Part 3 | 127 Businesses Talk Sales Acceleration; The CRM System Skinny You Need to Know

Part 3 of 3

Sales acceleration products and services are an application of various technologies to an organization’s existing CRM system that enhances both the effectiveness and the efficiency (velocity) of the selling process. In the third and final part of our review of the business survey conducted by the Center for Sales Leadership at DePaul University, we look into the future and examine sales organization growth, sales staff investment (training and technologies), and trends in sales acceleration technologies for the coming year.

The Depaul survey showed that of the 127 businesses who participated in the study, all expect to grow their sales organizations, on average, nearly 25% over the coming year. The most significant contributor to that growth is expected to come from inside sales, as compared to outside/field sales. Investment in salesperson training and sales technology is expected, on average, to be nearly $10,000 in sales training and $6,000 in sales technology per salesperson over the next year.

The top three areas of interest in additional investment over the coming year for these businesses are: lead flow and lead nurturing management, predictive intelligence/lead scoring, and sales communications/dialing technologies.

Other areas noted to have increased interest in investment in the coming year are: data visualization and application experience, gamification, data subscribers and enrichment. Lesser, but no less significant areas of interest included: sales enablement/playbooks, sales content creation, and sales process.

While the study reflects an increasing utilization of defined sales processes, consistent and disciplined use of sales processes continues to be a challenge for most organizations with only 58% frequency of utilization. What is clear from the study is that those businesses noting a higher frequency of use of a defined selling process had a stronger correlation to meeting/exceeding quota and increased sales growth.

In total, this means that adoption and use of sales acceleration technologies is seen as vital to business in 2017. While adoption (96% presently use a CRM system) and use (5 year average) of CRM systems is strong with the businesses in this study, only 62% are leveraging CRM’s capability to increase sales effectiveness.

When it came to sales growth, as well as meeting/exceeding quota, there was a significant difference between the group of businesses reporting integration and use of at least one type of sales acceleration technology and the businesses not presently using any type of CRM system . In this particular study the businesses leveraging sales acceleration technologies had improved performance.

And if it’s improved sales performance you want, then ConnectLeader is a leader in sales acceleration products and services. The Click Dialer, Personal Dialer, and Team Dialer technologies have each proven to achieve more conversations which lead to more sales. Adaptilytics (which uses a prediction algorithm based on a prospect’s installed technology, intent to buy, contact data, and best time to reach) is being seen as essential for increasing the right kind of contacts that leads to more wins.

Businesses interviewed as part of this survey consistently brought up the need for sales acceleration technologies to help with establishing/supporting a disciplined sales process. Basically, they see the technology as a means to deliver timely support tools aligned within each phase of the sales process to provide a “best practice” environment across their sales teams.

While all valued the benefits of predictive intelligence, the common point was that sales reps don’t take the time to put good information into the system. Better lead quality information and lead scoring had the greatest practical weight for these 127 businesses--and this is exactly what Connect leader is providing with its auto dialer technologies and the computing genius of its Adaptilytics.

For more information on how organizations are using sales acceleration tools, please download Depaul University’s Sales Acceleration and Sales Effectiveness survey or view our webinar to hear Richard A. Rocco, Ph.D., Executive Director, Center for Sales Leadership explain more.

Author: Senraj Soundar, CEO, ConnectLeader