What are the success indicators for a sales organization’s digital transformation?
According to the second edition of the Digital Transformation Barometer reported by Think with Google, 99% of business leaders surveyed believe that their digital project requires a dedicated function.
However, how many have thought about measuring the effects of this transformation by adopting reliable success indicators useful for decision-making? This is what we invite you to discover in this article.
Corporate Digital Transformation: Overview in 2016-2017
The figures from the latest Digital Transformation Barometer are clear: 93% of surveyed managers believe that the impact of digital on their market is significant, while 99% respond that the digital revolution makes it possible to renew processes, management methods, and offerings within companies.
However, these encouraging figures need to be qualified: regarding digital transformation, SMEs struggle to catch up with large companies. In a Deloitte report commissioned by Facebook, whose results are summarized in this article from Blog du Modérateur, we learn that only 11.5% of French SMEs are able to sell their products online, compared to 47% of companies with at least 250 employees. It would therefore seem that digital transformation is happening at two speeds, depending on the size of the companies.
How to choose key success indicators to assess the digital transformation of your sales organization?
Your key success indicators for digital transformation should be chosen based on your sales organization’s activity, but not exclusively.
They must also take into account all departments of the company: from the marketing department to the sales force, including management and the IT department, all must be involved in defining the “digital” KPIs. The digital revolution requires true cross-departmental collaboration within the company.
For a B2C business, you can focus on different metrics depending on the progress of your digital transformation. If you want to make your company known on the Web, you will need to focus on its visibility, then its brand awareness: thanks to web analytics solutions, you can obtain a lot of information on the number of internet users who visit your website, the time they spend there…
Once this presence is established, you will need to assess the effectiveness of your online marketing and sales efforts: your ROI (return on investment), your digital revenue, and the number of leads generated will then be key points to monitor.
For a B2B business, however, your key success indicators will be radically different. Because prospecting and sales cycles are longer for business to business, it can be interesting to look at the differences between digital and traditional channels, especially in the long term: differences in time, but also differences in revenue and lead generation.
However, since corporate digital transformation often aims to reduce costs, the ROI of your online sales operations remains a major success indicator — whether you operate in B2B or B2C.
Building a Digital Culture Within the Company: Tips for a Successful Digital Initiative
In an article published in Les Échos, Julien Tréfeu introduces his argument with the following phrase: “Adopt digital, adapt your employees.” He thus reminds us that digital transformation is primarily about people.
Your company’s digital initiative cannot be limited to adopting digital tools. You must support your salespeople in their own digital transformation, so that it is perceived as an evolution and not an abrupt disruption.
Several methods can help you achieve this, starting with the training of your employees so that they can familiarize themselves with the various digital tools made available to them. Secondly, focus on identifying the employees most involved in this evolution: how can they support and guide the rest of the group? You must make them true drivers of digital transformation within your sales organization.
Finally, it is essential to share the chosen performance indicators with all your employees. These measures, whose number should be between 5 and 10 to focus on key success factors, must guide the actions of your sales organization while allowing it to remain in alignment with the other departments of the company. These KPIs can then represent a goal towards which your company is heading, while ensuring the consistency of the actions undertaken.
Regardless of the specifics of your digital transformation, keep in mind that building a corporate culture, even a digital one, takes time. Supporting your salespeople in this transformation means investing in the long term by giving them access to digital tools, but also to the KPIs that will allow them to measure its effectiveness.
Learn how to engage your sales teams with digital with our White Paper “Creating a Super-Motivated Team in the Digital Age”