Jake Dunlap CEO of Skaled highlights 3 trends for the future of sales

Jake Dunlap CEO at Skaled met with our CEO Amir Reiter to discuss the future of sales transformation. 

Skaled accelerates the growth of emerging and enterprise companies by bringing in Sales Leadership, Operations, and Enablement experts who drive real and measurable business outcomes.

There are three main trends for the next 10 years that Jake and Amir see happening in the future of sales.

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Problem solve instead of qualify

Buyers have access to more information about any product or service they’re interested in than ever before. This means that when they reach out to a company, they want to get to the point and get straight answers to the questions they have. 

But what they encounter is that the sales process is scripted in a way that discovery becomes an obstacle in their buying journey. 

Chatbots in particular are great contributors to this problem. 

Most prospects, especially C-level executives, don’t have the time to engage with a bot.  

They feel annoyed by having to talk to a chatbot for further qualification. Instead of being able to go straight on the phone to talk with a salesperson. 

If your goal is to speed up the meeting booking process, create a transparent and straightforward sales process that is focused on problem-solving instead of qualification.

Take full advantage of your tech stack

Before you add to headcount ...

Sales teams are using 5% of their tech stack, 30% if we’re optimistic. On top of that, tech is evolving so rapidly that it becomes difficult to keep up.

There are some companies, like Skaled, who have a whole division that is focused on sales technology for that exact reason. 

But what most fast-growing companies do, is that instead of optimizing the use of these technologies, they hire more people. 

And it makes sense because it feels controllable. They can see their stats and headcount, quota attainment, ramp, and churn and it’s all predictable. 

But here's a more cost-efficient strategy. Instead of hiring more people, make your sales and ops teams use these technologies to their full capacity. They can have the same results, if not better, with fewer employees. 

Be strategic problem-solvers.

Active listening and empathy are going to triumph against persistence and the ability to take rejection. The last two are both parts of the old-school model of sales.

Customers come to the sales process expecting solutions to their problems. Salespeople and sales processes need to step up and deliver on those expectations.

What can companies do to stay on top? Invest in your frontline

Companies are not investing as much as they used to, in training, onboarding, and continued education.

They don’t do it because people are staying at companies less and less.

But sales is a skill, a learned trade. Leaders need to invest in their people, and if they leave, they leave. 

Not having a solid onboarding and training process is quite often the number one reason why reps fail to hit their numbers.

Support your sales leaders

SaaS sales typically tries to solve problems by hiring trainers for a one-day session. For solving a specific issue, one-day training sessions are the most effective strategy. 

But for transforming sales, they don’t work.

Marketing usually works with experts. They work with a performance agency, a PR agency, and a digital agency, but sales has none of that. 

Sales leaders need a whole ecosystem of support to transform sales in their companies.

And SaaS companies have to be comfortable with bringing in the right experts at the right time to solve their challenges. 

In summary 

B2B is usually lagging behind B2C. This means SaaS companies need to observe what B2C businesses are doing to adapt to customers who want to control the whole journey and know what they want and when they want it. 

And support their whole sales department to succeed in the future of sales.