“Sales professionals are fighting to be heard by busy and distracted prospects, and studies confirm that salespeople are dialing more but connecting less,” said Josiane Feigon, author of the new book “Smart Selling on the Phone and Online.” “Marketers can no longer survive using Sales 1.0 tactics in a Sales 2.0 world.”
DemandGen Report caught up with Feigon to discuss takeaways from the book, effectively managing the pipeline and how to nurture the ever-present challenge of Sales & Marketing Alignment.
DemandGen Report: From your perspective, what are some of the facets of successful Sales 2.0 communication and how do they relate to marketing objectives?
Josiane Feigon: Sales 2.0 has transformed the sales landscape, which impacts every aspect of sales and marketing communications. (1) The customer; I refer to them as the “opt-out” crowd- the distracted, busy decision-makers who are on overload and prefer to shop on their own terms. (2) The market’s economic and competitive conditions have created a more complex and less predictable sales cycle. (3) The salespeople who must quickly upgrade their skills and learn how to sell in a social medium.
DGR: The book emphasizes the importance of aligning your sales process with prospects’ buying process. What are some of the nuances of this strategy?
Feigon: In my book I explain how salespeople can no longer survive in “self-selling utopia” which means selling from their agenda and not their prospects’. The salesperson is usually wrapped up thinking about their products, their incentives and their demos, and not really connecting with their prospects. The research out there confirms process-centric sales teams outperform sales teams that depend entirely upon the talent of their sales executives. By developing an effective sales process, sales teams and managers can better help track opportunities and align with their customers.
DGR: The book discusses the proper usage of new tools to manage and plan. Can you elaborate on some of the tools that marketers should be plugged into?
Feigon: Sales and marketing need tool fuel to effectively navigate the Sales 2.0 landscape. The good news is there are lots of tools out there designed to help throughout the entire sales process. These Web-based tools range from lead management, sales analytics, performance and dashboards, sales intelligence, collaboration tools, data integration and social media, which is on everyone’s hotlist.
DGR: An ever-present challenge for BtoB organization is the alignment of sales and marketing. Can Sales 2.0 technologies assist in this process? How so?
Feigon: Yes, tools and technologies have united the sales and marketing organizations to focus on the same tool and not have archaic, disparate technologies. The goal must be to align in processes and expectations of these tools and to get everyone utilizing them the same way.
DGR: Part of any marketing organization’s objective is to effectively manage the pipeline. The book explores how to recapture lead qualification control to move leads through the funnel faster. What are some the key takeaways from this?
Fiegon: Today’s prospects have lost patience with vendors. They are tired of the same questions and annoyed with outdated sales tactics. In order to recapture lead qualification control, they must utilize a more robust qualification criteria which goes deeper than the basic BANT (Budget, Authority, Need and Timeframe) questions which are not enough. In my book, I introduce Qualification Criteria, which includes eight categories and guarantees stronger relationship building.
Josiane Feigon is author of the book, Smart Selling on the Phone and Online– the sourcebook for inside sales. Her Cubicle Chronicles blog is voted among the top 25 sales blogs. She is founder and CEO of TeleSmart Communications, a 20-year veteran and thought leader of the industry, Josiane is recognized as one of the world’s leading experts on inside sales team and manager talent, providing consulting, coaching, and training solutions for hundreds of Fortune 1000 companies. Visit Josiane’s website: www.tele-smart.com, to purchase her book and download her latest ebook and white papers.
