Calls Don’t Get the Job Done Anymore. Why Buyer Enablement Needs to Be Part of Your Sales Strategy.
Every day, companies across the US are making calls to try to persuade prospects to buy their product or use their service but, in the day and age of caller ID, most of these calls are going unanswered. After all, who wants to waste their time listening to a sales pitch from a pushy sales rep?
Over 229 million phone numbers are estimated to be listed on the national Do Not Call Registry, leaving 62% of salespeople feeling the pressure to build a more effective pipeline to close sales.
Sales reps work tirelessly, making hundreds of phone calls a day, to hopefully get in touch with the right prospect. Sadly, 63% of salespeople get discouraged in the process, and 88% of the prospects they contact will have no interest in any interaction with a sales rep.
It is estimated that 42% of salespeople feel they lack the proper information before making a sales call – the sole reason being bad data. Without quality prospect data, cold calling falls flat leaving the right decision-makers unreachable, or hidden inside a maze of confusing, inaccurate information.
The prospect data sitting in most CRMs is a mess, and most companies don’t have the resources in-house to tackle the complicated job of cleaning it up. Research shows that 62% of companies rely solely on prospect data that is 25%-35% incomplete, and 94% of companies suspect their prospect data to be inaccurate.
The problem with that is the costs continue to pile up the longer you let that rusty data continue to degrade.
The Growing Buyer-Seller Divide
Prospect data is only one half of the problem with the other half being buyer enablement. Consider that even if you have clean data and you’re able to get in front of the right decision-makers and influencers, are you sure you have the right tools in place to make the buyer’s journey as easy as possible?
According to a recent survey, 91% of buyers are more likely to spend their money with companies that can bridge the digital/analog divide and provide a service-oriented, channel-agnostic buying experience that is easy-to-use, flexible, and responsive. Unfortunately, buyers are increasingly finding that their experience in the B2B sales ecosystem is falling short of their expectations.
And those expectations are creating a rift between buyers, influenced by modern B2C consumer experiences, and B2B sales organizations still relying on traditional “old school” sales methods like cold-calling.
In the shifting eCommerce landscape, B2B sellers have either focused on digital upgrades which leave them disconnected from any meaningful dialogue with prospects and customers, or have remained focused on 1:1 organic sales cycles and ignored trends to modernize their sales process with digital tools. Unfortunately, both of these methods end up creating an ever-growing divide between prospects and sales teams and highlight the need for a strategic approach to buyer enablement.
However, that’s not to say that salespeople shouldn’t play any role in the sales process. B2B buyers still want to have some interaction with sales in order to get help with the challenges presented by complex purchases. The key is getting buyers connected with sales in a smart, service-oriented way using digital tools and data-driven insights that help serve the buyer at the highest level.
Create a Prospect Data-Driven Buyer Enablement Strategy
Flobile helps sales teams create an engaging buyer journey to create a fluid conversation with qualified prospects. The innovative B2B buyer enablement process can lead to a 20% increase in sales opportunities and conversions.
Using a data scientist-developed AI system, Flobile allows businesses to build a meaningful relationship with their target audiences and create effective buyer journeys through omnichannel experiences.
