Sales prospecting: are you more "classic" or "digital"?

Conventional methods of making contact (such as cold calling) are facing ever-decreasing returns. Digital technology (with social networks at the forefront) can help counterbalance this trend, and energize the entire sales process. Provided you organize your sales process to effectively integrate this new component, of course! So, should you choose between traditional methods and digital techniques? And how can you make the most of the latter to generate leads?

Here are some answers based on our operational expertise and customer feedback.

Sales process: conventional methods no longer suffice

Have you developed in-house sales techniques? Do you have "recipes" for generating leads that salespeople are familiar with, and which bring satisfactory results? Excellent. So why not stick to these methods? Because they're no longer enough. They're no longer enough to convince your contacts, who have become better educated in sales techniques and sometimes resistant to marketing designed to generate mass requests. In some cases, these classic techniques are no longer sufficient to meet contact and sales targets, or, when they are, they entail high costs and a heavy investment of time.

• • The number of appointments obtained by telephone calls is steadily declining. The ever-decreasing cost of telecommunications for businesses, and the multiplication of prospecting services, generate a flood of calls that we all often try to avoid. What's more, the information used for these calls is poorly traced and very short-term oriented;
  • The way buyers work has evolved. The Internet has become a preliminary or parallel step to any "real" exchange. We get information from blogs and official websites, and we "Google" a whole host of things. Ignoring this new stage in the customer journey is doomed to failure;
  • Companies that have a very distinct organization, between the marketing department that generates leads and the sales department that exploits and transforms these leads, lack a global vision. Interaction strategies need to be thought through as far upstream as possible if they are to bear fruit and deliver quality leads. It's no longer enough to have a simple vision of the salesperson who is "fed" by marketing. They must become players right from thepre-sales stage.

Traditional sales methods are not to be banished. We simply have to realize that they are no longer sufficient to achieve results, or even to stand out from the crowd in an increasingly competitive environment. To improve the financial efficiency of prospecting, and to find that little extra that makes all the difference, you need to integrate digital technology and take into account new customer behaviors. This effort to digitalize the sales process will initiate a transition towards a more radical change that is inevitable in the long term. Don't see digital as a constraint, or as your enemy! Traditional and digital methods are complementary. The new methods are an evolution of the classic ones, so the whole business doesn't have to be reinvented. What we do need to do, however, is work on the content, so that the focus is no longer solely on the brand and its products, but rather on the benefits for the customer.

Initiating a "commercial digitization" process: the essential steps along the way

Renewing sales processes, touching them and making them evolve by infusing a little digital (website that encourages contact requests, white papers, mobile app, etc.) is the hardest part. This digitalization has a fundamental effect on the way tasks are carried out, and thus changes certain processes in a lasting way.

Let's take an example: if you embark on a process of better lead qualification, and decide to use predictive analytics, it will be easy to implement the tools that enable these changes. On the other hand, it will be much more difficult to change the way your employees use this data, and integrate it into their day-to-day missions.

So you need a roadmap. A change of mentality within the company is needed to shift priorities: everyone needs to get involved and think in terms of customer benefits and real consumer expectations. How do you launch this transformation? Through change management support, and gradual implementation, depending on the characteristics of your company.

• • Start by clearly defining lead segmentation, scoring criteria and processes, as well as conversion scenarios and funnels to qualify these leads and deliver them to the sales team at the right time (maturity, progress in the buying decision process);
  • Define key performance indicators (KPIs) to better monitor these different stages. Take care of your internal processes for tracking, storing and using contact data. This is a raw material that must not be neglected, and you must take care to ensure its quality;
  • Set up procedures for assigning leads and "passing on" them to sales reps according to your own criteria;

However, digitizing sales processes involves much more than defining procedures and operating diagrams. You also need to integrate a "marketing" approach in the upstream (i.e. pre-sales) phase, and get sales people involved. They need to be present at every stage. They are the ones who know the products and customers, and have a concrete vision of needs. They need to be involved in defining the themes and "content" designed to attract and engage leads. This represents a real paradigm shift in the way they work.

They need to be offered support (training, highly educational explanatory sessions, group work between departments) to help them adapt. We need to communicate more than usual to explain the changes underway and their purpose. All-round support is needed, mobilizing all the different internal players, in the service of sales efficiency and customer experience... digitalized!

As you can see, lead development strategies involving interaction on social networks or websites can gradually bring a future customer closer to the prospecting company. This approach is not at odds with the traditional approach of making appointments by telephone or canvassing in the field. Salespeople need to be an integral part of the digitization process, adding new tools that don't break their job, but rather help them to reappropriate it. Now more than ever, digital technology makes it possible to maintain conversion with prospects over the long term, to build a relationship over time and to adapt to all expectations, whether the prospect is already mature or in the discovery phase. A "better" way of working and winning orders that you need to explain to your sales force to win their support.