In the days of the coronavirus we are forced to work from home, discovering on one side the pleasure of having more time for us and less work interferences, but on the other hand it has become more difficult as we don’t have many occasion to relate with others as we are used to. This is a key aspect for Sales and at the moment they find themselves very limited on this as they can no longer meet customers as they used to. There is why a change is needed.
We need to find new ways to interact with our customers and potential ones since even if we do not yet know how all this will change, one thing is certain: working from home is our new reality (at least currently).
RETHINK THE RELATIONSHIP WITH THE CUSTOMER: DIGITAL SELLING / SMART SELLING
So how can sales teams respond to this “forced” working from home phase? In which way can a sales rep approach his work differently from what he is used to? Which benefits bring the digital selling / smart selling sales tools?
The digital actually offers many and unprecedented capabilities in developing relationships and creating new ones, since it aims to improve interaction with the customer and has the user who uses it at the center of its design, in order to make everything simple, fast, useful and, why not, beautiful. All this impacts the sales as follows:
- It provides the possibility to present and share marketing content and sales material (such as brochures, videos, presentations, etc.) in digital format which are always up to date and in line with the corporate brand image.
- It allows configuring an offer in real time together with the customer, who on his side can choose the products and services that best suit his needs. Once chosen the sales rep can continue to complete the offer and, if other changes are needed, he can do that in few clicks, adapting and speeding up the process, which has been made as standard as possible.
- The ability to easily generate, modify and send contracts and formalize them through electronic signature, even remotely.
- The capability to monitor sales activities in real time.
Digitizing sales activities does not change the role of the sales rep, but rather strengthens its consultancy approach because thanks to digital media the sales rep will have more time to spend with the customer, to listen and support him in the best way and configure an offer tailored to customers specific needs.
WHAT IS THE CONCRETE IMPACT OF THE DIGITIZATION OF SALES?
An idea of the impact of the digitization of sales is offered to us by solarplay, a company specializing in renewable energy, which has started the digitization process in order to improve its sales processes together with Apparound.
According to Manuele Solazzo, general Manager of solarplay, sales reps and customers have welcomed the new tools very well as these gave the possibility of staying in touch with one another also in this particular moment.
“Thanks to these tools, in particular to the remote signature, we were able to close many offers easily. Moreover, everyone, independently from the age, was able to adapt easily and quickly to the new digitizing tools.” he said.
“Furthermore, meeting virtually with the customer allowed our sales reps to be more efficient as by reducing travels, they would have more time to spend with customers on building contracts.
In past, our company would spend tens of thousands of euros per year on paper for advertising materials, offers and contracts. Thanks to the digitalization process of our sales we were able to cut these expenses as the digitizing process allows us to provide our sales reps content always up to date at zero cost. Moreover, this helped us in our mission on being a green company.” Added Manuele.
Thanks to the digitalization process, we were able to:
- improve our sales’ operations thanks to digital tools;
- reduce the time needed to build an offer;
- grow the sales network, through a tool that allows simple and rapid onboarding;
- perform an ongoing training in a constantly evolving technological market;
- collect authentic and in real time sales data to deepen the market analysis.
A GROWTH OPPORTUNITY TO TAKE
Managing the transition towards the digital transformation is not an easy path, especially in this particular scenario we are all living in. According to Gianluca Cagiano, CEO of Apparound “we are aware that the market is undergoing a profound transformation, but Apparound’s versatility allows to embrace this path easily. In particular, the digitization is the right path for sales to follow as it allows doing business while maintaining a customer-centric approach, even in this historical moment where interpersonal relationships are very limited.”
Therefore, in this particular scenario, the digital transformation has become a key aspect and an important opportunity to be seized, also for the sales.
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