How to Create a More Effective B2B Sales Process?

That’s not an easy question to answer. But according to John Bruno, Senior Analyst at Forrester Research, it starts by understanding the role of digital in B2B sales process.

“Buyers are now entering into an engagement with a salesperson much later in their sales process,” says Bruno. Armed with information about products, pricing, competitors and much more, buyers today are progressing through the decision-making process on their own, researching digital content and using social media channels. Once they meet with a salesperson, they have higher expectations from the moment they engage.

“They’re looking for an expedient, easy, quick and effective processes,” says Bruno. Rather than adding that pressure to a salesperson, who is already juggling a million things like keeping up with product changes and new offerings, it’s important to equip sales teams so they can better serve buyers. “It’s about providing your salespeople with the appropriate technologies so that they’re able to meet your buyer when and where they are, at a moment’s notice,” he adds.

So, how do you select the right technologies? Bruno recommends first looking at what’s impacting your customers the most. Look for the challenges across your customers to identify where the biggest sources of pain are, and attack those first.

These three questions can help you identify where the friction is in your B2B sales process:

• What’s going to give salespeople more time in their day?
• What’s going to make them most effective during that time?
• Once they have that time in their day, and using it effectively, how do they apply intelligence to make sales processes and actions more meaningful?

“A technology that provides you with time savings, efficiency gains, and at the same time makes your salespeople more effective in the time they have, that’s a great place to start,” says Bruno.

Once you do a little digging, one of the technologies that is likely to surface quickly is CPQ. CPQs can “help select the right products, identify the right price and put a quote back in front of the customer is as little as time as possible,” says Bruno. “And if you can infuse any of those processes with analytics and intelligence and machine learning to get more contextual and personalized along the way, that’s just the sugar on top.”

Watch the video and hear more from John Bruno, Senior Analyst at Forrester Research, on overcoming sales challenges.