When a sales team is underperforming, most business owners simply assume that they are all slacking off and being lazy. However, this is rarely the case. When your team as a whole can’t meet their quota, chances are that the team isn’t organized properly and that you have bad practices in place.
It doesn’t matter if all other aspects of your business are working flawlessly. If your sales are cluttered, revenue will go down. And, you will be wasting precious resources. Most businesses agree that their biggest challenge with sales reps management is ensuring efficiency.
Sales efficiency can be defined as spending the least amount of resources (which range from time spent to the overall cost of operations) possible while maximizing the number of sales.
Why are your sales inefficient?
Before we start discussing how you can increase the efficiency of your sales team and establish credibility with potential customers, let’s first discuss the factors that might be causing their slow performance. You can’t improve your sales operations if you haven’t recognized the factors that are slowing down performance.
Here are some of the most common factors:
- No consistency in terms of processes and sales strategies.
- No communication between marketing and sales teams.
- Poor scheduling and route planning.
- Not using innovative technologies and sales tools.
- Poorly established sales priorities.
- Having a sales department with a negative culture.
- Too many distractions.
Here are a few things you can do to fix the problem:
1. Get as many referrals as possible
One of the simplest ways to build credibility with potential customers is through referrals. This is especially important in B2B sales where clients invest a lot more money and they want to talk to other organizations you’ve done business with.
Make sure to ask your customers for referrals and build a referral section on your website. This is the easiest way for potential customers to check out who you have worked with.
Additionally, ask them to display their contact information on your site so people can follow-up on the referrals.
2. Implement sales tools
Sales requires a lot of administrative work and this takes time. This is why you need to use tools that can automate repetitive technical tasks and make work easier.
According to Spicework’s The State of IT in 2019 report, which collected data on over 700 companies that actively purchased business tech, 89% of businesses plan on increasing their IT budget or at least maintaining existing budgets in 2019. Around 52% of all tech purchases were product upgrades or those that met basic additional needs that come up as the company grows.
However, the interesting thing is that 46% of such purchases were for specific project needs that needed to be met, and 31% was for added features the new software offered. In fact, if we look at the Smart Selling Tools’ Sales Tech Landscape for 2019 infographic, we find 25% more tools than last year, and a large portion of these are customer relationship management (CRM) tools.
CRM tools are great because they reduce the time required for data entry, they provide valuable customer information, automate various tasks, and help sales and marketing departments get on the same page. Some other useful tools for boosting sales include:
– Live chat
– Marketing automation
– Website analytics tools
– A/B testing tools
– Website optimization tools
3. Time-tracking is essential
There are various time tracking tools sales representatives can use. They will help you track how much time it takes for different tasks like making phone calls, prospecting, sending out emails, and so on, and give you insight into where your sales team is spending most of their time.
Additionally, you can also figure out which tasks take too much time, and why this is happening. This can point to bad sales practices and help you streamline processes.
4. Make them work on their sales pitch
All sales representatives need to perfect their sales pitch. They need to have a good grasp of their target market and know what their pain points are, so they can let the prospective customers know how the product or service will help fix those pain spots.
In the end, they need to wrap it up with a call-to-action that could tell people to visit a site, store, or start a trial. Once you’ve established the best way to address your audience and show them the value you provide, urge your sales reps to rehearse the formula.
The reps need to have their sales pitch memorized at all times but every pitch needs to be personalized. So, your sales reps always need to learn about their leads before calling them or meeting them.
5. Establish an effective sales process
As a business leader or sales executive, it’s your job to build a roadmap for your sales team. You need to define and establish a repeatable sales process. With a standardized sales process, your sales reps will always know what the next step is and they will make fewer mistakes.
Additionally, it will help you build consistency.
Here is an example of a sales process roadmap:
- A website visitor reads several articles about business cybersecurity on your blog.
- Your sales representative engages the prospect through live chat.
- The sales rep consults with your security professionals.
- Your sales rep contacts the prospect to schedule a meeting or a call.
- The sales rep meets with the prospect and makes a proposal.
- The potential customer reviews your proposal.
- They accept or demand changes.
- You agree on the deal and get the purchase order.
- You start providing security services to the customer.
These are some of the best ways to improve the overall efficiency of your sales team. In the end, bear in mind that you also need to work on hiring quality employees who know how to do their jobs. Furthermore, establish an employee retention strategy that will help you keep a stable team for a long time.
