The Importance of Real Time in Sales

The sales process is more complex than it has ever has been, with the rising use of the internet, consumers are more knowledgeable about your product or service than they ever have been. This trend is putting a strain on the modern sales professional. How do they keep up to date with the latest trends, how do they acquire knowledge faster about their products, what are the challenges their clients are facing?

In fact, the modern day consumer has researched your product or service that much that 60% of the buying decision is already made before they connect with your sales professionals.

‘’The modern sales professional needs knowledge at their finger-tips which is faster than ever.’’

Businesses are starting to leverage sales enablement tools to support their sales teams in the sales process. Unfortunately, a lot of these tools are focused on the Customer Relationship System, effectively a bunch of databases with special reporting and fields to type in information about your clients.

Are we missing the learning angle here?

Sales enablement is about providing information, content and tools to allow sales teams to perform better.

According to Shalina Mitha, Head of Global Solution Marketing at SAP;

“Having powerful tools at their fingertips, anywhere, on any device, allows sales professionals to keep the customer at the center of their focus, which is the secret to customers becoming loyal advocates of your brand.”

Providing this information in real time can make the difference between winning and losing in sales, especially with larger and more complex sales processes.

Breaking down the silos

A common problem for business is the information silos in sales and marketing. A recent report published on Forbes, found that 87% of companies with below average revenue results had poor sales and marketing alignment. Businesses are using sales enablement tools to break down the barriers between marketing and sales teams.

Using sales enablement tools, sales and marketing are able to;

  • Provide client insights
  • Keep up to date about product updates and promotions
  • Ensure the team is communicating in real time

Furthermore, the Forbes research found that sales enablement tools were the top investment (55%) for boosting sales productivity, followed by analytics (54%), CRM (53%) and learning technologies (45%).

If you’re interested in sales enablement tools using audio messaging, you can make an enquiry via Sound Branch by clicking here.