How to Make Your Sales Team Stand Out: A Sales Enablement Strategy

Recent developments have presented companies around the world with new, unanticipated obstacles. Sales have gone through a similar change. Both B2C and B2B buyers have different needs and preferences when it comes to how they want to contact vendors and what kinds of solutions they want. How do salespeople handle these problems? Do they understand how to connect with modern buyers, win them over to go forward in the sales process, and satisfy their needs? Karol Stępień, Head of Banking and Fintech at 10Clouds, talked about the changing face of sales.

Marta Klepka, Head of Growth: You just gave a talk at a sales enablement conference about how you can stand out in the modern world by using digital tools like virtual branches. So I'd like to ask you how you can make the sales process more interesting and make customers happier.

Karol Stępień, Head of Banking and Fintech at 10Clouds: First of all, I really like what Amazon says in their leadership code of conduct: start with the client and work backwards in everything you do. So the first step is to plan each step of the sales process with a client in mind. Ask yourself if what you're selling is really something that your client would be interested in. Unfortunately, it's not in many B2B businesses. It's not helping them get to where they want to be. No one I know is happy to be getting a loan. You can't imagine that their perfect day would start with a good cup of coffee and end with a great loan. Loans are just not that interesting.

The biggest challenge is to make something that really excites them. Always think about your customer's goals, aspirations, and dreams.

It might surprise you, but I rarely see salespeople who are thinking about the customer's end goals. Most of the time, they try to get their own way and show how they see things, or even worse, they just talk about the product's features. So, the first important thing is to put the customer first and make sure your product helps them reach their end goal.

Marta Klepka: I know that when you're trying to sell the Virtual Branch, you make an effort to include the customer's brand in the demo. It lets them see how the product looks and where it will be used, right?

Karol Stępień: Yes, this is a perfect example. When we talk about the technology stack or how the product can be changed and improved, the customer can't see what we mean, but as a technology company, we can. So instead, we try to put the bank's logo on the product from the start. The customer can see right away how it will look in real life. Their goal is to move services and products into the digital realm, and they get a clickable product that could be the end result. As a bank employee, the end goal for me could be to give a presentation to the company.

To get back to the heart of the matter, we need to look at the changes that are happening in business. We now have access to a huge amount of information, and since we have less and less time for everything, we get a lot of spam and marketing communications. We don't want to see boring messages that look the same as everyone else's.

We don't want to look at multiple offers that look the same and have meetings that are almost the same. That doesn't give us anything to think about. It's important to keep things interesting when we're trying to sell something.

Many sales reps still act the same way they did 10, 15, or 20 years ago. Maybe it worked once, so they keep doing the same thing, not realizing that the world has changed and customers' expectations have changed. No longer is it enough to send long pdfs or powerpoints written in Times New Roman with the same stock photos. It doesn't look good, and it's actually quite annoying. Customers no longer notice them. They can't even remember what was suggested by which vendor, so the conversation ends up being about price.

When I watch experienced sales reps in their meetings, I see a level of bad automation on the customer side: we start with a handshake, then we have a quick chat, and then the sales rep gives me the same offer as the other providers, so everyone acts like they are engaged and interested. They don't.

Marta Klepka: And then you come with a MIRO board and move a meeting to a totally different place. You've proposed a workshop to generate ideas and brainstorm together because you're invested in finding a solution that works for everyone. Thank you so much for giving me some of your ideas.

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