Infor: Design a delightful CX with guided selling
Design a delightful customer experience with guided selling Seven principles of guided selling every B2B professional should know
On average, On average, Reduce costly sales friction According to Forrester, 54% of global information workers who work in sales responded Guided selling positively when asked about their openness to investing their own money in technology 1 to help them do their jobs. can help you: The typical sales process is rife with points of friction—from the first interaction to an inked • Ramp up sales reps faster contract—which inevitably slow down the sales cycle. Guided selling aims to reduce this friction by creating repeatable processes for your sales team that help give prospects the • Shorten the sales cycle information they need before making a buying decision. • Increase profitability The overall goal of guided selling is to improve the customer experience, which has a direct relationship with revenue. According to Forrester, “delivering a strong buying • Improve the buyer journey experience can kick off a long and healthy relationship with your customers.”2 • Generate more revenue Explore these seven principles of guided selling: 1. Identify existing bottlenecks 5. Empower product champions 2. Take a conversational approach 6. Optimize the buying experience 3. Improve sales team efficiency 7. Improve your win ratio 4. Create interactive content 2
Identify existing bottlenecks Before you can improve your sales process, it’s important to identify gaps in your existing configure, price, quote (CPQ) sequence. These gaps might include: (1) internal 54% of B2B legacy systems that add unnecessary complexity to the sales process, (2) a lack of buyers agree that timely responses to sales inquiries, or (3) missing or mismatched information in the buyer journey. the purchasing While 9% of B2B buyers say it’s taking less time for their companies to make a process is getting purchasing decision, a whopping 54% disagreed, saying the process is getting longer.5 3 longer. To overcome this obstacle, sellers need to work harder than ever to identify and eliminate bottlenecks in the sales process. According to Forrester research, modern customers want to buy the right products in their preferred channel. Legacy software limits the ways that customers can engage with a company, hinders the ability of sales to drive additional revenue, and reduces 4 the number of ways a company can get its products in the hands of customers. A fine-tuned CPQ engine reduces friction in the sales process and empowers your team to drive additional revenue while also giving customers the freedom to co-create the solutions and consume them in a way that’s most convenient for their business model. 3
Take a conversational approach Interacting with online buyers in a conversational way makes an otherwise cumbersome configuration process far more engaging. It’s proven that Complicated configuration processes typically lengthen the sales cycle, which isn’t good better buying for the buyer or the sales organization. experiences Instead of hitting customers with every configuration option at once, consider creating an lead to greater iterative guided selling experience that helps the buyer find the right solution through a customer loyalty.8 series of branching questions, delivered one at a time, that include helpful hints. A CPQ platform can provide the tools needed to implement this experience. • On average, best-in-class CPQ users experience 5 times greater growth in revenue 6 year-over-year. • Consumers are more sophisticated than ever and are insisting on an "Amazon- like" customer experience with real-time interaction, extensive price and inventory 7 transparency, and robust guided selling. 4
Improve sales team efficiency When transaction speed plays such an important role in the buyer’s decision-making process, sales reps need tools and resources to automate repeatable tasks and identify 70% of B2B urgent requests that require an immediate response. buyers choose Efficiency technologies like configure, price, quote (CPQ) solutions aim to meet this need by responsive automating administrative sales tasks—in effect, maximizing the number of available hours 9 10 vendors each sales rep can focus on selling. Since 59% of B2B buyers would prefer to do research online instead of working with a sales professional, B2B sellers must institute a guided selling approach that enables prospects to choose how they engage with the brand while also freeing sales reps to focus on the Read the industry perspectives: 11 warmest leads. Speed your sales cycle with CPQ technology 5
Interactive content stands out According to a recent infographic authored by Jared Dodson, 67% of the B2B buyer’s journey is now done digitally, and 9 out of 10 B2B buyers say online content has a Add interactive 12 moderate to major effect on their purchasing decisions. Today, a guided, online content to your sales experience can help you capture more business. sales funnel to: Furthermore, interactive content, especially in the form of a configurator, gives you a unique opportunity to educate prospects and customers about your products • Empower product champions and services. • Establish expertise In contrast to a cold sales call or in-person pitch, interactive, digital content lets prospects explore your offerings in a low-pressure environment—enabling them to • Improve the customer experience sell themselves on your products and services at a high level before engaging with your sales team for more granular information. • Reduces anxiety • Improves concept retention • Empowers the buyer • Elicits revisits and shares • Educates • Nurtures leads 6
Empower product champions Offering more than a handful of options at each stage of customization in the buyer journey can cause buyers to feel overwhelmed and begin to disengage. Curation, 45% of B2B therefore, is key. Instead of hitting prospects with multiple points of customization all buyers say at the same time, create a step-by-step path that slowly allows the user to opt in to desired options. the number of As organizations seek to acquire new products and services with cross-functional people involved capabilities, the number of executives required to sign off multiplies, typically in purchasing lengthening the sales cycle and creating extra work for the internal employees 13 decisions is championing your product at your prospect’s company. growing.15 45% of B2B buyers agree that the number of people involved in the B2B purchasing 14 process is growing. Therefore, it is important for sales teams to have the necessary tools to satisfy their buyers’ expanding needs. If product champions are equipped with self-service tools—like configurators, FAQs, Read the research report: ROI calculators, competitor comparison sheets, and recorded demos—they’ll be able Aberdeen: It's all about those to answer the tough questions required to appease decision makers across their skills: Best-in-class sales organization and win approval faster. This speeds up your time to revenue, and their competencies that support time to value. CPQ deployments 7
Optimize the buying experience The ‘spray-and-pray’ approach to sales isn’t viable anymore, especially since sales processes are becoming more complex as new decision makers enter the equation. More than Guided selling is an active process that uses the successful buyer journeys of today 70% of sales to optimize the buyer journeys of tomorrow. executives By capturing and reviewing sales experience successes, you can start to identify best reported CPQ practices within your sales organization and make them standard operating procedures. This is where a configure, price, quote (CPQ) solution can help. solutions According to Forrester, a CPQ solution “improves the B2B buying experience by selling noticeably the right products, at the right price, to the right customer, at the right time, and in the shortening the 16 buyer’s preferred channel.” CPQ solutions have also been linked to benefits such as shorter sales cycles, fewer touches needed to close an opportunity, and greater overall sales cycle.17 profitability as well as revenue. Watch the video: Infor CPQ demo 8
Improve your win ratio Whether done digitally or over the phone, guided selling done right reduces sales friction, helps the buyer find the best solution for their business faster, and facilitates more informed and relevant sales conversations. Even though 55.6% of sales executives report the use of a CPQ solution reduces 56% of sales 18 their closing cycle by more than 20%, only 33% of companies report investing in executives say 19 sales enablement. CPQ solutions To win more deals, sales teams must: trim the closing • Invest in scalable sales enablement support that extends beyond headcount20 cycle by more 21 • Deliver resources to help new sales reps ramp up faster than 20%. • Align internal sales and marketing processes with the customer journey, an undertaking shown to improve win rates by as much as 15%22 9
Improve your win ratio Whether done digitally or over the phone, guided selling done right reduces sales friction, helps the buyer find the best solution for their business faster, and facilitates more informed and relevant sales conversations. Even though 55.6% of sales executives report the use of a CPQ solution reduces their closing cycle by more than 20%, 18 only 33% of companies report investing in sales enablement. 19 To win more deals, sales teams must: • Invest in scalable sales enablement support that extends beyond headcount 20 • Deliver resources to help new sales reps ramp up faster 21 • Align internal sales and marketing processes with the customer journey, an undertaking shown to improve win rates by as much as 15% 22 56% of sales executives say CPQ solutions trim the closing cycle by more than 20%. 9
About Infor Infor builds business software for specific industries in the cloud. With 15,000 employees and over 90,000 customers in more than 170 countries, Infor software is designed for progress. To learn more, please visit www.infor.com. References 1 Forrester’s Global Business Technographics Applications And Collaboration Workforce Survey, Forrester Research, Inc., 2015. 2 “Customer Experience Drives Revenue Growth, 2016”, Harley Manning, Dylan Czarnecki with Alyson Clarke, Kate McCarthy, Christopher Mines, Sucharita Mulpuru, Jim Nail, Scott Ross, and Kara Hartig, Forrester Research, Inc., June 21, 2016 3 Demand Gen Report, “The 2016 B2B Buyer’s Survey Report” 4 “Vendor Landscape: Configure-Price-Quote Solutions, 2016”, John Bruno with Stephen Powers, Kate Leggett, Andy Hoar, Kevin Driscoll, and Peter Harrison, Forrester Research, Inc., March 21, 2016 5 Demand Gen Report 6 Aberdeen Group, “Powering a Profitable Sales Organization: How CPQ Cuts Costs”, Andrew Moravick, July 2016. 7 “It’s Here…The Forrester Wave: B2B Commerce Suite, Q2 2015”, Andy Hoar, Forrester Research Inc. blog, June 30, 2015 8 Customer Experience Drives 9 Demand Gen Report 10 “Brief: Find The Right Sales Efficiency-Effectiveness Balance”, John Bruno with Stephen Powers, Meredith Cain, and Andrew Reese, Forrester Research Inc., September 28, 2016 11 Forrester/Internet Retailer Q1 2015 US B2B Buyer Channel Preferences Online Survey 12 Lenati, “The Death of the Sales Funnel [Infographic], Jared Dodson, September 17, 2015 13 Demand Gen Report 14 Demand Gen Report 15 Demand Gen Report 16 “The Forrester Wave™: Configure-Price-Quote Solutions, Q1 2017”, John Bruno with Stephen Powers, and Chad Rafferty, Forrester Research Inc., February 7, 2017 17 CSO Insights Blog, “Setting Sales Transformation Priorities: Finding a Problem Worth Solving”, Jim Dickie, March 2, 2017 18 CSO Insights Blog 19 CSO Insights, “2016 CSO Insights on Sales Enablement Optimization Study”, 2016 20 CSO Insights 21 CSO Insights 22 CSO Insights Disclaimer This document reflects the direction Infor may take with regard to the specific product(s) described in this document, all of which is subject to change by Infor in its sole discretion, with or without notice to you. This document in not a commitment to you in any way and you should not rely on this document or any of its content in making any decision. Infor is not committing to develop or deliver any specified enhancement, upgrade, product, or functionality, even if such is described in this document. Copyright ©2017 Infor. All rights reserved. The word and design marks set forth herein are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Infor and/or related affiliates and subsidiaries. All other trademarks listed herein are the property of their respective owners. This document is provided for informational purposes only and does not constitute a commitment to you in any way. The information, products and services described herein are subject to change at any time without notice. www.infor.com. 11 INFDTP1667657-en-US-0517-1