With the wide range of modern software, devices, and technologies influencing today’s sales process, sales teams can benefit from improved support, added functionality, and a more structured work environment. However, even in the most connected companies with top-notch digital tools, challenges can arise regarding how the people in charge use the available technology. In sales, as in other areas of business, professionals can feel overwhelmed and confused by too many options or the complexity of IT systems.
Modern Journalism: An Analogy
To show how these types of issues come about, we can draw a useful comparison to journalism. For instance, sales teams thinking about their roles in modern offices might want to consider veteran news anchor Tom Brokaw’s recent guest spot on The Daily Show on June 20. In his criticism of the current news industry, Brokaw expressed that all the new tools and skills available to today’s journalists have, in some ways, led to outcomes that are chaotic and lack a clear story or focus. He highlights instances where new technology simply allows news segments to go off track, get lost in minor details, or report on irrelevant topics, filling the news space with meaningless information.
Falling Behind Sales Technology
The same kind of principle could hold true in the sales world. When thinking about all of the great new tools at their disposal, including customer relationship management, customer experience software, remote work tools, and all kinds of other digital technologies, does your sales team feel confident and empowered or burdened by a big technology learning curve? Do individuals work together to use these tools to create good narratives for customers, or is each person acting in their own digital trajectory, with random IMs, tweets, Facebook posts, or other outreach?
Just like in the example above, where modern journalists suffer from too much choice, brand new technologies can sometimes fall flat in the world of sales and commerce. Simply put, today’s cutting edge sales tools don’t offer their own easy manuals for use. They require a blend of human creativity and resourcefulness to really drive better business processes and bigger sales numbers. Like the ancient horse cart, these technologies need to be “driven” by individuals with knowledge and focus.
Taking Control of Technology
In order for a sales team to get control of their digital resources, it’s often possible to “reverse engineer” the situation, in order to change IT setups to make existing technologies serve human goals. This can require some brainstorming about what’s most important to a business. Sales leaders and others can sit down and hash out the details like:
- What are the core messages that need to be brought to customers?
- What are some different categories of customers that can require different approaches?
- How can each person use these technologies day-to-day in a coordinated way?
- How can digital oversight systems maintain a consistent process?
Sales pros can get more handy tips from articles like this resource from Technology Insider, or from in-depth items like this one from the American Marketing Association where experts look at actual uses of sales technologies, and how they can be improved. At the same time, it’s also possible to get a better idea of where to go with new tech tools from something as simple as a morning role call meeting. When sales pros get together and bounce ideas off of each other, some clear and actionable strategies can develop naturally. Sometimes, all it takes is a little articulation of what some intuitively know and can teach others. Or, by putting their heads together, sales leaders can come up with some simple ground rules that will help drive a consistent process with a CRM module, a new smartphone app, or a new content system for customer education. New technology doesn’t have to be frightening; with the right training and the right support, it can be something that makes normal sales staffers into superheroes with much more powerful sales strategies and a better vision of how to advance into future markets.