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A strong digital customer experience has become a key factor in conversion. Today, over 80% of consumers research online before making a purchase. To capture their attention and guide them through to the point of purchase, your digital setup (website, social media, mobile app) must meet their expectations at each stage of their journey.

At the risk of missing out on a major tool for improving Customer experience, and therefore transforming leads into customers! Are you one of these brands? To help you check quickly, we've put together a checklist of customer expectations that your digital setup absolutely must meet.

Here are the 5 fundamentals not to be overlooked.

1. Have clear product information

Your digital system must first and foremost respond to the searches of Internet users preparing to make a purchase.

This is of course if they are searching for your brand or products, but also if they are doing a more generic search on the types of products you sell.

80% of Internet users state that they use the internet to find information before buying a product or service… a score that reaches 87% in the Paris region and 92% among liberal professions and senior executives, according to a study carried out by Ifop in December 2014, entitled “The impact of e-reputation on the purchasing process”.¹

Consumers must be able to to find rich and relevant information about the products or services that interest them on your site and through your pages on social networks. Information that will help them make the right choice, online or in store.

Most websites fulfill this « duty of information » and present their products and services, but is this presentation really useful and does it contribute to conversion? Is the product sheet complete enough, with a structured argument and concrete elements? Is the price clearly displayed? And if it is not, is a redirection to a quote request planned? Can the visitor easily access informative content to help them make their decision (customer reviews, product tests, use cases, etc.)? For an e-commerce site, are the delivery and return conditions visible and understandable, including from mobile browsing?

Enrich your product sheets to improve the digital customer experience

A simple description with a standard photo is no longer sufficient. Today, a key aspect of optimizing user experience lies in the ability to support the client's projection: helping them understand the concrete benefits of using the product, creating an emotional connection, and guiding them through a smooth and engaging digital customer journey.

In this logic, the product page should not be an endpoint, but a lever within a broader digital strategy. It can be enhanced with complementary formats such as video tutorials on YouTube, thematic blog articles shared on social networks, or even inspiration galleries on Pinterest. All of this content supports a structured conversion funnel, fueled by an effective CRM and a logic of continuous personalization.

Finally, by combining these elements with an approach focused on customer satisfaction and an omnichannel customer service, you increase the chances of supporting the user at each stage of their reflection and therefore transforming them into a loyal customer.

Discover our white paper on CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE:

Why your company needs to address this issue?

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2. Contact customer service quickly

Having a contact to easily reach customer service in case of questions or problems seems obvious... and yet, it sometimes feels like an obstacle course on certain websites! So much so that one sometimes wonders if it is not intentional! Proceeding in this way would be a very bad calculation on the part of brands: it is not enough to "hide" the telephone number or email address of customer service to escape questions and other discontent. On the contrary, there's nothing like it to fuel customer impatience and frustration!

Especially today, in a context where the multiplicity of possible contact channels has made it essential in the eyes of users and customers to have an easy and immediate way to contact a brand.

'While online shoppers are attached to traditional means of contact, they still want to have a choice when it comes to customer service,' explains a CCM Benchmark / iAdvize study from April 2015.²

Online shoppers particularly appreciate the usefulness of real-time assistance methods to help them during critical stages of the purchasing process: payment issues, difficulties with identification, or problems completing the order form.

Facilitate online customer support to streamline the purchasing process

Let's not forget: most of the time, when a customer visits a brand's website, in addition to wanting to buy/find out about a product, it's because they are looking for help. The first step to helping them necessarily involves a frequently asked questions (FAQ) section, which, if well done, will avoid a certain number of calls to your customer service department.

Similarly, being able to download documentation about your products or access tutorials (video or otherwise) will avoid a number of direct calls or requests on social networks.

Implement an omnichannel customer service that is visible and responsive.

Ideally, offer clients a choice in how they contact you, and clearly specify this, as IKEA or Michel et Augustin do on their contact pages.

Once these basics are in place, you can offer a way to contact your customer service directly: email, phone, chat or social media. Make the available channels immediately visible and easily accessible. Clearly explain who will receive the email or who will answer the phone. Confirm that a request has been received and announce how long it will take to process it. In most cases, this "educational" approach is sufficient or greatly contributes to lowering the tension level of a dissatisfied customer!

Finally, don't neglect social networks. If you have a presence on Facebook or Twitter, make sure that the person in charge of these accounts (ideally your Community Manager) can quickly forward requests internally, according to an effective and formalized process to allow a quick and relevant response, and a shared and « historicized » follow-up. You can also create a Facebook page or a Twitter account dedicated to customer service, so as not to mix engagement conversations and customer service conversations.

3. Benefit from all services on your mobile

In 2016, offering a mobile-friendly version of your website became an essential prerequisite. Why? Because 1 in 3 people worldwide now owns a smartphone.

More importantly:

"Traffic from mobile devices has recently overtaken that of computers: today more than 50% of internet searches are carried out from a mobile device (smartphone or tablet).³

Your customers are therefore looking for your products and consulting your site or online content half the time from their personal phones!

And there is nothing more frustrating on a mobile than a site that is slow to load and display with tiny buttons that are impossible to click... It has therefore become difficult to do without a site adapted for consultation from a mobile device, especially for e-tailers.

Optimize mobile navigation for a seamless customer experience

Meeting this expectation of your customers requires paying particular attention to the information hierarchy, the image formats used, the page loading time, and the ability to perform key operations (such as online payment or downloading high value content) from a mobile device.

Search engines (such as Google or Bing) now offer specific tools that allow you to quickly and easily test the compatibility of your website with mobile devices.

Responsive design or mobile application: which solution should be preferred?

Not everyone has the ability or resources to create a second version of their website specifically adapted for mobile viewing. The simplest, most effective, and least expensive approach is to design your main site with a « responsive design » : its content and presentation will automatically adapt to the device being used.

You can also offer your customers a mobile application. This should have a real added value compared to your website, and in particular provide solutions to customer needs in a mobile context. For it to be downloaded and used, your customer must also find it beneficial to use regularly. If the service offered by your application is a "one-shot" service, then it is better to implement it on your site in responsive design, optimizing the referencing of the page linked to this service.

4. Easily find the nearest point of sale

Your website, whether it is an e-commerce site or a showcase site, should serve as a bridge between your online and physical presence.

Before making a purchase on the Internet, more than 77% of 18-24 year olds admit to evaluating or trying the product directly in a store. The figure is 79% among 25-34 year olds.¹

Conversely, before making a purchase in store, 73% of French respondents consult online consumer reviews on blogs, forums or consumer sites.

In short, physical points of sale and websites are more connected than ever and do not cannibalize each other.

Connecting website and point of sale for a coherent customer experience

It is therefore important to provide a list of your points of sale, or if you do not distribute your products yourself, a list of your distributors. Ideally, and in keeping with the logic of presence and use in a mobile context, helping your customers to quickly locate the point of sale closest to their current position represents a real value-added service.

Geolocation and mobile services: helping customers find your store

You have probably already had to geolocate your stores on Google Maps. But today, beyond giving access to the complete and interactive map of your stores, it is also useful to be referenced by the many mobile applications allowing you to automatically receive on your mobile the current promotions of a store when you are nearby (Groupon City Deal), or to accumulate points/bonuses upon entering a store (Shopkick). Or even, to compare prices for the same product in all the stores that sell it near your current position (Géocompare)!

5. Benefit from a personalized and, if possible, « augmented » experience

When customer information is clear and structured, contact is simple, mobile navigation is optimized, and store locations are easily found, a major differentiating factor for your site will be to integrate "personalized" features.

Personalization: a powerful lever to enrich the digital customer experience

Recognizing your client upon arrival on the site by greeting them by their first name, or prioritizing the display of product offers for which they have already shown interest, are all elements that allow you to re-create « proximity » online.

My FeelBack, for example, thanks a person by their first name and cites the name of their company in its message displayed after downloading one of its white papers.

Cultivate unique client relationships through tailor-made features

You can also offer content that adapts to the profile and browsing history, send a personalized message with a specific promotion following an "abandoned cart", or create spaces reserved for "premium" customers, allowing them to access value-added content...

Or even offer a "different experience" thanks to an original design, unique messages, as the Michel et Augustin website does well, for example.

Or simply offer them the opportunity to subscribe to a thematic mailing list, allowing them to receive key information in advance (e.g., the launch of season ticket sales for a football team's matches).

Such features improve the user experience, allow you to further refine your performance, and above all, offer a strong and memorable emotional impact for your customers.

But before considering deploying this final stage of the digital rocket, don't forget the fundamentals detailed in this article: to generate the 'wow' effect by anticipating your clients' conscious expectations, you must first meet their primary expectations on the essential points!

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The impact of e-reputation on the purchasing process, IFOP, December 2014
Online purchasing behaviors and customer engagement, CCM Benchmark – IAdvize, April 2015
Uses and expectations of hyper-connected French people, Google – IPSOS, 2015

You've likely implemented best practices and drawn inspiration from leading models to consistently satisfy your customers. Perhaps, like 80% of businesses, you believe you offer 'superior or excellent' service quality to your customers...

The problem is that only 8% of your customers agree! (Lee Resources study). Enough said!

There is a real gap between your vision of satisfaction and the concrete perception of your customers.

How to ensure you really satisfy them? KESTIO offers you a list of four major fundamentals to master for an efficient customer experience.

1 – Truly understand your customers

What is customer satisfaction? It's the customer's assessment of the service provided by the company. When the customer feels that the quality of service meets or exceeds their expectations, everything is fine. Customer satisfaction is therefore determined by their own expectations and their evaluation of the commercial performance they perceive from the service. Not all your customers have the same expectations of you, nor do they have the same view of the efforts you make for them. Thus, a relationship identical in every respect will not be judged in the same way by two customers.

Having made this preamble, we can see how essential it is to know your customers well. Not in a general way, but on the contrary in a more detailed, individualized way. Depending on who they are, what they experience, and what they expect from the brand, a customer will not have the same judgment about your service. Having a "customer-centric" approach, placing customer knowledge at the heart of your efforts, is therefore essential to improve your satisfaction score.

Studies such as focus groups, customer surveys but also feedback from employees in direct contact with your customers, provide an initial vision of these elements. Tools such as personas, the study of expectations, or the definition of customer journeys are all useful approaches to share and keep the customer focus. Better still, having framework documents and compiling information from the field is essential to... structure your listening approach!

2 – Listen to your customers!

The evaluation of the quality of service (both real and perceived) inevitably involves... listening! Are you making efforts to structure your sales pitch? Do you have internal procedures for your approaches to clients, for your points of exchange? That's good. But also remember to listen to your customers. Why is this listening effort so crucial? Because nearly 98% of negative experiences do not result in any complaints. Customer "complaints" are therefore far from representing the level of satisfaction of all your customers. A low volume of complaints is not a sufficient indicator to prove that your customers are satisfied with your services. A restaurant that does not have (or has few) comments on a customer review platform does not necessarily inspire confidence. The same goes for your company.

It is therefore important to implement a comprehensive listening system that corresponds to your company. You need to find the right moments, the right questioning themes, and the right associated media and channels. What matters above all is that the elements captured are recorded effectively to be used. Listening alone is not useful. The feedback must then be used to change your habits, evolve behaviors, or even your products and services! These evolutions or considerations must also be visible to the customer to enhance their intervention.

3 – Place satisfaction at the heart of your effectiveness

Placing customer satisfaction at the heart of your organization and making it a driver of team efficiency and motivation is an innovative challenge for your sales strategy. It is not recommended to isolate customer satisfaction measurement and treat it as just another indicator monitored sporadically. Instead, making the information gathered from customers usable and concrete is essential. This openness allows you to:

- Managing teams and raising awareness of customer culture throughout the company. Sharing indicators, which leads to an adaptation of the remuneration system, makes it possible, for example, to involve everyone in the efforts required.
- Manage and enhance a consistent quality approach and processes through your sales management. With open data, the effort is collective, and the solutions adapt and correct themselves based on customer feedback. We don't operate in isolation but as part of a genuine 'team' serving the customer.
- Optimize marketing campaigns through more precise targeting (specific emails to dissatisfied customers to win them back, promoting satisfied customers who know your quality, etc.);
- Develop an offer that is truly and constantly adapted to the target through increased customer knowledge. The better you know your customers, the better you can identify their needs, and therefore optimize all the key indicators (conversion rate, order rate, recommendation rate, average basket).

4 – Use appropriate tools

Good customer satisfaction monitoring also involves choosing the right tools. Tools for measuring, collecting, and processing information, but also for sharing data. Good dashboards, easily readable and available, will help you streamline exchanges and make customer satisfaction that famous shared indicator, seen by all.

The selection and implementation of tools is a separate topic that we will develop in a dedicated article soon! Stay tuned!

To explore this topic further, we invite you to discover and download our White Paper:

Like a long, two-day meeting? Between these two somewhat exaggerated extremes, you probably want your company seminars to be a productive time that contributes positively to team life and allows team members to bond. This event is always a significant investment for your company, so it's important to use it wisely!

To help you achieve this goal, here are some easy-to-apply tips that will allow you to start on a good foundation for maintaining your sales performance (An infographic to summarize, followed by an article to go a little further).

Nous reprendrons, au long de cet article, les différents points résumés dans cette infographie réalisée par Kestio

1. Define a clear and unique objective for your corporate seminar

Before diving headfirst into the logistical organization of your company seminar and the production of animation materials, take the time to reflect and clearly define the objective you set for this particular seminar: is it about communicating new strategic directions? Allowing team members to get to know each other to work better together? Undertaking an ambitious shift in the definition of your service offering? Updating the skills of your employees to establish commercial excellence?

Take the time to ask yourself these key questions before designing the content of the seminar: who do you want to address? What main message do you want to convey (in one sentence)? What result should this seminar ideally produce?

2. Encourage Active Team Participation

The annual company seminar is a symbolically strong moment in the life of the team and a unique opportunity to bring all its members together and exchange collectively on key subjects for the company. Nothing is more damaging to the group dynamic than to animate it in the manner of a lecture, with leaders who speak and collaborators who take notes without participating, expressing their opinions or communicating their ideas. More than ever, take care of your communication, and your sales management must think 'collaborative'!

Offer clear, visually appealing presentation materials and concise texts. Prepare your speech if necessary so that it is dynamic and encourages buy-in. Finally, and above all, promote participatory formats (workshops, quizzes, etc.).

3. Give meaning to the activities and framework offered.

Seminars are generally an opportunity to offer team members a moment that is out of the ordinary, to allow them to get to know each other, to relax and create common "good memories". You can also approach these more informal moments of relaxation as an additional opportunity to convey a strong message related to the main objective of your seminar: as Victor Hugo said, "form is content that rises to the surface"! Be aware of the unconscious impact of the chosen location and proposed activities.

Choose a venue that aligns with the mindset you want to convey (convivial, intimate, studious, original, etc.). Opt for an activity related to the seminar's objective (improvisational theater for the ability to adapt, escape game for collective intelligence, etc.).

4. Put into practice the ideas generated during your corporate seminar

The company seminar is often a fairly intense moment in terms of exchanging ideas and producing avenues for reflection and action to redefine your sales strategy. It would be a real shame if the energy and proposals born from this shared team moment were forgotten upon returning to daily life and remained a dead letter! Formalize the fruit of these exchanges, preferably in collaborative mode and on shared media... And above all, translate the proposals validated with the team into concrete actions. If the ideas raised have no concrete impact on the reality back in the office, the teams will not maintain their commitment.

Keep track of product ideas and suggestions during discussions, round tables, and workshops. Ensure they are accessible and known to everyone afterward. Make sure the decisions made translate into tangible actions as quickly as possible.

5. Offer a shared vision and new perspectives.

For team engagement to be real, during the seminar and in the months that follow, it is essential that the content is based on a solid "foundation" and a shared vision: the company's value proposition, strategic vision, customer commitment, company culture and identity, etc. These elements must be known to the team and make sense to everyone in order to generate collective momentum. Also, take advantage of the seminar to call on external speakers (lecturers, trainers, etc.) offering an original approach to develop new skills internally.

Work on the foundational elements of your company identity and the accompanying narrative, using a « storytelling » approach to add depth and encourage ownership. Invite external speakers to create new perspectives!

To go further, download the COMMERCIAL SEMINAR white paper:

KESTIO is a company specializing in services and solutions for improving Customer Performance. For over 10 years, we have been helping companies secure and sustainably increase their revenue by acting on all the levers that allow them to acquire and retain their customers.

1- The initial objective: from sales team training to sales organization optimization

A. Vestemeanu: Wisembly is a start-up that publishes a collaborative solution for preparing and facilitating meetings allowing companies that use it to increase productivity by making their meetings more efficient and engaging through digital tools. Founded 6 years ago, the company now has over 600 clients across 5 continents and works with 80% of companies listed on the CAC 40. It already has around forty employees and 2 offices in Paris and London.

“Initially, I contacted KESTIO to train our sales representatives in complex sales methods, with the idea of giving them a common foundation and a consistent way of operating within the team.”

During our discussions, we quickly realized that beyond this question, it would also be beneficial to work on the "sales organization" aspect prior to this training action to have an optimal impact on our results.

On the subject of opportunity conversion, for example, a diagnosis conducted by the consultant allowed us to observe a transformation rate of 20% (between the number of discoveries and the number of signatures). This means that 80% of commercial time was previously spent losing!

2- The main stages of the support: diagnosis, optimization of the sales organization, training and coaching of salespeople

The KESTIO consultant (Dominique SEGUIN, editor's note) first carried out our "Sales Diag" : he conducted interviews or had questionnaires completed by all the members of the team concerned (Associate Directors, sales representatives, Marketing and HR managers), to learn about our organization and analyze it against a grid of pre-established criteria.

“The objective was to evaluate the effectiveness of our current sales organization and identify the priority areas for improvement.”

This allowed him to formulate a number of concrete recommendations, which were presented to us during a feedback meeting. The areas for improvement identified included, for example, the segmentation of our client portfolio into "gold, silver, and bronze" clients based on their potential.

Based on this, in particular, we were then able to define the right "commercial intensity" (in frequency, time, and resources) to allocate to our clients, the right "mix" between physical, telephone, and video meetings (to reduce travel time) based on a better analysis of the stakes of each commercial meeting.

Based on this initial analysis, we then organized 2 workshop-style work meetings between the 3 Associate Directors and the Sales Director to precisely define the outlines of the target organization towards which we are evolving in our sales management.

About a month after this work, we implemented the sales training:

- 2 days of training in the Chessboard Method© for the 10 sales representatives, in the presence of the 3 partners
- Then there are individual coaching sessions (remote, for salespeople based in London), at a rate of one 1-hour session per month for each salesperson.

These sessions allow everyone to consult with the advisor based on their needs. They can focus on a particular deal to receive support in investigating the account or review the fundamentals of the method.

The Sales Director is present during the coaching sessions. After the sessions, we systematically conduct a global debrief involving the Sales Director, the consultant, and myself.

This allows us to share insights on management support and areas of focus adopted after the coaching session to continue supporting the sales representative between sessions and reinforcing skills.

3- Results produced: better allocation of sales resources, increased sales team productivity, and optimized conversion rates.

During the Sales Diag, we observed that the contact strategy was essentially based on physical appointments. However, in the age of multi-channel, it is possible to develop more efficient and less costly strategies. We therefore started to carry out the discovery phase by telephone.

“By transferring this activity to a telephone channel, we have doubled the number of weekly contacts with the same resource scope, which is the equivalent in productivity to 6 additional sales representatives without any extra costs!”

Furthermore, to meet the goal of improving conversion rates, we developed a GO/NO GO grid with the help of KESTIO. Combined with the implementation of complex sales training (Chessboard Method), this now allows us to more quickly identify opportunities that will not succeed because they do not meet the necessary conditions.

“This time, previously wasted on poorly qualified opportunities, has been transferred to prospecting and more in-depth work dedicated to opportunities with a higher probability of success, to further optimize our chances of winning these deals.”

From a more general point of view, we have clarified and refined the segmentation of our client portfolio, and we now have a common nomenclature for everyone to discuss deals: this streamlines exchanges, promotes dialogue, and mutual understanding. We function better as a team.

Individually, the initial level of understanding varies from person to person, which is why individual support is essential. We regularly need to revisit the basics of the method.

Regarding sales organization, we are now able to best allocate available resources based on the priorities that have been defined. This will be particularly useful for acquiring new clients and continuing our international development!

To delve deeper into the topic of sales performance:

Other articles from our blog that may interest you:

If you regularly follow this blog, you know that our managers and consultants publish business-oriented advice and best practice articles for young start-up leaders on the excellent online media Les Echos START: (re)-discover our previous 2 articles “Start-ups: 5 tips inspired by (good) salespeople to sell your project” and “4 key steps to (sell) yourself on social networks”. Here is the third article in our series, proposed by Fabien COMTET – founder and director of KESTIO, to support start-ups during the – sometimes critical – phase of commercial growth.

Is your startup's sales activity starting to reach a significant business volume and experiencing very rapid growth in your sales performance? This is very good news, and the moment when your greatest dreams finally come true! It's also, paradoxically, a critical moment that can be fatal in some cases: when the commercial stakes become higher, the internal organization through its sales management is directly impacted, and the need to structure your sales development quickly becomes apparent. Where until now, a fairly "instinctive" sales approach and the opportunistic activation of the individual networks of the founding members may have been sufficient, it is now necessary to think of a more sustainable model that can be "duplicated" for the new arrivals that the team will certainly welcome...

Don't panic, a takeoff is always good news, and this phase can be very well managed with a little anticipation and by following these few tips:

1 – Identify your sales success stories

Using success stories, which have enabled the startup to develop, is a good starting point for structuring its sales efforts.

2 – Involve all employees in creating a profile of the ideal customer

In moving from the status of a human-scale startup to that of a larger and more structured company, it is possible that the first employees no longer fully recognize themselves in the new way of operating. Involving them actively is necessary, so as not to see certain key members leave.

3 – Define the right sales “method” and identify what's missing

The right sales method should emerge from experiences lived internally and can then be compared to external best practices. In that order. Not the reverse.

4 – Equip yourself with the right tools for each stage

When a startup becomes a larger company, the reflex is often to turn to dedicated (and costly) customer relationship management software. Mistake! There are now many free or nearly free tools available, and it is not essential to start immediately with very complex solutions.

Read the full article « Help, my start-up is taking off! Keys to a successful business expansion» on Les ECHOS Start website.

You can find out your level of commercial momentum with our tool, SCORE 7. Take the test for free in one click on the link below:

Other articles related to this topic published on our blog:

1-Could you briefly introduce your business and your clients?

We help brands grow by activating their consumers, turning them into true « brand ambassadors », in order to benefit from this incredible power of recommendation and generate in fine more deals.

The community that we lead contributes to promoting these products in various ways: for example, by making suggestions for improvement to the brand, by posting customer reviews on the internet, or by simply making these products known around them through simple word-of-mouth.

Our motto: "Who better to talk about a product than a satisfied customer?"

We advocate a 'real-life' marketing approach (as opposed to mass advertising), where success is based on the quality of the products and their alignment with customer expectations.

Our clients include major FMCG brands (Procter & Gamble, Nestlé, Unilever, Nivea, Coca Cola...), High Tech (Samsung, HTC, Sony...) and small appliances (Braun, Bosch, Philips, IRobot...).

I am in charge of defining and implementing the sales strategy on the French market with our clients, partners, and specifiers.

2- Why did you call on KESTIO, and with what objectives regarding lead conversion?

The training and support project with KESTIO originated from an analysis of our sales cycle: like any sales manager, I initially asked myself 'how to increase the conversion rate of our sales team' to win more deals.

I then focused on the different stages of our sales cycle and our conversion funnel (targeting, prospecting, conversion, etc.) to identify areas for improvement at each stage and positively impact our sales performance.

Based on this analysis, I initially contacted KESTIO to implement a training program focused on the closing stage. However, through discussions with Dominique SEGUIN, which took place within a global support approach, the reflection broadened and took a different direction.

I had expressed an objective like: 'go from 10 conversions for 100 prospects to 20 conversions for 100 prospects'. You led me to consider things from a new angle by expressing this objective differently: 'go from 10 conversions for 100 prospects to 20 deals won by only working on 60 prospects'.

This is the strength of your approach and the Chessboard Method, which relies both on better targeting and on a new way of approaching prospecting to leave nothing to chance and optimize the conversion rate.

3- What system have you implemented with KESTIO to improve lead processing and win more deals?

Together, with the KESTIO consultant, we designed the training and support system and defined the pace for the training sessions and coaching follow-up.

In practice, we first implemented 3 fairly intensive training days. We scheduled them over about a month and a half, in order to allow some time between sessions to allow for an initial application of the principles discussed.

This time has proven useful for integrating the concepts taught, as some of them are quite disruptive and really require changing one's approach, radically shifting one's posture, especially in one's relationship with clients, and therefore questioning so-called 'acquired' knowledge or habits.

I had warned my sales representatives about the rather 'disruptive' aspect of the Method in order to prepare them to welcome this change favorably. This point really contributed to the success of the training, I think : the sales representatives immediately got involved in a very voluntary way in the process and really changed their practices and applied the method, immediately after the training.

Secondly, the implementation of "coaching" and monitoring sessions – at a rate of 1.5 hours per month for each salesperson for 3 months – has helped to embed these new practices.

This personalized support over time also seems to me to be one of the keys to the success of this approach. I even think it would have been useful to extend this very beneficial 'coaching' stage to our sales representatives.

4- What results did this training produce? Did it help you achieve your lead conversion goals?

The training is recent, and I don't yet have enough perspective on the commercial results in terms of conversion rates.

Already, the attitude of our sales representatives and the way they support our customers have considerably evolved, which is very promising.

The new concepts discovered in training have become so obvious that you sometimes wonder how you could have done things differently before!

Today, for example, all salespeople practice note-taking in 'verbatim' mode during their sales meetings, and we exchange information based on richer and more objective data.

The vocabulary of sales representatives has changed: the use of common concepts not only helps them individually in how they handle deals, but also makes their interactions smoother.

Their relationship with customers has evolved: there has been a very strong awareness around the idea that this relationship must be balanced, that the effort provided must be proportional.

Much like in dating, you also need to know how to 'play hard to get'! Don't systematically trigger a meeting or send a proposal; the desire needs to be genuine and shared.

Sales representatives manage their schedules differently; it's no longer about the "appointment marathon," and, above all, they approach these appointments with a different mindset.

As a result, we have optimized the sales cycle and are truly focused on the customers who really need it, to support them in their decision cycle.

In terms of management, the method also has an impact on the monitoring and management style of sales representatives: during my monthly "business reviews" with each sales representative, I use new monitoring points, shared with all sales representatives and comparable from one deal to another.

The « scoring sheet » allows you to gauge the level of qualification of an opportunity in an objective and structured way, it forces you to remain attentive to the points of vigilance inherent in the method: have we identified all the decision-makers, the budget, the decision timeline, etc.?

Previously, we sometimes tended to rely on the salesperson's 'feeling' about a deal. Now, we have a completely different analysis of deals!

This new sales approach aligns perfectly with our strategic goals for the coming months: to stand out in an increasingly competitive market, increase the value of our support to our clients and prospects, and continue to optimize our sales cycle.

To go further, discover your company's sales and marketing performance score:

Also, discover our webinars that may interest you:

Discover KESTIO webinars, where we discuss

All topics related to sales performance with our experts:

Fabien Comtet, CEO

Dominique Seguin, CEO

Nicolas Boissard, Marketing Director

Voici donc le second article à destination des startupers né de cette jeune collaboration, proposé cette fois-ci par Fabien COMTET – fondateur et dirigeant de KESTIO – sur le thème “5 conseils de commerciaux pour vendre votre projet”.

Les commerciaux chevronnés le savent mieux que quiconque : pour vendre votre projet (ou vos produits et services) et vous différencier face à vos concurrents, vous devez activer le “cerveau droit” de vos interlocuteurs (siège des émotions) plutôt que le gauche (le cerveau dit “rationnel”). Le corollaire, c’est que vous devez être à l’écoute de leurs attentes et de leur ressenti, comprendre ce qui fait écho chez vos prospects, clients ou partenaires potentiels… et établir rapidement une relation de collaboration avec eux.

Exit l’argumentaire produit, donc, et place à l’écoute active et à la co-construction !

Voici les 5 astuces à retenir pour mieux vendre vos projets de l’article ” 5 astuces inspirées des (bons) commerciaux pour vendre son projet “ publié sur Les Echos Start :

1.   Dépassez la conviction, et suscitez l’émotion
2.   Arrêtez de parler : questionnez et écoutez
3.   Adaptez le ton à votre interlocuteur
4.   Démarquez-vous pour retenir l’attention
5.   Misez sur la co-construction

Also read other articles related to this topic published on our blog:

Enfin, pour aller plus loin sur le sujet de la performance commerciale, téléchargez notre livre blanc “Homos Sapiens Commercialis” dédié aux méthodes commerciales et aux opportunités à l’ère du Digital :

So how do you do it?

Why not simply step back and take a fresh look at your sales activity? In the current environment, with the social tools available, do all salespeople necessarily need to be in the field? Aren't the costs of visits prohibitive? Can't we make the strategic choice of a sedentary sales force? Asking the question is already answering it. A choice already made by many sales managers. Moreover, the real question is rather about "how?"

In this approach, we're not talking about an offshore call center or an inexperienced hotline. We're talking about real, experienced sales representatives, trained in remote sales techniques, who know the product inside and out and use high-performance tracking tools.

We're talking about men and women with solid field experience, bringing real added value, knowing how to understand the client's needs, provide answers, and make a difference.

Of course, there are many upstream questions, as it is not only a matter of creating a new team with different methods, but also of redefining the distribution of roles between field and office-based sales representatives, and even with the marketing team:

- Do inside sales representatives support field sales representatives or work independently?
- Are they focused on the prospect base or the customer base?
- Are they only doing account monitoring or also sales?
- Are the current tools suitable?
- How to determine team size?
- How to position it?
- The manager...?

It's to prepare the ground well and to respond pragmatically to all these questions that we support sales managers in this upstream phase of definition and construction. Initially, to estimate the ROI of such a project, then to define its operational dimensions and, sometimes, to ensure its implementation.

Also, if the equation seems complex, don't hesitate to reconsider your assumptions about salespeople: being present in the office can make them extremely profitable!

To discover more about using specialized and adapted tools to adopt, check out this webinar on optimizing the performance of your commercial asset:

Are you tired of your sales representatives ignoring the essential relational techniques for their success?

To enable you to raise your teams' awareness of good relationship practices, the importance of active listening, and effective questioning techniques, we have created this infographic for you, presenting "the 6 deadly sins of listening in a sales meeting" and offering ways to remedy them!

Share with your sales teams, post near the coffee machine, and apply liberally!

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Is optimization your watchword? Then discover in this webinar how to maximize the performance of your sales representatives by saving them 50% of their time:

KESTIO is a consulting and training company specializing in Commercial Performance and Customer Experience.

For over 10 years, we have been helping companies and their leaders – from SMEs to large corporations – improve their profitability by activating all levers of customer acquisition and loyalty.

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1. Les séminaires commerciaux sont des clés dans la vie d’entreprise

Pourquoi les séminaires commerciaux sont-ils des événements aussi importants ?

D’abord, parce que le séminaire commercial sert des objectifs stratégiques pour la Direction Générale et Commerciale, comme par exemple : mobiliser et motiver les commerciaux, présenter les objectifs commerciaux de l’année, et aussi bien sûr, créer les meilleures conditions pour s’assurer de les atteindre et pour viser une meilleur performance commerciale.

Ensuite, parce que c’est un moment exceptionnel : le séminaire commercial est organisé une à 2 fois par an, et c’est l’une des rares occasions pour l’entreprise de réunir tous ses commerciaux et managers. C’est donc une opportunité unique de créer une vraie dynamique de groupe, et cette dynamique est essentielle à la motivation de chacun pour atteindre ses résultats.

Enfin, parce qu’il représente un véritable investissement pour l’entreprise, à la fois financier et humain. Côté financier, le budget qui lui est consacré est souvent assez conséquent (hébergement, restauration, transport, activités team building…pour tous les membres de l’équipe). Côté humain, il doit être préparé soigneusement, car son impact sur la dynamique de groupe est important, et cela demande de consacrer du temps et de l’énergie à cette phase de préparation.

2. Vous ne pouvez donc pas vous permettre de rater vos séminaires commerciaux ! Et pourtant, cela n’arrive pas qu’aux autres….

Dans la pratique, les écueils rencontrés sur le terrain sont nombreux, et parfois lourds de conséquences. Nos clients nous décrivent parfois des séminaires « catastrophes » au cours desquels des tensions se sont fait jour au sein de l’équipe, la présentation des orientations stratégiques a donné lieu à des débats internes « animés », ou tout simplement n’a pas soulevé l’enthousiasme escompté…

Résultat : une année qui commence sur de mauvaises bases, une motivation des équipes en berne, des difficultés à venir pour le management qui va devoir « remonter la pente » et une sérieuse inquiétude sur la réalisation des objectifs…

Les difficultés rencontrées par les organisateurs des séminaires commerciaux sont de différentes natures :

- Le séminaire ne permet pas de générer l’adhésion souhaitée autour des orientations stratégiques de l’entreprise
- La Direction Commerciale ou la DRH consacrent énormément de temps à l’organisation du séminaire au détriment de leurs autres priorités
- Le programme du séminaire est sensiblement le même d’une année sur l’autre, et les collaborateurs les plus fidèles n’en perçoivent plus vraiment l’intérêt

3. Alors, comment s’assurer de « réussir son séminaire commercial » ?

On nous pose souvent la question, car nous animons régulièrement des séminaires commerciaux pour nos clients depuis maintenant plus de 10 ans.

C’est pourquoi nous avons décidé de rédiger un livre blanc de 30 pages entièrement dédié à ce sujet, dans lequel vous trouverez des pistes concrètes et retours d’expérience pour vous aider à organiser votre prochain séminaire commercial.

Notamment des réponses à ces questions que vous vous posez sûrement :

- Quel contenu donner à mon séminaire commercial ?
- Comment animer mon séminaire pour faire un moment stimulant et mémorable pour les commerciaux et leurs managers ?
- Comment faire passer des messages clés à l’ensemble de l’équipe à l’occasion du séminaire ?
- Comment mobiliser les équipes pour garantir l’atteinte des objectifs annuels

Nous avons souhaité vous proposer une approche pragmatique et méthodique, fondée sur les bonnes pratiques issues des séminaires commerciaux animés depuis 10 ans chez nos clients comme : LAGARDERE PUBLICITE, BOLLORE LOGISTICS, SANOFI, ou APRR.

Want to optimize your sales team's time? In this webinar, learn how to refine your targeting and use appropriate tools to double the number of sales appointments you get per month: