Sales productivity is the biggest challenge for almost 65% of B2B businesses. Therefore, improving sales productivity should be one of the most main reasons for a small company to focus on-the productivity, efficiency and effectiveness of the sales force have a direct and significant impact on sales.
What is Sales Productivity?
First, what is sales productivity, and why should you care? Sales productivity means increasing sales results while reducing the time consumed, such as price, effort, and time. The 20/60/20 rule says that about 20% of the sales team are top performers who often meet or exceed quota. That leaves a majority of the sales team with room for improvement and probability to increase productivity. Often times, enhanced sales productivity comes down to just improving work-flow and removing unnecessary or superfluous tasks.
Here are Five ways to Ensure a Powerful Return on the Sales Purchase of this Changing Industry.
- Leave Transactional Tasks to Other Divisions.
If your outside sales rep is doing much more than focusing on landing startup company – writing up quotes, managing returns and handling supplier issues for existing customers, for example – their time would be better spent growing wallet share to existing customers and intercepting start-up company from opponents. Shift more of these maintenance tasks to a lower-cost function such as inside sales, customer service or even an automated system to free up sales reps' time.
- Build a Team-Based Approach to Selling.
Many traditional sales teams are accustomed to working individually. But wallet share grows quicker when there are as many relationships between the two companies as possible. It may be against the salesperson's nature to work collaboratively, but bringing inside salespeople, customer service reps, project supervisors, technical specialists and others into the relationship will bring about faster account growth. Remind reps of this, and if required, make adjustments to your compensation plan to support the result you're looking for.
- View Technology as an Opportunity, Not a Risk.
It's easy to feel confused or anxious when opponents apply new technology. And it's true that applying new technology needs money, so many suppliers hesitate. But modern e-commerce is a much-needed probability to boost edges by cutting operating costs through the automation of tasks previously performed by the sales team and other team members. It also offers to be able to sell more to your clients. New technology has really come down in price in the past few years, and thanks to the cloud, it’s typically easier to apply than you might expect.
- Bring Marketing in
Many leads today are nearly two-thirds of the way toward deciding before they even talk to a sales rep. Smart suppliers will take advantage of this trend by providing prospects with the details they're looking for via case studies, website content and other sources. Once the initial investment in producing these sources is over, ongoing servicing is minimal, saving sales reps time they would otherwise spend on repeating the same information to new clients. The marketing team can also save reps time by researching and prequalifying leads before they're handed off to sales.
- Transition to a Management-Directed Sales Group
Historically, sales have been mostly self-directed, which can result in sales team calling too frequently on customers with low growth potential. Powerful sales supervisors will take a closer look at how repetitions are spending their time. Taking into account geography, market segment, market potential, service result and so on, they can then redirect reps to higher-potential activities and opportunities, using a tactically designed sales incentive plan as encouragement.
For more information visit at B2B marketplace India.
