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3 B2B sales trends to help you boost team efficiency

As an executive leader at a SaaS company, and as host of the RevAmp podcast, I’ve had the opportunity to meet and collaborate with many sales and revenue leaders. What has become clear over the last couple of years is that they are placing more and more focus on the sales stack and on providing their sales reps with a frictionless sales experience.  

B2B sales trends

An ever-growing abundance of software exists to streamline sales processes and improve the seller experience. But some B2B companies are either using too many tools or not taking advantage of the ones they already have. With all the recent advances in technology, it’s surprising to see how many companies are still “stuck in first gear” when it comes to automating their sales efforts. As a result, many of them are missing out on productivity benefits and untapped revenue.

Recent shifts in the workplace have been well-documented, and it’s not just people that need to adapt – your systems do, too. As a leader, it’s your job to keep your finger on the industry pulse and periodically evaluate what’s working well for your team, as well as what’s not.

B2B sales trends to increase sales efficiency

The following B2B sales trends will be a prime focus for sales and revenue leaders in 2022, with the primary aim of optimizing the sales process, reducing manual tasks and errors, and maximizing revenue achievement. 

3 b2b sales trends infographic

1. Re-evaluate your sales stack to determine what’s working

Product suites, like collaboration tools and digital sales platforms, are evolving into all sorts of niche platforms that serve different professions and specific departments. There are hundreds of sales productivity, enablement, and analytics tools that streamline and optimize certain tasks and processes. But whether they work well together – or at all – is the question you need to be asking yourself.

Using too many tools, or a set of tools that don’t speak to each other leads to inaccuracies and wasted time and resources. Our 2021 Benchmark Report on B2B pricing and technology showed that 89% of surveyed companies use less than 11 sales tools. This number may seem large or small depending on the size and type of your business, but either way, it suggests that sales and operations leaders should focus on consolidating their sales spend and connecting their stack by purchasing tools that have multiple functions and capabilities. 

To determine which tools are actually valuable to your business, consult directly with your team. Try to understand which tools your sales professionals are using or aren’t using, and why. The best sales tools will unify and simplify your sales process right from the beginning. I expect that companies dedicated to improving the B2B seller experience will be more competitive and successful in the coming year. 

2. Hyperautomate tasks to save time and reduce errors

Time is money, and failing to leverage technology in the best way wastes valuable company resources. Imagine you’re a salesperson who spends many hours per week manually configuring price quotes for potential customers. Not only is this a painstaking process, but it’s also particularly error-prone. Mistakes with these kinds of processes can have serious financial impacts.

Sales technology can help you automate manual and administrative tasks so, for example, pricing errors don’t happen. When you are a B2B company, it is also important to use eprocurement software to automate purchasing process, including supplier management, purchase orders, invoicing, and payment. But hyper-automation takes automation one step further – it enables sales reps to leverage artificial intelligence and machine learning within their automated processes. 

What does hyper-automation of sales activity look like? For starters, it can provide sales reps with end-to-end guidance in selecting the right products, services, and pricing for each customer – also known as guided selling. Hyperautomation can also streamline order placement and processing, contract generation, CRM synchronization, and multi-party approvals. Sales automation tools can also help with subscription management and optimizing subscription revenue.

Through artificial intelligence and machine learning, you can also gain real-time insights and analytics about your sales practices, helping you identify gaps in your sales process and where you may be leaking revenue. The added benefit of a streamlined and efficient sales process is a better customer experience and increased customer retention.

3. Provide a differentiated seller experience

With turnover rates still high in 2022 due to the ongoing “Great Resignation” that started in 2021, companies should strive to provide their sales reps with a frictionless sales experience. By delivering a better sales experience, they can improve sales rep productivity, motivation, and workplace satisfaction. So what can you do to enable a differentiated seller experience? How can you enable successful remote selling for those reps working from home?

Offer comprehensive onboarding training and mentoring programs

To ensure B2B sales teams are ramped up and ready to sell, sales managers must make sure reps are properly trained on all of the tools, guidelines, and workflows they need to be successful – and know how to leverage them fully. In addition, provide new reps with an experienced mentor so they can ask questions and learn from team members who have more experience.

Provide sales reps with the right technology

To empower your sales reps to be the most successful they can be, ensure they’re equipped with technology that helps them to close deals faster and more strategically. As an example, sales reps can use leading CPQ software to reduce the time it takes to configure accurate price quotes by 94%. Meanwhile, a dynamic guided-selling playbook can help them make the best possible sales decisions, even before they’re fully ramped up.

How can you create a frictionless sales process?

Now that we’ve explored a few major B2B sales trends that sales leaders are focusing on in 2022, it’s time to invest in software that provides the foundation for building a successful and scalable sales team that’s always a step ahead of the competition. Because when your reps feel better enabled and supported with the tools they need, they’ll be happier and more productive. 

DealHub is committed to providing best-in-class CPQ technology so you can streamline the seller experience and create one fluid sales motion.

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