Wrk’s Guide to Flexibility for your Sales Cycle
As a fully remote company, Wrk has insider information on how to make sure that delivery of your business processes is always possible at any time and from anywhere. We’ve learned to not let a location or a timezone limit what kind of support we can provide our customers or downtime on developing leads. In other words, we aren’t limited by regular restraints when it comes to forming relationships or providing an excellent customer experience. Remote work has increased flexibility and freedom, and remote sales have become more popular than ever.
However, some of the strategies that companies have recently started to adopt aren’t necessarily new to a lot of Sales teams. In fact, like Wrk, many companies ONLY employ remote sales reps. The greatest asset that a remote Sales team brings to the table is their ability to communicate 24/7 (they aren’t limited to one timezone), and they are experts in keeping communication open, constant, and consistent.
Let’s take a look at things we can learn from remote Sales teams and how they can be applied to your sales cycle and business processes.
Flexibility allows you to put the buyer first
3 in 5 sellers say that they believe that they always put their buyer first. However, only 24% of buyers seem to agree. The discrepancy is very concerning and worth taking note of. The problems can lie with the organization as a whole, rather than the individual salespeople.
39% of companies are operating on limited budgets and limited commitment to training.
It appears there is an opportunity to implement a new model of sales. One that focuses on treating buyers as they are—modern consumers. These business processes can help buyers and sellers work together instead of one working for the other. It pivots the interests and needs of sellers and makes sure that they are aligned with the needs of the buyer.
A buyers’ first approach looks to understand the target market and their unique needs. Then they work on the path together in order to guarantee that the buyer is reaching their goals. In some situations, the crucial ingredient for that is flexibility. At times you will need to adapt your approach, trying a different solution, and even walk away from a deal if it isn’t the right fit for your client.
Make sure your business processes are clearly defined
When your Sales team and revenue-generating teams are focussed on solving problems and not just selling, you can find more opportunities that fit your product much better. It’s important to see the relationship to the very end, even long after a deal has been closed. This makes sure that your buyer is getting the maximum value out of your solution.
It is critical to make sure that every step of your strategy is well thought out. Every step of your sales cycle needs to be established and supported. Surprisingly, two-thirds of all sales reps don’t seem to follow a sales process. A big attraction to sales roles is the thought that you will have more freedom and less structure. So how do you make sure that you maintain your freedom AND offer structure to your sales processes?
48% of under-performing organizations admit to having non-existent or informal sales processes. Don’t be one of them.
A typical sales process consists of between 5 and 7 steps. Let’s break down the most effective strategy:
- Prospecting & Lead Generation
- Communication
- Delivery (quotes) & Data Management
- Push back
- Follow-up and closing
- Nurturing
- Referrals and return
The sales process is a journey, so think of this more as a roadmap for you or your team.
Introduce an automated component to your sales cycle
According to Gartner, 75% of B2B sales organizations will add some form of artificial intelligence (AI) guided selling solution to their traditional sales playbooks by 2025.
These applications and platforms are designed to take on the load of your most tedious and repetitive day-to-day requirements. The shift will make sure that you can put your attention toward building relationships and effectively managing your business processes as the information is delivered to you from reliable sources. Your first step should be to get rid of waste. This will improve your results when you’re prospecting and looking at quality leads. Use bots, RPA, or other human resources to look at wasteful and messy data. When data is compiled from various sources, it can be saved differently, incorrectly, or simply not updated due to how long the manual process can take.
Wrk's Deduplication Wrkflow will facilitate the merging of contacts as well as enriching your current records. By combining it with our Lead Enrichment Wrkflow, not only will your data be higher value, but your team with have the most up-to-date profiles, job titles, and many more key data points to identify clients who are not only ready to buy, but who have problems that you will be able to resolve with your product.
Maximize your current team (and their flexibility)
Having a strong sales process and combining that with state-of-the-art technology doesn’t mean that your team is subject to rigid rules or that their creativity is suppressed. The gut instinct and talents of your team will be put to the best use possible—in guaranteeing the sale.
When looking at the buyer and putting their needs first, you’re not looking at a better way to sell, but adapting to how your customer wants to buy.
Take a look at your customers' needs and make sure that they are always in mind when you’re going through the steps of your business processes. Ask yourself: What are their buying patterns? What are my customers’ expectations? The answers to these questions are where your current team is most valuable. They are at their best when they are creating and building relationships. This brings us full circle. Customers flock to businesses that treat them as if they are special and not just another number. They want a connection with their seller. Active listening, empathy, and trust building are great skills, and absolutely essential to build and deepen relationships with customers. But when your team needs to have constant flexibility and an ‘always’ available mentality, how do the daily tasks get done?
Our Hybrid Automation platform can help your revenue-generating teams to tackle the biggest pain—filter out unqualified leads, and find the best opportunities and prospects with the biggest likelihood to purchase.
More than 70% of all B2B sales cycles take between 4-12 months to close, which is why high-value leads should be identified as early as possible in your process to cut your cycle shorter and make it more effective.
Use automation to improve your communication and follow up
You don’t need to be always available, you simply will need to always appear available. Having a remote team might help you cover different timelines so there is always someone ready to send important information to your clients and follow up with support and questions. But it won’t guarantee that there’s always someone there for the clients and what they may need. Missing a quote request or not solving a problem immediately might make you lose a client, or at the very least, their trust.
Automate your outreach. Yes, we know, it might seem cold or robotic, but if you look at a hybrid method, like at Wrk, there’s also a community of human workers available to add personality and customization to the communication. Not only do you have responses that aren’t canned or templated, but they are also available even when your team isn’t. Wrk Actions can handle the steps that you’re not free for (we all need sleep, right?), and still guarantee that your client feels taken care of and heard. It can even take on calls and set up meetings in your absence.
Still discovering all the marvels of automation and how it can improve your business processes? Book a call with one of our team members to discuss how we can work together today.
