Why it's important to make salespeople's lives easier

Since the beginning of my career, I have always been in close contact with the sales teams, from near and far. I’ve been on both sides of the fence: in marketing and then as head of a key account team. I also had the opportunity to equip many of them with my first start-up. In short, I’ve been involved in them for more than 15 years 😉

Less is more

When it comes to talking business, we often take the Americans as an example. On the other side of the Atlantic, we say “Less is more” (Always find a way to do the least possible for the best possible result!).

In France, we use Less rather than More. Until recently, salespeople who applied the same recipes suffered from a bad reputation, often being accused of being lazy, egotistical and motivated by money.

• They don’t like to prospect

• They only want qualified leads and prospects ready to buy

• They sit or talk on their phone during trade shows

Today, even if the way salespeople are viewed is changing, some clichés still hold true.

• To those who say they are lazy, I say they are smart. They favour the easiest targets and concentrate on the essential, on what is really useful, on what can bring them and especially the company profit, sometimes to the detriment of time-consuming tasks with little added value.

• To those who call them selfish, I say that they are the first to bend over backwards for their customers, to shake up all the company’s departments to offer an optimal experience.

• To those who say they are only thinking about money. I say thank you! Money is a driver for some. Sales people who are successful is a company that is doing great.

In short, I have a deep respect and admiration for salespeople. First, because let’s face it, they are the ones who pay the company’s salaries. Secondly, because this is the most exposed position in the company, the one that is under the most pressure, the one where the obligation to achieve results prevails over the obligation to provide means.

They are criticized but, in reality, few of us would risk taking their place.

Why should marketing take the lead?

In marketing, you have to be lazy (or smart) too. Good marketers must have the ability to scale everything, i.e. to automate, optimize and re-use all actions: For example: if you launch a white paper, you must decline it in a maximum of formats: articles, webinars, infographics… Same for a customer case, an infographic, a webinar…

We launched EverReady to make salespeople’s daily lives easier and more efficient. Many (or too many) sales tools available on the market require usage. The role of a sales person is not to manipulate these tools but to create a privileged relationship with his contacts.

Less is more. EverReady is a solution that allows sales representatives to stop spending time on CRM data entry. Our technology works in the background and automatically populates the CRM.

Related EverReady solutions

• EverReady Highlights - powermaps and engagement heatmaps in Salesforce.

• A living alternative to Salesforce account plans - account plans that update themselves.

• Automated MEDDPICC execution - a self-updating MEDDPICC inside Salesforce.