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Customer Management

How to Improve Sales Engagement with Slack Connect and Thena

Paulina
Content Writer
November 29, 2023

As the sales landscape becomes increasingly complex, the need to improve sales enablement through advanced digital tools becomes more evident. Slack Connect and Thena are at the forefront of this transformation, offering innovative solutions that not only enhance sales engagement but also redefine the efficiency and organization of sales teams.

These platforms are essential for those aiming to elevate their sales processes in today’s digital-driven market.

This article will explore the capabilities of Slack Connect and Thena, highlighting their potential to improve sales enablement. By integrating these tools, sales professionals can unlock unprecedented productivity and client engagement.

In this article, you will learn about:

  • The concept of sales engagement and the prevalent challenges in B2B sales.
  • Enhancing sales engagement with Slack Connect.
  • The importance of Thena for maximizing the potential of Slack Connect channels.
  • Best practices for integrating Slack Connect and Thena to optimize sales processes and enhance sales enablement.

Understanding sales engagement

What is sales engagement?

Sales engagement is crucial to forging and sustaining business relationships. As per Gartner’s definition, sales engagement involves “various interactions (digital, in-person, phone, and so on) that sellers have with prospects and customers.”

In the digital world, specifically, sales engagement is facilitated through special platforms that allow companies to deliver high-quality interactions with customers at scale.

Challenges of sales engagement

Current sales engagement challenges stem from the changes in the B2B landscape.

On the one hand, there are buyers. Between 2016 and 2021, the number of channels used by B2B buyers more than doubled to ten. They also prefer to conduct their own web research before engaging the help of a salesperson. Similarly, 70% of B2B buyers choose remote human interactions or digital self-service over face-to-face meetings.

On the other hand, sales representatives are also facing a new reality. They are asked to engage with potential buyers through their preferred methods rather than in-person meetings and email contacts. Those who fail to act risk delivering a disjointed client experience. Worse, they miss out on sales opportunities.

For these reasons, communication platforms like Slack are becoming increasingly vital for enhancing sales engagement. They address challenges by streamlining communication and offering a personalized experience, which is what 56% of B2B buyers want.

So, how does Slack help improve sales engagement? Let’s explore together.

Slack’s role in sales engagement

In order to use Slack for sales engagement, you first need to enable Slack Connect channels to talk to people outside your organization.

Once you're up and running, here’s how Slack Connect helps you interact with potential buyers:

  • Engage inbound leads effectively: Unlike email, which often feels like a one-way interaction, Slack Connect enables you to engage and respond to leads quickly, fostering a more natural and human connection.
  • Get feedback on a proposal: Another way Slack can be helpful is when you send out proposals to potential clients. Using Slack, you can get immediate feedback and work through any doubts your customers might have about your product or service.
  • Loop in key stakeholders: Sales often require more than just a sales team to seal a deal. You might need input from your product or legal teams to successfully conclude negotiations. Slack facilitates this by allowing you to include subject-matter experts who can clarify aspects of the deal or answer customer queries.
  • Remove physical barriers: In the past, sales reps had to close deals at clients’ offices. With Slack, negotiations can be conducted remotely and in real-time.

However, despite the extensive application of external Slack channels in the sales process, the platform is not without its limitations. To address these, consider adopting a solution like Thena.

Introducing Thena—The ultimate sales engagement platform for Slack

Thena is an award-winning B2B customer management platform that integrates with Slack. It's designed to provide comprehensive omnichannel support, seamlessly connecting Slack, email, and web-based interactions.

Thanks to its capabilities, Thena can also be used as a sales engagement platform to accelerate deals and grow revenue faster by:

Bringing together experts, prospects, and data into one unified place

Thena shines in bringing sales teams, potential customers, and all the important data together in a smooth and organized way, all within Slack. This means everyone can work together in real-time, right where the conversations are happening.

Imagine you're chatting with a potential customer on Slack, and they ask a tricky legal question about using your product in their country. Thena is smart enough to identify this query and automatically turn it into a ticket. This ticket then gets sent straight to the right expert in your team. They can jump into the conversation quickly to provide the answer.

This kind of quick response to customer questions can make a difference in sealing the deal. With Thena, you're equipped to handle these interactions more efficiently and at scale.

Linking with sales and CRM tools for a complete view

Closing deals quickly means having all the customer information you need in one place. Thena links up with leading sales and CRM tools, making sure you can see everything about your customers without ever leaving Slack. Imagine having customer profiles, past chats, and important documents all in one place!

With Thena, it’s easy to get the full history of each customer. With this setup, your sales team can make smarter choices and tailor their communications with customers, all because the data they need is right there, ready to use.

Centralizing and automating work

When you're in the thick of selling, ideally, your focus should be solely on making those sales happen. But let's be real; there's a lot more on your plate.

You've got current customers to keep happy, targets to hit, and the usual ups and downs of products and marketing campaigns to handle. Not to mention, there are always some operational matters that need your attention.

Thena can alleviate some of these challenges by automating your B2B customer support on Slack while also offering customer service insights, enabling you to continuously refine and improve your products. Remember, a superior product often leads to faster sales.

Sending marketing campaigns from Slack

Lastly, Thena makes it super easy to run marketing campaigns without ever leaving Slack. Think of it like having a powerful marketing tool right where you chat with your team and customers. You can set up, manage, and keep an eye on your campaigns without juggling different apps.

This means less hassle and more focus on getting your message out there. Plus, because everything's happening in Slack, your team can quickly adapt to new trends or customer feedback.

Best practices for sales teams using Slack Connect + Thena

To make the most of Slack Connect and Thena, follow these three simple practices to create a truly meaningful connection with your prospects and newly-acquired customers:

  1. Have strict and clear protocols for how to interact with buyers

While Slack facilitates a rather informal way of communicating, this doesn’t mean you can approach your sales process without proper preparation.

Set clear guidelines for interacting with potential buyers and for using Slack effectively. Providing your sales team with a reliable roadmap will help them succeed, removing guesswork and ensuring they are prepared to handle objections.

  1. Monitor engagement across different channels

Prospective buyers can reach out through various channels, such as your website, email, Slack, or social media. You need to keep track of them all!

Thena offers a solution to this challenge. Integrated within Slack, Thena serves as an omnichannel tool, allowing you to monitor and respond to customer interactions regardless of their origin. This integration ensures a seamless management process across different platforms, all from the convenience of your Slack workspace.

  1. Continue nurturing relationships after the sale

Closed that deal? Great! But your work doesn’t stop here. Effective customer engagement should continue after the sale. When customers feel listened to and valued post-purchase, they’re more likely to stick around and become ambassadors of your brand.

Use Slack and Thena to proactively provide help and address concerns. This will create an environment in which customers have no incentive to choose a competitor. Remember that keeping current clients satisfied is less expensive than acquiring new ones!

Parting Thoughts

Poor sales engagement can ruin a sale. When client-related interactions are forced and unauthentic, their propensity to buy decreases. However, by integrating Slack Connect with Thena, you can streamline your sales engagement process for maximum success.

Not only will you be able to communicate with your prospects and customers via a variety of channels (Slack, the web, and email), but you will also be able to approach your customers with personalized communications at scale.

Try Thena for free to start developing lucrative customer interactions using Slack.

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