The more things change, the more they stay the same. While the nature of sales has most certainly been impacted by the digital age, and is having to evolve to keep pace, there's one thing that never changes, according to Deirdre Fryer, Product Manager at SYSPRO Africa. "The customer should always be the focus of any sales strategy. However the customer has changed significantly. They're smarter and better informed and can be influenced – and influence – via social media channels."

It's been estimated that up to 60% of sales failure can be chalked up to poor sales planning and a lack of sales cycle optimisation – and in an age with limitless digital tools available, that's 60% too much.

Technology is disrupting the way pretty much everything is done within an organisation, and sales is no exception. Sales teams in general have to be more skilled and aware of what their offering can do as the customer already knows so much from online reading and research. "It's essential that sales planning strategies demonstrate an understanding of the customer as an individual, instead of focussing purely on product or solution," says Fryer.

Digitalisation has an invaluable role to play in sales planning, according to Fryer. "Social media, apps, websites and e-commerce platforms means you have more access to your customers – as well as more information about them. This in turn allows you to do more relationship building and get closer to your customers. It also enables you to collect information about trends that could be impacting those customers and the decisions that they make. Ultimately, this results in a more engaged customer."

The universal success of e-commerce platforms underlines the one thing that all customers are looking for, regardless of industry: convenience. If people can do something to make their lives easier, they'll do it. So businesses need to ensure that their customers can engage with them via the medium of their choice, whether it be an e-commerce platform, or an app that they can download to their phone. Any technological innovation that can give the customer what they want and brings the customer closer, providing touchpoints between the customer and your business, can be used successfully to drive customer engagement, says Fryer.

"Customers no longer want to wait for someone to phone them back. They want to get the information (or item) that they want, when they want it and how they want it. This means that the sales team has to be highly mobile and flexible to keep pace. It's vital that sales people be able to access real-time up-to-date information from wherever they are and whenever they need it. Customers expect sales teams to be on top of what's available and current pricing, without having to call into the office for a quote or status report."

This kind of mobility and flexibility also enables the globalization of businesses as where you're located physically becomes far less of a constraint, explains Fryer. "Technology enables you to engage with companies and customers all over the world, seamlessly. This brings a whole new dynamic in that difference in time zones no longer apply, as when one country is asleep, another is conducting business, yet technology enables you to engage with them regardless. We're seeing an exciting new trend where businesses are using bots – or digital citizens, if you will – who can engage with clients in their own time zone while the human sales team is sleeping."

Obviously, in order to even begin to achieve this level of engagement, sales teams need access to applications and devices that enable this type of immediacy. They need a centralised software system that gathers and consolidates internal business information but is also able to integrate across digital platforms to provide insight into external factors and trends, and the impact these could have on future sales decisions.

A strategic sales planning solution should do the following five things:

1. Actively encourage a focus on breaking new ground in previously untapped target markets
2. Add value to the customer lifecycle for long-term viability.
3. Encompass training, tools and enablement solutions for sales
4. Offer business analysis and marketing tools
5. Enable users to react quickly to fast-changing conditions

In conclusion, Fryer says, "Sales teams in today's highly competitive, technologically disrupted environment need access to marketing and ERP assets that can help them pitch for new business, along with the tools, techniques and training necessary to accelerate sales, regardless of where the customer is located."