“In an era of uncertainty and constant change, having clear goals from leadership and the necessary tools for delivery is a strong formula for growth and success.”
This is the conclusion that Pipedrive derives from research into post-pandemic employee preferences, underlining a deep employee desire for direction and purpose.
Its report: “The State of Sales and Marketing 21/22,” asks employees across the space: “In your opinion, which of the following areas need improvement in your company?” Here are the results:
- Our strategy, goals, and mission (36 percent)
- Tech usage and adoption (35 percent)
- Leadership and management (30 percent)
- Internal communication (30 percent)
- Recruitment (28 percent)
- Development opportunities (27 percent)
- Salaries, benefits, and compensation (24 percent)
- Staff retention (19 percent)
- Budget (18 percent)
While businesses have a mission statement and a vision laid out, making this strategy operationally useful – so it becomes more than just a poster that sits on the wall, gathering dust – is another challenge in itself.
Also, business priorities that conflict with the mission statement and company-wide goals are likely to be causing additional strategy-related problems – especially in the sales space.
Of course, such an issue is relatively simple to resolve. For example, sales and marketing could list their priorities by importance, aligning these with the goals of other departments to achieve a more consistent experience.
In doing so, it will spot priorities that contradict one another, are poorly defined, and go against the culture. Teams can then reallocate their resources and invest in the right areas.
Yet, how many businesses run such initiatives? Perhaps this study suggests that there are too few, an issue that could contribute to inadequate technology investments, which results in poor tech usage and adoption – the second most significant issue listed.
Underlining the importance of overcoming this problem in the current challenging financial climate, Dominic Allon, CEO of Pipedrive, said:
Economic uncertainty and volatility is bound to happen – what matters most is to set your business up for success by implementing the right infrastructure that will pay dividends long-term.
Naturally, technology has the power to reduce costs and create operational efficiencies. Making this point, Allon added: “Not only can that go a long way in getting that competitive advantage in the market, but it can simultaneously alleviate internal pressures within organizations, which is especially important when times are tough economically.”
Also included in the top five areas of improvement are leadership and management, internal communication, and recruitment.
As brands become accustomed to new hybrid work environments, hopefully, companies will improve in each of these areas. Increased UC adoption across the enterprise, the rising use of video, and new shift patterns are promising trends that may make a difference.
Yet, these statistics perhaps suggest the transition to hybrid work has not gone as smoothly as many CX teams would have liked. A recent article by The Washington Post supports this notion, claiming: “Hybrid work is messy and exhausting.”
As businesses become more accustomed to the post-pandemic reality, such worries may ease. However, for now, this research suggests that many brands must do more to reduce these significant employee concerns.
Eager to look into the crystal ball and see how this reality might change? If so, check out our article: The Future of CX: 5 Predictions from Industry Leaders
