How to Create an Effective Sales Plan and Sales Tech?

In the relentless evolution of sales methodologies, the era of manual outreach is fading into oblivion, making way for the ascendance of sales tech. Bidding farewell to the days of tracking customers in labyrinthine spreadsheets and drowning in endless email follow-ups, rejoice in the revelation that only 34% of a sales agent’s time is now consumed by actual selling, all thanks to the rise of sales technology.

What is a sales plan?

A sales plan lays out your objectives, high-level tactics, target audience, and potential obstacles. It’s like a traditional business plan but focuses specifically on your sales strategy. A business plan lays out your goals — a sales plan describes exactly how you’ll make those happen.

Sales plans often include information about the business’s target customers, revenue goals, team structure, and the strategies and resources necessary for achieving its targets.

What are the goals of an effective sales plan?

The purpose of your company’s sales plan is to:

• Communicate your company’s goals and objectives.
• Provide strategic direction.
• Outline roles and responsibilities.
• Monitor your sales team’s progress.

Communicate your company’s goals and objectives.

Goals and objectives are the lifeblood of successful sales efforts. You can‘t know what you’re working for or whether you‘ve achieved anything meaningful if you don’t have them in place.

Your sales reps need to have a solid sense of what‘s expected of them — you can’t go to your team and just say, “Sell.” You have to establish clear benchmarks that reconcile practicality with ambition.

And if (or more likely when) those goals change over time, you need to regularly communicate those shifts and the strategic adjustments that come with them to your team.

Provide strategic direction.

Your sales strategy keeps your sales process productive — it offers the actionable steps your reps can take to deliver on your vision and realize the goals you set. So naturally, you need to communicate it effectively. A sales plan offers a solid resource for that.

For instance, your sales org might notice that your SDRs are posting lackluster cold call conversion rates. In turn, you might want to have them focus primarily on email outreach, or you could experiment with new sales messaging on calls.

Regardless of how you want to approach the situation, a thoughtfully structured sales plan will give both you and your reps a high-level perspective that would inform more cohesive, effective efforts across the team.

Outline roles and responsibilities.

An effective sales org is a machine — one where each part has a specific function that serves a specific purpose that needs to be executed in a specific fashion. That’s why everyone who comprises that org needs to have a clear understanding of how they specifically play into the company’s broader sales strategy.

Outlining roles and responsibilities while sales planning lends itself to more efficient task delegation, improved collaboration, overlap reduction, and increased accountability. All of which amount to more streamlined, smooth, successful sales efforts.

Monitor your sales team’s progress.

Sales planning can set the framework for gauging how well your team is delivering on your sales strategy. It can inform the benchmarks and milestones reps can use to see how their performance stacks up against your goals and expectations.

It also gives sales leadership a holistic view of how well a sales org is functioning as a whole — giving them the necessary perspective to understand whether they have the right people and tools in place to be as successful as possible.

Sales Planning Process

Sales planning isn‘t (and shouldn’t) be limited to the actual sales plan document it produces. If that document is going to have any substance or practical value, it needs to be the byproduct of a thorough, well-informed, high-level strategy.

When sales planning, you have some key steps you need to cover — including:

• Gather sales data and search for trends.
• Define your objectives.
• Determine metrics for success.
• Assess the current situation.
• Start sales forecasting.
• Identify gaps.
• Ideate new initiatives.
• Involve stakeholders.
• Outline action items.

When putting this list together, I consulted Zach Drollinger — Senior Director of Sales at edtech provider Coursedog — to ensure the examples detailed below are sound and accurate.

Step 1: Gather sales data and search for trends.

To plan for the present and future, your company needs to look to the past. What did sales look like during the previous year? What about the last five years? Using this information can help you identify trends in your industry. While it’s not foolproof, it helps establish a foundation for your sales planning process.

Example

For the sake of example, let‘s say that I’m a new sales director for an edtech company that sells curriculum planning software to higher education institutions. My vertical is community colleges, and my territory is the East Coast.

Once I assume this new role, I‘m going to want to gather as much context as possible about my vertical and how my company has approached it historically. I would pull information about how we’ve sold to this vertical.

How much new business have we closed within it in the past five years? How does that compare to how we perform with other kinds of institutions? Are we seeing significant churn from these customers?

I would also want to get context about the general needs, interests, and pain points of the kinds of institutions I‘m selling to. I’d look for insight into figures like degree velocity, staff retention, and enrollment.

Ultimately, I would get a comprehensive perspective on my sales process — a thorough understanding of where I stand and what my prospects are dealing with. That will ensure that I can deliver on the next step as effectively as possible.

Step 2: Define your objectives.

How do you know your business is doing well if you have no goals? As you can tell from its placement on this list, defining your goals and objectives is one of the first steps you should take in your sales planning process. Once you have them defined, you can move forward with executing them.

Example

To extend the example from the previous step, I would leverage the context I gathered through the research I conducted about both my and my prospect’s circumstances. I would start setting both broader goals and more granular operational objectives.

For instance, I might want to set a goal of increasing sales revenue from my vertical. From there, I would start putting together the kind of specific objectives that will facilitate that process — like connecting with administrators from at least 30 community colleges, booking demos with at least 10 schools, and successfully closing at least five institutions.

Those steps represent a streamlined (and unrealistically straightforward) sales process, but you get the idea — I would set a concrete goal, supplemented by SMART objectives, that will serve as a solid reference point for my org’s efforts as the sales process progresses.

Step 3: Determine metrics for success.

Every business is different. One thing we can all agree on is that you need metrics for success. These metrics are key performance indicators (KPIs). What are you going to use to determine if your business is successful? KPIs differ based on your medium, but standard metrics are gross profit margins, return on investment (ROI), daily web traffic users, conversion rate, and more.

Example

I kind of covered this step in the previous example, but it still warrants a bit more elaboration. The “M” in SMART goals (“measurable”) is there for a reason. You can‘t tell if your efforts were successful if you don’t know what “successful” actually means.

The edtech sales example I‘ve been running with revolves mostly around me assuming ownership of an existing vertical and getting more out of it. So it’s fair to assume that sales growth rate — the increase or decrease of sales revenue in a given period, typically expressed as a percentage — would be an effective way to gauge success.

I might want to structure my goals and objectives around a sales growth rate of 20% Y/Y within my vertical. I would make sure my org was familiar with that figure and offer some context about what it would take to reach it — namely, how many institutions we would need to close and retain.

Step 4: Assess the current situation.

How is your business fairing right now? This information is relevant to determining how your current situation holds up to the goals and objectives you set during step two. What are your roadblocks? What are your strengths? Create a list of the obstacles hindering your success. Identify the assets you can use as an advantage. These factors will guide you as you build your sales plan.

Example

Continuing the edtech example, I would use the historical context I gathered and the objectives I set to frame how I look at my current circumstances. I might start by considering my goal of increasing revenue by 20% Y/Y. In that case, I would look at the company’s retention figures — ideally, that would give me a sense of whether that needs to be a major area of focus.

I would also try to pin down trends in the colleges that we’ve already closed — are there any pain points we consistently sell on? I might take a closer look at how we demo to see if we might be glossing over key elements of our value proposition. Maybe, I would use conversation intelligence to get a better sense of how reps are handling their calls.

Ultimately, I would try to identify why we’re performing the way we are, the inefficiencies that might be resulting from our current strategy, and how we can best set ourselves up to sell as effectively as possible.

Step 5: Start sales forecasting.

Sales forecasting is an in-depth report that predicts what a salesperson, team, or company will sell weekly, monthly, quarterly, or annually. While it is finicky, it can help your company make better decisions when hiring, budgeting, prospecting, and setting goals.

After the COVID-19 pandemic, economics has become less predictable. Claire Fenton, the owner of StrActGro — a professional training and coaching company — states, “Many economic forecasters won’t predict beyond three months at a time.” This makes sales forecasting difficult. However, there are tools at your disposal to create accurate sales forecasts.

Example

In our edtech example, I would approach this step by trying to estimate how my sales org is going to fare with the specific vertical we‘re pursuing in the time window we’ve allotted.

The method I decide to go with will depend on factors like how many concrete opportunities we have lined up — in addition to elements like the kind of historical data we have handy, how the reps working these deals tend to perform, and the degree of insight we have about our potential customers.

Let’s say I consider those factors and decide to run something called a multivariable analysis. In that case, I could start by taking stock of the opportunities my reps have lined up. Then, I could look at the reps working those deals, their typical win rates, and the time they have to close — among other factors.

For instance, I might calculate that a rep working with a particularly large institution has a 50% chance of closing within the window we‘ve allotted. Using that insight, we could attribute 50% of the potential deal size to our forecast — we’d repeat that process with all of the opportunities in question and ideally get a solid sense of the revenue we can expect to generate in this window.

Step 6: Identify gaps.

When identifying gaps in your business, consider what your company needs now and what you might need in the future. First, identify the skills you feel your employees need to reach your goal. Second, evaluate the skills of your current employees. Once you have this information, you can train employees or hire new ones to fill the gaps.

Example

Continuing the edtech example, let‘s say my forecast turned up results that weren’t in keeping with what we need to reach our goals. If that were the case, I would take a holistic look at our process, operations, and resources to pin down inefficiencies or areas for improvement.

In my search, I found that our sales content and marketing collateral are dated — with case studies that don‘t cover our product’s newest and most relevant features. I also might see that our reps don‘t seem to have too much trouble booking demos, but the demos themselves aren’t converting due to a lack of training and inconsistent messaging.

And finally, I find that a lack of alignment with marketing has prospects focusing on unrealistic outcomes our sales team can‘t deliver on. Once I’ve identified those gaps, I would start to hone in on ways to remedy those issues and improve those elements.

Step 7: Ideate new initiatives.

Many industry trends are cyclical. They phase in and out of “style.” As you build your sales plan, ideate new initiatives based on opportunities you may have passed on in previous years.

If your business exclusively focused on word-of-mouth and social media marketing in the past, consider adding webinars or special promotions to your plan.

Example

In the edtech example we’ve been running with, I would likely ideate initiatives based on the gaps I identified in the previous step. I would start a push to ensure that our sales content and marketing collateral are up-to-date and impressive.

I would also consider new training programs to ensure that our coaching infrastructure is prioritizing how to conduct effective demos. Finally, I would start to work on a plan with marketing to ensure our messaging is aligned with theirs — so we can make sure prospects’ expectations are realistic and effective.

One way or another, I would take the gaps I found and find concrete, actionable ways to fill them. I would make sure that these initiatives aren’t abstract. Just saying, “We’re going to be better at demos,” isn‘t a plan — it’s a sentiment, and sentiments don’t translate to hard sales.

Step 8: Involve stakeholders.

Stakeholders are individuals, groups, or organizations with a vested interest in your company. They are typically investors, employees, or customers and often have deciding power in your business. Towards the end of your sales planning process, involve stakeholders from departments that affect your outcomes, such as marketing and product. It leads to an efficient and actionable sales planning process.

Example

This step is sort of an extension of the previous two — once I‘ve identified the key issues and roadblocks obstructing my edtech startup’s sales org, I would start identifying the right people to fulfill the necessary initiatives I’ve put together.

In this example, I would tap some stakeholders in charge of our sales content and marketing collateral to produce newer, more relevant case studies and whitepapers we can pass along to the institutions we’re working with.

I would also go to middle management and either offer more direction for coaching on demos or bring in a third-party training service to offer more focused, professional insight on the issue.

Finally, I would connect with marketing leadership to align on the benefits and outcomes we generally stress when pitching the schools we sell to. That way, we can ensure that the institutions we’re connecting with have realistic expectations of our product or service that we can speak to more clearly and effectively.

Step 9: Outline action items.

Once you have implemented this strategy to create your sales planning process, the final step is outlining your action items. Using your company’s capacity and quota numbers, build a list of steps that take you through the sales process. Examples of action items are writing a sales call script, identifying industry competitors, or strategizing new incentives or perks.

Example

In our edtech example, some key action items might be:

• Revamp our prospecting strategy via more involved coaching and re-tooled sales messaging.
• Revamp administrator and college dean buyer personas.
• Conduct new trainings on demoing our software.
• See our new prospecting strategy from ideation to execution.
• Align with our sales enablement stakeholders for new, more relevant case studies and whitepapers.

That list isn‘t exhaustive — but those are still the kinds of steps we would need to clarify and take to structure a more effective high-level strategy to produce different (ideally much better) results than we’ve been seeing.

One thing to keep in mind is that sales planning shouldn’t end with creating the document.

You‘ll want to reiterate this process every year to maintain your organization’s sales excellence.

Now that you‘re committed to the sales planning process, let’s dive into the written execution component of sales planning.

How to Write a Sales Plan

Create a mission statement. Define your team’s roles and responsibilities. Identify your target market. Outline your tools, software, and resources. Analyze your position in your industry. Plan your marketing strategy. Develop your prospecting strategy. Create an action plan. List your goals. Set your budget.

1. Create a mission statement.

Start your sales plan with a mission statement — a concise, straightforward distillation of what your business hopes to accomplish from a fundamental, more idealistic perspective. You don’t want to get too hung up on detailing the “how” behind your business here.

Offer your vision — not your “About Us” page.

Example

In our edtech example, the company’s mission statement might say something like, “Our mission is all about empowerment. We empower higher education institutions to empower their students — maximizing schools’ abilities to help their students realize their full potential by facilitating timely graduation and simple, seamless class scheduling.”

2. Define your team’s roles and responsibilities.

Next, describe who is on your team and what their roles are. Perhaps you manage five salespeople and work closely with a sales enablement professional and a sales ops specialist. If you‘re planning on adding headcount, include the number of employees, their job titles, and when you’re planning to bring them on the team.

Example

I touched on this in the previous section, but to reiterate, here’s what part of this section would look like in the context of our edtech example:

• Joan — Director of Sales Development — will ensure that our prospecting strategy is as productive as possible.
• Bobby and Sally — Account Executives — will be demoing the software and closing deals with the institutions.
• Roger and Peggy — Account Managers — will be responsible for ensuring our existing accounts stay on board.
• Don, Trudy, Bert, and Betty — Sales Development Representatives — will connect with institutions to book demos.

3. Identify your target market.

Whether you’re writing your first sales plan or your 15th, knowing your target demographic is crucial. What do your best customers look like? Do they all belong to a specific industry? Exceed a certain size? Struggle with the same challenge?

Keep in mind you might have different buyer personas for different products. For example, HubSpot’s salespeople might primarily sell marketing software to CMOs and sales software to sales directors.

This section of your sales plan can also change dramatically over time as your solution and strategy evolve and you adjust product-market fit. In the very beginning, when your product was in its infancy, and your prices were low, you may have found success selling to startups. Now that the product is far more robust and you‘ve raised the price, mid-market companies are likely a better fit. That‘s why it’s important to review and update your personas consistently.

Example

Again, I covered this one in the previous section — but for the sake of you not having to scroll back up, I’ll say it again:

To continue with our edtech example, we established that my territory is the East Coast, and my vertical is community colleges — so from a high level, my target market is exactly that: community colleges on the East Coast.

That much is straightforward, but my target customers aren‘t limited to the institutions I’m selling to. I need to understand the points of contact I‘m going to be dealing with when I’m selling to these colleges.

Modern buying decisions generally require input from multiple stakeholders — especially with an organization as large as a community college. In this case, my understanding of my target customers will need to be a bit more granular than just “representatives from the school.”

I would most likely be dealing with administrators and deans when trying to sell curriculum scheduling software — two personas with unique slates of responsibilities. In that case, I would need to establish a solid understanding of both kinds of customers when sales planning.

I‘d have to consider factors like what their day-to-day look like, the pain points that stem from the tasks they’re generally expected to fulfill, how my software could play into those, and why their lives would become easier as a result of buying.

4. Outline your tools, software, and resources.

You should also include a description of your resources — and that’s not necessarily limited to the software you might be leveraging. You should detail key tools like the CRM you‘re using, but don’t ignore resources like the budget you might have for a sales contest. Also address resources like training, documentation, and sales collateral.

Example

Once again, in our edtech example, I might take stock of the org‘s resources and find we’re leveraging:

• A CRM to provide a centralized repository of our prospect and customer data.
• Conversation intelligence software to guide better-structured, more effective coaching for our sales calls.
• Sales enablement software to centralize and manage our sales enablement resources.
• An additional budget could be allocated for a spiff to motivate SDRs to book more demos.
• Case studies that speak to how other community colleges have successfully leveraged our software.
• Any other resources we might have available that can be used to educate buyers or enhance our sales professionals’ efforts.

5. Analyze your position in your industry.

Now, name your competitors. Explain how your products compare, where theirs are stronger than yours, and vice versa. In addition, discuss their pricing versus yours. You should also discuss market trends. If you’re a SaaS company, you should note what vertical-specific software is becoming more popular. If you sell ads, mention the rise in programmatic mobile advertising. Try to predict how these changes will influence your business.

Example

In our edtech example, I would take a thorough look at the types of institutions that typically buy from us. What do their enrollment figures look like? If we had a tiered pricing structure, what price point do they typically buy at? What’s the ballpark of their typical budgets? And perhaps most importantly, what are the pain points that generally drive them to explore our solution?

Once I had a picture of those elements, I would look at the rest of our competitive landscape — and ideally, I would be able to cover those same bases for our competitors and their buyers.

By pinning down those elements — among several others — I would get a sense of what kind of buyers gravitate to each solution in our market. It would cue me into how prospects typically perceive our offering, showing us who we are in our competitive landscape.

Having that sense will give my team an understanding of where they’re selling from, what kinds of institutions are going to be most receptive to our efforts, and how to best approach every engagement we pursue.

6. Plan your marketing strategy.

In this section, describe your pricing and any promotions you’re planning on running. What key actions will you take to increase brand awareness and generate leads? Note the impact on sales.

Here’s a mock version:

• Product A: Increasing price from $40 to $45 on Feb. 2 (2% reduction in monthly sales)
• Product B: Free upgrade if you refer another customer from Jan. 1-20 (20% increase in monthly sales)
• Product C: Decreasing price from $430 to $400 on March 1 (15% increase in monthly sales)
• Product D: No change

Example

For our edtech example, let’s say we intend to lean heavily on an inbound marketing strategy. In that case, leadership at the company would want to invest in a company blog that covers trends and concepts in the education industry. Ideally, that resource will produce a steady stream of leads while simultaneously establishing our business as a trusted authority in the space.

7. Develop your prospecting strategy.

How will your sales team receive and qualify the leads generated by your marketing strategy? Don’t forget to include the criteria prospects should meet before sales reps reach out.

Example

Let‘s say that our hypothetical edtech company’s inbound marketing infrastructure development pans out. We’re able to maintain a reputable blog about the education industry that brings in a steady stream of leads. That could provide the basis for an effective prospecting strategy.

Our content marketing department could produce and qualify warm leads to pass to our sales team. Ideally, we’ll have more effective, focused criteria to determine whether and how to reach out to those leads. From there, we might elect to focus primarily on email outreach — a plan that could be complemented by a more conventional cold-calling strategy.

8. Create an action plan.

Once you‘ve outlined where you want to go, you must figure out how you’ll get there. This section summarizes your game plan for hitting your revenue targets. Try to be thorough but concise when detailing these steps — and try to support any items you detail with a clear, viable timeline.

Example

Here’s what part of the action plan might look at our hypothetical edtech company:

Objective: Increase revenue in our East Coast community college vertical by 20% Y/Y.

• Revamp our prospecting strategy via more involved coaching and re-tooled sales messaging (Timeline: Q1)
  • Leverage conversation intelligence to shadow calls — offering more perspective on effective elements of current strategies and areas for improvement.
• Revamp administrator and college dean buyer personas (Timeline: Q1)
  • Reference historical data in CRM for trends in successful and unsuccessful sales engagements with these kinds of contacts.
• Implement a new training framework for demos. (Timeline: Q1)
• Conduct email outreach to inbound leads (Timeline: Q1-Q4)

We would flesh this plan out to cover the key actions that are going to shape our high-level strategy and guide the more granular aspects of its implementation. Committing plans to writing is crucial in sales — including action items in your sales plan gives you a definitive forum for that.

9. List your goals.

Most sales goals are revenue-based. For example, you might set a total target of $10 million in annual recurring revenue (ARR). Alternatively, you can set a volume goal. That could be 100 new customers or 450 sales. Make sure your objective is realistic; otherwise, your entire sales plan will be largely useless.

Factor in your product’s price, total addressable market (TAM), market penetration, and resources (including your sales headcount and marketing support).

Your goal should also be closely tied to your high-level business goals. For example, suppose the company is trying to move upmarket. In that case, your goal might be “Acquire 20 Enterprise logos” rather than “Sell X in new business” (because the latter will encourage you to solely chase deals rather than focus on the right type of customers).

Of course, you’ll probably have more than one goal. Identify the most important, then rank the rest by priority. If you have territories, assign a sub-goal to each. That will make it easier to identify over- and under-performers.

Lay out your timeline too. Having regular benchmarks lets you know if you‘re on track, ahead, or behind in meeting your targets. Suppose your sales goal for the first quarter of the year is selling $30,000. Based on last year’s performance, you know January and February sales are slower than March.

With that in mind, your timeline is:

• January: $8,000
• February: $8,000
• March: $14,000

You should also write in the DRIs if applicable. For example, maybe Rep Carol‘s January quota is $5,000. Rep Shane, who‘s still ramping, has a $3,000 monthly quota. On a smaller team, this exercise helps people avoid replicating each other‘s work and shifting blame around if targets aren’t met.

10. Set your budget.

Describe the costs associated with hitting your sales goals. That usually includes:

• Pay (salary and commission)
• Sales training
• Sales tools and resources
• Contest prizes
• Team bonding activities
• Travel costs
• Food

Compare the sales plan budget to your sales forecast for accurate budgeting.

If you want to take your plan to the next level, read on to learn some tips for creating a highly effective sales plan.

Tips for Creating an Effective Sales Plan

We’ve gone over what you should include in a sales plan, including some examples and mockups.

Learn some tips and tricks for creating a sales plan that helps you hit target numbers and exceed your higher-ups’ expectations.

• Use industry trends to strengthen your plan. When presenting your sales plan to a stakeholder, use industry trends to highlight why your plan will be effective.
• Specify the technology you‘ll use to track success. You can do this for internal reference or let stakeholders know how you’ll measure success. Some tools you can consider include CRM and dashboard software.
• Support your budget proposal with hard facts and data. If you’re creating a budget as a part of your plan, support it with previous performance data and sales forecasts.
• Create different plans for each team. If you create a sales plan for business development, inbound sales, outbound sales, field sales, and so forth, you can get even more granular and specific in your goals and KPIs.
• Get marketing’s input. Marketing and sales alignment is critical for the success of your sales plan. The more input you have from marketing, the more you can align your lead generation, prospecting, and nurturing efforts.
• Talk with your sales reps to understand their challenges. It might be easy to get lost in numbers and forecasts — but it‘s important to know your sales representatives’ day-to-day to understand what will and will not prove effective or feasible.
• Complete an in-depth competitive analysis. You must know what the competition is doing well to create a plan that nudges your company in that direction.

What is sales technology?

Sales tech, or sales technology, refers to the digital tools that help sales teams improve productivity and conversion, so they can focus on making sales. These tools help by automating administrative tasks (like data entry, scheduling, or research) or simplifying sales tasks (like making calls or emails).

You might sometimes see the term “sales tech” confused with “sales automation” or “sales enablement,” but these aren’t the same thing.

• Sales automation is the process of automating certain steps in your sales funnel. It’s an outcome of using sales tech.
• Sales enablement is the process of providing your sales team with the resources, content, and information they need to increase sales. It’s the goal of using sales tech.

What does sales tech stack mean?

Your “sales tech stack” refers to all of the digital tools or software your sales team uses to do their job. This covers everything from time management to data tracking and reporting, right down to emailing or chatting. If your sales team uses it, it’s part of the tech stack.

In the post-pandemic world, it’s not enough to have a tech stack that only works on-site. With 63% of sales teams either fully or partially remote, according to recent HubSpot data, your sales technology must be as easy to use offsite as it is on.

So, what does a “normal” tech stack look like for remote-enabled teams?

According to Dan Gottlieb, senior director analyst in the Gartner for Sales Leaders Practice, “The average virtual selling technology stack includes 13 technologies.”

However, with Salesforce data showing that two-thirds of sales reps feel like they’re drowning in tools, it’s a good idea to look for sales technology that condenses as much functionality as possible.

Moreover, it means that it’s more important now than ever to be sure that every tool in your sales tech stack integrates smoothly through native integrations or a custom API to minimize manual workarounds.

How to Build the Best Sales Tech Stack for Your Team

While there is no single best tech stack, you can build the best sales tech stack for your team. This means you need to understand your team’s top priorities and what sales tools can best aid them in achieving their goals.

So what are those goals?

HubSpot recently asked 516 B2B and B2C sales professionals to name their top three sales goals.

Across the board, the number one goal was exceeding sales targets.

This isn’t particularly surprising when you consider that commission plays a significant role in compensation for the vast majority. Nearly half (48.8%) of sales organizations use a base salary plus commission model, with another 25% using a salary plus bonus model.

And while B2B and B2C do have different priorities, by looking at the chart above, you can see how closely aligned they are across the board. Rounding out the top five goals:

• Making the sales process more efficient
• Upselling or cross-selling your existing customers
• Winning more market share
• Improving sales and marketing alignment.

Again, while none of this is particularly surprising, it’s important to understand what your salespeople want most so you can build the sales tech stack they need.

Sales Technology Benefits

Now that you understand what sales technology is, how your tech stack can support your team, and what your team wants, let’s explore some of the biggest benefits of sales technology.

1. Get real-time data and actionable insights.

Making data-driven decisions has long been one of the biggest benefits of sales technology. Most tools can gather and report on the most important and commonly requested sales data right out of the box. However, because each business may need to track slightly different metrics, many can be configured for custom datasets and reports.

And the data you can access is getting even better as AI emerges as a huge power player in sales technology. Instead of downloading monthly reports and finding out what your customers needed weeks ago, AI-enabled tools get you access to real-time data so you can meet your audience where they are right now.

Better yet, by automatically combing through the data, AI can do in minutes what might have taken humans weeks or months to do, generating insights you can use to make quick decisions like:

• Reaching out to customers who have questions on products, either serving them better or upselling them on new products.
• Identifying new search patterns or trends and tailoring offers to them.
• Discovering common questions and aligning sales and marketing teams to answer them.
• Finding drop-off points in the sales process and working to circumvent them.
• Personalize your content to clearer personas and audience segments.

2. Respond quickly to leads and close more sales.

A rock-solid tech stack can make sure you get to leads more quickly and effectively. Here’s why that matters.

According to SuperOffice, 46% of customers expect a response within 4 hours, and 12% want one in under 15 minutes. Moreover, 78% of customers purchase from the first company to respond.

And, with an overall average lead response time of 42 hours, there’s a great deal of opportunity to gain a competitive advantage and close more sales. That makes a top-notch tech stack that allows your team to respond quickly more than “just a good idea.” It’s vital if you want to deepen your market share and start building a strong relationship with your prospects.

One way you can do this is to create chatbots for your website and social channels that make it easy for customers and prospects to find the information they want and route them to real team members when they’re ready for human interaction.

3. Automate time-consuming busy work.

One of the drum-beats of digital transformation and technology modernization is improved efficiency across the board due to automation, which can cut out half of your work activities by reducing “busywork” types of tasks.

Did you know that currently, sales reps spend less than 30% of their time selling? While many factors go into this, one of the most significant lies in the sheer number of tasks required as part of their job.

A great sales tech stack can free them up to focus more on sales, eliminating tasks like:

• Data entry
• Manual data transfers and manipulation
• Prospect research
• Data insights

What’s more, your sales tech stack can take the pressure off remembering to follow up with leads at certain intervals by automating the follow-ups themselves or simply sending reminders to your team.

4. More easily generate and qualify leads.

Your sales tools give you critical data that makes it easier to align sales and marketing teams. Some of the results might include agreeing on the same data-backed goals, aligning on specific personas and key products, and working together toward goals instead of taking conflicting or incongruent actions.

Additionally, these sales tools make it possible to create campaigns that target your personas based on their specific problems and generate highly qualified leads that your sales team can nurture.

5. Gain a competitive advantage.

It’s not just responding more quickly to leads that deliver a competitive advantage. The right sales tech can give you insights into your entire pipeline, delivering detailed information about what your audience wants and needs.

And it’s not just about getting the sale the first time. It’s also about keeping them. There are a few important things to know here about happy customers:

• They stick around, which creates higher ROI because new customer acquisition costs about 500% more than retaining current customers.
• They’re more likely to buy other products from you through cross-selling, upselling, or even seeking you out for new solutions, which can increase your sales and profits by 20% and 30%, respectively.
• They improve your brand reputation and increase the trustability of your brand, which is an important factor for 81% of new customers.
• They give positive reviews of your products and services, which makes 72% of prospects more likely to buy.

So, how does your tech stack deliver on keeping your customers?

Because it enables you to respond quickly to questions and personalize the content and sales process, it starts the relationship on the right foot. By helping you stay on top of their experience with periodic follow-ups, you can quickly identify opportunities for upsell or service.

If service is needed, you can quickly route and seamlessly share data and observations with your service team.

6. Improve sales process efficiency.

What do all of these benefits have in common? Increased effectiveness and efficiency of your sales team, which, after all, is one of the top goals of sales professionals.

Types of Sales Tech

1. Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
2. Sales Prospecting Tools
3. Lead Enrichment Tools
4. Call Tracking and Call Analytics
5. Outreach/ Email Platforms
6. Scheduling Software
7. Video Chat and Screen-Sharing Tools
8. Live Chat
9. Sales Reporting Tools
10. Project Management Tools

Deciphering Sales Technology: Beyond Automation and Enablement

Sales tech, or sales technology, embodies the digital arsenal empowering sales teams to elevate productivity and conversions, enabling a relentless focus on closing deals. These digital companions adeptly automate administrative burdens, from data entry to scheduling, liberating you to sell with vigor. It’s crucial to distinguish sales tech from terms like “sales automation” and “sales enablement” – they are the offspring, not the parent.

Your “sales tech stack” encompasses the digital tools your sales team wields – a comprehensive suite ranging from time management to data tracking, crucially adaptable to the era of remote work. As 63% of sales teams tread the remote path, your tech stack must seamlessly transcend physical boundaries.

Sales Tech Stack: A Symphony of Integration and Efficiency

In the realm of post-pandemic, a mere on-site tech stack won’t suffice. According to the wisdom of Dan Gottlieb from Gartner, the average virtual selling technology stack boasts 13 technologies. Yet, the looming specter of tool overload necessitates a judicious selection, condensing functionalities without drowning your team in a sea of digital tools.

The orchestration of your sales tech symphony must align with the aspirations of your team. HubSpot’s inquiry into the goals of 516 B2B and B2C sales professionals revealed a harmonious chorus – exceeding sales targets standing tall as the primary goal. Efficiency in the sales process, upselling, capturing market share, and fortifying sales-marketing alignment complete the ensemble.

The Symphony’s Instruments: 10 Essential Types of Sales Tech

Customer Relationship Management (CRM):

Beyond a mere database, a CRM is the maestro orchestrating all customer interactions. It transforms into a dynamic dashboard, offering insights, lead scoring, segmentation, and forecasts. Examples: HubSpot CRM, Salesforce

Sales Prospecting Tools:

The scouts of the digital realm, prospecting tools automate the discovery and qualification of leads. They range from gathering website visitor data to scraping public and private databases. Examples: HubSpot Sales Leads, LinkedIn Sales Navigator

Lead Enrichment Tools:

Infuse life into your contact lists with lead enrichment tools. They traverse the web, adding missing details to your prospects’ profiles, from job titles to funding history. Examples: Clearbit, LeadGenius

Call Tracking and Call Analytics:

Elevate your call game with tools that record, transcribe, and analyze sales calls. Dive deep into data like marketing sources, campaigns, and keywords, turning calls into actionable insights. Examples: HubSpot Call Tracking, CallRail

Outreach/Email Platforms:

A dual marvel, these tools automate email intricacies while offering data-driven insights. From scheduling emails to tracking open rates, they transform your outreach into a symphony of efficiency. Examples: HubSpot Email Marketing, Buzzstream

Scheduling Tools:

Bid adieu to the back-and-forth tango of scheduling. These tools seamlessly sync with your calendar, allowing prospects to choose meeting times at their convenience. Examples: HubSpot Meeting Scheduler, Calendly

Video Chat and Screen-Sharing Tools:

In the digital realm, video chat becomes the bridge to face-to-face interactions. Add screen-sharing, and you have a potent concoction for live demos and personalized presentations. Examples: Zoom, Google Meet

Live Chat:

Real-time support is a cornerstone of sales success. Live chat tools offer a direct channel for customers to engage with sales agents, ensuring immediate responses. Examples: HubSpot Live Chat, Zendesk Support Suite

Sales Reporting Software:

Data is the heartbeat of sales, and reporting tools amplify its rhythm. From revenue metrics to pipeline tracking, they transform raw data into strategic insights. Examples: HubSpot Sales Tracking Software, Looker Sales Analytics

Project Management Tools:

Elevate beyond to-do lists with project management software. Ideal for collaborative endeavors, these tools organize tasks, set deadlines, and offer insights into productivity. Examples: HubSpot Projects, Asana

Sales Tech for Your Team

As you navigate the labyrinth of sales technology, remember: there’s no one-size-fits-all tech stack. The virtuosity lies in understanding your team’s priorities and aligning them with the tools that fuel their goals. Whether it’s exceeding sales targets, streamlining processes, or fortifying customer relationships – let your tech symphony be a bespoke composition.

In the grand ballad of sales excellence, each note from your tech stack should resonate with the aspirations of your team. As the conductor of this symphony, be meticulous in choosing tools that integrate seamlessly, harmonizing the workflow and minimizing manual interventions.

As the curtain descends, the crescendo of your sales tech symphony should echo not just efficiency, but a symphony of success, with your team taking center stage in the spotlight of unprecedented sales excellence. And so, in the realm of sales technology, orchestrate not just a stack but a masterpiece that resonates with the soul of your team’s ambitions.