Three Tenets to Leading a High-Performance Distribution Sales Team

In this Industrial Distribution article, Zilliant Director of Product Management Brian Hirt explains how distribution sales teams are embracing technology to become more effective. Read the full article.

Leading a B2B distribution sales team is not for the faint of heart. Sales teams have been dealing with complexity, increased competition, and an accelerating pace of change for decades. Along with these changes, the traditional sales model that rested upon the monolith of relationship-building has begun to crumble.

That’s not to say an inherent sales talent isn’t critical – it is; it’s that talented salespeople need assistance to help them sell as efficiently, effectively and broadly as possible. Consider this:

According to Phil Harrell, vice president and senior research director at Forrester, the way many B2B sales organizations operate is out of sync with customer buying preferences. “It’s not just enough to have data, the challenge for organizations is to mine that data and surface insights that will help decision-makers and reps make better decisions.”

I couldn’t agree more. In my role helping sales leaders use data science and software for better decision-making, I’ve observed that the highest-performing teams are mining data for better insights. And that’s not all.

Sales leaders are not only using data, but they’ve also internalized the concept with three core tenets that guide how their teams meet the moment and better serve every customer. They embrace technology to slash inefficiencies, they engage in highly tailored customer conversations, and they home in on high-value opportunities.

In this article, I’ll expand on how they do this in practical terms, and why shifting to an innovative, technology-first mindset has modernized how they interact with customers.

Read the full article.