Still relying on a CRM solution for sales engagement?
If yes, how do you stay ahead of the competition if you only have a cloud-based CRM solution; although valuable, it is not enough in the current times.
Now, you must be wondering how to make the most out of your CRM and Engagement/ Revenue Stack? How to make the no-call lists, how to block spam contact, retain prospects that are often too impatient?
Most recommended SOLUTION: Sales engagement software
Today, we’ll give you a detailed tour into:
- What sales engagement is and engagement/revenue stack?
- What is sales engagement software?
- Why do you need sales engagement software?
- How to choose the right sales engagement software?
Before we dwell deeper into the sales engagement software, let’s understand what sales Engagement is and Engagement/Revenue Stack is.
What is Sales Engagement and Engagement/Revenue Stack?
Sales engagement is the sequence of interactions that take place between a sales rep and a prospect throughout the sales discussion.
These interactions take place over;
- Calls,
- Via mail,
- On social media
- Or face-to-face;
The varied channels allow the business to build measurable engagement strategies in order to accelerate revenue growth.
And sales engagement software makes this entire process efficient and effective through seamless technology.
The Revenue Technology stack helps in combining the sales and marketing process, tracking the rep activity and consumer behavior, and unifying all channels and tools of communication such as call logs, email threads, chats, and social media interactions for increased visibility and effectiveness.
In the sales engagement/ revenue technology stack, the sales engagement software sits between the CRM and the rest of the stack, acting as the managing console for the entire engagement process while sending the activity data to the CRM.
What is Sales Engagement Software?
Now that we have looked at sales engagement and its role in the sales engagement/ Revenue technology stack, let’s look at what sales engagement software is.
Essentially, sales engagement software enhances the pre-existing workflow across the sales tools already being utilized in the organization for the sales process. This software is the perfect solution for an account-based sales team.
The sales engagement software will help in saving time, organizing the required data, and boosting overall sales performance.
Sales engagement software is a key component in the revenue technology stack. This software provides a detailed perspective into every part of the sales process and easily integrates with the automated marketing platform and CRM, enabling solutions and personalization at any measure.
The Ultimate Guide to Creating a Sales Process + free sales plan template
The sales engagement software is effective at driving revenue, making it the most utilized, and valued sales technology after CRM. Since this helps reps engage with the prospects in an effective manner, 90% of Sales leaders consider this an understated investment.
All in all, the focus of the sales engagement software is to make each part of the customer-centric sales process easy and effective for the sales team to win more deals and in turn, generate more revenue. This is accomplished by automating trivial and routine tasks, directly bringing the valuable CRM data into the email inbox, and enabling personalized interaction of any measure.
It allows for the sales reps to spend more time putting effort into boosting the company’s performance and revenue rather than having to divide their time and attention into tasks that are time-consuming and demand effort.
Now let’s take a detailed look into the importance of sales engagement software and why you need it.
Why do You Need Sales Engagement Software?
1. Sales engagement software aids in better communications
The sales engagement software streamlines all the channels that sales reps use to interact with prospects, such as calls, emails, and chats and provides them with a single space to do it all.
Since information flows from various channels into one, it helps in efficiency and understanding the data in a holistic manner.
A good sales engagement software will easily integrate with the pre-existing and popular channels. For instance, it should fuse well with email channels such as Gmail or Outlook in addition to the CRM for an automated email system.
With automated and customised email channels, voice calling and social media interactions, the communication sequences can be effectively targetted allowing for better prospective reach, easy to track and making the results easy to measure.
2. Sales engagement software will help with Efficiency
Accessing all the communications and sales engagement data from a single space will save the time of the team and reps from working on non-sales tasks such as logging in, shifting between tools and programs. It also helps save time in tracking the progress of the work as well as searching for a needle-like interaction with a customer in a haystack of conversations with various clients.
With an automated intelligence to track every aspect of the sales process, the team can save time and divert their resources towards preparing for better sales pitches. And the focus would rather be wholly shifted to vital tasks than menial tasks.
Once these efforts are tallied, the organization can see that the progress of the sales rep and their deal wins increase, the sales process will shorten in time but remain effective (if not increase in efficiency) and employees will be satisfied with meeting the set goals and targets.
3. Sales Engagement Platforms will boost Smart Work
Sales intelligence is a vital part of sales engagement.
The correct software will track and monitor every interaction from the calls made, the email threads, and the interactions with prospects on social media platforms - like LinkedIn and Facebook. It’ll also provide data to make informed decisions based on what works and what does not.
It would help answer questions such as what is a good time to call the prospect, how many times the email should be sent, and what to say to them to retain their interest.
These solutions are critical as they allow the reps to provide the right content at the right time, ensuring the prospects are converted into buying customers.
Here, sales engagement software, using the data, provides you with the right information and dictates when to do what in order to close that deal.
A good sales engagement software should also be analytical. It should help the rep to realise if the strategies are working or not. And if they aren’t, it will help the rep in understanding if a new strategy is needed and whether it would be as effective as the one earlier.
Also, it motivates reps to think outside the box and differently from the competitors, and come up with innovative solutions for obstacles that may or may not be common.
By providing the right solution at the correct time, sales engagement software can do wonders in shaping the progress of the sales rep, the team and the organization as a whole.
We have seen how the sales engagement Platform helps in the efficiency of the sales team and how it positively impacts the growth of the organization. Now let us look at how sales engagement platform impacts the revenue growth of the organization:
- It improves the opportunities for sales pitches and close rates by increasing the quality and quantity of the one-on-one interactions.
- Utilize performance data to optimize engagement, collaboration, visibility, and reporting across the entire organization.
- Streamlining and elevating the efficiency of the sales team by shifting their focus from menial tasks to sales engagement tasks.
So, the next question that should pop into your mind is how to choose the right sales engagement software for your organization.
Let’s look at some criteria to understand the same.
How to Choose The Right Sales Engagement Software?
Executives and leaders that are currently in the stage of choosing their sales engagement software, should understand the needs of the organization and how the software is compatible with other sales tools.
Leaders should evaluate:
- Engagement Quantity
- Engagement Quality
- Productivity of the Team
- Effectiveness of Interactions
- CRM integration
- Pre-existing Workflow
- Streamlining Existing Administration
It is essential to understand the organization’s unique structure, sales process and existing CRM for making the most out of the sales engagement Platform.
Additionally consider the following when choosing a sales engagement platform:
- Reliable Automation
All sales engagement software should be automated, especially in critical areas that can impact your business. - Positively Impacting the Organization and Revenue Growth
The software should obviously be effective for the Sales team. But beyond that, it should also support common use across the organization - its marketing team, the finance team, the SDRs and ARs, and the administrative/account management department. In simple terms, it should be cross-functional. Thus, the software should be easy to use (so that a non-technical person can also use it) and should be completely customizable. - Easy Administration and CRM Integration
The new software engagement platform and the native/pre-existing CRM platform should easily integrate so as to avoid sync errors and data latency. It should streamline the collaboration and highlight possibilities of advanced automation. Thus, making the entire Engagement/Revenue Technology stack easy to manage.
These combinations will allow the team and the executives to be time-efficient, increase the quality and quantity of their prospect interactions and boost sales and revenue.
An Important Tip:
Try getting your hands dirty on a sales engagement software before investing.
Test the ease of use and understand the platform through a hands-on approach. Trails help in checking if the software is compatible with the tasks of the sales reps, the team and the overall organization. Also understand if the tool can weed out inefficiency and incompatibility.
Before sales engagement software was developed, sales reps would deal with variables and numbers that did not work well together.
Additionally, various information and data would be stored in silos making it hard to keep track of, and getting an overview of the sales process will be more difficult. And CRM solutions were not efficient enough to handle these engagement tasks.
Therefore, the sales engagement platform is the best way to integrate these various aspects of the sales engagement process into one place. A place where the data and information are easily accessible, communications quality and quantity are improved, and interacting with prospects becomes more strategic instead of throwing a dart in the dark, hoping to hit the bullseye.
Use Convin’s sales engagement software to make your organization’s sales tasks and processes easier. Boost your overall performance and generate more revenue by signing up with our sales engagement software, it's easier than getting a Netflix subscription. After you sign up, Convin automatically integrates with your sales engagement/ revenue technology stack and CRM through a secure API key exchange.
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