How Slack Changes Account Planning
When Samuel B. Morse sent his first message over the new-fangled telegraph on the auspicious day of May 24, 1844, it must’ve seemed like magic.
That first message – “What hath God wrought!” – would open the door to a revolution in communication. That same revolution is still going strong. It continues in today’s apps, like Slack, that push the envelope of real-time communication from anywhere on earth.
Not to say that Slack is as ground-breaking as the telegraph. But when you integrate Slack into Salesforce, it really seems that way.
By pulling in Slack’s ability to enable teams with real-time data transfer (that goes beyond just chatting to each other from living room couches, Starbucks lobbies, or corner offices) you give Salesforce an incredibly powerful account planning capability that speeds up cycles and boosts win rates for any sales org. Here’s how.
Slack Speeds Up Information Velocity in Salesforce
Generally speaking, the faster information travels, the better.
This is applicable to anything, really, but especially account planning – a process that has to move around a ton of data about everything from contacts and influence levels to product lines, budgets, news and events, and more.
The speed at which this data can be gathered, analyzed, and disseminated is called information velocity. All other things considered equal, the higher your information velocity, the more impactful your account planning will be.
There are a few reasons:
- You’re more responsive to internal and external changes with the account
- Email threads, Zoom meetings and Phone calls turn into Slack updates
- You can push the throttle forward on selling and cut down on selling cycles
After all, the single biggest impediment to sales cycle speed is information lag. Data takes time to use. Slack cuts that lag by a considerable margin because of its real-time capabilities that – with an integration – you can plug directly into Salesforce.
Account Planning Can Be Done In the Wild (i.e. Outside of Salesforce)
Currently, to do account planning in Salesforce, you need to equip the CRM with native capabilities, like key account management and relationship mapping apps.
It’s great to have one place for all your account info and planning to live. But it’s even better to be able to influence it outside of Salesforce – like, for example, where your team does most of its living and breathing.
That’s Slack. By integrating Slack into Salesforce, you can do account planning in real-time, outside of Salesforce, right in the channel where the magic happens.
It’s not just about talking, either; it’s about making real-time changes to the plan from within Slack – without having to always be in Salesforce.
That’s the beauty of a Salesforce – Slack marriage. When you’ve built that bridge, you can use Slack as a remote workstation to not only input data but update it and use it from anywhere.
A barrier to collaboration is getting everyone in the same room and on the same page (metaphorically speaking). This tech team-up can put everyone in the same book.
You Can Cut Down on Meetings and Reporting Time and Be Insanely More Productive
One selling point for Slack is the amount of time it saves teams from having to meet in person – which, as anyone knows, can be a massive drag on resources and productivity.
Integrating Slack into Salesforce takes that one step further. You get to cut down on in-person meetings, and you can also reduce time spent in one other area: reporting activity.
Currently, when dealing with key accounts, sales reps spend an inordinate amount of time going through motions that are important but have little to do with actual selling – like recording activities and other accountability metrics.
Because Slack can work hand-in-hand with Salesforce, sales rep activity can be automatically updated into the CRM.
That’s right – what you do in the comms app is trackable and the CRM records it without cutting into precious selling time.
Sales reps and managers rejoice.
That kind of productivity accelerates sales cycles because it gives more selling hours back to teams. Now they can prospect, work leads, hammer out deals, and generate new business. It’s kind of like winning a race because you take a (legal) shortcut that your competitors don’t know about. They may be steamed, but you’re the one with the shiny gold stuff at the end.
Faster information velocity strikes again.
Slack is a spiritual successor to the telegraph, continuing a tradition of enabling faster and more effective communication, regardless of distance, began by Morse ages ago. When you integrate the platform into Salesforce, you may not be inventing Morse Code…but it’ll sure feel like it.
What hath God wrought, indeed.
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