Want to maximize revenue? Align your sales and service teams

With today's customers expecting seamless service, personalized interactions, and solutions that anticipate their needs, smooth partnerships - including those between sales and service - within businesses are crucial.

When sales and service functions are working in different systems and processes, it becomes difficult to deliver on these high expectations. While our research finds that 79% of customers expect consistency across departments, 56% often have to repeat information to different representatives, leading to incohesive (and frustrating!) experiences. When your departments don't have access to the same, up-to-date information, it affects employee productivity, leads to increased costs, and ultimately impacts customer satisfaction negatively.

Giving your sales and service teams visibility into all customer data doesn't just save your business money - it has the potential to drive revenue growth. With 85% of decision makers saying that service is expected to contribute a larger share of revenue this year, orgs are looking to their own agents and mobile workers to upsell. What better way to pave the path to purchase than by getting rid of data silos?

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The current state of disjointed sales and service

Traditionally, sales and service departments have operated independently. After all, they often have different metrics and KPIs, strategies, and even technology platforms.

But this separation can lead to a lack of shared customer insights, resulting in inefficient service delivery and missed sales opportunities. For instance, service agents might not be aware of ongoing sales promotions or the customer's purchasing history, leading to a disjointed customer experience and potential loss of upsell opportunities. If AI chatbots don't have access to customer data, they won't be able to make helpful product or service recommendations.

When sales and service work in silos, it prevents teams from accessing the same customer information, which is crucial for providing a unified customer experience. Imagine a scenario where sales teams can't view customer success engagements or support cases handled by other teams. This not only leads to redundant communications but also frustrates customers, who must repeat their issues multiple times to different departments and possibly get transferred several times. In a world where 65% of customers expect companies to adapt to their changing needs and preferences, according to our research, businesses simply can't afford to not provide great service.

Benefits of a centrally managed platform

Integrating sales and service via a unified platform like Salesforce can dramatically enhance operational efficiency and customer satisfaction.

Some major benefits for your organization include:

• Increased team productivity: Unified platforms provide agents with complete visibility into customer interactions across sales and service, reducing the time spent gathering information and allowing more time for meaningful customer engagements that could lead to sales.

• Reduced costs: Operating on a single platform reduces the need for maintaining multiple systems and the associated administrative overhead. It simplifies IT needs and reduces costs by streamlining operations and reducing the need for extensive training across disparate systems. Spending less on resources can increase your business's profit margin, as well as leaving you with more money you can put towards sales-generating goals.

• Enhanced upsell opportunities: Many companies are now turning to service as a way to drive growth and protect their margins - our research finds that 78% of surveyed agents say they have access to quality, up-to-date training on products and services, and 68% of agents are already trained to upsell. With complete customer information, service agents can easily identify and seize upsell and cross-sell opportunities. They can make informed recommendations based on the customer's purchase history and preferences, which not only drives revenue but also enhances customer satisfaction.

How technology can bring sales and service together

Technological solutions - including AI capabilities - are a game-changer when it comes to bridging sales and service teams. According to our research, 93% of service professionals at orgs investing in AI say tech saves them time on the job.

Take Salesforce's Einstein 1 Platform, for example. Einstein allows service agents and salespeople alike to access predictive insights and automated recommendations, which can lead to improved decision-making and strategic planning.

Einstein's AI analyzes customer data to provide sales and service teams with actionable insights, such as identifying which service cases might lead to opportunities for upsells or cross-sells. This proactive approach ensures that teams aren't just reacting to customer needs but anticipating them, increasing the chances of closing deals and providing better customer satisfaction.

Alongside Einstein is Salesforce's Data Cloud, which acts as a centralized platform where all customer interactions and data points are harmonized, analyzed, and activated.

Data Cloud has the ability to bring in real-time data from various sources, like web engagement, IoT, and conversational data. This capability gives teams a deeper understanding of customer behavior and preferences. For instance, if a customer shows interest in a particular product through their browsing habits, both the sales and service teams can access this information to tailor their interactions and recommendations accordingly.

With technology like Salesforce's Einstein and Data Cloud, sales and service teams have visibility into each others' data, which helps each team thrive - and sell. Sales teams can use service insights to better understand customer issues and tailor their sales pitches, increasing the likelihood of renewal and customer retention. Service teams equipped with sales data can identify and act upon upselling opportunities during service interactions.

Best practices to get started

Implementing a unified sales and service strategy involves several best practices:

• Develop a clear strategy: Define what you aim to achieve by integrating sales and service. Whether it's improving customer satisfaction, increasing revenue, or reducing operational costs (or perhaps all three), having clear goals will guide the integration process.

• Secure stakeholder engagement: Ensure that all stakeholders, including leadership and team members from both sales and service, are on board. Their involvement is crucial for successful adoption and implementation. Change management is key!

• Invest in comprehensive training: Equip your teams with the necessary training on the new systems and processes. This will not only ease the transition but also empower them to effectively use the unified platform to achieve business goals.

How to measure success with sales and service

To effectively measure the impact of integrating sales and service, focus on metrics such as customer lifetime value, customer satisfaction scores, and service response times.

Additionally, track revenue growth from cross-selling and upselling, as these are direct indicators of how well the teams are using the unified system to improve customer interactions. Today's fastest growing KPIs are linked to tangible business outcomes - the share of service orgs tracking revenue generation, for example, has nearly doubled since 2018 from 51 to 91%.

Uniting sales and service is more than just a structural change - it's a strategic move towards creating a cohesive, customer-centric organization. By taking advantage of advanced platforms like Salesforce and adopting a thoughtful approach to integration, businesses can not only meet but exceed the evolving expectations of their customers, driving significant growth in revenue and customer loyalty.

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