5 Ways Sales Leaders Can Do More With Less

The New Year is coming up. It’s almost certain your number is going up. It’s also likely your budget increase will not match your revenue goal. As usual, you’ve got to figure out how to do more with less. So how are you going to do it?

2 Options

There are only two ways to impact the revenue goal:

1. Add more Sales reps.
2. Make your existing reps more productive.

The problem with option 1 is your budget is limited. Ideally, you’d flood the streets with more Sales reps. Outduel the competition with more people and more activity. You might add some new heads, but this won’t get you to the goal.

This means you have to make option two work for you. This is where most companies are looking to make an impact. To test your productivity improvement plan, sign up for our workshop here.

5 Ways to Do More With Less

To increase Sales productivity, you have to look at new ways of doing things. There are a few things to consider. You can:

1. Improve the accounts they call on: This is accomplished through segmentation. Doing this correctly means your reps are calling on high probability opportunities. Time is spent in areas where they can win. You eliminate hours spent on low value accounts. The workshop can help you evaluate this.

2. Improve processes: When was the last time you revisited your sales process? Are your reps selling the way your customers want to buy? What about prospecting? Do you still have people cold calling via phone? The countless hours wasted on poorly executed sales calls is a killer. Reps using phone prospecting because they are desperate for new appointments, will turn over. The workshop will show you what your peers are doing to boost productivity.

3. Change the players: You may be able to get more productivity by changing your go-to-market approach. Perhaps deploying industry experts will generate a better response from your customers. Are your best reps calling on your best opportunities? Are you getting the most from your channel partners? Our research shows, best-in-class companies are rethinking their Sales roles. How they organize. Who they hire. Who they partner with. And, how they use efficiencies like Inside Sales to improve productivity.

4. Coach ‘em up: Many companies make the mistake thinking experience equals effectiveness. They hire long-tenured Sales reps and assume they know everything there is to know. Our report shows the best companies in the world don’t believe this myth. They are investing millions in Sales Enablement. The world is changing too quickly. New products. New buyers. Changing buyers. Changing markets. Field execution doesn’t happen if your reps can’t keep up.

5. Give them Support: Top Sales reps never do it alone. There are so many activities needed to get a deal done. The best companies use Sales Operations to improve efficiencies. They track metrics and help with reporting. There are Sales support functions that take low-value activities off a rep’s plate. And, they use systems effectively to streamline cumbersome and antiquated processes. This is a big area of opportunity for most companies to improve rep effectiveness. Test how well you are doing this with our workshop checklist.

A Foregone Conclusion

The importance of Sales productivity will never go away. There is no company on earth that can sustain headcount addition without improving productivity. Our research this year revealed this is top-of-mind for many Sales Leaders. They want to know how their peer group is solving for this.

Many Sales Leaders will ignore this. They will continue to ride their best horses to make the revenue goal. Some will succeed, but many will not. Their top people won’t make it next year. Or, they’ll leave to go sell the next big thing. There is no scale in this option.

If you’re in the other camp and want to solve this, have a look at our workshop. You’ll get objective feedback on how well next year’s sales strategy stacks up.