Ideally, your sales team would spend 80 percent of their time interacting with customers and making sales. Unfortunately, this is not always the case. Your sales team does more than what you may assume. Besides selling, they spend their time prospecting, sending emails, doing repetitive administrative work, taking calls…you name it; they’ve got it.
In fact, sales productivity is one of the biggest challenges that companies face. To make matters worse, only 4 percent of the marketing budget is allocated to sales productivity. In contrast, marketing owns sales productivity in 52 percent of organizations. That’s the reason you need to focus on your sale productivity and help your team unleash their selling skills. The good news is that there are some tested and proven ways to increase sales productivity.
Here’re some tips about sales that can improve your team’s productivity:
Arm Your Sales Teams with the Essential Tools
Your sales team deserves to have the right tools to do their job. Arming your team with the essential sales tools, such as communication tools, route planning, and CRM, is the key to sales productivity improvement. For example, communication tools will help your team stay in contact with clients and nurture strong relationships. It’s time you should give your team the best sales rep apps to keep in touch with your office and clients from anywhere.
Furthermore, a route optimization and team productivity app can improve your team’s performance when out in the field. It can help them plan their day, keep track of meetings, and reach out to clients on time. Of course, you have to spend money to get important sales tools. Be sure you’re not trying to save money at the cost of improving sales productivity. These tools allow your sales reps to ultimately increase sales, making your investment in productivity tools well worth the long-term benefits.
Use Sales Automation to Relieve Your Sales Teams of Repetitive Tasks
Repetitive and administrative tasks consume most of the time of sales reps. All such tasks are killing your sales team’s productivity. It’s no surprise that sales reps spend only one-third of their time selling. Email marketing, prospecting, lead generation, data entry, and reporting take up most of their time.
You can significantly improve their productivity by automating most of the repetitive tasks, so they spend most of their time interacting with clients and making sales. For example, triggered emails can relieve your reps of repeatedly sending emails to prospects. A triggered email system can automatically send potential customers the right email at the right time.
Many companies use LinkedIn for prospecting and lead generation. But doing it all manually can make your reps less productive. Consider boosting your sales team’s productivity by automating the prospecting process. Plugins, CRM tools, and LinkedIn automation software, such as Octopus CRM, can greatly improve your sales team’s productivity. CRM and prospecting automation software can help a salesperson be more productive and eventually make more sales.
Make Sure Your Sales Motivation Program is Effective
Many outside factors constantly bombard your sales reps, affecting their motivation. Think about customers who tell them ‘no’ or personal problems that might be keeping them from unleashing their abilities. Or it might just not be the right time to sell that can affect their motivation.
To be more productive, your sales team needs continuous motivation. You have to hype them up and make sure they enjoy what they do. A drop in motivation and happiness can ultimately hit your bottom line. It is a good idea to have a robust sales motivation program in place for your team to stay productive.
Below are some practical steps you can take to boost the morale of your sales reps:
- Appreciate your sales reps for their achievements and do it publicly;
- Sending an email to sales team, recognizing their efforts is an effective way to motivate them;
- Recognize sales activities, not only results;
- Set goals for your team and let them find their path;
- Act as a leader, not as a boss;
- Give them the freedom to do things their own way;
- Sales reps also need a break. Give it to them;
- Always think about how to help sales team and take practical steps in this direction.
Improve Onboarding and Training of Your Sales Team
Optimizing the onboarding and training process is imperative to boosting your sales reps’ productivity. Proper training can prepare your team for success. A seamless onboarding process will not only decrease the training time but also ensure new recruits are motivated to learn more and spend more time doing their job.
For effective sales training, you need to have comprehensive content that covers all the essential details. Think about contest ideas for sales teams and incorporate them into the training. Also, it is vital that your sales team is practically implementing the skills gained during the training in the field. Consider involving your more experienced sales reps in training to make the onboarding successful and productive.
Be Strategic but Focus on Small Wins
While it’s great to have a big sales strategy in place, focusing on the small steps that your sales team takes is what can actually improve productivity. Sticking to the strategy alone can be stressful because a salesperson can influence but never control the strategy. However, they have control over the small steps, activities, and inputs geared towards achieving your goals.
For example, your sales team controls whether or not to meet a client, but it’s up to the client to decide whether to buy your product or service. Focusing on the means and encouraging your sales reps to use important sales techniques can improve their productivity. When thinking about progress, we often focus on the broader strategy and major breakthroughs so much so that we neglect small wins. The reality is that it takes many small wins to make it a big achievement.
Invest in Proper Sales Training
Spending time training your sales team can improve your sales teams’ productivity. Training sales team help them in performing their daily tasks smoothly. Any new salesperson will require time to become familiar with the job requirements, company’s products, and policies. Sales training will help them understand the processes quickly. Even experienced salespersons struggle in a new environment.
Training sessions must have value, allowing each salesperson to learn something valuable from the training sessions. Each lesson taught during the sessions can make significant progress for companies. Proper training improves your sales reps’ levels and individual skills when sharing your experiences with your team members. The more you invest in training your sales team, the better results you will achieve.
Understand Your Ideal Customer
Every business’s focus is its potential customers. Without knowing your target market, no company can make progress. It is essential to identify your customers, as it helps businesses reach out to them quickly. In sales also, it is necessary to know your best customers because they are the ones who play a significant role in driving revenue for your business.
Businesses focus on customers that create the most value for businesses because it is crucial to improve sales productivity. If companies identify their best customers, spending their budget to boost sales becomes easier.
Track Sales Activities
No business can work without measuring and tracking its sales. If companies do not track sales, they will never find out if they progress or regress. Measuring sales helps businesses keep track of their sales and look for effective ways to improve areas they lack in.
Communicate Regularly
Communication plays a significant role in improving sales productivity. It is an essential skill for a sales team. Since the sales team interacts with many people, it is crucial to learn the skill of effective communication. Through phone, email, and text messages, interactions significantly increase sales productivity.
Communication within the department is equally important. Managers should constantly interact with salespersons to know how they feel and perform. It is even more important to interact with new hires to see if they are facing trouble in understanding the policies or rules of the company.
Moreover, it is always a great idea to check on your team members individually rather than collectively. It gives a better idea of the performance and provides the feedback you have been looking for. Ask for ways to improve productivity, as different views can bring different outcomes.
Empower Your Team with Simple Processes
A company’s sales productivity is as good as its sales structure. It is one of the primary reasons companies look for effective strategies and tactics, share them with their team members, and encourage them to use them for selling purposes. There is no harm in being creative, but it is essential to implement and follow simple processes to improve productivity at times.
Introducing complex processes can confuse your sales team. They will take a longer time to understand the system and gain returns. More straightforward methods are easy to understand and explain. Keeping your sales processes uncomplicated will help new hires and experienced employees understand and implement quickly without any hassle.
Evaluate and Re-Evaluate the Sales Process
Since a company’s productivity relies on the sales structure, evaluating the sales process and making alterations is essential. The sales team may have their way of doing things, but it is crucial to follow the established procedures to improve overall sales. Identifying effective tactics and strategies also helps businesses to increase their productivity.
Re-evaluating sales processes will help businesses understand if their established processes are efficient enough to boost sales. If companies do not find these processes beneficial, they will alter their strategies to enhance their overall sales.
Use Remote Selling
Remote selling is the process of conducting sales without face-to-face interaction, typically through digital communication channels like video conferencing, phone calls, email, and online messaging. This approach allows salespeople to engage with customers, present products or services, and close deals regardless of geographical location.
Teach Reps to Send More Precise Emails
Since a lot of communication occurs through emails, it is essential to train staff to send precise but meaningful emails to clients and customers. Sending long emails often goes unnoticed. Clients and customers lose interest while reading extended text. Therefore, sending short emails is always better to define the main objective and engage the reader.
Companies often do not pay more attention to this perspective and fail to understand the reasons behind their drop in sales. One of the reasons behind the significant decline in sales is that companies lack effective communication with clients and customers through emails.
Optimize Your Social Channels
Brands do not know where their potential customer may meet them. Therefore, it is essential to take advantage of your sales channels. Since customers often look for products online, brands must improve their online visibility. Being available at different social channels can enhance sales and build long-lasting relationships with customers.
Moreover, it is essential to train your staff to know the content and assistance they should offer to the customers reaching to them through online medium. Customizing messages, tailoring content, introducing specific sales will help sales team pitches and attract potential buyers to your brand.
Manage Content Better
Content plays a significant role in attracting potential customers to any brand or business. Content management is a critical element for businesses. It helps them give details about their companies and products creatively and informally. Sales teams concentrate more on creating engaging content for the business.
They use different content creation methods such as PowerPoint presentations, datasheets, briefs, summaries, and fact sheets. They upload the data for the customers to know their progress and updates. The ways a company manages its content says a lot more about them. It is one of the key reasons companies focus more on content creation to attract potential customers.
Reduce Pressure and Make Adjustments
Excessive pressure has never led to success. It is essential to provide your sales teams and other employees with a comfortable working environment to improve productivity and sales. Overthinking deadlines and completing tasks for the next meeting only adds stress and anxiety. 76 percent of the U.S population reported that the two significant causes of stress are work pressure and money.
Since sales are commission-based, most workers take a lot of pressure to make the most of their time. They overburden themselves to gain extra benefits. It is not a healthy habit. Therefore, companies must reduce stress and provide alternative solutions for employees. Moreover, they must look for effective ways to achieve their set goals
Use Sales Leaderboards and Dashboard to Perpetually Improve
To know where the business stands, companies must use dashboards. They are incredible for this purpose. Dashboards help the sales team visualize trends to gain insights. It also shows where the company is spending most of its time and money. It enables you to measure your sales and provide a detailed look.
Conclusion
Remember that you have a limited number of hours every day and what is important is how your reps spend their time. You cannot improve your sales team’s productivity by merely telling them to be productive. Giving them the right tools, automating repetitive tasks, and training and motivating them are some of the practical ways to improve sales productivity.
Empower your sales team by implementing these best tips for your sales and see your sales top.