Do you often worry about decreasing sales and increasing competition?
Daily, your salespeople cram in calls and send rapid-fire emails.
Still, they achieve fewer leads only and these are too low-quality to consider.
Even after putting the best marketing strategies in your business, your customers are taking little interest in your premium services.
But have you ever thought that maybe the problem is not in your marketing strategy?
Here’s the interesting part:
Pace Productivity’s studies show that sales representatives spend only 22% of total time in selling. Remaining time is dedicated to other activities like administrative tasks, travel, planning, etc.
Does it mean that you should stop employees’ extra activities and make them focus only on sales?
Not at all.
You know that it will deteriorate their creativity.
The real answer – a solution to your problem – is improving Sales Productivity.
What is Sales Productivity and How it Amplifies Your Sales?
Sales productivity is the process of adopting tools and techniques that maximize sales and minimize wastage of resources. Resources include time, money, and effort invested in various sales activities.
It boils down to this simple formula:
Sales Productivity = Efficiency x Effectiveness
Sales productivity improves efficiency of employees by finding ways to become more effective with time and effort. It adds structure and focus on employees’ daily routine to make them work towards the end goal in mind.
Businesses can measure the sales productivity results by the rate of increasing revenue.
Now that you know the meaning of sales productivity and its benefits, you’ll want to know how to integrate it in your company and get the most out of it.
I got you covered.
7 Sales Productivity Tactics to Close More Deals
Use these 7 tactics to improve productivity, become more effective at sales, and boost conversion.
1. Set Big Goals with Small Tasks
If I am not wrong, you must have set goals in the past only to realize later that nobody cares about it.
So what’s the catch?
Goals are like empty cans if you don’t define specific actions needed to achieve that goal.
It’s like saying I will reduce my weight in a month while continuing random eating habits.
Fortunately, there’s a simple solution to set goals and define tasks that keeps everyone on the same path.
SMART
SMART is a goal setting formula. It stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Bound.
Follow this simple guideline from Brian Tracy to set your SMART goals in align with tasks needed:
Keeping the above guidelines in mind, here’s an example of a goal setting defined with tasks:
“Mike has to make 600 (102/day) attempts to achieve 3 leads each week.”
2. Create a Customized Daily Planner
As you are about to follow specific activities, a daily planner keeps you organized and decreases time wasted behind unnecessary activities. Additionally, it gives your sales team a courtesy to cross things off and have a sigh of relief.
After all, who isn’t fond of to-do lists?
The only issue is you can’t make a one planner for all as everyone follows a different set of activities.
And the only solution is an ideal planner for each employee or a sales team performing similar tasks.
For example, many salespeople prefer weekly planner with their specific tasks assigned to specific days.
Here’s how it goes:
If you have more tasks per day, set a particular time and day for each in your planner.
Tip: Put all non-negotiable tasks on the planner.
3. Automate Repetitive Tasks
CITE Research’s 2017 report surveyed 400+ sales executives and found that the majority of them rely on 11 sales tools.
With 23% time spent behind administrative activities, it’s crucial to automate some unproductive, repetitive tasks. You can put activities like assigning tasks to teammates, sending emails, moving deals to further stages, and taking sales follow ups, etc. on auto-pilot and focus on getting more leads.
CITE Research also found that most businesses use CRM platforms to increase the effectiveness of their sales teams.
For example, operational CRM tools help in automating emails, lead management, multiple pipelines management, and other sales activities.
4. Develop an Effective Communication Environment
Communication is the hidden barrier between a team and increasing sales.
One team member is dumping work on others while enjoys the free time. Still you like them because they tell you what’s going on in a great detail that ends up trusting them. At the same, others feel betrayed as they can’t complain about the work because they know their voices will go unnoticed.
It always happens under your nose. Some even call it politics.
Lack of communication gives rise to careless nature of employees. It is one of the reasons why they don’t take a second look at your determined goals.
To increase sales productivity, salespeople must feel listened in an empathetic. A one-on-one meeting between managers and salespeople is the solution to the ego clashes.
For example, managers can schedule one-on-one meetings with salespeople and ask them how they’re performing. Get their feedback on on-going activities and how to improve it more. Also, give them an opportunity to tell what they need to improve more or if they are struggling with something.
5. Build a Lead Scoring Model
It’s the most important tool to decrease time and resource waste on poor quality leads.
Lead scoring is the process of assigning values to the leads in the form of numerical points. For example, you give 100 scores to lead with highest converting possibilities while the lowest one receives 25 scores.
For this you need the personal information and engagement level of your potential clients with your brand. It helps your sales team to prioritize clients based on their interaction and respond to the important clients first to win the deals. Later, you can put effort on low quality leads, like increase their interest with some freebies, to convert them in higher quality.
Here’s the example of a lead scoring model to get some idea on how to make yours.
6. Reward Your Sales Team
A reward system adds an extra boost to achieve goals and enjoy the process. It also gives the team a break from daily schedule and make them feel cared.
But you must remember that the reward shouldn’t be only for those who achieve targets as this creates the competitive environment and everybody starts thinking of themselves only.
The best way to do reward is first decide goals for each team instead of an individual. Once they achieve the target, you can reward them with lunch at a restaurant. Or if you can’t afford it, you can simply tell them to take the day off as a reward.
7. Offer a Constant Education
“It is the Mystery and Wonderment that Serve Our Souls, Not the Grail Itself”
The Da Vinci Code
When I read that quote from the book, I realized that learning is a part of life. No one can say that they found the holy grail and now they can keep on living with the same. This only hinders further growth.
It applies to your sales team too. The sales will increase only when your sales team receives constant training on various methods. Coaching and educating them ensure that they remain up to date with the trends and stay conscious of changing consumer needs. It helps them embrace new sales tactics to keep the lead flow on.
Say Welcome to More Leads
Imagine next time, instead of worrying about leads, you will think of ways to keep your sales team happy and engaged. You are planning to reward them as they successfully achieved the target. Maybe they even go beyond expectations.
Studies show that engaged employees generate 37% higher sales numbers. By embracing the changes discussed, all you have to worry about handling high quality leads and let the rest taken care of by your team.
Read more: How an International Retail Brand is Using Snapchat for Sales Productivity