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Tech Stack Selection and Implementation During a Downturn

Posted on Jul 22, 2020 | 17 min

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About the speaker

Amy Kraieski is a Program Manager at ClickDimensions.
Amy is a seasoned professional in the area of technology selection and implementation, not only focusing on tech requirements and process fit, but also the adoption by her sales team at ClickDimensions. She shares with us her very recent experiences of implementing 5 new software in the last 4 months to turn the recent pandemic into an opportunity for improved sales enablement and sales efficiency that has resulted in sales success.

Using Slow Seasons to Implement New Tech

• Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, business was predicted to slow down which opened up an opportunity to implement new tools and new processes.
• Business didn’t slow down as much as predicted, but enough to focus some attention on sales tech stacks selection and implementation.

Determining Needs for New Sales Technology Stacks

• In a world of upcoming AI tech, the next step was to get an AI tool that would not just tell salespeople what to do next, but how to do next better.
• Finding a tool that would allow sales reps to analyze how they were doing personally and how they’re doing in comparison to their colleagues.
• Companies with a lot of employees and that move quickly have ever-changing needs for sales promotions. CPQ tools allow for quick, easy changes to pricing and or sales bundles.
• Using sales tech stacks to capture surveys from customers, either an opportunity win or a loss. Statistically, you can learn more from a loss than a win.
• Know your competitors with tech to populate competitive information and populate the best plays for a sale. This enables sales teams to know which play to use based on which competitor is in the bid for a deal, because they know competitor X has a weakness here, and they have a strength that counteracts it.

How to Select the Right Solutions

• With applications being mainly cloud-based, it is possible to deploy four or five new applications in a three or four-month timeframe. It’s easy to extract yourself from it if you make a mistake
• ClickDimensions is in the Microsoft ecosystem, which is a key consideration for what will integrate well to avoid developing new things if not necessary.
• Before signing up for new sales tech stacks, ask questions to determine if it best suits your needs.
• Consider the effort it will require to get sales teams trained on the new sales processes and new tools.

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