Endless cups of coffee and multiple brainstorming sessions – but still not able to come up with ideas to improve your sales team performance?
Do not panic. Because you are certainly, not the only one.
According to business survey groups, 2/3 of B2B organizations struggle with sales performance and meeting the sales quota.
So where lies the problem in Sales Management?
To understand why your sales team revenue is below target, it is important to analyze three components of sales:
1. Sales Resources
2. Sales Activities
3. Sales Guidance.
1. Sales Resources
‘Content‘ is an integral part of selling strategy. It must be a part of yours as well. Great! But is it being utilized and delivered, the right way?
According to industry analysts, while every organization has a string of content resources to nurture their leads, these are delivered randomly from all angles to the buyers. At the same time, these materials are scattered across different systems, that makes the reps overwhelmed and confused over what is available and what to use.
A centralized system that stores all the sales materials and provides fast and seamless access is critical. And a solution that perfectly fits the bill is our very own CRM.
Think of the new-age all-in-one CRM solutions that have an in-built document management section!
Imagine, how great can it be if all your valuable sales content and resources is stocked right up there in a centralized CRM repository, where salespeople can easily find what they need and when they need it. They will also have an exact idea of what materials have been sent to the client and what ideally should be sent after it.
Example, your sales agent will not send the product e-Book twice to the client. The very fact that it has been sent to the client earlier, will be updated in the CRM, which will prevent him from re-sending it. Plus, from the CRM he will be able to identify what stage the client is in the pipeline, to deliver a content exactly matching to that.
These are just a few instances of using CRM in relation to selling resources. Once you implement the CRM, your team will experience several ways in which CRM will support them in delivering the right content to the client at the right moment.
2. Sales Activities
Do you know 71% sales reps spend about half of their time away from core selling activities, tied up in a number of tedious, time-consuming, and repetitive tasks.
If your sales team is also engrossed in these activities, how do you expect them to meet the target at the end of every quarter? Because none of these sales administrative tasks increase productivity and profitability.
To immediately pull your sales team out of this plight – Invest in a sales force automation tool.
Sales Force Automation technology automates the superfluous selling tasks, that in turn frees up the sales agents to focus on the more crucial revenue-generating activities. So get on with a SFA solution now.
Hint: Most new-age CRM platforms have a robust sales force automation module. Check them.
If you are going to buy a CRM solution, then why not take advantage of a system that also offers sales force automation? Many organizations have chosen the new-age CRMs with sales force automation module, and the results are great!
While taking care of customer relationships, CRMs are also simplifying the tasks for the sales reps to make them more successful and help them do their job efficiently and effectively.
3. Sales Guidance
What kind of guidance does your sales team get?
Why this question is asked because, according to sales metrics website – 70 percent of sales people under-perform or even quit because they do not get a proper guidance.
Understand: Guidance is not just about the manager delivering weekly sessions to the team. Sales agents often require the guidance/assistance of their colleagues/seniors at random hours of the day. At that very juncture, if they do not find means of collaboration, their performance and your sales – both suffer.
So it is essential, that you provide them a collaboration tool like CRM (that is why I love CRM, because it fits into everything).
Having a CRM will build up a collaborative environment and not let your sales agents feel alone in their work. Anytime required, they can connect with peers and seniors and gain valuable feedback on crucial sales opportunities. This ensures that best selling practices get used and all your sales agents work together, instead of against each other.
Final Thoughts
So yes, the efforts you have been putting for sales is important. But whether you have the right Sales Resources, Sales Activities and Sales Guidance is equally critical.
When you look at all the three pointers, it seems only natural to make the new-age CRM software part of your sales strategy. Agree or disagree?
Isn’t CRM the best solution to take care of your sales components?
