Today's blog post is by Micheline Nijmeh. She is the chief marketing officer for LiveHive, Inc., whose award-winning sales acceleration platform provides engagement analytics to understand buyers’ interests and improve sales follow-up. A seasoned Silicon Valley executive, Nijmeh has served as senior director, integrated global campaigns at Salesforce.com, where she led the market launch of Salesforce’s Chatter and Force platform.
While most sales teams recognize the value of upselling, traditional sales tools and processes can hold them back from uncovering and acting on potential opportunities.
With the adoption of new sales analytics and automation tools, organizations are finding faster and easier ways to identify and respond to these opportunities. As addressed in new research from Aberdeen Group, using sales analytics tools not only brings value for new business opportunities, but also drives value “toward up-sell, cross-sell, and renewal revenue among existing customer accounts.”
By using new sales engagement analytics and automation tools in the following ways, you can make sure your sales organization doesn’t miss any upsell opportunities.
#1: Create a follow-up process for deals won
Follow-up is critical for deals won. Companies must be sure the value their sales organization promises gets delivered to the customer. The best way to do this is to set up processes to engage with customers after the close. With customizable email templates and automation, you can outline a step-by-step process for reps to follow – including 2-3 email templates they can personalize for their outreach.
Email templates can be used to thank customers for their business; request feedback on your product or service; and confirm that the implementation is running smoothly. By automating a process following a close, you can improve your customer service and leave your reps doing what they do best – selling.
#2: Stay top of mind for the upsell
Existing customers should be nurtured just as you nurture prospects. You want to stay top of mind with them, so, when the opportunity is right, upselling is made easier. Delivering a consistent set of communications can help your team nurture existing customer needs. By leveraging group email capability, your team can instantly inform and share content about:
- New product offerings
- Significant company news (e.g., notable partnerships)
- Relevant industry news
- Other customer success stories
With email automation, you can easily keep your company and solutions top of mind with customers and position your company as a knowledgeable resource.
#3: Practice digital listening
With real-time sales engagement analytics, sales teams get deep buyer-side insights. With this “digital listening,” sales reps can see how existing customers are engaging with their emails and sales content. Does a particular customer success story appear to resonate more than another? What content are they downloading and sharing the most? Did they open an email sent from a while ago? Are they re-engaging with me?
These insights can help sales organizations identify areas of potential upsell for existing customers and also signal when follow-up is needed. By seeing what content your customers download, view, or share, you can see, in real time, the features they are most interested in – and tailor your follow-up accordingly. This lets you strengthen your existing connection and bring more value to the customer.
#4: Engage. Analyze. Repeat.
How are your team’s most successful reps upselling? What sequence of activities do they use? What templates do they send? By using what Aberdeen identifies as automated engagement tracking software (AETS), sales managers also get insights into their sales reps’ performance and activities. This data reveals what the most successful reps on your team are doing differently, so you can emulate the process for other reps whose performance may not be at the same level. With a repeatable process, you can build more success across the entire team.
By leveraging automation and analytics, your sales organizations can strengthen and grow existing customer relationships. In addition to serving customers better, you also guarantee that you aren’t missing any new revenue opportunities with your customer base.