For many companies, digital transformation in sales is associated with significant obstacles, and there is often a lack of capacity and expertise on how to transform analog structures into digital processes.
Until a few years ago, marketing and sales departments in companies only had the option of using traditional office tools or simple customer relationship management (CRM) software, but recently technological tools have emerged that have revolutionized these two strategic areas of the business, especially when it comes to digital transformation in sales.
According to the CIO portal, which cites Vanson Bourne research on digital retail email list transformation, 78% of companies that are implementing digitalization processes have greatly improved their productivity and innovation.
Digital sales transformation versus digitalization
Understanding the difference between digital sales transformation and digitalization is essential in today’s business world. Although these terms are often used interchangeably, they have different meanings.
Digitization refers to the process of converting analog information into digital format , such as storing documents online or using digital tools for previously manual tasks. It's like switching your paper sales records to an electronic spreadsheet. Digitization improves efficiency and accessibility to information, but it doesn't necessarily fundamentally change the way you do business.
On the other hand, digital sales transformation goes much further. It involves re-evaluating and revolutionizing your sales strategies and processes in the digital context. It is not just about using technology, but about rethinking how you interact with your customers, how you personalize their experiences , and how you respond to their needs in a digital environment. This could include implementing data analytics to better understand customer behavior, adopting more effective online sales channels, and integrating CRM solutions to manage relationships in a more personalized way.
Marketing and sales team collaborating
Bringing sales and marketing teams together
There is a lot of talk these days about digital transformation in companies, and while it impacts all processes (such as research and development, production, distribution, etc.), customer communication in marketing and sales is a key point of the organization.
Julio Gómez, CEO of CocoFact, an Inbound Marketing agency , explains that the important thing in the topic of digital transformation of companies, especially in marketing and sales teams, is in the what and the how: what do I have? and how am I going to use it?
“We have cases of companies where the marketing and sales departments are at odds, because while sales is working on one CRM platform, the marketing team is using a different one. In other words, the forms that marketing sends through its platform are not being received and read correctly by the sales team in its CRM,” says Julio Gómez, CEO of CocoFact.
