M+E Connections

The new Sales Cloud Unlimited Edition version of Salesforce’s cloud-based application for salespeople adds artificial intelligence (AI) and automation, and simplifies the selling tech stack, saving organizations money and streamlining the selling experience, Salesforce marketing experts said Aug. 24, during the webinar “5 Reasons to Engage Customers from Sales Cloud.”

The webinar started with a brief discussion of what the “state of engagement” by customers is currently.

“It’s no surprise – I’m not telling you something new – to tell you that selling in today’s climate is complicated,” said Adrienne McCrory, product marketing manager at Salesforce.

Organizations have customer relationship management (CRM) but also “have a ton of point solutions that you can use or that are available to use to create a good experience for your customers,” she noted.

However, she said: “It can get really complicated really fast and it can be unenjoyable for your reps and for your buyers. And the reason it’s just going to become more complicated and is complicated is because buyers expect to be engaged in new ways. They want to be engaged powerfully and sales teams must rise to the challenge of engaging them well.”

And the reasons for that are “very clear,” she said, telling viewers: “People are buying more online than they ever have through digital channels. And it’s not just e-commerce or B2C. B2B sales interactions are happening on digital channels” also.

Some Numbers

One statistic that McCrory called “super-interesting” is that 25% of B2B customer purchasing decision time is spent in asynchronous communication with the winning supplier, she said, pointing to 2021 Gartner data. “Asynchronous meaning not necessarily on a call or in person but over email, over Slack – different tools like that,” she noted.

Therefore, she explained: “It’s really important that the rep bring a powerful conversation to the table [and] bring awesome context to help make this a robust experience for the buyer.”

Today, “sales teams have tons of tools that they could use but they need to meet that buyer whenever and wherever that buyer is ready to buy,” she advised.

Meanwhile, pointing to Salesforce data from June, she said 74% of sales have become more consultative” in nature. “They are a trusted advisor and need to be prepared to be that person when the buyer reaches out or raises their hand,” she noted.

Additionally, she pointed to Forrester data showing 23% of time a week gets spent on direct engagement selling activities or core selling.

“So it’s just really important that we’re using B2B sellers’ time well as they go about engaging buyers,” she added.

The Need for Centralization

There are several things that can happen when an organization doesn’t have a centralized sales engagement method in its CRM, McCrory cautioned.

First off, she said, you can’t identify success and your managers also can’t identify what’s actually successful engagement-wise. Additionally, she said: “You have clunky integrations. Your new reps might not get it. There’s too many UIs [user interfaces] going on. You have scattered efforts. Maybe your seasoned reps just kind of go rogue and find something new…. [And] manual work is increasing across the board.”

She further warned: “What that leads to ultimately is slow responses for your customers and we can’t move slowly in this time, when it comes to engaging and getting our buyers to make decisions.”

Sales Engagement is part of the Sales Cloud portfolio and using it, organizations can “reach buyers and close deals with centrality and also in a scalable way, and you can do that because it’s all built right within Sales Cloud,” she said.

She went on to say: “Part of the reason this is so important right now is because we do have a new Unlimited Edition bundle and, within this bundle, you still have that core SFA [Salesforce Automation] platform that we all know and love. But you now have the power of Einstein throughout with built-in insights and you have that Sales Engagement suite of functionality.”

5 Reasons to Engage Customers from Sales Cloud

The webinar then turned to citing five reasons it makes sense for organizations to engage customers from Sales Cloud.

They are:

1. It enables better selling decisions, with customer 360 efficiency.
2. You’re able to launch new channels fast to adapt to customer needs.
3. It provides automated efficiency so you can get data to work for you.
4. It provides coaching with insights and help reps win.
5. And it reduces the tech stack, cutting cost and time.

“The number one reason is it gives you and your team better data to make better decisions right in the moment,” according to Nader Balata, director of product management, Sales Cloud, at Salesforce.

It will automatically capture data from all of the user’s workflows, including emails, calendar and calls, and “then it services that activity in one single view making tools like Einstein’s insights and suggestions incredibly strong,” Balata said.

“Moving forward, when you use Sales Cloud, you’re capturing your opportunities and account info,” he added.

Rebecca Lee, senior product manager, Sales Cloud, at Salesforce discussed the importance of launching new channels fast to adapt to customer needs.

“You still have to reach out to your buyers,” said Lee, who noted Salesforce offers its own Computer Telephony Integration (CTI) solutions if the user wants to get started faster.

Users can also maximize their chance of connecting with customers if they mix up different channels, Lee said, explaining: “You’re going to likely have less success” if you are only emailing and not taking advantage of other channels.

Shifting to the importance of automated efficiency, Lee noted “you need lots of data to work fast in today’s environment” and Salesforce’s solution is all centralized.

Using Sales Engagement, “we help you make sense of” Einstein-generated data and then “turn that into actions that will improve your sales process,” she added.

Coaching with insights, meanwhile, is important and “needs to be timely, relevant and easily accessible and able to do in your day-to-day work,” according to Makenzie Pavan, senior success guide, Sales Engagement, at Salesforce.

She added that reducing an organization’s tech stack cuts down on integration friction from third parties, helping to “save money, time and resources by using the tools that are now built into your edition.”

To view the entire webinar, click here.