If you haven’t weighed yourself for a while, stepping on the scale can feel like a Forrest Gump moment – opening a box of chocolates and not knowing what you’re going to get. But it shouldn’t be that way. Did you know that weighing yourself every day has been shown to lead to greater weight loss? The reasoning is that daily weighing gives people more understanding about what they’re eating and how it affects their weight.
Facing the facts is also important to help you succeed with your sales shape up plan.
Think about your sales forecast. The value of accurate forecasting is immeasurable; however, it still remains an ongoing challenge for sales leaders to gauge the accuracy of the forecast.
As a sales leader, would you rather rely on a gut feeling about your numbers or would you rather have factual insights to give you a more accurate sense of what to expect from your team? Emerging sales acceleration tools can help you avoid the ripple effects of inflated or insufficient forecasts by giving real-time insight into sales rep performance to:
Flag individual projections that don’t ring true
Your rep assures you the deal will close this quarter. However, with an management report on engagement activity, you can see that he hasn’t reached out to the prospect for nearly two weeks. You also see that the prospect didn’t reply to his last email. The quarter is closing fast. With this insight, you might ask questions and make adjustments.
See what processes work the best
Looking at all rep activity, you can quickly see who is getting the best response rate and take a closer look to see what processes have achieved the best results. Which email template gets the most opens? Which email template gets the most responses? You can then use this data to build stronger practices across the team.
Get the big picture
With a real-time view into your entire team’s prospect engagement, you can quickly see the big picture. You can see exactly how many emails are being sent out for your organization and the response rate. Sales is a game of numbers. Sales expert Sally Duby says research shows a direct correlation between the number of rep activities and achieving quota.
With an automated and up-to-date view of all team engagement activities, sales managers increase their odds of success. Fast, accurate metrics that reveal your organization’s activity levels and results help planning for the next quarter and beyond.
Stepping on the scale every morning helps you keep track of how you’re doing in a personal shape up plan. You can immediately see what level of calorie-intake and physical activity you need to maintain your weight or what you should cut out to reach your weight loss goal.
In the same way, sales leaders must closely monitor activity levels and processes for individual reps and the team as a whole to meet sales goals.
With real-time engagement analytics and advanced automation, sales acceleration technologies help make it possible. Get more tips in this free Summer Sales Shape Up Kit – including the eBook “Sales Productivity Hacks” with sales author Jill Konrath, the infographic “Do This, Not That, for Sales,” and “The Vital Signs of a Sales Team” checklist.