Sales software is all the rage right now, and that trend shows no signs of slowing down. According to Aragon Research, the industry is expected to reach $5 billion by 2023 .
Businesses around the world are discovering the benefits of sales tools in streamlining operations , and sales engagement software is among the most popular tools on the market.
In this comprehensive guide, we’ll see how using sales engagement platforms enables businesses to facilitate communication at every stage of the customer journey, while keeping their teams in tune and closing deals faster.
Follow this guide to learn all the benefits and features of business engagement platforms as well as the top 10 platforms on the market today.
What is a business engagement platform?
Sales engagement software is a digital tool that gives businesses more control over how they interact with their customers. It is through this tool that the sales and marketing processes can agree on the way forward to create interactions that are positive from the customer’s point of view and productive from the company’s point of view.
Sales engagement solutions are ideal for businesses that struggle to interact with customers in an organized or cohesive way. You have probably already come across sites dedicated to CRMs when researching customer relationship management. Why ? Because CRMs offer many similar features.
Some sales engagement platforms work as standalone apps that can be integrated with your current CRM to make it easier to navigate between the two. Many end-to-end CRM platforms offer their own engagement features.
What can commercial engagement platforms do?
Business engagement platforms can accomplish many things. But their main utility for businesses is to facilitate effective communication with prospects and customers from a single, easy-to-use platform. So your customers can have positive interactions on their favorite channels.
Why would you need a business engagement platform?
As these tools grow in popularity, more companies are realizing their benefits. No doubt your competitors will try it sooner or later.
A commerce engagement platform is a great way to ensure a fast, positive, and easy shopping experience for your customers. So your reps can automate tasks and provide quality touchpoints throughout your pipeline. With more accurate, organized, and up-to-date information, they will have a faster, more profitable sales cycle that will keep them ahead of the competition.
What are the benefits of sales engagement software?
No more constantly switching tabs or searching for information in spreadsheets. With all data centralized in one place, sales reps can work faster and be more efficient, which means they’ll be more willing to interact positively with customers. Even better, by optimizing your organization, you run less risk of a lead or communication slipping through the cracks and causing embarrassing (or costly) errors.
You always know the way forward
The best sales engagement software offers a sales pipeline tool . Thus, companies can put in place a personalized plan with clear steps to close sales opportunities.
With this tool, sales reps will be able to see exactly where each customer is in their journey. So they don’t have to memorize everything or search through previous messages to figure out how to proceed.
Close your sales faster.
Sales engagement software typically includes sales automation functionality, which allows many tasks in the sales process to be done quickly and automatically. It also avoids downtime between interactions, especially when salespeople are too busy to perform essential administrative tasks.
Reach customers before your competitors.
In the commercial field, it is sometimes enough to arrive first to win. If you let too much time pass before contacting leads, they may have already gone to a competitor by the time your introductory email arrives.
Sales engagement platforms include automated templates and actions that allow you to engage in personalized interactions with leads as soon as you find them, even if you have dozens of other tasks to complete at the same time. This way, your introductory email can arrive in your lead’s inbox before the competition’s.
You can identify areas for improvement.
Sales engagement platforms collect performance data and are used to predict sales. Using these features, you will easily know which areas of your pipeline need improvement and which marketing tactics are bringing in higher quality leads.
If you are able to identify the aspects of your business procedures that your customers appreciate, these approaches will be effective and lead to more sales.
How do you recognize good sales engagement software?
A good sales engagement platform can really improve productivity and increase sales. Conversely, a bad business engagement platform will bring you disappointment and nothing but worry.
Below, we outline the key features a sales engagement software should have.
A centralized communication hub
The best sales engagement platforms give sales reps access to all the information they need to engage with customers in one place. In other words, whatever communication mode your customers choose (email, phone, social media, SMS or other), your agents will be able to access it from a central dashboard.
These platforms also include tools to quickly retrieve and review your sales reps’ past communications with prospects. So you can examine past interactions and get deeper insights into how your reps are currently interacting with your customers.
Standardized business content creation and management tools
Sales engagement software helps companies create and manage their standardized sales content. Carefully written, personalized phone scripts and email templates have a much better chance of success than an off-the-cuff speech from your sales rep. If you’re writing a well-crafted phone script or email, you need an effective way to make sure your reps have access to it and are using it correctly.