Post on 31-May-2020
VLERICK SALES CONFERENCE: SELLING IN THE DIGITAL ERA
PROF DR DEVA RANGARAJAN
© Vlerick Business School
AGENDA
Improve & Align Sales Activity with the Informed Customer (0900-1030)
The Omni-channel Imperative (1100-1230)
Disruptive selling – How technology is changing the world and how sales organisations sell and organise themselves to create value (1330-1500)
Framework for Customer Success: Sales Relationship Process Matrix (1530-1700)
Prof Dr Deva Rangarajan2
OUR RESEARCH
Prof Dr Deva Rangarajan3
© Vlerick Business School
CHALLENGES FACING SALES MANAGERS
Six things keeping sales executives up at night:
Source: Neil Rackham session at the Global Sales Science Institute meet- Milan 2011
1. The end of the “better mouse-trap” model
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CHALLENGES FACING SALES MANAGERS
Six things keeping sales executives up at night:
2. The death of Face2Face (F2F) transactional selling
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CHALLENGES FACING SALES MANAGERS
Six things keeping sales executives up at night:
3. Unsustainable hybrid sales force
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CHALLENGES FACING SALES MANAGERS
Six things keeping sales executives up at night:
4. The ever extending sales cycle
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CHALLENGES FACING SALES MANAGERS
Six things keeping sales executives up at night:
5. The increase of RFP selling
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CHALLENGES FACING SALES MANAGERS
Six things keeping sales executives up at night:
6. Skyrocketing costs of chasing an opportunity
OUR RESEARCH
Prof Dr Deva Rangarajan10
© Vlerick Business School
STUDY 1: VLERICK SALES BAROMETER
List of 40 questions
Focus on procurement trends, structuring the sales effort, role of marketing, sales force enablement, sales force performance management
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DISTRIBUTION OF RESPONDENTS
12
35
32
18
SME
Multi-National
Other
85
7015
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TRENDS IN PROCUREMENT:
13
33,2
3,43,6
3,84
Traditional cold calling
approaches do not work
Sales Cycle times are
becoming longer
Social Selling
Online Searchers
TCO focus
Value adding sales visit
3,3
3,6
3,6
3,8
3,8
3,9
On a scale from 1 to 5
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STRUCTURING THE SALES EFFORT
14
2,8 3 3,2 3,4 3,6 3,8
Clear guidelines about when to work with indirect
sales
Clear idea about the pains of every member of the
decision making unit in the customer’s organization.
We clearly differentiate our sales approach based
on the complexity of the sales process.
An exact understanding of the needs of every
customer segment
We clearly link every feature of our solution
(product + value added services) to the specific
need of the customer?
An understanding of the specific sales process per
customer segment.
Clear and easy to understand criteria for
segmenting customers
3,15
3,20
3,31
3,40
3,43
3,54
3,76
On a scale from 1 to 5
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MARKETING NEEDS TO PLAY A MORE STRATEGIC ROLE IN:
15
3,70 3,80 3,90 4,00 4,10 4,20
Developing customer specific
content
Track and monitor customer
activity on digital channels
Customer segmentation
Mapping customer journeys and
pain points
Lead generation and qualification
4,14
4,08
4,01
3,95
3,87
Averages on a scale from 1 to 5
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SALES FORCE ENABLEMENT
16
2,7 2,8 2,9 3 3,1 3,2
Internal support team to create
customer value propositions
Easy to implement account planning
processes
Qualified leads are put in the CRM
system
We have an education system in
place ot train us on hi-tech tools
We have an easy to use CRM tool
Lead generation by marketing
department
We have tools to deliver latest
content at customer’s premises
Easy to access call management
tools
2,9
2,9
3
3,1
3,1
3,2
3,2
3,2
On a scale from 1 to 5
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SUGGESTIONS
Over resource the best opportunities
Take opportunity selection out of the hands of the salespeople
Involve marketing and marketing tools in opportunity selection
Push transactional opportunities to cheaper channels
Develop clear strategies to manage multichannel marketing efforts
Upgrade the sales enablement efforts
Equip your sales managers to deal with managing the sales force during this transition
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STUDY 2: DIGITAL MARKETING CHANNELS USAGE BY B2B CUSTOMERS
Ecommerce SaaS (A)
Security (B)
Furniture (C)
Telco (D) Healthcare (E)
Total of contacts 536 + 13813 = 14349
200 + 504 = 704
3299 + 5511 = 8810
6321 7700
Questionnairewas sent
13390 580 8541 6310 6519
Dates whenquestionnairewas sent
6.10.2015;13.11.-17.11.2015
23.10.,3.11., 11.11., 18.11.
9.10.-13.10.2015
9.10.-12.10.2015
9.10.-12.10.2015
Respondingperiod
6.10.2015-9.12.2015
23.10.2015-29.11.2015
9.10.2015-17.11.2015
9.10.2015-13.11.2015
9.10.2015-24.11.2015
Responses 710 41 763 276 568
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RESPONSE RATE
Invitation to participate was sent to 35 340 email addresses
Approximately 7690 was not reached (invalidemail address etc.)
Approximately 27650 were reached
Response rate approximately 8,5%
Total of responses received 2358
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USE OF DIGITAL TOOLS BEFORE AND AFTERTHE PURCHASE
During information search before the purchasedecision respondents rate search engine, website, online payment system and email as the most important digital tools.
After the purchase decision email, online payment system and website are rated as themost important digital tools among B2B customers.
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IMPORTANCE OF DIGITAL TOOLS
0
1
2
3
4
54,0 3,9 3,8 3,7
3,1 3,0 3,0 2,8 2,7 2,6 2,5 2,4 2,3 2,2 2,1 2,0
3,3 3,43,6 3,7
3,02,8
3,23,0
2,5 2,4 2,4 2,3 2,2 2,1 2,1 1,9
Before purchase After purchase
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STUDY 3: KRALJIC MATRIX AND THE MARKETING MESSAGE
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WE NEED YOUR HELP
Research Study 1: Best practices in complex selling situations
Research Study 2: Understanding the impact of social media on integrated marketing communication of B2B companies
Research Study 3: Vlerick-SAS forecasting maturity model
Prof Dr Deva Rangarajan23
THANK YOU!
EMAIL: DEVA.RANGARAJAN@VLERICK.COMLINKED IN: BE.LINKEDIN.COM/IN/DEVARANGARAJANWEB: HTTP://WWW.VLERICK.COM/SEC