My colleague Kevin Milne reminded me to watch the Gartner webinar
I need to also thank Kevin Milne also for his notes from the call.
The gartner webinar was called.
Panel Discussion: 8 Questions to Prepare CSOs for Postpandemic Success
With, Steve Herz, Maria Boulden and Dave Egloff, you can get access to a recording here.
To quote Kevin
"This discussion was bold, stripped back and gave a clear message to where we need our CSOs and sales teams to be looking, learning and getting passionate about the acceleration of the digital landscape we see, and the motions in which our buyers, prospects and clients are all moving in."
The first slide states
"The present moment maybe more perilous for sales leaders than any since the very early months of the pandemic"
The warning is that we all feel optimistic and hope things are going to go back to the way there were pre-pandemic.
In the first 5 minutes, Steve Herz says that this is not a time to let our guard down.
Just looking at the US and how the Delta variant has come in and changed the status quo, we cannot plan and we are not sure how the market will change and be thinking ahead and prepare to get strategic advantage moving forward.
We need to ask questions of our leaders
Gartner also recommend that we ask our leaders about what they intend to do so we are prepared to what the future should bring.
They also suggest that sales leaders need to ask questions of sales operations and sales enablement.
Questions for our chief sales officers
1. How has the pandemic changed our customers, go-to-market (GTM) strategies and customer buying journeys?
2. Which part of our own GTM must change to reflect in new realities in our workforce, operations and finance.
The landscape has changed. No question. The seller free experience is becoming more relevant. We have to understand and navigate where our buyers and prospects now are and want to interact with us.
(Gartner research shows that 54% of B2B buyers don't even want to engage with a seller)
Where are your customers physically sitting?
Your business needs to be agile - there will be new covid variants
Chief sales officers are the people that have to show there teams how the world change changed and lead with changes themsleves. You need to be agile as the market shifts and can continue to shift with new variants.
Your business cannot have a "digital hope" strategy
Gartner also mention that your salesforce will have and should be having more and more digital interactions. The big issue that Gartner see is the "digital hope" strategy that most sales leaders seem to have. Sales leaders seem to hope that sales people will figure out digital. As we know hope isn't a strategy.
3. How will me leadership decision depend upon the needs, and impact the results, of my internal colleagues under current circumstances?
4. What is the right sequence and timing of the steps that will bring the sales organization to the "new normal?
In this webinar, Gartner talks about the buyers "digital first" journey and the number of "digital first touch points". Website, content, social media, etc. Often businesses assume that the buying process starts at first contact, but as Gartner say, buyers have a "digital first" buying process now.
Look for indicators of change, be agile, shift and help them make the journey easier to buy and find you.
Do not send the 2019 salesperson into a 2021 firestorm!
What is your 2022 sales plan looking like?
Gartner recommend that you need to build a new strategy. Why? Because at the moment you are letting Covid and then pandemic manage you and you need to flip that.
And building out your sales plan for the next 18 months only, because nobody knows what is going to happen after that.
Refresh the Sales Strategy for the next 12-18 months.
Gartner also recommend that you complete a full risk assessment, that MUST have a plan for digital and social. Gartner's recommendation is that you must have a plan for digital and social by 2022 at the latest. As they say, the leading indicators show the world has changed and as leaders we need to be presenting a plan to our businesses that shows we are changing to.
What does data driven sales look like?
Gartner also say that the plan, must be data driven, in this blog I explain what digital measures look like and in this blog I explain what the outcome of a digital sales project looks like.
For example leading indicators such as pipeline velocity, leading indicators of demand, stage velocity is starting to pick up, all of these indicators can be got from your sales team on social. See the blogs above for more information.
As Gartner say "we cannot wing it as a leader". CFOs are looking for data from their sales leader, they are not looking for antidote.
5. How can risk management processes we established during the pandemic be used to our advantage after the pandemic?
6. What assumptions, calculations and benchmarks used for planning and decision making must be revisited to ensure sales analytics and projections are valid?
I will also mention the two blogs I mentioned above in terms of how you can now measure sales using digital, here and an outcome plan of what a digital organisation looks like, here.
The sales process WILL change - The sales process HAS changed in the last 18 months
Gartner, make the point that the sales process has changed, they make the great point that we have all learned to use Zoom over the last 18 months, so you cannot say that sales had NOT changed.
Sales operations need to reconsider new processes and Gartner say that sales enablement MUST embrace digital selling. Gartner recommend that sales leaders do not "throw it all at sales enablement" you have to get outside third parties in to supplement even the best sales enablement teams.
Gartner do say that as a sales leader you need to be crystal clear as the skills your team need to have to execute and of course, Gartner say these need to be digital skills.
Gartner also say that when you announce the need to be digital "some people will self select out of your organisation and you need to let them go. Even though this is a really difficult time to look for talent. You are better to let the people go without the digital skills you need to compete."
"You need to look in non-traditional places for the sales people of the future. Also don't choose sales people based on past experience. There is nothing about the past that is teaching us to sell today. You cannot just poach your competitors people. You need digital dexterity".
Give space to the team learn and adjust. Let them exercise their own judgement on what they see. Let them be creative. Recognize the talent in individuals and teach your sellers to be digital savvy.
How should sales teams look in 2002?
Gartner predict that in 2022 that sales teams need to be smaller as there will be less travel, so teams will be more efficient.
Sales teams will also need to be digital savvy.
The parting thought from Gartner was that sales leaders should see this move to digital as an opportunity and those that embrace digital will be the winners.
They also said "Careers will be made in the next 18 months".
I need to also thank Kevin Milne also for his notes from the call.
So who's doing this?
In case you missed it, the Bank of America’s Merrill Lynch have banned cold calling and have moved all their people to social selling. This isn't some trendy tech company that might have decided to do this on a whim, this is a very conservative financial services company that has made a decision based on data.
But surely cold calling has a better ROI than social selling? Not according to Merrill Lynch.
"They will also be encouraged to contact prospects over LinkedIn, which has a higher hit rate than cold calling"
The CRO (chief revenue officer), Richard Eltham of Namos Solutions, of one of clients posted a comment on LinkedIn about social selling. See here.
“Social selling is not an option now it is the way of the world and you either learn and execute it or fear getting left behind”
Kevin Murray who is the Head of Sales at MacArtney Underwater Technology recently posted about his success with social selling here and wrote an article about the transformation that has happened in sales here.
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