Sales support tools : For whom and why?

By Aurélien De Joffrey

In Sales Optimization, Sales Enablement

What are the benefits of implementing a sales support tool?

Using a sales support tool has many advantages for a company:

1. Better lead management: A sales support tool allows you to collect useful information about your prospects and to evaluate their maturity. Overall, it allows you to have a better understanding of their needs and to distinguish between hot and cold prospects (scoring system). Thanks to this tool, you have a chronology of actions taken (website & email campaigns) and can create lists of prospects to segment your approach.
   
2. Performance accrue en rendez-vous : En ce qui concerne l’amélioration de la performance commerciale, l’outil d’aide à la vente s’avère être un excellent d’outil. Avec une préparation des rendez-vous accélérée et une application qui améliore l’approche commerciale, le commercial est en mesure de s’adapter au contexte et aux enjeux de chaque acheteur. Il est plus percutant dans son argumentation et les réponses qu’il apporte, il facilite la projection de son acheteur et accélère sa prise de décision. Grâce à l’image moderne qu’il dégage, sa meilleure maîtrise de l’offre et de l’argumentaire en rendez-vous, le commercial voit son taux de conversion augmenter.
   
3. Create a customer experience: Whether in person or remotely, a sales support tool encourages customer interaction. The salesperson can personalize his or her approach, adapt to the customer's context and sector, present varied content and insist on the points that will contribute to his or her success and make him or her interested in your offer.
   
4. Pilotage de l’activité améliorée : Un outil d’aide à la vente permet d’évaluer et de suivre la performance de votre activité au travers de KPIs. Pour faciliter la compréhension et améliorer la prise de décision, ces données sont accessibles au travers de rapports personnalisés. Vous pourrez avoir accès à des données telles que la prévision des ventes (suivis des rendez-vous, des ventes, prévisions trimestrielles, quotas atteints, croissance…), la valeur moyenne des transactions, la durée moyenne du cycle de vente (temps pour convertir leads en clients) …
   
5. Better train and continuously test the sales force: According to McKinsey, 50% of the sales force does not have what it takes to succeed in the years ahead. This shows just how much work needs to be done on sales training. Adopting a sales support tool is an excellent way of accelerating skills upgrading, continuously testing knowledge, building loyalty sales reps within the company and raising the profile of your organization as a whole.
   
6. Automatisation des tâches administratives : L’utilisation d’un outil d’aide à la vente fait gagner du temps aux équipes commerciales. Il contribue à l’amélioration de l’efficacité commerciale en réduisant le temps passé sur les tâches administratives : la recherche de contenus marketing, la réalisation de présentation, l’envoi d’emails, la mise à jour du CRM, l’identification des comptes et des bonnes personnes au sein d’une organisation, la recherche de numéro de téléphone, la relance commerciale… L’outil d’aide à la vente permet de libérer le commercial de ses tâches chronophages et lui permet de se concentrer sur les tâches à forte valeur ajoutée pour son entreprise.
   
7. Gestion de la base client : L’utilisation d’un outil d’aide à la vente comme le CRM s’inscrit dans une démarche de centralisation des données. Cette centralisation permet à l’entreprise de dresser une vue 360° des prospects/clients, en capturant leurs interactions avec l’entreprise et en faisant ressortir les données requises pour améliorer votre stratégie commerciale.

Main sales support tools available on the market

In 2023, modernizing sales techniques is a priority for all companies wishing to perform. To support you and enlighten you on the types of digital tools that can help your sales force, we have developed a complete toolbox.

1. Prospecting tools: Prospecting tools allow you to automate prospecting tasks, facilitate the collection of contact information (email, phone number, etc.) and allow you to perform much more precise searches than traditional search engines when it comes to retrieving relevant information on prospects. Among these tools we can mention: Sales Navigator, Kasper, Lusha....
   
2. Appointment tools : In this category, we will classify all the tools that allow to improve the course of the commercial appointment, thus its level of performance. These range from telephony solutions to simplify call management to personalized presentation and appointment setting tools. Among these sales support tools we can mention: Aircall, Calendly, Salesapps...
   
3. Management tools: As far as sales management is concerned, a CRM is a formidable management tool as soon as it is filled in. It allows you to manage interactions with customers, store information about them and automate processes related to the customer journey through the sales funnel. The CRMs known to everyone: SalesForce, Hubspot, Zoho, Dynamics...
   
4. Training tools: Training tools are programs or applications that help sales reps improve their skills and knowledge of the products/services they sell. These tools can take the form of online training courses, training videos, sales guides, educational content, quizzes and interactive games. Training tools are useful to help new entrants familiarize themselves with the company's products and improve the skills of more experienced staff. Online or offline E-Learning applications such as Salesapps.
   
5. Automation tools: These tools allow you to automate the tasks that your sales and marketing team performs on a daily basis on applications (email, storage space, CRM...). We can mention for example Pardot, Zapier, Phantom Buster... These tools are essential to the daily life of the teams insofar as it facilitates their work by reducing the time-consuming tasks with low added value for the company.

L’intégration d’un outil d’aide à la vente dans un processus de vente existant est une étape cruciale pour garantir l’efficacité de l’outil. Voici quelques conseils et étapes à suivre pour réaliser votre intégration :

1. Evaluate your existing sales process: Before you start integrating a new tool, it's important to evaluate your current sales process. Identify the areas that could benefit from the use of a sales support tool, whether before, during or after the appointment. Do you have the tools you need to make prospecting easier for your sales reps ? How do they present their products or services during appointments? Can they track content shared with the buyer?
   
2. Determine goals: Determine the goals you want to achieve with the implementation of this tool. Do you want to harmonize your sales force's speech? Increase your turnover and your cross-selling rate? Improve the control of your offers/services? Having clear objectives will help you choose the best sales support tool for your needs.
   
3. Choosing the sales support tool: After determining the objectives comes the next step of selecting the tool. Choose the one that best meets your needs and is compatible with your existing sales process. You can use the selection criteria we have provided above or write a specification to launch your consultation.
   
4. Define the KPIs: Next comes the step where you need to define the KPIs that you will track both the performance of your sales actions and the relevance of the deployed tool. These KPIs will allow you to measure your ROI more easily over time.
   
5. Train your sales teams: To facilitate its use and especially its appropriation, the tool chosen must above all be ergonomic and intuitive. Make sure that your sales team is trained to use the sales support tool. Beyond understanding how it works, they must be able to quickly identify the value creation and benefits they will be able to get from its use. Otherwise, they will either not use it, or its use will always be experienced as a constraint.
   
6. Integrate the tool into your sales process: This involves configuring custom fields, using APIs, and can sometimes require IT involvement in larger organizations.

Measure the success of your sales enablement tool implementation

Lorsqu’une entreprise décide de mettre en place un outil d’aide à la vente, il est essentiel de mesurer l’état d’avancement du projet et ses chances de réussite. Pour cela, il est vivement recommandé de mettre en place et de suivre des KPIs. Définir des KPIs permet de s’assurer que l’outil que vous avez choisi et son usage évoluent dans la bonne direction. Le suivi régulier des KPIs permet de mieux visualiser ces évolutions et, si nécessaire, de réviser la stratégie choisie. Dans la phase de déploiement d’une application d’aide à la vente, vous pouvez mesurer son succès grâce à deux KPIs : le taux d’adoption et le taux d’usage. D’autres KPIs permettent ensuite de mesurer la pertinence de l’outil déployé : contenus lus, partagés, parcours de vente suivi, temps de montée en compétence, taux de réussite aux quiz… Tous ces KPIs vous donnent des informations précieuses pour le développement de votre activité.

Conclusion: Sales tools to help your company grow

Les outils d’aide à la vente sont essentiels pour toutes les entreprises souhaitant améliorer leur performance commerciale. Une grande variété de ces solutions est disponible sur le marché, chacune offrant des fonctionnalités spécifiques pour répondre aux différents besoins des équipes commerciales. Que vous cherchiez à améliorer les compétences de la force de vente, automatiser des tâches administratives, piloter efficacement votre activité ou offrir une expérience client exceptionnelle en rendez-vous… Vous pouvez trouver une solution dans les outils que nous vous avons proposés dans l’article. Pour terminer, ces outils peuvent donc représenter un investissement très rentable pour les entreprises souhaitant développer leur performance commerciale dès lors où vos objectifs et les indicateurs pour les suivre dans le temps sont clairement définis.

FAQ

• What is a sales support tool? The sales support tool is the salesperson's armed arm, so to speak. It accompanies him before, during and after the meeting by improving his efficiency by allowing him to sell more and better.
• Why do companies need a sales enablement tool? There are many reasons why a company should consider using a sales enablement tool: automating administrative tasks, managing leads, tracking business performance, accelerating skills development, reducing turnover sales reps...
• How to choose the right sales enablement tool? The performance of a sales enablement tool depends on its ability to meet the needs of your company and your sales force. The evaluation of a sales enablement tool should be done through the following criteria: which functionalities for which challenges or needs, ease of use, cost, customization, integration with other tools, security, mobility and customer support.
• How to implement a sales enablement tool? The implementation of a sales enablement tool must respect certain key steps to be deployed efficiently: associate sales & marketing, evaluate your existing sales process, determine the objectives you want to reach and the KPIs, choose and integrate the sales enablement tool, train the teams, evaluate the tool performance.
• How to measure the effectiveness of a sales enablement tool? The relevance of a sales enablement tool can be measured by two KPIs: its adoption rate and usage rate. If these two KPIs are bad, you can be sure that the tool deployed is not relevant and that the ROIs will not be there. If they are good, nothing is won yet but you are on the right track. You will then have to focus on monitoring the other KPIs you have defined, measuring your ROIs while making sure that the adoption and usage rates remain good over time.