How the Right Tech Can Accelerate Sales Productivity
While there will always be the quarter-end rush and time will always be lacking, the most innovative businesses are investing in two types of sales tech to increase the chances sales organizations will achieve their revenue goals. First, best-of-class companies are always looking for new ways to automate sales workflows, investing in technologies like e-signature that complement their existing processes and sales platforms. Next, leading sales organizations also invest in sales tech that gives them the edge with predictive selling (for example, AI-driven analytics, training and knowledge assistants, and machine learning). This last set of efforts brings sales reps closer to understanding customer behavior and adapting sales motions to maximize effectiveness.
Aberdeen research summarized it in their report Modernize and Transform Your Sales Organization. Companies that consistently meet their revenue goals are investing in both sales automation and cutting-edge technologies. The research uncovers that these types of tech investments make sales organizations 70 percent more likely to see an improvement in overall attainment of sales goals and 80 percent more likely to improve their customer retention rates.
One technology in particular is the hallmark of best-in-class organizations: “The most profitable and effective sales leaders are 90% more likely to use e-signature technologies,” says Jim Rapoza, Research Director at Aberdeen. Leading sales organizations are also making sure that any new technology integrates with their existing sales platforms. For example, Adobe Sign integrates natively with Salesforce as well as other popular CRMs including Microsoft Dynamics 365.
Jim Rapoza spoke with me about this research in the Podcast Aberdeen and Adobe: Modernize and Transform Your Sales Organization. We discussed why e-signature technology is vital to the modern sales organization, with examples of customers using Adobe Sign integrated with Salesforce.
Adobe Sign integrated with Salesforce also helped Groupon more efficiently process tens of thousands of contracts per year. These results align with data from The Total Economic Impact of Adobe Sign, a commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Adobe in August 2019, which reports that the average cycle time for signatures decreases from approximately seven days to two hours with Adobe Sign, which is a 96% reduction in the overall cycle time. And, the study found, reducing manual signature steps saves employees 1.5 hours per transaction, on average.
The bottom line: Automating manual, especially paper-based, tasks is often the most obvious way to save salespeople’s time. E-signatures can speed up sales and is integral to the modern sales organization, especially when integrated with the sales platforms like Salesforce that reps already use.
If you’re going to Dreamforce November 19-22 in San Francisco, be sure to schedule time to meet with us at the Keystone Social House (68 Fourth Street). We look forward to talking more about how Adobe Sign accelerates sales productivity for Salesforce.