article |
February 1, 2021
The Digital Evolution and Its Impact on Revenue Growth in 2021
By: Daniel Korten
One of the main differences this past year was the emphasis on digital strategies geared towards getting closer to the customer rather than traditional cost-cutting. The impact of this is profound, and in industries where getting closer to the customer was historically difficult, were able to introduce innovative ways to serve them more effectively.
From a strategic Go-to-Market perspective, the impact of 2020 will be felt next year and for years to come. A recent study showed that digital adoption in European countries jumped from 81% to 95%. That rise alone has a set of implications on how companies should be thinking about their GTM strategies going forward and serving their customers.
Through the rest of this article, we will touch on two areas that need to be considered in 2021 relative to the digital evolution. First is how leading companies are developing Growth Strategies to incorporate digital. And the second is the impact digital will have on Sales and Customer Success strategies. And if you need help understanding where you are in your digital evolution, use this tool to help you baseline your current capabilities.
Top performing companies are using digital strategies and approaches to accelerate revenue growth. However, even companies with an earlier set of digital capabilities have an opportunity in 2021 to grow revenue faster by prioritizing a few key efforts.
For one, companies should be identifying low-value tasks that can be automated via digital solutions. This does not necessarily require large scale changes and/or technological purchases. Rather, companies can use ‘point digital solutions’ to complete a task that is currently being done by an employee. While over time, CEOs and executives should seek opportunities to digitize and automate as many of the responsibilities, there are still ways to have a more short-term impact in 2021.
Another example is for organizations to use digital solutions to improve the customer experience. Today’s customers use a myriad of channels and modalities to access information and evaluate vendors. Top performing companies understand the channels their buyers and customers use across their entire lifecycle and have these mapped out in a detailed manner. Furthermore, these companies are adept at knowing when a customer would prefer a digital interaction vs. a human interaction.
Organizations that excel at integrating digital capabilities into the customer experience have a greater likelihood of success. They use digital to create a differentiated and superior customer experience that spans all channels. As a result, their functional sales and customer success strategies are more effective and have clearly defined ways that digital is incorporated seamlessly.
Sales and Customer Success functions have never been more reliant on data and information from their buyer’s digital behaviors. Today’s Head of Sales and Head of Customer Success recognize that their strategies—both for new customer growth, existing customer growth, and customer retention—require an incorporated digital strategy that lets their front-line reps interact with customers in a variety of ways and through a variety of channels.
One of the most fundamental digital capabilities required in sales and customer success strategies are the right set of tools that allow the commercial team to ‘listen’ to the customer digitally. This involves understanding the holistic buyer’s journey and the different places they go for information, data, and content. Top performing sales teams use this information to help craft more tailored messages to be relevant when speaking to potential customers. And customer success teams use this information to increase retention rates by understanding what buyers and customers are most commonly consuming. While it seems simple in nature, companies struggle with effective listening paths, and it is an opportunity for many companies to improve upon in 2021.
A few other areas that we are seeing top-performing revenue and customer success leaders focus on in 2021 are:
While not exhaustive, this should give some sense of how far along top-performing companies have come in leveraging digital capabilities to improve their sales and customer success strategies.
For companies who are just starting to “be digital,” the goal should be to increase your digital maturity level by focusing on these three things:
This past year has taught us a lot of things. From a company perspective, it really emphasized the importance of having a strategy and plan to incorporate digital capabilities into the business. Next year will see those companies who have started to act on their strategies and plans continue to grow and thrive. Companies that have not started still have a chance to catch up and can use the digital maturity evaluation tool to help know where to start. Hitting the 2021 revenue number will depend on how strong a company’s digital strategy and execution are—is your organization ready?
Dan joined SBI in 2012 and has mastered many roles within the firm’s Consultant Team. Most recently he became Client Success Manager, where he oversees and ensures project quality, consultant team development and client satisfaction.
Dan is an expert problem solver, which he achieves through data-driven decision making. When advising clients, he incorporates market segmentation, account segmentation, revenue & budget planning, sales organizational strategy and sales operations strategy.
Dan has also deep experience solving multi-functional organizational alignment issues impacting revenue growth. Expertise in private equity due diligence & screening, product strategy, buyer segmentation, demand generation strategy, sales territory optimization and talent strategy round out his broad base of knowledge in problem solving.
Read full bio >Nearing the end of 2020, less than a dozen market-leading CEOs gathered for SBI’s fall Advisor...
No more bets, please. Have you ever been at a roulette table next to the person who bets on nearly e...
Being customer-centric can no longer be a company’s competitive advantage. This is especially ...
At SBI’s most recent Sales Advisory Board meeting, market leaders from a variety of industries...
Never Let a Crisis Go to Waste As a CEO leading through the pandemic, you’ve heard &ld...
Over the past several months, SBI’s latest research has unpacked how market-leading CEOs have ...
No company sets out to deliver a poor customer experience. That said, many firms have struggled to m...
The global pandemic has brought about the greatest virtual sales experience ever to occur. Organizat...
SBI TV episodes bring you Sales and Marketing insights from B2B industry thought leaders and growth experts, on topics like product, pricing, customer experience and success, and go to market. Catch up on new and previous episodes here.