Sales Preparation: Collaboration Matters For Sales Reps

Our last few posts have discussed the science of sales enablement for sales reps, outlining and introducing the main variables involved: planning, preparing and engaging. So far, we’ve broken out the three elements of that initial sales planning – visibility, analysis and prioritization – and that first resources element of sales preparation.

Next up in the preparation stage: collaboration.

Sales preparation: resources, COLLABORATION and guidance.

The B2B sales process is becoming more and more of a team effort. And this is because today’s buyers want to hear from and work with more than just your sales reps. They want 100% access to subject-matter experts (SMEs) and people who are going to service them after the sale.

•  “Today, the ability to access an account manager’s co-worker, sales engineer or other SME is crucial to providing a holistic and positive experience for the buyer.”
  Enterprise Social Collaboration: The High-Power Teamwork For Better Sales Results via Aberdeen
• “Best-in-class end-users who more consistently treat collaboration as an organizational imperative out-performed all others on timely project delivery (84% vs. 71%) and customer retention (75% vs. 63%).”
  Enterprise Social Collaboration: The High-Power Teamwork For Better Sales Results via Aberdeen
• “As more people interact, the organization enjoys more of the benefits of collaboration. Sales and marketing professionals saw improvements across sales performance, customer retention and their ability to respond to competitive threats.”
  Frost & Sullivan, as quoted in The Return On Collaboration: Assessing The Value Of Today’s Collaboration Solutions via Cisco
• “Collaboration technology is adding value across a broad array of business functions today. Organizations find the most significant value in technology’s ability to support complex and distributed teams, improve business activities like customer service and product development, and provide greater reuse and manageability of documents and other content artifacts.”
  Forrester Consulting, as quoted in The Return On Collaboration: Assessing The Value Of Today’s Collaboration Solutions via Cisco

Collaboration – diligent coordination and seamless alignment between team members across departments – is necessary to build trust and respect with buying teams. That trust and respect? That’s the stuff of sales success.

When preparing the sales strategy, collaboration matters.

Here’s how a Sales Enablement Platform coordinates sales and marketing and connects reps with buyers for collaborative sales preparation:

Collaborate with team members.

• Smooth out any friction in those delicate sales situations by reaching out to team members with specialized areas of expertise.
• Leverage your entire team’s insight and experience by recruiting diverse, game-changing players for your opportunity selling team.

Collaborate with marketing.

• Use the direct-to-marketing collaboration channel to ask the marketing team questions, request their expertise and provide feedback/content suggestions.
• Set the groundwork for sales and marketing alignment that ignites sustainable sales enablement.

Collaborate with buyers.

• On-line collaboration with clients was unimaginable even as of a few years ago. Not anymore.  Social media popularity and adoption turned it into a “business as usual” type of engagement.
• Communicate and collaborate with your prospects and clients through the private buyer/sales portal.
• Respond to questions, discuss specific needs or value points, attach voice messages to documents and get real-time notifications when buyers open, download and engage with your content.

Collaborate with SMEs (with ease).

• Search the SME directory and pinpoint the most appropriate experts for each sales opportunity.
• Work together on selling or product issues, ask specific questions, request help, coordinate a meeting and/or make an SME part of your selling team.

Collaborate with resources.

• See which materials sales reps rate most useful to guide your own resource strategy.
• Read others’ comments to understand why certain sales materials and marketing content perform better.
• Help improve the resource database based on ratings, comments and feedback.
• Add your own ratings, comments and feedback.

Next element to dissect:
Once again, the lines are permanently blurred (and rightfully so) between collaboration and our next element in the sales preparation variable: GUIDANCE.

Fill out the form below to see how a Sales Enablement Platform connects the dots between the sales team, syncs up sales and marketing and coordinates communication between buyers and sales reps.