GUEST: Resa Gooding, Digital Sales Strategist at Cacao Media 
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The biggest challenge in any B2B company today?
Getting organized.
It seems as if nailing down solutions and documenting those processes remains out of reach for many organizations.
Fortunately, that’s exactly what Resa Gooding — my latest guest on The B2B Revenue Executive Experience — helps businesses achieve. As a HubSpot trainer and Digital Sales Strategist at Cacao Media, Resa has built up a plethora of experience and knowledge in the digital sales and marketing space.
Today, we’re going to be discussing:
- 3 sales-related challenges all B2B companies face.
- Making sense of the over 7,000 sales automation tools available today.
- 2 components salespeople need to focus on.
Let’s dive in.
3 sales-related challenges all B2B companies face
Upon entering the field, Resa soon realized how many inefficiencies there were between sales and marketing teams. She also saw how good companies had gotten at hiding those weaknesses.
“When you lose a deal to a competitor, understand it’s because you’ve missed the opportunity because of your disorganization.”
RESA GOODING from Cacao Media
The problem with this lack of transparency, though, is that nothing actually gets fixed. The discrepancies continue to be covered up and pushed out of mind.
Resa categorizes these inefficiencies within three buckets:
- The company doesn’t understand its go-to-market strategy. Subsequently, your team is unsure of which objectives deserve investments of time. Of course, it’d be ideal to optimize your entire go-to-market strategy at once, but the reality is you need to prioritize.
- The company doesn’t understand how its pipeline works. The lack of investment in a strong pipeline strategy results in confusion around the entire sales process.
- The company doesn’t know what systems will help to fix numbers 1 and 2. It’s unknown what solution will take care of these inefficiencies while also staying within budget.
You can probably see how these unattended discrepancies can generate a downward spiral. If left neglected, the mentioned sales-related challenges can ultimately result in the company’s demise.
Resa’s solution to these three inefficiencies?
It starts with behavioral changes within the team. In order to adapt to the modern prospect’s needs, there has to be a willingness to update processes. The methods of selling have obviously changed a lot in the last 10 years. This is because the customer has changed how they make purchases.
“We no longer rely on a salesperson to tell us what’s good for us.”
RESA GOODING from Cacao Media
Once behaviors are aligned, the organization of the systems must be implemented. If your processes are not repeatable, there’s no sense in organizing or automating them.
It’s also worth determining if your team is even using the best tech stack or not.
Making sense of all the available automation tools today
There are over 7,000 sales and marketing automation tools available to us today. It’s clear how some B2B companies can become inundated with the options.
When it comes to your tech stack, however, the most important question to consider is:
Can sales see what marketing is doing and vice versa?
If the answer is no, Resa understands exactly where the system is disjointed: the technology. Whether you plan on optimizing the technology you already use or integrating a different tech stack, there should be an 80/20 balance between selling and entering data into the CRM.
If it’s set up correctly, it should be relatively easy to reach this balance. Reasons you want your team to reach the 80/20 balance include:
- Their job is to sell, not to enter data
- The CRM can potentially decrease redundancies to zero
- Your tech stack will be more likely to adapt along with the changes in your business
- Your team will feel more accomplished and satisfied in their respective positions
“Are sales and marketing working for the system or is the system working for them?”
RESA GOODING from Cacao Media
Don’t underestimate the power in using your CRM to its full potential.
Once you’ve determined the best tech stack for your team and you’re on the road to achieving organization, help your sales reps align with the next two qualities.
2 things salespeople need to focus on
Resa points out two selling qualities that reps often get wrong.
- Authenticity. Sales reps should believe in what they’re selling. Otherwise, it comes across pretty clearly to prospects if the rep doesn’t believe in his or her own product.
- Believability. The prospect needs to believe that the rep has done their research and knows the prospect’s challenges before engaging in a conversation.
In both components, it’s essential for a rep to understand that they’re helping the prospect find a solution to their problem. Even if that means your product isn’t the most suitable one for them.
Combining organization with alignment to optimize selling
When it comes to optimizing the selling process, your entire team needs to be involved. Sales, marketing, customer success, IT, everyone.
To successfully achieve organization, alignment, and eventually optimized selling, Resa suggests:
- Finding the inefficiencies within your organization. Is it your go-to-market strategy, understanding the pipeline, or both?
- Addressing any needed behavioral changes to adapt to modern-day buying habits.
- Determine the right tech stack for your team. Are you using it to its full potential?
- Work towards an 80/20 balance between selling and entering data into your CRM.
- Work on using authenticity and believability throughout the sales journey.
Getting organized is a process, but it’s one worth the effort.
This post is based on a podcast interview with Resa Gooding, Digital Sales Strategist at Cacao Media. To hear this episode, and many more like it, subscribe to the B2B Revenue Executive Experience.
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