Digital Sales Transformation: The Smart Strategic Framework Your Company Needs

A digital sales transformation study from SAP supported by Oxford Economics revealed that 80% of companies who implemented digital transformation reported increased profitability, 85% said they increased their market share while most Sales leaders expect 23% higher revenue growth than their competitors.

What is Digital Sales Transformation (DTS)?

Digital sales transformation is the process of companies leveraging digital technologies and smarter strategies to optimize the sales process.

It often focuses on the integration of digital / social selling tools, CRM software, Artificial Intelligence, marketing automation platforms and e-commerce solutions. These aspects combine with the sales process to develop sales growth, improve customer experience as well as increase sales efficiencies.

Digital sales transformation connects sales prospecting, lead generation, lead nurturing, sales forecasting while helping companies understand their customer needs more precisely.

What are the key Digital Sales Transformation challenges?

Digital Sales Transformation (DTS) is no longer a nice to have luxury, but a crucial imperative necessity for companies to stay competitive, improve customer experience and grow sales in a digital-first world.

Any organization that decides not to adapt, risks being left behind where a company’s successful future depends on how agile sales leaders can pivot to the latest digital technology and trends.

These key external innovation aspects then need to be smartly integrated with internal operations, culture and salespeople to ensure everything moves at the same speed as their customers needs.

The fact is businesses know that digital transformation is essential with recent research from Accenture showing that more than 96% of companies want to transform their sales department, but only 7% have plans to act in the next 1-2 years.

When sales leaders plan to implement Digital Sales Transformation, they often ask "Where and how does our company start?".

Sales departments simply need a new model that can scale quickly to meet the complex digital needs of tomorrow - the time to do this is now.

Research from Accenture shows that more than 96% of companies want to transform their sales department, but only 7% have plans to act in the next 1-2 years.

This is why Sales Is Art has leveraged best practice sales research from our network of expert high performing sales professionals and companies to create an effective and robust Digital Sales Transformation Strategic Framework ©.

This simple and easy to use framework contains five key interconnected areas that can be used immediately as part of your organization's go-to-market Digital Sales Transformation Strategy:

Digital Sales Transformation Strategic Framework ©

1. Technology, Automation & AI

By automating repetitive tasks and using AI to analyze data, sales professionals can increase efficiencies and spend more time on higher-value activities like building relationships with customers and closing more deals.

A sharper focus on innovative technology and automation can enable sales teams to be more flexible and responsive to changing customer needs and market conditions. For example companies can quickly adjust pricing or change their sales approach based on real-time feedback from customers i.e. firms can be proactive instead of reactive.

Most importantly the sales benefits of technology, automation and AI can lead to increased revenue and growth for businesses.

By implementing efficient digital processes which improve accuracy and enhance the customer experience, sales teams can close a higher volume of deals and generate more revenue.

2. Data, Analytics & Trends

According to Deloitte Digital, investments in analytics have yielded 20% improvements in sales productivity.

The sales benefits of data, analytics and trends are significant and can help businesses increase revenue, improve customer satisfaction, and gain a competitive edge in the marketplace.

By analyzing their historical company data and identifying new trends, sales teams can use predictive analytics to forecast future sales and identify more timely opportunities or challenges.

This proactive approach gives sales leaders better informed decisions which are based on real-time insights where they can identify the most effective sales channels that will improve their sales processes.

With the analysis of historical sales data and trends, sales teams can create more accurate sales forecasts, which can help them better allocate resources and plan for future growth.

By sales departments smartly analyzing customer data, they can identify patterns and trends that may be difficult to detect manually.

According to Deloitte Digital, investments in analytics have yielded 20% improvements in sales productivity.

3. Customer Behaviour, Insights & Experience

If companies can sharpen their digital customer experience proposition to match and deliver what their customers want, sales teams will build stronger customer relationships which leads to increased loyalty and repeat business.

By understanding online customer behaviour, habits and preferences - sales teams can provide a greater personalized experience that is more likely to lead to improved cross-selling and upselling opportunities.

If sales directors and managers can understand their online customer needs which leads to a positive experience, sales teams will increase customer satisfaction. By analyzing customer behaviour and feedback, companies can gain valuable insights to help develop new products and services that better meet customer demands.

This organically creates more positive customer reviews, referrals, and ultimately more sales.

Overall, understanding online customer behaviour, insights, and experience is crucial for sales success. By leveraging data and insights to provide a more personalized, customer-centric approach, sales teams can build stronger relationships with customers, increase revenue, and drive business growth.

4. Culture Innovation & Salespeople

“60% of executives say digital transformation is their most critical growth driver” according to a recent PwC survey as mentioned by Forbes magazine.

By adopting a digital-first approach with their salespeople, sales teams can gain a competitive advantage over rivals who rely solely on reputation meaning this area is especially important for startups competing with larger brands.

However, even the well established global brands are deciding to invest in Digital Sales Transformation.

Watch this interesting short 2 minute video from Tom Stubbs, the Senior Director of Commercial Capability & Communications at PepsiCo who talks about taking 12,000 of their employees on a Digital Sales Transformation journey with Mediafly.

Implementing a digital-first culture embraced by salespeople can have significant benefits for sales performance and overall business success.

This adoption will Increase staff motivation and engagement while salespeople are better equipped to build stronger relationships with customers.

A positive culture can also help retain top-performing salespeople which reduces turnover costs and help salespeople work more productively to drive revenue growth for the business.

“60% of executives say digital transformation is their most critical growth driver” according to a recent PwC survey as mentioned by Forbes magazine.

5. Processes, Resources & Capabilities

By implementing digital centric processes, resources and capabilities, companies can often experience increased efficiency and productivity.

This can be in the form of streamlined workflows, reducing wait times and increasing the speed of service delivery.

Effective digital sales transformation often requires improved resource allocation including sales tools, technology and sales staff which can lead to overall greater efficiency.

Improved online processes and capabilities can help sales teams quickly adapt to changing market conditions and customer needs to secure them a major competitive advantage over rivals.

By tracking customer behaviour and analyzing data, sales teams can create more accurate sales forecasts which should help them better allocate resources to plan for future growth.

Feel free to watch this YouTube video of our 'Digital Sales Transformation: The Smart Strategic Framework Your Company Needs' blog: