Let's face it, the world of sales can be a challenging one. From meeting stringent revenue targets to staying ahead of competitors, there's a lot on your plate.
But what if I told you that you could tackle some of these challenges head-on? In this article, we'll delve into the most common sales obstacles and provide practical solutions to overcome them. So, are you ready to take your sales game to the next level? Let's dive right in!
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1. Taking the Sting out of Price Quotes
In the heat of the sales battle, being prompt with a quote can mean the difference between winning and losing a customer. Some research indicates that sales reps who manually set up price quotes spend about 73% more time than those who use a CPQ (Configure, Price, Quote) solution.
The truth is, manually building price quotes for each customer can be a time-consuming and error-prone task. Especially if your product range is vast or complex. So, what's the way out?
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2. Streamlining Sales Proposals
Inconsistent branding in your sales collateral can leave your potential customers with a less-than-stellar impression about your company's professionalism. In addition, manual creation of sales proposals can result in inconsistent pricing and discounts, which can lead to confusion and lost sales opportunities.
The key to overcoming this is to standardize your sales proposal process. This not only lends a professional touch to your proposals but also ensures consistency in your pricing and discounting strategies.
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3. Unearthing Buyer Insights
Did you know that 70-80% of B2B buyers prefer online and remote interactions? This trend has been on the rise, especially since the onset of the pandemic. Therefore, figuring out efficient ways to communicate with your customers is vital to your sales success.
The challenge, however, lies in understanding your buyers' behavior. For instance, after sending out a proposal, you may not know who it's been shared with or the best time to follow up. But fret not, we have a solution for this too!
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4. Optimizing Contract Management
Traditionally, managing contracts has involved a lot of back-and-forth emailing of PDFs and Word documents. This process is not only lengthy but also inefficient. It can lead to confusion over multiple versions of the same document and can potentially cause unnecessary delays and miscommunication.
The solution? A streamlined contract management system. This ensures that the right people have access to the correct versions of the contracts, leading to smoother negotiations and faster deal closures.
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5. Speeding up the Approval Process
Securing approvals and signatures from multiple stakeholders can be a challenging and time-consuming task. This becomes even more difficult when dealing with different departments, across different time zones, without a single, up-to-date repository for all relevant information.
What you need is an efficient system to manage the approval process. This can significantly reduce the time taken to secure necessary approvals and speed up your sales cycle.
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Connecting the Dots in the B2B Sales Process
Instead of juggling multiple sales tools, why not consolidate them into one robust stack? A single platform can manage the entire quote-to-cash process, including sales proposals, document generation, CPQ, CLM, subscriptions, and eSign.
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The benefits of using a unified platform include:
- No need to manage multiple tools
- Reduced administrative work
- Complete oversight of the entire sales process
- Minimized friction points
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Automating and Eliminating Time-Consuming Tasks
Most administrative tasks that are prone to human error can be automated. This not only saves time but also ensures accuracy. For instance, syncing your sales tools with your CRM can eliminate manual data entry. Moreover, parallel approval workflows can speed up the deal-approval process.
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Gaining Real-Time Buyer Insights
Real-time insights can provide valuable information about your buyers' behavior. This includes who has viewed your proposal, who it's been shared with, and what content they've been interacting with. Such insights can help your sales team strategize better and close deals faster.
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What's Next?
The B2B sales process is fraught with obstacles that can slow down your sales cycle. However, by leveraging a unified revenue hub, you can speed up and streamline your entire quote-to-close process.