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The Changing Landscape: The Age of the Partner

With the constant ongoing shifts in the B2B world, partner channels have become a lifeline for growth and sustainability. These strategic partnerships are often what hold the key to a business's success. Gone are the days when companies could rely solely on their internal resources and capabilities to thrive; we now live in an era where global disruptions and rapid technological advancements are constantly reshaping the way we do business. 

This has ushered in a new era of "The Age of the Partner", where the spotlight has shifted away from a vendor-centric approach to a partner-centric one. With technologies like AI taking off and customer expectations on the rise, it becomes imperative for businesses to collaborate closely with partners who bring specialized skills, expertise, and market access to the table. 

If Partner Channel is the name of the game, think of Channel Partner Management (CPM) as your trusty playbook, enabling you to build and nurture enduring relationships to drive mutual success. Whether you’re just starting a partner channel program or looking to optimize your existing one, this blog will provide valuable insights into how you can manage your partner channel successfully.

The B2B landscape is undergoing a profound transformation. Gone are the days of siloed decision-making and linear sales cycles. Today, complex buying journeys orchestrated by multi-stakeholder teams, coupled with pre-purchase research that often bypasses sales reps, necessitate a drastic shift in approach. Sales leaders and their teams must become adept navigators, attuned to the subtle currents of change that will reshape the 2024 sales landscape.

Introduction

New year, new demand gen tactics? In this dynamic world of business where evolution is constant, staying ahead means leveling up; and our blog is your one-way ticket to decoding demand gen growth. Businesses are prioritizing new and innovative ways of staying ahead of the game, from harnessing the power of intent data for precision-targeted outreach to exploring new and innovative methods of optimizing ROI measurement. As these dynamics continue to shift, we need to shift with them or risk getting left behind. 

Introduction

The past couple of years, there's been a remarkable shift in how companies perceive and prioritize their customers, evolving from a mere transactional relationship to a full-blown commitment to being “customer-obsessed”. And this is true across any landscape, customer success included. From being a mere support function to being recognized as a strategic pillar for business growth, this domain has undergone quite the transformation. Gone are the days when customer interactions were merely part of a routine; the current landscape champions the art of cultivating lasting relationships. 

Introduction

Picture this: the business world, a bustling marketplace where every player is on a quest for growth. In the midst of this hustle and bustle, the partner channel takes center stage, a network of collaborations and alliances that can make or break a company's trajectory.

A Forbes survey on corporate executives and video usage revealed that 75% of all executives claimed watching work-related videos on business websites at least once a week, and more than 50% claimed that YouTube was the most popular video search engine used to watch those videos. As the dependence on video content increases for corporate executives, it has become imperative for B2B marketers to apportion a sizeable budget to video marketing initiatives.  

We understand that jumping onto the video marketing bandwagon can be a daunting task, and we are here to ease the transition by providing some actionable tips on elements that make up a successful video marketing plan. If you have in fact already started your video marketing campaigns, this check-list will help you determine if any aspects are missing from your plan.  

Here are the most important aspects of a video marketing plan: 

Who wouldn’t want to be in the top three results of search engines and attract organic traffic in the form of qualified visitors to their website? But, unfortunately this is not always possible if you only rely on your search engine optimization (SEO) efforts only. To ensure that your website attracts a substantial amount of traffic at all times, it is important that along with SEO, you also devote resources to paid search ads.  

Event marketing is a tried and tested method for marketers to build brands, promote products, generate leads and enlighten customers. That said, successful event marketing is about maximizing event ROI. 

Key Takeaways

• The technology and tools you use in your sales stack can directly impact your sales and the deals you close 

• A sales tech stack provides a deep understanding and intelligence about your customers and helps deliver amazing customer support 

• The sales stack tools should be wisely selected to enable you to structure, digitize, and speed up your revenue growth 

• Build a sales stack that functions inside the system you already have 

Are you using an outdated CRM that isn’t user-friendly? Are you struggling to keep track of your leads/prospects? Is your productivity suffering as a result?  

Switching to a new CRM with improved features and leveraging new tools & technologies can help things take off for your business. 

Today, sales professionals constantly look for ways to improve their performance, and the right sales stack can make a difference. If you’re not using technology to back your sales process, you’re probably missing the boat to increasing your sales and success rate. 

What is a Sales Stack?

A sales stack is a collection of software tools and technologies that a sales team uses to manage all the sales processes – from generating leads and storing contact details to building proposals and supporting customers. 

Sales stacks can also help accelerate sales productivity and help close deals faster. It helps your team be more efficient by providing them with relevant data and insights. It can include CRM, email marketing platforms, sales intelligence, and automation tools. 

Before building a sales technology stack for your team, you need to consider three important aspects: 

Evaluate the Tools You Are Currently Using

Just because a few tools offer more features doesn’t mean all those features are right for your business. Evaluate the tools you’re currently using and eliminate the ones that aren’t serving you. 

Identify Your Pain Points

It is critical to figure out where your prospects are dropping off in the sales pipeline as well as identify the challenges you’re facing in communicating with your team members & customers.

Sales tools, today, offer features that can help you spot the exact pain point, and once you identify them, there’s a higher chance of deriving a solution that can help you. 

Ensure New Tools Can Be Integrated Easily

New software can add value to your business any day.

However, if your existing software is not compatible with the latest sales tools, it is time to update your software. Find tools compatible with the programs you are currently using to make the integration easier. 

How to Build a Sales Tech Stack for Your Team?

Every sales team needs a sales tech stack to perform efficiently, but building it isn’t just about purchasing some of the latest tools – it’s a bit more detailed.

Building the sales tech stack around the existing sales process is essential. The software you purchase should turn the sales process that’s already in place into something more effective and productive.

Before adding new tools to your sales stack, ensure that your sales process is clearly defined.

Why Does Your Business Need a Sales Tech Stack?

Here are a few advantages of having a sales tech stack in your business. 

• Sales tools have splendid features that can help you understand how leads respond at different touchpoints of the sales funnel. This makes it possible for your business to push more leads to the final stage of the funnel. 

• Managing deals and sales can become monotonous and time-consuming if you don’t have cold email software. Adding a new-gen email outreach tool to your sales stack can get your emails automated and ensure a top-class email deliverability rate for your campaigns.

•  Sales stack tools have AI capabilities that provide data and insights on the overall sales performance. This gives you the correct information to improve customer experience. 

• The tools allow brands to use data to identify and fix their customer’s pain points, strengthen the sales team’s weaknesses, and improve business. 

The Top 7 Technology Solutions to Include in Your Sales Tech Stack

1. Gong

Gong is a leading revenue intelligence platform for B2B sales teams to help close more deals.

It is best for sales professionals looking to drive up the effectiveness of their sales conversations. It records, transcribes, evaluates, and analyzes all sales calls so you can drive sales effectiveness across your team.

Gong provides proactive guidance, helps onboard new hires quickly, and provides collective reality, and real-time insights. 

2. Intercom

Intercom is a customer interaction tool that helps track customers using your website or product. It enables you to communicate with them with personalized messages and conversational support.  

Intercom helps you identify who your potential customers are and what they do. It converts leads into customers, engages, and provides self-service support to your potential customers. 

Some of the key features of Intercom include: live chat support, targeted messaging, business messenger, app integration, and more. 

3. Salesloft

Salesloft is a sales engagement platform built for sales, marketing, and customer success teams.

It integrates with Gmail and Outlook to help B2B sales teams close more deals. This tool helps identify transaction process gaps and prevents deals from falling through the cracks.

Salesloft boasts a list of features, and the top ones include cadences, sales email templates, CRM sync, calendaring, and analytics & reporting.

4. ZoomInfo

ZoomInfo is a B2B intelligence tool for sales and marketing teams. It helps your sales team identify clients that are a good fit for your service/product.

ZoomInfo improves your sales team’s efficiency by discovering new information about B2B companies. The tool can help you with website visitor tracking, contact tracking, digital advertising, identifying & research, and connecting & engage.

5.Leadfeeder 

Leadfeeder is a B2B website tracking software that helps sales teams track companies that visit your website, how they arrived, and their activities on your website. It also enables you to understand your prospects better and monitor your potential customers. 

Users that visit your website are more likely to be interested in your product/service. Keep those ready-to-buy prospects in the loop with Leadfeeder. It offers CRM integration, record tracking, custom feeds, ready-to-buy leads, and more.

6. LinkedIn Sales Navigator

LinkedIn Sales Navigator should be your first choice if you’re looking to boost your LinkedIn selling strategy.

This native LinkedIn tool is a set of subscription-based offerings designed to help sales professionals identify prospects on LinkedIn, receive alerts, and request prospects’ info through shared connections.

The Sales Navigator provides access to an extensive list of users who’ve viewed your profile, real-time updates about your prospects, and InMail messages.

7. Groove

Groove is a cloud-based sales engagement tool for SMBs to improve the effectiveness of their sales processes.

It manages and optimizes time-consuming processes like appointment scheduling, email tracking, event recording, etc.

Groove offers several features, including API integrations, precise reports, live chat, and email templates, to name a few.

Conclusion

What have we learned so far?

First, your sales stack includes tech tools that help optimize your sales operations process and improve your team’s productivity.

Second, the benefits of having a sales stack and the different aspects you need to look for in a sales technology stack.

And finally, we learned about the top sales stack tools you need in your business to narrow your deals faster. 

Key Insights

• On-demand delivery services are slowly becoming a part of everyday life, with half the urban population expecting same-day deliveries

• While such a model has innumerable benefits for businesses, it does come with its own set of challenges

• The inability to identify and properly address such challenges is one of the reasons why on-demand operations fail

• Any business looking to establish or grow its on-demand offerings must ensure that they are in tune with its current and future projections. They must weigh the pros and cons of such a model before putting a plan in motion

It’s 2022 and it has never been easier for customers to get what you want with just a few clicks. From a cup of coffee to a slice of pizza to a ride to a concert, there’s an app for everything. 

Needless to say, on-demand delivery services are booming. 

Websites and application-based digital platforms are major drivers of its rapid growth. A report by Statista highlights how the revenue from platform-to-consumer delivery is expected to reach US$96,864 million by 2024. 

Technological innovations are not the only drivers. 

Evolving customer expectations, the need for instant gratification, convenience, cost-efficiency, and the emerging gig economy markets are all playing an integral role in its boom.

With on-demand delivery services witnessing a rapid uptick among business owners, it is also vital to understand how such a business model can play a pivotal role in improving customer experience.

Hop on the Ride or Be Left Behind

One of the finest examples of a company nailing the on-demand service model is Instacart.

The American company revolutionized the grocery shopping industry by bringing groceries right to the customer’s doorstep. Instacart’s partnerships with big names such as Whole Foods, Costco, and others went a long way in piloting the company towards success.

Instacart’s tremendous success can be attributed to its focus on omnichannel to close the customer experience gap. This is also a leading reason why more and more businesses are making an on-demand delivery service model their first choice for a business model.

There are several opportunities to enhance the customer experience with an on-demand delivery business model. 

1. Customer Base: Compared to traditional brick-and-mortar outlets, on-demand delivery services help brands to reach out to a larger customer base, spanning both local and international locations.  

2. Access to Customer Insights: On-demand delivery services leverage advanced technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) to better understand the buying patterns of your customers. Consequently, this improves the chances of upselling and cross-selling products.

3. Customer Loyalty: More than 57% of respondents in the 2021 Loyalty Barometer Report by Merkle said they stayed loyal to a brand despite the events of 2020. Tech-savvy brands that are taking advantage of logistic tools to enhance customer experience and provide personalization are benefiting from a customer base who act as brand advocates.

4. Reduced Manual Dependencies: Speed and the ability to ensure quick turnaround time are important facets of an on-demand delivery service model. This requires the automation of manual delivery processes. These include delivery scheduling, task allocation, route planning, roster management, and dispatching.

What are the Biggest Challenges in On-demand Delivery Services?

It is always a good idea to keep up with changing market dynamics. However, some businesses may find it a daunting exercise to identify the challenges of an on-demand delivery service model.

While it is difficult to start something new and capitalize on opportunities, understanding the obstacles can help you find ways to resolve them.

1. Inventory Management

A report by Statista highlights that 56% of global retailers experienced moderate disruption in their supply chain in 2020, while 12% faced heavy collapse. 

With the global supply chain making a brand-new start, it is vital for manufacturers to re-architect an existing business model towards an on-demand delivery service app to stay afloat. 

Addressing such challenges in customer experience means designing effective, resilient strategies by investing analytics in the supply chain management system. 

2. Real-Time Visibility

Customers want to see prices for various fulfillment options at checkout as well as view order progress in real-time.

Logistic providers require visibility into contracted fleets to ensure that Service Level Agreements (SLA) between shippers and consignees are being met. Similarly, retailers need visibility into not just inventory, but also how customers are interacting with the brand.

As challenging as it may seem, this instant, granular level of visibility across stakeholders requires reliable integration between systems as well as effective information sync, so that the data is easily digestible at any point.

Many names in e-commerce fulfillment have achieved this level of visibility in order to close the customer experience gaps. Think of Amazon, FedEx, and Walmart. 

3. Fitting In

Consumer behaviors have changed since the pandemic disrupted industries across every sector. 

Today, people rely heavily on new online shopping experiences. 

In fact, 60-70% of consumers are shopping in an omnichannel way with social media becoming a new form of window shopping, according to a McKinsey research. 

We also see a focus on value-based purchasing, convenience, and availability. Where to shop, the quality of products and the purpose of purchasing have all become the drivers of consumer decision-making. 

To compete in such market dynamics, brands can find a better fit for themselves through an on-demand delivery service model.

4. Automation, All the Way

A leading issue with the on-demand delivery model is that there is a very short period between when customers place their orders and when those orders are sent out.

With over 27% of shoppers abandoning their carts when delivery options are not fast enough, there is little room for errors with on-demand delivery.

Such services work when all processes have been automated to be completely seamless and on time. Solving CX challenges in on-demand delivery, along with adopting a mobile-first CX strategy, will be successful with the automation of logistics. 

5.Competitive Market

Despite the clear wins, the on-demand delivery service model is not suitable for every industry and geography.

You should carefully select your niche based on factors such as your expertise, tech background, users’ needs, budget, and legislative and regulatory framework.

Additionally, the model that you deem fit for your business might require tweaks, now and then.

Starbucks is a fine example of this approach.

The Seattle-based company changed its reward program to enable people to earn points through payment methods. Previously, this was only possible through the Starbucks card. And it paid off. The company’s active member base increased to a record 21.8 million in Q1’21.

6. Maintaining Customer Satisfaction

A Mckinsey report shows that over 60% of US consumers have experienced out-of-stock items in the last three months of 2021. When this happened, only 13% waited for items to be restocked. 

To stay in demand, brands should reconsider their offerings. 

A strong brand image and corporate reputation will go a long way in creating a credible online environment where your customers will be more inclined to keep coming back. 

7. Third-Party Delivery Services 

On-demand delivery service means the ability to meet customer demand, irrespective of the time or day. 

Addressing CX challenges in this model requires you to react quickly to customer needs. This is where third-party delivery solutions come in. 

Adding third-party delivery solutions to your existing fleet management tools will help you optimize your on-demand deliveries, enhance brand awareness, and help you deliver a stellar customer experience while keeping customer satisfaction on a high note. 

8. Enhanced Customer Communication

With customer expectations at an all-time high, businesses must put customers at the heart of what they do.

The success of an on-demand delivery service also depends on how well you relay messages to the customer. Delivery apps can give your customers different levels of visibility into their order’s status and location.

Additionally, look for solutions that can push notifications to customers when their orders leave the warehouse or to the store when they arrive.

It’s All About Convenience

The success of any on-demand delivery service can define the value of a brand. 

Personalization, convenience, and good performance, mixed with a dash of strong branding, will help you not only close the customer experience gap but also enable you to win repeat customers. 

This is the second installment in our series on Unique Challenges where we look into the hurdles faced by businesses in different industries and their game-changing impact on business growth.