I listened to a podcast the other day where a sales rep said, “70% of my job can be automated, but that other 30% is where the magic happens.”
And you know what? They’re not wrong.
Professionals tasked with enabling sales, and the sales cycle find some of their lowest-hanging fruit in process automation. One of the key focus areas of late has become sales content and the creation of personalized content to support the buying cycle.
However, automation in isolation is not enough to create meaningful improvement. Simply doing more faster doesn’t cut it and doesn’t always translate to competitive advantage. You have to apply the right automation (in the same way no one wants process for process’ sake). The actual litmus test comes when gathering feedback from the active participants within the sales cycle - your sales reps, customers, and prospects. Here are a few tangible ways to gather that insight:
Post-Onboarding Sales Rep Survey
For anyone who has spent considerable time in an organization, there comes a time where you know your own solution or product so well that you begin to have “brain fog,” meaning you’re unable to identify what is immediately intuitive and what is a little harder to understand at first.
The same is true for internal processes. You may have been doing something the same way for years, and then, come to find out, there’s a better, easier way to manage it. As new reps who have likely had different processes in the past join your team, ask them for their opinions on how current processes stack up to those in their previous roles.
This also empowers reps to feel engaged and heard on day one, boosting the likelihood they pipe up down the road.
Questions to Ask:
- Was there anything in our content that didn’t make immediate sense to you?
- How did you go about creating {x} at a previous company?
- Is there anything missing from our content automation strategy that you’ve seen in previous roles?
Quarterly Survey for Entire Team
Just as it’s good to get a pulse on new employees, it’s essential to check in on the broader team. As you implement new tools and processes, team members could be experiencing pain points that aren’t visible to the sales ops and enablement teams. Opening the survey up to the whole team can give you a view of how current processes are being adopted and the opportunity for greater optimization. As your organization grows and scales, you may find your processes need a reset.
Questions to Ask:
- What is the most difficult content process for you today? Why?
- What content do you spend the most time on?
- What difficulties have you had with [new content process]?
- Where does content, or lack thereof, slow down the sales cycle today?
Post-Sale Survey with Customers or Lost Opportunities (AKA: Win/Loss Analysis)
Prospects and customers give the best feedback. Why? Because they’re usually more honest with you than your own team members. They’re also at the heart of the reason we all exist. If sales processes and the content within them aren’t delivered with them in mind, customer-centricity goes out the window.
Win/loss analyses can inform various facets of your organization, from sales to product to support and more. In the case of sales content, you’ll want to zero in on how your message resonated and if an understanding of your customer’s pains was accurately articulated and addressed.
Questions to Ask:
- Was there any part of our content or sales process that was unclear?
- Did the content we provided accurately reflect your needs and our solution?
- What was missing from the content we offered to support your buying process?
- Did our team provide adequate detail regarding {x}? (Examples here might include: implementation, support, time to value, etc.)
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