Reshaping the Future of Sales Processes Through Technology

Traditional ways to sell a product have prevailed in the history of sales since the late 1980s. Back then, approaching a client face-to-face was preferred. Due to the lack of resources, sales techniques took their own sweet time to evolve. Selling a product has always been about building customer trust, and the right mix of marketing techniques, but today, managing sales cycles manually is impossible in the current business landscape. And, your business may still be facing age-old issues that can easily be resolved with technology.

The importance of technology in sales

Old is gold, but tech trends may help you scale.

Technology is critical in redefining corporate strategy and has managed to disrupt businesses that cannot function without a computer. People took their time to grasp and trust new technologies. With time, companies have started becoming more efficient with technology. Efficient calling, storing customer data, creating a sales strategy, and managing the sales team and its sales cycle—all of them are only possible to handle with technology. 

Major milestones in the development of sales technology.

The late 1980s saw a drastic change in how sales representatives maintained their records. The use of spreadsheets in Excel became common. Customer relationship management tools were introduced in the late 1990s, which made sales cycle management convenient. Major changes were seen in the 2000s with the introduction of recommendation engines and chatbots. 

The online presence of the overall population increased with a boost in social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. People started posting and creating informative videos to convince their customers to buy their products. In the 2010s, we reached a new level of proficiency in marketing through social media, and even Instagram, LinkedIn, and WhatsApp were used for promoting products. People started preferring mobile phones over computers. According to SalesForce, 

93% of consumers who use their mobile devices to research prospective products and services end up making a purchase.

As for sales trends in 2024, people have started relying on AI and ML tools to improve their sales processes and marketing strategies, and influencers have become a major part of marketing campaigns. Businesses are now able to use multiple tools and platforms to leverage omnichannel sales pitches. The future of sales technology certainly looks promising.

Why keeping up with sales technology trends is crucial for businesses.

The population of the globe is growing day by day. We have observed the drastic expansion of companies over the years. Staying ahead of other companies is never a matter of choice. In this scenario, implementing transformative technologies and tools is necessary to overthrow the cutthroat competition. Companies that are unaware of the latest trends in technology and are too afraid to update their legacy infrastructure may lose relevance in the long term. Hence, every company should keep up with new trends in technology. 

Change is the law of life, and those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future' - John F. Kennedy

How new technology is revolutionizing sales forecasting and lead scoring.

With the latest technology, sales professionals can easily manage their sales cycle and score more leads. Tools with features like sales forecasting are equipped with AI and ML from the best developers in the industry. This can help them predict customer behavior and identify their expectations. This can save enough time to enable heaps of sales in just a few hours. According to LinkedIn, 

54% of sales reps say that digital sales tools help them win over more proposals.

Innovations Transforming Sales Processes

There are plenty of innovations that have been used by business people to reshape their sales strategy and boost overall sales. 

• CRM software is one of the most widely used tools to enhance sales cycles. It makes it easier to create and assign tasks, track employee productivity, sort the leads according to their status, manage appointments and follow-ups, and keep track of customer preferences. This simplifies cross-selling and up-selling for the sales team. Most companies go beyond their budget to implement multiple tools to manage their sales cycle. According to statistics provided by HubSpot,

45% of sales professionals are overwhelmed by the amount of tools in their tech stack.

To overcome this problem, you can use SalesCaller.io, one of the best tools in the industry to manage sales cycles, and understood easily by everyone. What’s more? It is free for one user! The paid version has multiple variations, with prices starting at as low as 99 rupees and not going beyond 549 rupees! Instead of using tools that are too complicated to understand, just implement salescaller.io in your business to transform your sales processes and save time!

• Social media is also helping businesses engage their potential customers through informative videos and exciting ads and boost their sales. Businesses can use hashtags, memes, or pop culture references to make their ads more relatable for the audience. The insights from social media platforms identify the needs of their potential customers. The potential customers may even directly contact the sales team to understand their product. According to Wyzowl, 

74% of the people said they’ve been convinced to buy or download a software or app by watching a video.

• Sales automation tools with artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities have helped reduce manual work and save time. These tools can improve sales forecasting by accurately predicting customer behavior. These tools can also provide recommendations and tips for increasing revenue. Processing a huge amount of data and maintaining its records has become easier with AI in sales tools. According to a survey conducted by Deloitte, 

82% of the workforce believes that AI increases job satisfaction and enhances performance.

Challenges and Considerations for Adopting New Sales Technologies

One major challenge companies face is integrating new technologies into their systems. Sometimes the systems are not compatible with the new technologies, and changing the entire infrastructure for a new technology is usually not preferred. In such cases, the business owners appoint third parties to help in changing the infrastructure and integrating it with the new technology. Other than this, some employees may not fully trust and understand the new technology. Due to this, they become reluctant to allow the implementation of new technology. The companies appoint experts to conduct webinars and workshops and make the employees understand the functionality of the new technology so that everyone easily understands it. 

Sales professionals must understand all the newly launched tools vital for improving the sales cycle. Learning is a continuous process, and innovations in technology will keep coming. There should always be encouragement to embrace innovation and continuous learning among peers. Changing our beliefs according to the changing times is the only way to increase sales and challenge our competitors!

Let’s embrace innovations and look forward to the future of sales technology.