More than revenue: Real accounts of SalesTech success

On the surface, it may seem like a no-brainer that the benefit of investing in sales technology can usually correlate to increased revenue. Although most vendors these days will tie one of their benefits to increased revenue or reduced costs, there are other benefits to be had. Recently at the annual Sales Enablement Society conference in Denver, Colorado. Vendor Neutral hosted the “Sales Technology Experience” and got to hear those other benefits first hand. Through a series of interviews and one on one interactions focused on sales tech success stories and benefits we came to learn that revenue is just one of the many benefits of a successful installation.

Productivity off the charts

One of the key benefits mentioned many times was the dramatic and sometimes instant increase in productivity. Through proper discovery, many of the interviewees detailed that the platforms they chose help increase seller productivity, reduced time between sales or calls, and greatly improved what was achievable in a standard 8 hour day. The interesting thing was that these claims were agnostic of the platforms chosen. It didn’t matter if it was an enablement platform, a dialer, content management, etc. Productivity gains can be had from a multitude of solutions, what we heard was the closer a solution was aligned to business priorities the greater the impact. All the interviewees indicated that the state of the sales force was greatly improved by their choice in technology.

Morale Boost

Another positive benefit of a solid sales tech investment comes from the morale boost of the end user. Many interviewees detailed that once the implementation and training was over, and user adoption was acceptable, they all received feedback from their sales team that the platform or tech improved their jobs. It may not be a direct feature advertised by many, but installing a platform or launching a new technology that makes a sellers job easier, or frankly, their life better is a sure-fire win. Improving morale has the added benefit of creating a more engaged salesforce, one that will work harder knowing their support teams, or whoever is buying technology is supporting them.

Chris Kingman interviewing Lori Richardson about SalesTech experiences.

Better Customer Experience

Another benefit we heard from implementing sales tech is the impact on customer experience. One of the hotter topics of the day, any improvement to technology, seller skill or ease of doing business can have an impact on how we interact with our customers. Some of the interviewees detail that their sales enablement platform helped sellers develop skills quicker, making interacting with customers more timely and productive and closing deals more efficient. Others discussed their content management strategy and how their new piece of tech was helping them get the right piece of collateral in front of customers at key buying milestones. And although we may take it for granted these days, even someone mentioned finally getting on a CRM, housing all their customers in one place for transparency. All of these improvements eventually impact our customers in a variety of ways,  but they culminate in making doing business with them much easier.

And much more…

These are just some of the benefits we heard in our interviews, 1:1 and from attendees who came by and spoke with us. Although everyone had a different story, level of experience, and opinion on technology, those who had invested correctly all shared the same key elements. After three days and hundreds of participants, it was clear that the benefits of a sound sales tech investment go far beyond increased revenue.