Source: Unsplash
By Ofri Cohen
Let’s face the truth. High-tech salespeople don’t get as much fame as the entrepreneurs, programmers, and engineers, but the fate of the industry is largely in their hands. Because even the most wonderful product needs sales people to sell it to existing and new customers, especially in these days of economic crisis, when many companies are trying to survive and trying to reduce everything that can be reduced.
Today it is clear that this is not a temporary and passing crisis but a series of multidimensional crises including the corona virus, the supply chains, the war in Ukraine, the energy crisis, the rising inflation, the waves of layoffs, the climate crisis and more. according to The last message of the CBS There has been a decrease in the volume of exports of services in the high-tech industry. Sales teams are currently experiencing a significant decrease in the volume of inbound sales calls, while outbound sales calls have become many times more challenging compared to previous periods, before the crises. Who wants to buy something at such a time?
Artificial intelligence Vs the human factor
The bright spot in this difficult period is the artificial intelligence that currently runs a long series of smart applications that help the salesperson understand the intentions, preferences and concerns of customers, carry out accurate personalization and close more deals. The number of leads is undoubtedly smaller today, but these applications successfully route and navigate the salesperson towards the destination and increase the success rate significantly. It is likely that without them the bottom line of many companies would be worse.
However, artificial intelligence will not be able to solve all our problems in life (at least at this point) and the human factor was and still is a critical element in the success of the salesperson especially in an era of crises. Especially in times of crisis, it is of the utmost importance to clearly coordinate expectations with the customers, who rightfully will not suffer a waste of time and resources. An accurate understanding of the organization’s map, the client’s goals and the pains he faces, will allow the salesperson to emphasizeConvince more of the value it brings, you will significantly reduce the frustrations that may be caused by an inappropriate purchase down the road and improve the numbers on both sides of the table.
While product and development departments try to reinvent themselves in order to close gaps or differentiate themselves from the competition, sales teams need to go back to the basics they were built on. A high level of skill is required of the sales people to understand the new goals of the client’s organization, the pains it faces, to locate the decision makers, the key people and those who may slow down or even cancel the completion of the deal. Layoffs and streamlining processes change the internal organizational hierarchy, therefore the salesperson needs to understand exactly how his contacts are measured, what keeps them awake and even what will help them continue to progress within the new organizational reality. For example – does the organization mainly suffer from a slowdown in recruiting new customers or maintaining existing ones? How does the organization deal with market competition? What are the new efficiency indicators set by the management? Is the decision maker or the key woman measured according to growth or saving resources? Are they a new force in the organization? Have their influence and powers been expanded or reduced? Have new influencers been added with whom it is worth building relationships? Gone are the days of improvisations , learning ‘on the go’ and ‘cold’ calls are pointless. The field of sales rises to new levels of skill.
Along with the use of artificial intelligence and personalization, salespeople must position themselves as experts in their field. A sense of true partnership, recognition of the difficulties of the time, a sincere desire to help, will help a lot to build trust. Although customers know that the sales people have an interest, they appreciate professionalism, expressions of support and a sincere desire to help in these difficult days.
The great tools that are available to the salespeople do help mainly in light of the essential need for efficiency. However, at this stage, they are still unable to replace the human aspect which plays an essential role in the entire sales process from start to finish.
Growth Vs Profitability
The sales people are also dealing with the fundamental (and very healthy) change that took place among investors, who went from an almost blind worship of growth – to focusing on the profit line. The sharp transition to focus on the profit line created a clear, substantial and even correct need to make cuts and build efficiency processes. There is no doubt that the sharp change in the perception of investors requires the high-tech companies to look inward and re-examine in a critical and professional way their product portfolio and sales methods. If in the past organizations opened their wallets and bought almost any software that might support the sales process, product development, human resources and more – today there is only room for tools that are able to translate their value into effective growth.
A critical view of each organizational function on the tools it chooses to use forces the sales people and service providers to improve themselves, when creating synergy between the sales people, the service providers and the product department, is more important than ever and needs to jump a step further. A high-tech company in which the sales and marketing people are very ‘successful’ but the product and customer retention people find it difficult to meet the efficiency goals, increase the line of expenses and collapse under the burden must understand that, apparently, there is room for improvements and adjustments in the sales teams as well. The company must examine questions such as – is there a compatibility of the product with the customer? Are we focusing on the right customers or are we taking advantage of short-term opportunities? Do we succeed in renewing contracts and keeping customers? If the level of customer satisfaction is low, what are the causes of this?
Effective growth will not come where only individual functions ‘succeed’ in achieving their goals while other functions are left behind. The commitment to a transparent and clear coordination of expectations is of enormous importance. On the one hand, salespeople must concentrate efforts and resources that will generate opportunities with the appropriate customers. They should avoid ‘opportunism’ and short-term victories which cause unnecessary stress and burdens on the development staff. On the other hand, product people must work shoulder to shoulder with sales and customer retention people. There is no room for developing capabilities that do not provide real value to the customer. The product development plan must be dynamic and transparent, with the sales and customer retention personnel having to sign it and set priorities together with the product managers.
Companies must understand that the day they win a customer is exactly the day they start losing them. That’s why today more than ever, salespeople need to lead the entire organization. They have a great responsibility to find the balance that will lead to efficient growth, to stretch the boundaries and maintain full synergy between the sales people, customer retention and the product people.
The writer is VP of EMEA and APAC Sales at Lusha