Here are five specific challenges that today’s sales teams face and how alignment with their company's marketing team can help them meet those challenges. If salespeople can’t distill complex, competitive product and solution information into concise and articulate value propositions, they will not be effective. Technological innovations, like augmented and virtual reality, for example, do just that -- these advancements are inviting a prospect to experience a product or service. The company used augmented reality in conjunction with its interactive 3D product catalog to show products to prospects and customers, without a sales person or product specialist present. So, if you're in sales, understanding exactly who your buyers are, what their needs are and how your offering can allow you to tailor a personalized pitch to multiple buyers, all in the same room. When prospects have the ability to immerse themselves in a solution and fully explore a product themselves, they develop deeper understanding and retention, creating an emotional connection. Building engaging, educational and interactive experiences has been proven to create 2x more conversations than passive content. And while enhancing conversations around specific personas falls under marketing’s purview, the ability to successfully deliver those experiences to prospects is the job of the sales team. Whatever the challenges, there are solutions to solve them. With the right combination of strategy, communication and technology, salespeople will be able to develop meaningful dialogue with prospects, accelerate the sales cycle and close more deals.
To surmount those challenges, marketing and sales need to work together to create a deep breakdown of each buyer persona.
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Considering that the major portion of a buyer’s journey takes place without his or her knowledge, salespeople have to rise above a long list of challenges, regardless of their industry. Competition is fierce, and organizations are finding that their salespeople are unable to tell a compelling enough value story to set themselves apart.
If those salespeople’s portfolios are complex, the challenge may even become insurmountable.
So, how can sales teams rise above? What does it take to stand out from the crowd and leave a memorable impression? Today’s sales teams need a strategy, strong communications and up-to-date technology.
With the right strategy, a salesperson can act with a plan: communicating product value and differentiation clearly and concisely. Cutting-edge technology allows the sales professional to convey innovation and create a lasting memorable engagement. With this winning combination of strategy, communication and technology, sales teams can separate themselves from the competition and close more deals.
Here are five specific challenges that today’s sales teams face and how alignment with their company’s marketing team can help them meet those challenges.
1. Communicating value
Salespeople need to be experts at highlighting product features and benefits, but they often fail to communicate the value, which is equally, if not more, important.
Here’s where the sales department needs marketing’s help; salespeople need to put themselves in the position of their prospect and be able to answer their crucial questions: Why should this product or service matter? How will it help prospects do their jobs better? If salespeople can’t distill complex, competitive product and solution information into concise and articulate value propositions, they will not be effective.
In 2017, Sirius Decisions reported that the number one challenge for B2B salespeople was (and still is) “their inability to communicate value differentiation.” Marketers must turn toward interactive applications that aid in telling a complex story to help sales deliver these value propositions to prospects. These applications provide a vehicle for deeper sales conversations, which uncover prospects’ hidden needs and how the product or service in question can meet those needs.
Marketers must look to solutions that aid in telling a complex story to help sales deliver these value propositions to prospects. For example, interactive applications can provide a vehicle for deeper sales conversations, which uncover prospects’ hidden needs and how the product or service in question can meet those needs.
Siemens Building Technology recently earned a Communicator Award for its interactive application, which offers actionable insights and information to help customers understand the benefits of smart buildings….
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