Sales Journeys
Sales journeys have fundamentally shifted with demand and customer behaviour. Buyers are more informed, more independent, and much further along in their decision-making before they engage with a supplier.
What that means in practice is that first impressions now happen digitally through your messaging, your website, your content, and your brand. By the time a salesperson is involved, the customer already has expectations around credibility, expertise, and value.
It’s no longer a straight funnel. It’s a fluid journey where marketing, sales, and customer experience all play a role from the very beginning across multiple touch points.
Key Challenges
One of the biggest challenges is differentiation. In a competitive market, many solutions can appear interchangeable, so it’s harder to stand out and price pressures compound this.
At the same time, customers expect a much more joined-up experience. They don’t see “marketing,” “sales,” and “support” as separate functions they see one brand.
Sales teams are also under pressure to be more consultative, more responsive, and more aligned with customer outcomes, all while navigating longer and more complex buying cycles.
Collaboration
It starts with alignment. Sales and marketing need to work together to create consistent, compelling messaging that resonates throughout the process.
Salespeople should be using digital touchpoints whether that’s content, insights, or case studies to reinforce their conversations. Equally, personalisation is key. Generic outreach doesn’t land. Customers expect you to understand their business, their challenges, and their sector from the outset, and this takes time and effort to build.
Key Skills
The role has evolved into one that blends commercial awareness with credibility from strong existing case studies.
Salespeople need to be able to:
- Articulate value clearly and quickly
- Connect solutions to real business outcomes
- Use insight and content to support conversations
- Build trust in a primarily digital environment
- Maintain consistent engagement across longer journeys
It’s about creating confidence at every touchpoint, not just closing a deal.
Simplification
Simplification comes from clarity and consistency as much as it does from technology.
Platforms and automation are important particularly when they give partners real-time visibility and control, but they need to be supported by clear propositions, strong messaging, and a seamless partner experience.
From a CMO perspective, it’s about removing friction across the entire journey. That means making it easy for partners to understand what you do, communicate it to their customers, and deliver it with confidence clearly differentiated.
Jola
At Jola, we focus on enabling our partners with not just the tools, but the messaging, support, and structure they need to take solutions to market effectively and grow long-term revenues. Our Mobile Data Revenue Generator Programme™ is proved to identify opportunities our partners can win against the competition and boost their recurring revenues.
To find out more, request our Partner Pack.
