Relationship selling in action: 3 takeaways from our customers
The tide has turned on the traditional funnel-based sales model. In today’s digital marketplace, buyers expect sellers to earn their trust by connecting to specific pain points and needs with personalized, relevant content and human interactions at every step.
That’s why many organizations are turning to relationship selling—and Microsoft Dynamics 365—to empower sellers to drive customer engagement at scale. The majority of buyers today—72 percent according to TOPO Research, The New Rules of Engagement—value sales reps who can act as trusted advisors and provide guidance and content that addresses specific pain points and needs. And this can result in a 2.3x boost in quota success.
So how can you adopt a relationship selling model? Let’s explore how three organizations have rapidly shifted to relationship selling with Microsoft Relationship Sales solution.
Park Place Technologies
Park Place Technologies provides post-warranty storage, server, and networking hardware maintenance for government agencies, businesses, universities, and other owners of enterprise data centers. A global expansion resulted in more complex deals and a strain on sales reps and their internal system—the aging business applications and manual sales processes simply couldn’t keep up.
Park Place Technologies deployed Dynamics 365 for Customer Service, Dynamics 365 for Sales, and Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations as the platform for a new relationship selling model.
Using the Microsoft Relationship Sales solution, which combines Dynamics 365 for Sales and LinkedIn Sales Navigator, the team can now access a prospect’s LinkedIn profile, connections, and activities—as well as interactions with content and people in the organization—in a single view, eliminating manual updates.
Chris Adams, President and Chief Operating Officer at Park Place Technologies explains the impact on the team. “Our new sales hires are part of the LinkedIn generation. They expect to have access to social media information in their business tools, and that’s what they get with the Microsoft Relationship Sales solution. Instead of switching between Outlook, Dynamics, and LinkedIn all day, they stay in one application and get everything they need.”
Takeaway:
The power of relationship selling lies in the ability to get a 360-degree view of customers by having one place to track and access interactions and use data generated across your CRM, social networks like LinkedIn, and productivity applications like email and calendar appointments. Park Place Technologies has enabled sellers to finally deliver at scale, the authentic and personal engagement that today’s buyers demand.
“By using a Microsoft and LinkedIn solution, we can supercharge and empower our sales team and shorten the sales cycle. Our salespeople will become more knowledgeable and powerful in a shorter amount of time.”
Jennifer Deutsch: Chief Marketing Officer at Park Place Technologies
Infosys
Infosys is a global leader in technology services and consulting, helping clients in more than 50 countries create and execute digital transformation strategies. They deployed the Microsoft Relationship Sales solution to help their sellers use their social and business connections more effectively.
The Infosys sales team manages 1,200 customers and a network of at least 24,000 contacts, with sales reps working with 15-20 contacts at once. They needed a way to work deals at scale, while engaging prospects on a more personalized, consultative, one-on-one level.
By linking transactional data with the team’s shared social and business histories, sellers are enabled to identify and leverage the connections often hidden across the vast Infosys network. By combining Dynamics 365 and Sales Navigator, the Infosys sales team combined comprehensive customer data and social insights into one sales tool. They’re more efficient at scale and empowered to consistently provide better, more contextualized proposals for every customer and lead.
Takeaway:
Relationship selling doesn’t have to be complicated. Take the first step in relationship selling by tapping into your organization’s own network to unlock opportunities.
“By using Dynamics 365 and Sales Navigator together, we can leverage the entire professional career of everybody on our sales team.”
Ashutosh Goyal: Senior Manager, Global Sales Effectiveness at Infosys
Microsoft Worldwide Inside Sales
Microsoft’s own sales team has leveraged Dynamics 365 for Sales to transform its sales practice with relationship selling.
The Inside Sales team recognized that as software customers become better informed through their own online research, the team must adapt their sales practices to engage with them at the right time and with the right insights to deliver value.
They are using the Microsoft Relationship sales solution to provide every customer with a personalized, streamlined, and consistent experience across channels. Combining social listening and customer research helps to drive better interactions and establish a model from which both partners and customers benefit.
The team uses LinkedIn Sales Navigator to gain important insights about potential leads, helping sellers educate themselves about that specific individual, what their role is, and what the company is focused on. Within LinkedIn, the Inside Sales team also uses PointDrive to package relevant content for customers in a professional way, and then track customer engagement and interest in the content.
Takeaway:
By using its own leading-edge software platform and the Microsoft Relationship Sales solution, the Inside Sales team can take a socially focused, relationship-oriented approach to selling in the digital realm. They can now effectively gauge and anticipate customers’ needs in order to meet them wherever they are in their sales journey.
“We’ve built this streamlined engine of engagement that modernizes the way that we do things.”
Jen Sieger, Inside Sales Strategy Leader at Microsoft
Unify the selling experience around relationships
The recurring theme in these customer stories? Engaging buyers at scale in the digital age is all about empowering modern, relationship-driven sellers. Take the next step: learn more about the Microsoft Relationship Sales solution and hear more about relationship selling best practices from our experts:
- Customer 2.0: Understanding the Modern buyer through Relationship Selling
- The new business model: Relationship Selling
- Relationship sales isn’t just for selling—How marketing can make an impact
- Four steps to converting relationships into sales
- Microsoft Relationship Sales provides sellers a beat they can sell to
