Salesforce’s annual “State of Sales” report aggregates data from thousands of surveys of sales professionals across the world in an attempt to uncover contemporary trends of sales, including strategies, tools, technologies, and perceptions. In the 2016 report, there are several statistics that are relevant to one of our favorite topics: sales enablement technology.
We believe that investing in a sales enablement tool is one of the smartest moves a sales team can make – there are instant results with much greater long-term benefits, and ultimately the tool pays for itself. But don’t take it from us: read on for 9 insights from the 2016 Salesforce “State of Sales” that capture the rising popularity and effectiveness of sales enablement technology.
The best sales teams are already using sales enablement technology at a much higher rate than underperforming teams. Adoption of new technologies is an effective way to shake up old processes and inject new energy into your sales teams, often resulting in improved processes and closing rates.
Mobile technology is proving to be a vital part of the modern salesperson’s arsenal. The best sales teams are equipped with robust mobile sales apps with feature sets that ensure the ability to progress any sales opportunity. Underperforming teams are stuck with archaic processes and tools, creating a massive learning curve for new hires while not realizing the full potential of even your best salespeople.
What do top teams use their mobile sales apps for? The following were listed as the top three use cases:
For teams that have implemented mobile sales apps, what improvements are they seeing? The following were listed as the top three benefits:
Salesforce advises that “technologies like analytics, mobile, and automation can go a long way to improving a sales rep’s daily productivity.” Anywhere, anytime access to digital assets, analytics, and customer information reduces the amount of data entry and similar tasks required, allowing sales teams to focus more on selling.
The expansion of sales intelligence seems inevitable in the next few years – it should be a high priority to have an existing sales enablement platform to take advantage of these potentially game-changing technologies when they arrive.
Proper leveraging of analytics allows sales teams to identify what’s working and what isn’t, then adjust accordingly. Continual improvement is perhaps the most important part of the sales process.
The top four most improved results after implementing sales analytics were listed as: