Common sales challenges
The role and expectations of the teams that generate sales, also known as the commercial function, are continually evolving. While there is always an expectation to deliver increases in revenue year on year, ways of working and customers’ expectations also change. Technology and macro social and economic factors are also having a big impact. Customers are looking for personalized one-to-one relationships and are more intentional about how they spend their money, meaning sales teams have to be able to demonstrate value.
The 2020 pandemic forced many sales teams to rapidly find alternative ways of working. It took away the majority of in-person interactions, forcing organizations to quickly try and find ways to connect to customers online. Those who already had the working practices and technology had an advantage. Salespeople who built relationships in person at meetings and events needed to adopt a different approach. While the overwhelming desire in society has been to get back to in-person interactions and activities, there are some aspects of the new ways of working that people appreciate and want to continue with. For some people, working from home had benefits such as less time and money spent on commuting and more time spent with family or on leisure activities. Some people made big life changes by moving to new homes with office space and more rural locations. Equally, some organizations realized that they could conduct business without having to spend so much time and money on travel.
This enforced a global shift to working from home that proved that it was possible, although there are differences in opinion with regard to productivity. For some workers, it has meant they don’t want to go back. For sales, this means they have to be prepared to build relationships with people both in person and remotely. So, organizations have been able to do this really well, which has raised the bar further for those who are just starting their journey.
Another significant disruptor is generative artificial intelligence (AI). Following the impact of ChatGPT, we are seeing all organizations talking about how they might incorporate artificial intelligence into their ways of working to gain competitive advantage. Although this dominates conversations, most organizations are still at the early stages of understanding the potential and the implications and deciding where to incorporate it. There are questions to answer and decisions to be made to ensure that organizations receive the benefits without unintended consequences or bias.
Salesforce has announced several exciting AI features in recent months, and I am sure there will be many more. As it is early in their release, they are not widely adopted at this point. Those who are more mature in their AI journey will start to explore the benefits of these. Most organizations are still considering what these technological advancements mean for them. To capitalize on the benefits of AI, it is essential to have a volume of accurate, relevant, connected data that AI can learn from. In this book, we will not be focusing on the new AI tools as they are rapidly evolving, but we will focus on how you can implement Sales Cloud with an appropriate data model and quality data so you can connect it to other data sources and layer appropriate AI tools over the top when your organization is ready to adopt those at scale.
Next, we will explore some of the sales function-specific challenges that sales teams and leaders experience. This is not an exhaustive list but will give you an understanding of the types of challenges you might hear about.
Managing the sales pipeline
Pipeline management is the activity of managing the detailed steps in the sales process; understanding what has happened and what needs to happen next to move the deal to a close. The sales pipeline shows the status of a prospective deal at a given time. By inspecting the pipeline, a sales leader can see how many deals have been made by each salesperson and what their values are. They should also be able to see what prospect stakeholders are involved, what activities and meetings have taken place and what emails have been sent, and what the next steps are.
In addition to seeing where the pipeline is at any given time, leaders also want to know how it has changed compared to last week or last month. This allows them to take action if any negative trends are seen, such as the pipeline reducing in value or the close dates of deals being pushed out.
It is common for sales leaders to want more visibility on what is happening in the pipeline and for it to be up-to-date and accurate at any given time. Sales Cloud enables this by providing the functionality to record activities and the people involved, as well as offering a Pipeline Inspection view that gives a summary and comparison of what has changed, which we will learn about in Chapter 3 – The Core Sales Process. Integrations with other business tools also streamline the logging of activities, which will we look at in swsw, Common System Integrations.
Forecasting accuracy
Forecasting is the process of predicting value or the number of sales that will be achieved at a given point in time, usually by month or quarter. This number becomes a commitment to the business in terms of how much revenue will be generated, which also has an impact on the business in planning spending commitments. For example, organizations plan what they can spend on marketing or if they can hire additional people depending on the revenue forecast. Failure to achieve the revenue predicted means that cuts need to be made or plans need to be downgraded. This also had wider implications when the organization is publicly traded or when the business has been backed by investment. Forecasting is a fundamental and essential part of business planning. The accuracy of the forecast impacts the whole organization.
Sales Cloud has both specific Forecasting functionalities and Report and Dashboard functionalities for further analysis. It also enables the setup and enforcement of a consistent sales process so that data is consistently recorded by all. The forecasting functionality has features to allow leaders to view different people’s forecasts and quickly drill into the records. This allows leaders to see exactly what makes up the forecast and make manual adjustments based on their judgment so that they are confident in the forecast they commit to. We learn about Analyzing and visualizing data – Reports and Dashboards in Chapter 5.
Increasing sales productivity
All organizations welcome improvements in productivity. It would be unusual to find a commercial leader who wouldn’t want their teams to be more effective. Productivity can be increased by automating tasks such as logging data and notifying colleagues or providing them with relevant information, making it easier for team members to collaborate.
Sales Cloud offers many ways to increase productivity. Creating a single source of truth for commercial dates means Users know that they are working with and making decisions on the most up-to-date data. Stream and automate the logging of activities such as calls, emails, and meetings, automate the creation of records and notifications, and capture who is collaborating together on sales deals and in organizations to increase efficiency. We learn about setting up an appropriate data model and recording Opportunity and Account Teams in Chapter 3, The Core Sales Process. We review all the ways you can create a great user experience, including automation, in Chapter 5, Design and Build: Sales User Productivity.
Achieving sales and marketing alignment
Another common challenge that so many organizations face is creating alignment between sales and marketing. This refers to the role that marketing has in generating sales prospects, what determines that they have shown enough interest to a salesperson to take over, and how that handover is carried out.
Sales Cloud can assist with this as the sales prospects, Leads, resulting sales deals, and Opportunities can be tracked in one system. This means that it is possible to track a prospect all the way through its lifecycle. Ownership can be tracked and changed to capture the handover, as well as rules and guidance that support the way of working to successfully transition a prospect. With this reporting functionality, managers can assess the performance of the process. We learn about lead generation in Chapter 4, The Lead Generation Process.
Selling to buying groups
The buying group is the group of people who influence whether an organization makes a purchase. Particularly in a business-to-business setting or when there’s a purchase of a significant value, there can be a number of people involved in assessing the suitability or approving a purchase. For this reason, salespeople have to be able to successfully engage with multiple people.
Sales Cloud provides the functionality to be able to capture every person a salesperson interacts with and specify the role they have in the buying unit. Having this documented makes it easier to see the overall picture, create a plan, and gain the support of others. We learn about Contacts and Opportunity Contact Roles in Chapter 3 – The Core Sales Process.
Enabling sales teams
Enabling sales teams with the knowledge, tools, and materials they need to service prospects and achieve their targets is another challenge organizations look to solve. Sales Cloud with a level of customization for specific needs will provide the tooling. In Chapter 2, Defining the Approach, we learn about the importance of the role that Change Management has in ensuring Users are prepared to use Sales Cloud. In Chapter 5 – Design and Build: Sales User Productivity, we learn about functionalities such as Sales Path and In-App Guidance and provide users with guidance on what they need to do right when they need to do it.
The examples given here are just a few of the examples of how Sales Cloud provides solutions for common sales challenges. In the next section, we will explore why it is important that you understand how your Sales Cloud implementation aligns with and enables your company strategy and values.
