Just like athletes preparing to give their best in a tight competition, your salespeople are constantly seeking to improve their commercial results. In this race for performance, digital tools become essential assets. In this article, we will see how these tools can help your field sales team reach the B2B sales podium and boost your business activity.
The challenges faced by your B2B sales team
The challenges faced by your B2B salespeople in the field are numerous.
First, the sales profession requires good organization and time management: frequent travel during sales rounds, customer service management, meetings, administrative tasks are all part of the role but must not interfere with the essential task: selling.
Furthermore, the rise of digital technology has led to a profound transformation in buyer behavior. Field salespeople must therefore adapt and rethink how they interact with your clients.
Indeed, faced with highly connected and highly informed clients, your salespeople have no choice but to be experts in their field to make a difference. They must know your products perfectly and monitor your industry and market trends, in order to provide relevant information that clients will not have found themselves online and to be able to advise them effectively. This is the best way to meet their expectations and establish a lasting trust-based relationship to better retain them.
Additionally, competition is strong in B2B commerce. Your salespeople must constantly stay alert for new business opportunities and have the right information at the right time.
B2B digital sales enablement tools and their benefits for your salespeople
To assist them in all these tasks, so that they can be fully operational during client meetings, digital sales enablement tools become invaluable assets. Order-taking applications with CRM functionality and data analysis tools provide a concrete solution to support your B2B salespeople on a daily basis.
An order-taking application allows your salespeople to easily access your products, organized within an updated digital catalog with many filters to efficiently refine searches and find all the information they need.
- Your products are showcased through high-quality photos or videos that your salespeople can share with clients: product placements, ambiance creation, model shots, and videos provide a variety of visuals to help clients better envision their purchases. All product information is centralized and updated.
- The display of the digital catalog adapts to the client profile (product listings, negotiated commercial and pricing conditions…), ensuring that your salespeople have the right information.
- Connected to your central system, this type of application also provides updated stock status. Your salespeople can accurately inform clients about immediate availability or product shortages, upcoming arrivals, follow up on backorders (items already ordered but not yet delivered), and track ongoing deliveries.
- Order entry is very fast thanks to features like ordering from history or duplicating orders. Time spent on certain administrative tasks is reduced through automation of reporting, for example. This frees up valuable time for your salespeople, allowing them to focus more on prospecting and actual sales.
- Combined with CRM (Customer Relationship Management) functionality, it offers your salespeople an overview of interactions with their clients. They can regularly enrich client records with field feedback, allowing them to better detect and track sales opportunities and further personalize their commercial proposals.
- Equipped with commercial data analysis tools, it provides valuable statistics on market trends, clients’ buying habits, and product performance, enabling your salespeople to quickly adapt their sales strategy.
To make the most of this digital tool, your field sales representatives need high-quality equipment that can keep up with their busy travel schedules. To find out more, read our article on how to choose the right equipment for your field sales force.
The key to success: continuous training and integration of digital tools into the company strategy
For the integration of this digital sales enablement tool to be successful, it is essential to support your sales force during this stage, whether internal employees (sales representatives) or external (agents, outsourced sales force…). Indeed, anyone can easily integrate this tool and benefit from it.
With a proper presentation of the tool through adequate communication, for example, clearly explaining to your sales force how the digital tool will assist them in their daily tasks and the benefits they will gain.
Training your salespeople in the use of digital tools is essential to ensure optimal utilization. Regular training sessions and adapted educational materials can help them improve skills and encourage successful adoption of the tool.
Integrate the digital tool into the company’s overall strategy. The sales, marketing, and IT departments must work together to define clear processes and relevant performance indicators to monitor.
Once the tool is implemented, an adaptation and monitoring period will be necessary to ensure proper use. Take the time to regularly gather feedback from salespeople and clients to continuously improve the digital tool and adapt its functionalities.
