Selling Power Magazine Article

Social networking may be the buzzword of the day, but there’s another, even-more-crucial, two-word business phrase that’s impacting B2B sales across the world. What are those two powerful words? Customer experience. In short, this covers all your interactions with all your customers. If that experience is working well, your customers will stick with you forever. But if it’s not working? Better get busy figuring out how to improve the customer experience.

That may sound like a tall order, but the digital revolution has swept through all aspects of sales, marketing, and customer service – big time. Salespeople routinely use personal devices, finding innovative ways to do their jobs better, faster, and cheaper, while social media brings both companies and customers into closer, more fluid contact.

Here is a look at how some very large companies are cutting costs, increasing productivity, and boosting sales with the latest tools. 

Financial Gain

In January of this year, The Hartford Financial Services Group began pilot testing iPad use for its annuity and mutual fund sales reps. These reps sell to the financial advisors who, in turn, sell to individuals. Lori LaForge, chief marketing officer for Hartford’s annuity division, says the company was looking for four kinds of benefits during the pilot test: “Does [the iPad] help in day-to-day selling and accessing materials [electronically], rather than reps’ carrying 4,500 brochures and kits? Does it improve email access? Does it help with administration, for example seeing sales reps’ flights and computing their expenses? Finally, does it help with territory management, for example showing reps another financial advisor in a local area when a planned visit has been cancelled?”

The three-month pilot was successful, and Hartford will provide the devices to 55 annuity salespeople and managers and about 100 mutual fund reps. “Before, the reps had just BlackBerrys and paper,” Laforge says. “When a meeting was planned on subject ‘A’ but pivoted from subject ‘A’ to subject ‘B,’ they could not respond quickly. Now they can immediately bring up the right materials on subject ‘B’ or display a seminar on the new subject and book the prospect for it.”

Checking out emails on iPads is also a lot easier and faster, taking perhaps five minutes in between meetings, rather than a half hour at the end of the day. LaForge says the overall aim is greater productivity for sales reps and their managers. It looks like iPads will make that possible.

Similarly, Aflac’s prospects are self-educating more than ever because of Internet access to information and education, notes Thomas Giddens, Aflac’s senior vice president and director of sales. “The traditional sales process is altered by this reality,” he says.

Aflac is using technology by putting sales tools on iPads, using e-learning and mobile-learning methods, communicating on multiple channels, and using social media. One sales tool, Mobile Aflac, allows agents to quickly retrieve vital information for policyholders, groups, and businesses. “The tool also helps agents stay on track with sales goals, because they can view their real-time sales numbers,” Giddens says.

Another tool, Aflac’s SmartQuote, lets agents quickly and easily provide rates for individuals and new or existing payroll accounts. Aflac Anywhere notifies agents via text message of important events in the enrollment or underwriting process. “Mobile platforms have influenced not only how we sell, but what we sell,” Giddens says.

The sales-process transformation has been dramatic in the financial sector. “Continuing enhancements to mobile devices coupled with growing Software-as-a-Service options have brought the sales process to a significantly more efficient level,” says Joel Schwartz, senior vice president; chief financial officer; and head of strategy, profitability, and risk management for Lincoln Financial Distributors, the wholesaling distribution organization for Lincoln Financial Group. “These technology changes have and will continue to enable wholesalers to almost instantly have at their fingertips the most recent information and statistics, as well as collateral material best suited to the client.”

Lincoln wholesalers are now equipped with iPhones, iPads, and similar devices that help improve sales productivity and the overall sales experience. Schwartz explains, “All the information clients likely need or want is a swipe of the finger away, and cloud technology gives them the ability to download and present materials to their clients on the spot.”

Commercial banks are also exploiting the new information tools, especially social media. “PNC Financial Services Group’s sales force benefits from a corporate social-media program that includes tweets, blog posts, and Webinars designed to educate its business customers about PNC products and services,” says PNC vice president Fred Solomon. In addition, PNC’s Virtual Wallet allows customers to see all scheduled payments and income and note “danger days” when funds may be low. A blog dedicated to Virtual Wallet assists customers in maximizing its benefits.

Consumers Report

Consumer-product firms are leveraging the Web’s wide reach to get in front of their ultimate customers: millions of individuals
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and households. They are increasingly using information technology to support the sales reps who sell to distributors and channel partners. “Information technology is a key to our sales success,” stresses Steve Birgfeld, chief information officer of Hostess Brands. “Not only does IT allow us to work more efficiently by reducing processing time and waste, but it also allows our sales force to develop customer relationships and gain customer insights.”

Hostess exploits technology throughout its sales organization using direct data connections to its customers and enhanced information access for its direct store-delivery sales reps. Expanded use of electronic data interchange makes order processing, invoicing, and payments faster and easier. And Birgfeld says improved sales force access to business intelligence has added significant value by providing actionable insight into customers, products, and routes: “Accurate promotional and sales data allow our sales reps to sell smarter and better meet the needs of our customers. We become faster, smarter, and better at helping our customers make money.”

Hostess also uses interactive brand Websites, Facebook, and Twitter to actively engage its ultimate consumers. “Last year, we also launched our first iPhone application for Wonder bread,” says Richard Seban, chief marketing officer. “The consumer response to these social-media and online initiatives has been extremely positive.”

High-tech companies that made the information revolution have been very aggressive in exploiting it for sales success. “Social media has moved past a marketing and communication function to become a function [that is] important to all aspects of business,” summarizes Chuck Robbins, senior vice president of US enterprise, commercial, and Canada sales for Cisco Systems. “Within the sales organization today, there’s more pressure than ever to shorten our sales cycles and show measurable results. There’s an imperative to consume, analyze, and utilize more data about leads and prospects than before. And on top of that, we’re now selling to smarter, more active prospects who are increasingly more social.

“Our sales organization is working in lockstep with our marketing peers to ensure that the conversations we are encouraging on the social Web, whether through sites like Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube, or our own blogs, are extremely relevant to our key audiences and always insightful,” Robbins notes. “We believe social channels should be thought provoking and get to the heart of an issue, whether providing information on a specific solution deployment, best practices in a particular vertical market, or visionary insight into the future of technology.”

Channel Surfing
The Cisco retail team maintains a successful YouTube channel that has an ongoing, loyal following of customers, partners, prospects, and industry experts, as well as a blog on the Cisco Website and active presence on Twitter, Facebook, and Linked-In. The team works closely with members of the Cisco sales organization to ensure the content that is disseminated across all of these channels provides the right feet-on-the-street perspective for customers and partners, is always inclusive, and promotes two-way communication. Contributors to the Cisco retail social sites vary, depending on the topic, and the team regularly connects with followers to address questions and engage in conversations. Such measurement and customer-care solutions as Cisco SocialMiner have been put in place to benchmark social-media success, and ensure that the team is learning from audience input and the organization is proactively managing responses as they come in.

Dell uses a collaborative approach to sales with sales teams that consist of account executives, inside sales representatives, sales specialists, sales engineers, and product technologists, according to Donna Troy, vice president and general manager of Dell’s public and large-enterprise solutions organization. “We feel that, for our customers, it’s imperative that our sales teams have real-time access to knowledge and people,” Troy says. “Dell has implemented sales tools and processes that go beyond just smart phones and instant messaging and instead embrace emerging technologies to help sales teams help their customers.”

Dell provides its sales teams with 24/7 access to critical account information, such as customer issues, hot topics, current statuses on open items, and customer analyses to help Dell identify root causes of areas of concern and drive improvement. Dell reps also have historical information on all accounts so they can quickly understand the customer’s profile and ensure the correct solution is put in place.

Dell uses a “private cloud” to house its most up-to-date solutions and product information, allowing sales teams to get information anytime and anywhere to best serve the customer. An internal social-networking site also offers internal collaboration so Dell employees can share best practices, find experts, and learn about events. “This leads to additional knowledge that can be transferred to a better customer engagement,” Troy notes.

Wire Less

It may come as no surprise that telecomm firms connect well with their reps. “Cutting-edge wireless devices, like mobile tablets and smart phones, have helped our business-to-business sales team connect with customers in
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new ways to make sure we’re meeting their needs,” says Ed Coates, district sales manager for U.S. Cellular. The entire sales force uses the Samsung Galaxy Tab daily.

“With the Samsung Galaxy Tab, our sales team can get more done on the go, respond faster to our customers, and demonstrate the strength of our high-speed nationwide network,” Coates says. With a seven-inch screen, the pocket-size tablet fits in one hand and is easier to carry around than a laptop. “Our salespeople can use the tablet to quickly launch PowerPoint presentations during meetings, access important information stored on the device or on the Web to close the deal, and check and respond to email,” Coates explains.

The Samsung Galaxy Tab and other Android-powered devices, such as the Samsung Mesmerize and HTC Merge smart phones, also enable U.S. Cellular salespeople to download useful Android applications so they can work more efficiently. These applications can track expenses, organize and store customer files, and even check the weather and find the nearest gas stations. “The Navigator Deluxe minimizes the risk of getting lost on the road by providing voice-activated, turn-by-turn directions directly to prospects’ doorsteps,” Coates explains. “Gas Buddy shows salespeople nearby gas stations, lets them compare gas prices, and gives directions to the station of their choice. The Rainy Days application helps salespeople plan days to avoid approaching bad weather.”

Telecomm giant CenturyLink uses information technology extensively to recruit, train, and motivate its sales reps, according to Suzanne Dove, vice president of the Business Market Group. CenturyLink uses social media to attract sales talent. “We post jobs on social media and keep tabs on social media,” Dove says. “The Millenials pay attention to Twitter and Facebook when looking for jobs.”

Good candidates are then given an online personality assessment, developed in partnership with Miller Heiman and Profile, to seek the traits and characteristics that have made for success at Century-Link. “We want to be sure they are successful and will be with us for a long time,” explains Dove. 

CenturyLink supplements its instructor-led classroom training with on-demand, Web-based training that reps can access when they need it. On-demand training also helps prevent old lessons from going into cold storage. “We also have a learning system that sales professionals can go into and put together skills or product training in their own quarterly or annual curricula,” Dove says. The system tracks the rep’s progress for both the sales rep and his or her manager.
CenturyLink uses technology to help motivate its reps by ensuring they have access, on the mobile device of their choice, to all the information they will need on a customer or vertical. And social media allow reps to exchange best practices on customers, industries, or particular sales challenges. In addition, CenturyLink has used sales-force automation to provide an integrated view of the sales cycle from lead to close. It is moving to CRM, which will integrate all of a customer’s relevant data for use by anyone who contacts that particular customer.

Technology is great, but it must be used effectively. That continues to be a major challenge when salespeople and sales processes are altered to exploit technology.

Process, Process, Process

Hernan Vera is vice president of marketing and sales operation at Pitney Bowes’s management services unit (PBMS). PBMS is transitioning now from an old CRM system to a cutting-edge system. Vera argues that the extraordinary functionalities and quick configuration of leading CRM solutions can tempt companies to move faster than salespeople can adjust and sales processes can be altered. “The best CRM systems can be set up so rapidly, companies become too ambitious in what they attempt to change all at once,” Vera says.   

For example, companies may try to reinforce a new selling method by requiring reps to check off boxes in the CRM system before they move forward. But many reps may simply check boxes without executing the required steps to move toward close.
Modern CRM systems can generate so many metrics that here, too, firms may seek to measure performance before they understand it or have reformed the process to achieve better performance. Vera says you first have to know how you should measure closing success – by percent won, deal count, revenue, or otherwise – before you should even bother counting activities that lead to success.

CRM systems also distribute leads, a critical function for sales effectiveness. But there are so many steps in a full sales cycle, companies may attempt to fix them all, rather than concentrate first on the essentials: making sure that qualified leads get to reps fast and are acted on promptly. So Vera is using a phased approach to the transition. In the first phase, he wants to ensure that his reps understand the new tool, opportunities are promptly entered, and the system is kept up-to-date. He will also introduce forecasting in this first phase. Even for PBMS, says Vera, which sells to Fortune 2000 prospects, doing it right is “a big challenge.” •