checking your Facebook page, insights and metrics play vastly larger roles in our day-to-day operations than ever before. So, how do you best incorporate all of this “big data” into your sales call, sales strategy, or sales tactics? Many people ask me the 3 same questions regarding this overwhelming influx of information: “What can all of this data do for me? “Can it really help me sell more?” “Where do I even begin?” The first step to adapting and improving is asking those questions.

What Can You Do?

As many people are discovering, this industry has changed. Your physician customers have changed and your new teammate who just got hired has changed. Swimming in data and new technologies, it might be time for you to look at things a little differently, too. It’s a big scary new world out there, but instead of ignoring it or balking from it, harness the power of Big Data for your business. Let me help you answer those big 3 questions. Email me at scottwalle@prosellus.com, or go check out the Prosellus App to see how you can make Actionable Intelligence work for your business.