Sales Leaders: Five Keys For Navigating The Digital Revolution
Originally published in Forbes Magazine
Craig Dempster is CEO of Trilliad. He brings over 25 years of experience in the marketing technology services industry.
September 13, 2024 – We are witnessing a transformation in professional selling. The stakes are high, with opportunities for both significant wins and losses.
As the CEO of a growth services provider that specializes in using data and technology to serve sales and marketing teams, I see the major challenges facing sales teams—as well as the strategies that can help them navigate those challenges successfully.
The Shift From ‘Traditional’ To Digital Selling
In the past, selling was often seen as the art of building one-on-one relationships. For many salespeople, this meant simply creating opportunities for social interactions, understanding customers’ individual preferences and making sales primarily through the strength of personal connections. As a former chief growth officer once told me, “We just need to know what they like to drink and eat, and we’ll sell them something.” While personal relationships are still important, this approach isn’t always up to the task of selling in today’s world.
A seismic shift is underway. Today’s leaders must navigate a digitally based selling environment where technology, data and analytics can create significant competitive advantages. Sales leadership that fails to evolve could give way to new leaders who can.
Learning From Marketing
The sales transformation I’m talking about echoes the massive shift experienced in marketing in the early 2000s when the rise of the internet and social platforms moved marketers from traditional marketing to also include digital marketing. When marketing went digital, many were unprepared for the change. New technology provided new data sets for targeting, insights and measurement, which shifted the focus from a brand-first strategy to myriad customer-first strategies. Younger, digital-savvy leaders and brands capitalized on this disruption, seizing market share and creating new opportunities.
Without a change in strategy, I believe sales leaders risk suffering the same fate as their slow-moving marketing counterparts two decades ago. Sales organizations can innovate to keep pace with today’s digital world by adopting a data-driven approach. While AI is part of this change, the transformation is far more profound and far-reaching. I believe it began long before AI became a household term and has accelerated since then.
The Impact Of The Pandemic
The Covid-19 pandemic accelerated the shift to digital selling. Traditional methods relying on familiar tactics rooted in in-person meetings and relationship-building with a small buying group abruptly became obsolete. Overnight, selling went digital, with many sales teams relying on video conferencing tools to connect with clients and navigate a broader and deeper network of influencers.
I noticed buyers adapt to the new reality as well. With access to vast amounts of information online, they began conducting more diligent research and discovery. Virtual meetings introduced new faces, prompting questions about whether these were new decision-makers or if they had always been present but unseen. The truth likely lies somewhere in between.
Embracing Innovation
Like all disruptions, this moment sparked innovation. Focus and investment quickly shifted toward technology to support a digital-first sales world. Sales leaders who had thrived in the old system now faced an influx of technology solutions designed for the new reality. Customer relationship management systems evolved, and new sales enablement and operations technology emerged to support digital interactions.
I saw an accelerating intersection of sales and marketing create sometimes difficult conversations that extended well beyond the familiar interactions about lead generation and follow-up complaints. Both sales and marketing embarked on overlapping digital journeys, and their technologies began to overlap as well, which highlighted the need for alignment.
The Path Forward
To remain competitive, sales organizations can transform. Here are five key strategies for achieving success in a digitally driven world:
1. Reskill and streamline sales teams.
Sales organizations investing in technology, data and analytics must also invest in new skills. To do so, you may need to streamline headcount. This requires assessing sales teams in new ways to identify innate talents and learnable skills necessary for success. This can help you better predict performance potential and target the development of high performers. Those lacking foundational talents may need to be redeployed elsewhere.
2. Unify sales and marketing technologies.
As the buyer experience moves increasingly online, sales and marketing technologies should become a unified “growth” tech stack. Establish a common data layer to enable collaboration between sales and marketing. This can allow insights from each function to inform and enhance the other’s efforts. A unified data source also helps ensure consistency and accuracy.
3. Align sales and marketing for seamless collaboration.
Sales and marketing must operate as a cohesive team to deliver a seamless customer experience. This requires a shared language, aligned metrics and common goals. Leadership at the intersection of sales and marketing is essential to owning growth and driving alignment.
4. Leverage data for performance and predictive insights.
Sales professionals should develop analytical skills to predict and measure outcomes effectively. A data-driven learning agenda enables continuous learning, testing, optimization and measurement. By embracing data, sales teams can reduce time spent on forecasting and increase focus on selling activities. This transformation aligns sales with marketing’s efficiency and predictability, making sales forecasts more reliable and actionable.
Brands can use quantitative assessments and link their sales team’s data competency scores to their sales key performance indicators. (Full disclosure: My company provides these assessments, as do others.) In doing so, they can predict the specific sales improvements that will result when sales competencies improve through training and coaching.
5. Provide leadership sponsorship for transformation.
Successful transformation requires sponsorship from the very highest levels of the organization. This means that as a leader, you should actively participate in strategy development, take accountability for outcomes and advocate for change. Leaders must be deeply involved and provide the resources and support necessary for the transformation to the modern selling environment to succeed.
The pace of change and innovation in sales over the next decade will be unprecedented. I believe the future belongs to those who can adapt, innovate and lead in this digital revolution by implementing these five strategies.
About Trilliad
Trilliad (www.trilliad.com) is a market-leading Growth Services Provider (GSP) focused on solving problems and driving results for the Chief Revenue Officer (CRO). Trilliad’s full-service solutions deliver competitive advantage for the brands it works with by optimizing their sales strategy, processes, skills, and technology. Trilliad drives efficiency and predictability at the intersection of sales, marketing, and customer success to increase seller productivity, lower cost per lead, decrease cost per sale, accelerate time to close, and drive customer lifetime value. Visit Trilliad.com for more information.
