Sales prospecting: Are you more 'traditional' or 'digital'?

Traditional outreach methods (such as 'cold' calling) are facing increasingly diminishing returns. Digital channels (especially social media) can help counterbalance this trend and boost the entire sales process, provided you effectively integrate this new component into your sales process. So, should you choose between traditional methods and digital techniques? And how can you best leverage the latter to generate leads?

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

Sales process: traditional methods are no longer sufficient

Have you developed sales techniques internally? Do you have "recipes" for generating leads that are known to the sales team and deliver satisfactory results? Excellent. So why not stick to these methods? Because they are no longer enough. They are no longer sufficient to convince your contacts, who have become better educated in sales techniques and are sometimes resistant to "marketing" designed to generate mass demand. These classic techniques are sometimes no longer sufficient to meet contact and sales objectives, or, when they do, they involve high costs and a significant time investment.

• • The number of appointments obtained through phone calls is steadily declining. The ever-decreasing costs of telecommunications for businesses, and the proliferation of prospecting services, generate a flood of calls that we all often try to avoid. In addition, the information used for these calls is poorly tracked and very short-term oriented.
  • The way buyers operate has evolved. The internet has become a preliminary or parallel step to any 'real-world' interaction. People gather information on blogs and official websites, and 'Google' a whole host of things. Ignoring this new step in the customer journey is doomed to failure.
  • Companies with a clear distinction between the marketing department, which generates leads, and a salesperson who exploits and converts these leads, lack an overall vision. Interaction strategies must be considered as early as possible to bear fruit and provide quality leads. We must move beyond a simple view of the salesperson who is 'fed' by marketing. They must become involved from the pre-sales stage.

So-called classic sales methods should not be abandoned. Simply be aware that they are no longer sufficient to achieve results objectives or even to stand out in an increasingly competitive environment. To improve the financial efficiency of prospecting, and rediscover that little extra that makes the difference, you need to integrate digital technology and consider 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! Classic and digital methods are complementary. The new methods are an evolution of the classic methods; the entire profession does not need to be reinvented. On the other hand, work needs to be done on the substance so that the focus is no longer solely on the brand and its products, but rather on the benefits provided to the customer.

Initiate a "commercial digitalization" process: essential steps in the journey

Revamping sales processes, touching them, and evolving them by injecting a bit of digital (website that encourages contact requests, white papers, mobile application, etc.) is the most difficult part. This digitization has a fundamental effect on how tasks are performed, and thus permanently changes certain processes.

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

So you need a roadmap. A shift in mindset internally should allow priorities to change: everyone needs to get involved and think about customer benefits and the real expectations of consumers. How do you launch this transformation? Through change management support and gradual implementation, according to the characteristics of your company.

• • Start with a clear definition of lead segmentation, criteria, and the scoring process, as well as scenarios and conversion funnels to qualify these leads and deliver them to the sales team at the right time (maturity, progress in the purchasing decision-making process);
  • Define key performance indicators (KPIs) for better monitoring of these different stages. Take care of the internal processes of tracking, storing, and using contact data. This is a raw material not to be neglected, and you must ensure its quality.
  • Define lead assignment procedures and "transmission" to salespeople according to criteria specific to your business.

However, digitizing sales processes is not limited to defining procedures and operating diagrams. It also requires integrating a "marketing" approach upstream (i.e., pre-sales) and involving sales representatives. They must be present at all stages. They have knowledge of the products and customers, as well as a concrete vision of the needs. They must be involved in defining the themes and "content" intended to attract and engage leads. This represents a real shift in paradigm and way of working for them.

Support should be offered to them in this context (training, very educational explanation sessions, group work between departments) to facilitate adaptation. It is necessary to communicate more than usual to explain the changes in progress and their purpose. Comprehensive support is needed, which mobilizes the various internal stakeholders, in the service of commercial efficiency and the customer experience... digitized!

We can see that lead development strategies via interactions on social networks or websites gradually bring a future customer closer to the company in prospecting. This approach does not conflict with the traditional approach of making appointments by telephone or canvassing in the field. Salespeople must be an integral part of the digitalization process and the addition of new tools that do not break their profession but, on the contrary, help them to reclaim it. Digital technology makes it possible more than ever to maintain conversion with its prospect over time, to build a relationship over time and to adapt to all expectations, whether the interlocutor is already mature or in the discovery phase. A 'better' way of working and winning orders that you must explain to your salespeople to win their support.