The future of CRM – engineering connected sales experiences for B2B

Coming out of the pandemic, we’re seeing heightened pressures around the globe.

In addition, there’s little doubt that the exponential pace of technology innovation will continue, creating the opportunity for one of the most exciting periods of positive change and progress in history.

Many companies will need to transform their business systematically—and leaders have learned they need speed and agility to outpace change and succeed.

Regarding B2B, we need to acknowledge that the B2B sales environment has fundamentally shifted. It’s no longer just about getting in front of a decision-maker and making a good first impression; it’s about a buying relationship built on openness and bi-directional value creation.

Let’s take a look at two observations from the field.

Rebalancing of control between buyers and sellers

The B2B buyer is more in control of the sales journey than ever before. Buyers are also savvier about where they get their information. And the sellers? They’re fully aware that they’ll have to largely trash their playbooks and embrace the new rules of winning sales through influence.

Blurring boundaries within industries

The market demands a highly interoperable environment where multiple parties contribute to deliver and consume compelling products and services.Now the challenge: Most companies’ systems weren’t designed to empower sellers with helpful insights from customers, enterprises, and ecosystem data.

This means they don’t have the capabilities needed today. But without them, companies are undoubtedly headed for issues with sales effectiveness, growth, and talent retention.

Here’s our secret recipe: meeting clients where they are, helping them to accelerate the pace of their transformation, unlocking talent potential, and above all making sure they are adaptable. All values are shared with Oracle. This is the key to building a resilient organization ready for the future.

Focusing on the future of CRM, it’s critical to understand that marketing and sales are just the edges of an end-to-end process which starts with creating a marketing campaign to closing the sale.

Here’s my IDEA of the future of engineered selling: IDEA stands for Intelligent, Data, Ecosystem, Architecture.

• Intelligence is about filtering the noise to increase productivity of the sellers. This is the realm of automation and AI.
• Data is about creating a modern data foundation and taking advantage of it. It requires breaking silos. This treasury has never been monetized enough.
• Ecosystem enablement. Critical in the B2B world is the interoperability with partners, customers, and capabilities such as partners’ experience, onboarding, and enablement.
• Architecture. We’ve been doing Technology Vision, a trends report, for 22 years. In 2013, we declared that “Every business is a digital business,” then we highlighted that every business is a technology business, and in our recent issue that every business is a metaverse business. In this context, architecture matters more than ever.

The sweet spot for Oracle Fusion Marketing and Sales 

Oracle Fusion can bridge the divide between the two, helping marketers and sellers focus on what they do best: building relationships and closing deals. This can be a tangible value for them, their companies, and the market.

By unifying in real-time customer intelligence with data from the ecosystem of third parties but also ERP and HR systems, sellers can get support in generating ideal quotas, manage territories, align sales compensation, and create sales plans. Innovation is native here.

The future of selling is a boundaryless, adaptable, and radically human architecture engineered to harness the power and elasticity of cloud combined with AI and machine learning.

Having partnered for over 30 years, Accenture and Oracle bring unparalleled innovation, industry, and technology acumen to our joint clients. Together we can help clients gain a competitive edge by winning sales, retaining customers, and continuing to grow.

For more on the next generation of Oracle Fusion Sales, register for Oracle Live, The Future of CRM: Engineering Connected Sales Experiences on Tuesday, July 26, 2022 11 a.m. ET / 12 p.m. BRT / 5 p.m. CEST.