How To Improve Sales Effectiveness In A Buyer’s Market

How To Improve Sales Effectiveness In A Buyer’s Market:from Business 2 Community by Michael Brenner
Way back, before the Internet came on the scene, sales people had all the knowledge about how a product could benefit a buyer.
This expertise gave them a lot of power over buyers, which was, at the time, critical to the sales cycle.
Now, with buyers who educate themselves before even interacting with a sales representative, the balance of power has flipped completely. And with this power shift comes high expectations on the part of the buyers.
A CSO Insights report, entitled Buyer/Seller Behaviors: The Changing Landscape. Improving Sales Effectiveness in a Buyer’s Market, explored whether or not today’s CRM systems have kept up with this power shift between buyers and sellers. Through a survey of 160 firms with revenues of $250 million or more, the researchers discovered that classic CRM systems alone have simply not kept pace.
In fact, the report revealed a surprising data point: less than 15% of the companies surveyed say that increased revenues are a benefit of their CRM system. The report also notes that CRM systems are also lagging when it comes to shortening sales cycles, increasing margins, and improving win ratios – in essence, everything CRM promised to do.

So what’s next for CRM?

The report highlights these priorities for companies looking to provide better support for their sales people.

• The ability to identify key buyer stakeholders and learn more about the customer’s marketplace

• Access to knowledge sources and greater collaboration with resources such as subject matter experts

• A way to expand beyond core CRM activities (such contact and opportunity management, email, and scheduling) to include other functionality, such as business intelligence

• Integrated workflows with back office systems and other functional areas

This is all functionality that the 80%+ of the companies surveyed felt was critical in today’s increasingly collaborative and connected business world, but only marginally available in their CRM systems of today. That’s why 27% of these companies are considering replacing their CRM system within a year.
The reality here is that classic CRM systems have matured to the point where they are starting to lag in productive usefulness. The report suggests that companies critically assess their go-to-market strategies and see what gaps there are in the supporting technology platforms. This is wise advice for those companies who don’t want their sales people to be outsmarted by sophisticated buyers any longer.
Download Buyer/Seller Behaviors: The Changing Landscape. Improving Sales Effectiveness in a Buyer’s Market now! (No registration required.)
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