Being an entrepreneur, you need to focus on improving sales productivity in order to scale your business, minimize costs and build a successful brand. The more efficient you and your team are with your time, the higher your chances are of scaling sales.
For most entrepreneurs and managers the question is how to improve sales productivity without increasing costs and putting stress on your team. The problem (and the answer) lies in the area of team building and smarter prospecting – after all, at Cloudlead we believe that a business is only as good as its employees.
Here are 10 tips on how to improve sales productivity as an entrepreneur/manager by focusing on your team.
Team Building
1- Employee Onboarding
When we talk about how to improve sales productivity, employee onboarding is one of the most important methods.
When inducting employees into the organization, you should thoroughly familiarize them with the system (yes, we do mean the ENTIRE system including the technical aspects, marketing efforts etc.)
While this practice increases their training period, it will pay off in the long run. Even with standard onboarding strategies, organizations have reportedly experienced 50% greater new-hire productivity.
As such, there is nothing more effective than the right type of sales training to set up your team for success.
2 – Regular Updates and Follow-ups
Clear communication and staying in the loop with your team is literally the number one factor for improving sales productivity.
Managers and entrepreneurs should schedule weekly or monthly meetings with employees as this helps everyone stay in the loop. These sessions are a perfect time to have some one on one time with SDRs, gauge their performance and provide actionable feedback.
Keeping your team engaged will make them feel like an essential part of the business and you could always use their ideas as input for future sales.
3 – Line-Up Departments
It’s not a secret that sales and marketing always go hand in hand. When these two departments have a communication gap, revenues tend to drop.
According to Hubspot, businesses where sales and marketing are strongly aligned tend to record a significant jump in profits (up to 27% in three-year profit growth).
Managers should help coordinate campaigns to ensure marketing efforts bring in qualified leads which sales can then push further down the funnel by scoring and qualifying.
Read: The 101 on Lead Scoring and how it helps improve sales
4 – Build a Culture that Inspires
A happy team makes a better, more productive team. According to Forbes, over 50% executives claim that a positive culture is one of the main reasons for increased productivity, growth and profitability.
Keep your employees motivated by setting up a culture based on positivity – and ensure it is implemented on a micro level. For example, it is important for managers to know if their team is facing issues and to actively help solve them.
Similarly, entrepreneurs and managers should take out time and take up issues that could hamper future sales. Helping resolve these issues is another way to improve sales productivity and ensure that your team is on the same page.
Smarter Prospecting
5 – Focus on Leads
In order to scale sales, SDRs have to focus on actual selling. Research shows that it takes an SDR on average has to make at least 18 calls to actually connect to a buyer.
However, in today’s world of personalized and customized sales outreach, SDRs have their work cut out for them even before they can pick up a phone. Hours are spent on researching accounts, finding contacts, verifying information and gathering sales triggers that can help SDRs sell in a more personalized way.
With the amount of work required even before an SDR can connect with a prospect, it’s unlikely that they will get the time to chase a prospect 18 times! The bottom line in such organizations is – chaos.
As an entrepreneur, you don’t want your sales reps to spend time researching, you want them to touch base with prospects. The solution to this is smarter prospecting with a sales intelligence vendor like Cloudlead that can keep your sales team supplied with verified and human researched leads.
Access to in-depth insights into your target accounts means that sales reps can focus on connecting with customers and taking the market by storm.
See how Cloudlead can help your sales team succeed with human verified leads today
6 – Work on Your Pitch
Some businesses offer free (time limited) trials. Others provide samples or demos. Every business has a specific way of convincing prospects to at least hear them out.
While the content of your sales pitch is crucial, it’s HOW you deliver it that really makes a difference. This is a secret to improving your sales productivity that can’t be taught – it comes with lots and lots of practice.
It’s a good idea to practice what you will say to your clients and convince them how your product or service can be of benefit to them.
Provide them with the option of a trial period or give your samples – in short, convince them to start using your product and nurture them to make a lifelong customer.
Keep your pitch personal so you cater to each client according to their specific roles.
7 – Use a Right-Fit CRM
In order to maximize sales productivity in your team, entrepreneurs should invest in a good CRM that allows SDRs to organize themselves as much as possible. Consider this: On average, the ROI for a CRM system amounts to $8.71 for every dollar spent.
Additionally, in 2018 CRM usage increased to 74% from 56% – in short, this shows how using a good CRM can help businesses increase their sales productivity and work more efficiently. Managers can also use a CRM to monitor performance and keep on top of things.
While these tips focus on managers/entrepreneurs, we must not forget that sales representatives are the ones actually in the line of fire – so to speak.
Here are a few tips for SDRs to improve sales productivity and surpass their goals.
How to Improve Sales Productivity as a Sales Representative
8 – Set Goals and Targets
Setting up goals (and achieving them) provides a definite rush and motivates us to reach for that feeling again and again. This is why goal setting is thought to be one of the best ways to increase work productivity.
As a sales rep, it is important to set long-term and short-term goals to stay on top of your work. Starting from setting a specific number of calls you need to make in a day to your quarterly sales target, everything should be reflected in your goals.
9 – Stay on Schedule
Being a sales rep keeps you busy, which is why it is important to keep track of your schedule.
Focus on what is essential and remember if you try to do everything all at once, you won’t be able to do anything well. Set daily goals, de-clutter your schedule and start your day with the most important tasks at hand.
10 – Work Smarter, not Harder
Your business may have invested in tools, but as an SDR it is up to you to maximize their usage. Use these tools to track the amount of time you spend with customers, emailing, and setting future meetings as this gives you a clearer picture of your sales productivity.
Try to maximize the actual time you spend selling through goal setting, staying on schedule and utilizing sales insights/the data in your CRM for personalized pitches.
Final Thoughts
The aim of entrepreneurs should be to scale their business as fast as possible while minimizing costs, and certain strategies such as using the right data and tools can certainly help in achieving these goals.
Additionally, the key to attaining high productivity is having a good sales and manager, as well as a sales team that can come together and work in a structured manner, focusing on what is really important. – your customers, brand image and growth.
Cloudlead has to date processed over 8 million+ leads for our clients all over the world. Whats more, we love watching our clients grow with the power of leads backed by human intelligence. Request your super targeted list here today!
