THIS MONTH’S CONTRIBUTORS: DR. TONY ALESSANDRA, DEB CALVERT, LINDA RICHARDSON, SCOTT TAPP, TAMARA SCHENK, DAVE KURLAN, TIM RIESTERER, PHIL KREINDLER, GRAHAM CURME & MATT DROUGHT

FROM TOP SALES WORLD AUGUST 2016

Jonathan Farrington interviews Bill Butler, CEO and Co­Founder of Journey Sales

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Bill Butler

JF: Bill, can we begin by you telling us a littleabout yourself, Journey Sales, and also, what wasthe inspiration and motivation for you to createthe company? BB: I’ve been in sales and have led both early stageand enterprise technology companies over 25 years.During that time, I lost a whole head of hair studyingwhat’s working and not. What I noticed is that salestoday has a customer engagement problem.Somehow we convinced ourselves that bombardingcustomers with emails and phone calls is the

preferred way to engage customers. The B2Bcustomer demands much more than what salesteams are equipped to deliver. On the one hand,we’ve seen how digital marketing technologies allowus to connect with customers at any time on anydevice. Marketing automation can track every emailopened, click through, landing page visit, and contentdownload. Sales, however, seems to be stuck in the1990’s: sending emails, building slide presentations,making and waiting for that next phone call from aprospect who's not ready to buy. We chase aquarterly sales metric with some customers, anddisengage with other customers regardless of wherethey are on their journey. It’s no wonder companieshave an estimated 60% of stalled opportunities intheir pipeline. That’s the catalyst behind JourneySales and why we exist: improve sales by improvinghow companies engage with customers.

TOP SALES MAGAZINE AUGUST 2016 7

Jonathan Farringtoninterviews Bill Butler, CEOand Co- Founder of JourneySales.

JF: I would like to hear yourperspectives on how today’s B2Bcustomer has changed. Forexample, what do you believe theirexpectations are today, and why isthere such a giant chasm betweenthose expectations and what mostsellers are delivering?BB: First, buyers no longer need asales rep to start their buyingprocess. They conduct researchonline, consult with colleagues andanalysts, and ask for referralsthrough their professional andsocial networks. By the time theytalk to sales, the customer is wellinformed and needs morecompelling, valued­added insightsfrom sales. The few of your “Aplayers” can deliver this, but inmany companies, you bring in ateam of subject matter, technical orindustry experts. Second, considerthe number of customerstakeholders involved in the decision makingprocess. You need to uncover and understand howindividual and departmental needs and prioritiesalign with the overall organization. This “complexsale” is not new, yet as sales professionals, whyaren’t we streamlining the buying process fortoday’s buyer? Again, emails, conference calls andslide presentations only go so far.

Lastly, and this is what we’re passionate about atJourney Sales, today’s customer expects a greatonline customer experience. If consumer sites havethe ability to educate, engage, close a transaction,and create loyal customer communities, how can webring that same type of experience to B2B selling?Our goal is to make the discovery, evaluation, andselection process as easy and seamless as possible.According to a 2016 SiriusDecisions study, 80% ofB2B buying decisions are based on a buyer’scustomer experience. In other words, when your

sales process focuses on improving theoverall buying experience, you’ll winmore deals.

JF: Improve sales by improving thebuying process? But the reality is that’snot how sales leaders typically addresssales effectiveness and salesproductivity, is it? Sales leaders investfirst and foremost in sales training andsales tools?BB:Sales training and investing in yourpeople will always be necessary, but it’shistorically been inwardly focused.We’re beginning to see training includethe buyer’s journey, but it doesn’t go farenough. We must train our team onhow to engage differently with today’scustomers.

With regard to sales tools, there’s aproliferation of them in the market thatautomate some aspect of the salesprocess and create sales efficiencies.Accenture conducted a recent study,

however, where 55% of sales reps find that salestools hinder their sales performance. The more toolsyou add, the more IT resources you need to installand integrate them into your current stack. Today’sCRM systems are robust, powerful customer dataplatforms for tracking sales activity and managingpipelines and forecasts. Extending these systems­­aswe do with Smart Rooms­­lets you harness the data,processes, reports and protocols you already have inyour CRM.

JF: OK, let’s talk about the mechanics, Bill. Canyou walk us through what Journey Sales has builtwith Smart Rooms? How does your solution work,and more importantly, how does it improve thebuying process?BB: We know email is a poor customer engagementtool. Our inboxes are flooded, and we’re all oninformation overload. Imagine a private,

TOP SALES MAGAZINE AUGUST 20168

“Somehow weconvinced

ourselves thatbombarding

customers withemails and phone

calls is thepreferred way to

engage customers.The B2B customer

demands muchmore than whatsales teams are

equipped todeliver.”

Bill Butler

personalized micro portal tailored to a specific salesopportunity or account. Sales, marketing andaccount teams work closely together to create thesevirtual rooms with easily configurable templatesaligned to your specific sales process and the buyer’sjourney. Everyone on your customer’s team caninvite their colleagues and work together in theroom. Customers can collaborateindependently with little to noinvolvement from sales. Within theroom, though, you map and delivercontent to the right people at theright time, just as your sales playbookwould guide the buyer’s journey. Ascustomers add their colleagues to theroom, a sales rep can introduce asubject matter expert to help take therelationship to the next level.Together, the customer team andsales team participate in discussions,ask questions, or like and sharecontent as you would in any socialcommunity. Through this digitaldialogue, you’re guiding the customerjourney and driving home your keymessages to move conversationsforward. And unlike typical customermicro sites that reside on your company’s websitedomain, Smart Rooms capture every aspect of theengagement activity within Salesforce. As you followthis customer activity, you’re able to see howcustomers engage with each other and with content.More importantly, you can identify whichopportunities are beginning to develop. With theseanalytics, sales teams gain a remarkable level ofinsight for accelerating the sales cycle.

JF: I am very interested to learn how arecompanies using Smart Rooms today? Which partsof the sales process are customers having the mostsuccess with?BB: Our customers use Smart Rooms and are havingsuccess in three primary areas:

Opportunity Development. Sales reps developan inside coach or two in order to win that “visionsale.” In most companies, however, it’s a weak andineffective process. Sales reps get commission toclose business, but less than 10% of prospects areready to buy when you engage with them. Is itmarketing’s or sales’ responsibility to educate and

develop the prospect? It probablytakes weeks, month, or even quartersin order to develop the early stageopportunity to a qualifiedopportunity. Smart Rooms maintainthat level of engagement.

Opportunity Management. Howdo you take a qualified opportunityand drive to a forecasted close?During this phase, customers andsales reps share, discuss and iterateon content on a variety of topics.Executives will enter the sales cycle toreview information in order to makean informed decision. Smart Roomshelp both customers in buildingconsensus internally and sales teamsin accelerating time­to­close.

Account Management. How doyou engage key executives by

educating them on issues, trends, and innovationsin the market? It’s amazing how executives engagewhen they don’t feel like they’re being sold. Neverunderestimate the concept of “power buys frompower” where your company’s top executives canwork with key customer executives within theSmart Room. This is a great way to build long­ termcustomer relationships and alignment. As we allknow, developing this level of trust and rapportfosters a more strategic relationship, not tomention significant cross ­sell and upsellopportunities. n

Bill Butler is CEO and Co­Founder forJourney Sales. Find out more about Smart

Rooms by Journey Sales here

TOP SALES MAGAZINE AUGUST 2016 9

“If consumer

sites have theability to educate,

engage, close atransaction, and

create loyalcustomer

communities, howcan we bring that

same type ofexperience to B2B

selling?”