The Rise Of Cyborg Sellers: How Technology Enables and Empowers SalespeopleInnovative tech products are changing B2B sales processes in profound ways. Here are four.

ByDanny Wong

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

Shutterstock

不管技术的进步有多快,核心的年代trategy to successful sales never changes. Know your customers and their pain points. Be able to coherently explain your value proposition. Nurture strong relationships. These are the moves that will allow you to build a robust sales culture in your organization.

Related:5 Million-Dollar Strategies Companies Use to Manage Their Sales Force

Still, technology is making a difference -- a big difference: The recent proliferation of mobile broadband technology, combined with increasingly sophisticated software, is allowing salespeople to take their productivity and service skills to new heights.

Cloud adoption, for one thing, is accelerating among businesses of all sizes, as more and more CEOs recognize the potential conveniences and cost savings that come with hosting data on the cloud. And advanced technology is making it possible to track and evaluate more sophisticated sales data in real time, giving salespeople new tools to complete tasks more efficiently.

It is now clear that although good salespeople cannot rely solely on technological solutions to do their jobs,innovative tech productsare changing B2B sales processes in profound ways. Here are four.

1. The cloud is turning road warriors into mobile information hubs.

The average B2B customer expects more from his or her sales representatives than ever before. Those expectations includemore information, detailed answers and quicker responses. Thanks to mobile-friendly cloud platforms, any salesperson can more easily and less expensively give prospects what they want.

Many cloud solutions, in fact, combine inventory management, accounting, customer service and ecommerce in a single platform, so sales reps can quickly provide accurate and up-to-date information no matter how far away from the office they are.

In short, there is no longer any need to send to accounts receivable a customer who has a question about his bill, or forward him to the help desk to check on the status of a ticket that's been opened. Traveling sales reps now haveinstant access to current informationas it changes, allowing them to further cultivate their relationships with clients and provide a streamlined, cohesive customer experience.

And, with properly implemented CRM tools, sales organizations are seeing as much as $8.71 in ROI for every dollar spent, according todata from Nucleus Research.

2. Real-time metrics is allowing managers to make adjustments instantaneously.

To make your sales operation as lean as possible, you mustmeasure a wide range of performance metricsfor you team members. For most of history, this was a tedious affair, and so time-consuming that results could generally be evaluated only weekly or monthly. Just imagine how much you lost in productivity back then by not correcting a glaring issue for an entire month!

Today, things are different: New software programs that read data from phone and email databases let sales managers look at performance numbers as they are updated in real time. As a manager, if you see that one of your sales reps does something which negatively impacts her effectiveness and efficiency, you can address it immediately to avoid future mistakes and limit wasted effort and resources.

Additionally, these programs can track more advanced sales metrics, such as qualified lead velocity rate, that previously were tough to compute and analyze.

Related:5 Reasons Not to Replace Your Sales Reps With Robots

3. Training programs are more creative and engaging.

Asolid sales training programis the backbone of any company with a proven track record of sales success; and technology has opened up exciting new possibilities here.

Where many SMBs once hired expensive consultants or sent teams to out-of-office workshops, to build a foundational training plan, sales reps now have access to presentations from the world's leading training experts using just an Internet connection.

You can also find professional development software programs, allowing sales reps to complete online courses at their own pace so their coursework does not interfere with their other duties. You can tie these advanced training efforts into an existing incentive program, and encourage salespeople to adopt new technology to better serve their clients and improve their performance.

At SAP, for example, employees and trainees are offered in-classroom support as well as online learning modules to sharpen their skills wherever they are, from their local office or while they're on the road.

Sales acceleration technology opens up new avenues for productivity.

Sales acceleration technology is software specifically designed tohelp salespeople work smarter and faster, and it is poised to grow exponentially in the coming years. It allows sales reps to track their own performance, better integrates their marketing and sales efforts and incorporates sophisticated tools to monitor market trends and let sales rep make informed decisions about future opportunities.

In an article on BainInsights,Bain & Company partners Dianne Ledingham, Mark Kovac, and Laura Beaudin, along with director Sarah Dey Burton, wrote that, "Investments in technology can automate or eliminate low-value activities from sales reps so they can spend more time with customers. Coca-Cola Enterprises, for example, has equipped its field sales reps with a mobile application that gives them detailed information about each store they serve, including the store's assessment of Coca-Cola's performance.

"The company," the Bain article continued, "also released a mobile app that enables store owners to reorder and log service requests. As a result, both the sales team's productivity and customer satisfaction have risen."

Yet anotherbenefit of sales acceleration technologyis that it aligns the customer's purchasing journey with the company's sales effort. As customers gain access to increasing amounts of product information via online resources, sales professionals can use detailed and segmented data collected via the software to better understand the needs and wants of their clients.

Related:The Future of Retail: 6 Ways the Cloud Will Reinvent the Sales Floor

However, as useful as it may be, sales acceleration technology is no substitute for the human connection between salesperson and client. Instead, it gives your sales reps better tools they can use to enrich these relationships.

Wavy Line
Danny Wong

Entrepreneur, marketer and writer.

Danny Wong is an entrepreneur, marketer and writer. He is the co-founder ofBlank Label, an award-winning luxury menswear company, and leads marketing forReceiptful, a platform to supercharge all customer interactions for eCommerce stores, andTenfold, a seamless click-to-dial solution for high-performance sales teams.

Editor's Pick

Related Topics

Business News

An 81-Year-Old Florida CEO Just Indicted for a $250 Million Ponzi Scheme Ran a Sprawling Senior Citizen Crime Ring

Carl Ruderman is the fifth senior citizen in the Miami-Fort-Lauderdale-Palm Beach metropolitan area to face charges in connection with the scam.

Business News

Steve Jobs's Son Is Diving Into Venture Capital — and His Focus Hits Close to Home

Reed Jobs, 31, launched venture capital firm Yosemite, which already boasts $200 million from investors and institutions.

Business News

Taco Bell Slammed With Lawsuit Over 'Especially Concerning' Advertisements, Allegedly Deceiving Customers

The class action lawsuit claims the chain is advertising more than they deliver.

Business News

Goldman Sachs Senior Analyst Vanishes After Concert in Brooklyn

John Castic, 27, was last seen around 2:30 a.m. Saturday.

Money & Finance

Want to Become a Millionaire? Follow Warren Buffett's 4 Rules.

企业家是不能过度指狗万官方望太多a company exit for their eventual 'win.' Do this instead.

Leadership

The Power of Purpose-Driven Entrepreneurship — How Social Entrepreneurs Are Changing the World

Social entrepreneurs are the torchbearers of hope and progress, redefining the role of business in society.