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Now is not the time to be in sales. Inflation, supply chain issues, the cost-of-living crisis, not to mention the digitalisation and increased complexity of the buyer’s journey, longer sales cycles, the “great resignation” and its impact on talent. Its little wonder Salesforce found that 72% of sales professionals do not expect to hit their sales targets this year. 

That number is a problem – but one that can be fixed. Paul Sullivan, Founder & Chief Strategist at award-winning product marketing agency, Digital BIAS, sees a way out of the morass. “We have clients coming to us with sales target challenges. They often have great salespeople, and decent sales tech and still cannot seem to move the dial. A lot of what we do is going back to build solid foundations that often get skipped in the frenzy of go-to-market.” The three keys to building a predictable revenue machine, he adds, is team alignment, sales enablement, and a tech-enabled environment. 

Today’s buyer’s journey is a nonlinear and complicated process. According to Gartner, it involves at least six individuals, all of whom are bringing at least four pieces of research to the table, many of whom are more senior than ever before – which means every interaction is high stakes. Only 5-6% of their time is spent with a sales rep, so you must make it count. Therefore, agility is key for your revenue team – and this, Sullivan stresses – comprises more than just your sales team. Marketing and customer success are vital to sales and retention, and it means there is no clear handover from one team to another, but a passing back and forth, much like a football down a field.

This agility can only be achieved by a cultural shift that breaks down (often unconsciously) constructed silos and aligns these three teams around customer experience. The goal is to enable crucial information on the buyer’s challenges and needs to be funnelled from customer success and sales through marketing and back again, allowing each function to use that intelligence at the right time in the buyer’s journey. “We find that this is the biggest hurdle for companies to overcome,” says Sullivan. “Changing a way of working is hard – but those that do reap the greatest rewards as inefficiencies decrease and their value and ability to prove ROI to the business becomes clearer.”

Over 80% of sales reps achieve their quotas when their employers invest in a best-in-class strategy, so once you have teams working cross-functionally, it is time to build this strategy. Great sales enablement encompasses all the knowledge, content, and tools your revenue team needs to facilitate a sale – but also retain customers. This includes sales scripts, battle cards, eBooks, one-pagers, and case studies, but also in-depth competitor analysis about your USP(s), a mapped-out buying journey with sales tactics for each stage, a unified message and common language across collateral – which means you need to have also done your personas, positioning, and messaging work.

Plus, how do you plan to support and delighting your buyers once they become customers so a) they stay and b) their testimonials and reviews can further enhance your sales enablement? “It’s also important to note that this isn’t a one-and-done exercise,” Sullivan underlines. “Your strategy will need a commitment to regular testing and iterating to see what’s working and what needs to be improved.”

Finally, it is all about the right technology. The first goal is to have one sole source of truth, one CRM. “Many of our clients come to us with multiple CRMs or none. Customer information is everywhere, which means the customer experience is all over the shop because there is no 360-degree view of the most important people in your business. That is a sure-fire way to miss revenue and makes your scaling journey unnecessarily difficult,” says Sullivan.

Most sales reps spend a mere 28% of their week selling due to broken processes, disparate collateral, and data frustrations. He outlines how his team builds bespoke, MEDDICC-based playbooks on HubSpot so sales can reduce admin time, increase sales activity, and only focus on deals with the highest chances of converting. The latest in AI functionality creates actionable intelligence and strategic decision-making for leaders based on market forces and adjusted team performance.

Deal velocity increases as a result – but most importantly, it drives predictability in your sales cycle and forecasting. A recent client saw their three-month sales cycle decrease by a third, with a handful of significant opportunities in a new market within two weeks. In this economic environment, there is no time like the present to start building the culture and processes needed to fuel a sustainable growth journey.