Whatever be the type of business, B2B or B2C, unless there is an efficient sales process, the business is bound to be a failure. To take your business to the next level and also thrive in this competitive market, you need to address the issues such as teamwork, proper training, motivation, proper and timely use of sales and customer data, lines of communication between marketing and sales team and other departments of your company. Here is a list of elements that you can cross-check with your sales department to find out how to increase sales performance of your firm.
Impart training to the sales force- Imparting timely training is not enough, you need to reinforce the training and also monitor your team to see if they are putting to use the elements that were covered in the training. Else, the great training that you had imparted would become totally useless.
Leverage the strength of the team members- Sales manager should understand the personality and working style of each member of his team. An effective and efficient sales manager will build his successful team by understanding the strengths and weakness of this members. He will utilize the strengths of the team members accordingly to achieve maximum efficiency. Its tested and proven that those who have the organization and planning skills would know how to create a best sales process. Give the responsibility of customer care to someone who is good at problem solving and innovation. Remember, there are some reps who are quiet by nature but would have relationship and trust building skills. They work wonderfully with customers.
Emotional intelligence and time management is must for sales team- There are many sales reps who don’t have a work plan, they are unable to prioritize their work. Therefore, they waste their time on doing low priority work. Calendar blocking, EI and time management skills must be inculcated into the sales team at the time of induction.
Provide the sales team with quality data source- The data provided to the team should be relevant and up to date. Structure similar data into groups. In a B2B leads can be grouped by industry type, title, firm size and lead source. When the data is structured accordingly, the sales reps can make outbound calls to an entire lead group at one go. This will also enable the sales managers to create customized strategies as per the requirements of the prospect.
One-on-meeting- Great sales managers do not wait for the half-yearly or annual meeting to review the performance of the team. They will block out time weekly or fortnightly to schedule one-on-one meeting with the team members. The meeting will help the manager understand the working style and personality of his team. He will be able to develop a better strategies to improve sales productivity and employ the best people as per their personality style.
Streamline reporting- It’s necessary for the sales manager to know how much business pending and the probability of the deal closures. The sales reps should send in their weekly reports. By analyzing the reports, will give an insight into what can be accomplished in that particular month. Hiring the right people and allocating the right job and right sales performance management tools will enhance the performance of the sales team.
Make your sales team tech savvy- Introduce, the right kind of CRM software on cloud and also train the sales team to use it. Make them aware of the of the tools such as Dropbox, Google drive and Skype and train them to use it in their daily work. They can set up calls on WeChat or Skype with qualified leads, vendors and clients located on the other side of the globe. It will save time. Similarly, the CRM on the Cloud would allow the sales reps on the field to access the required information from anywhere anytime. This makes work easier and efficient.
Last but not the least have a sales process in place. Ensure that there is a process for all aspects of the sales cycle. Train all the departments on the process and ensure that the sales team follows it consistently. This will help to find out the flaws in developing and structuring of qualified leads, in lead nurturing and finally in the deal closure. Motivate and inspire your sales team now and then. They need to be pep-talked on how to increase sales and ROI. Also setup reward schemes for the best performance. If we have left out any pointers or ideas to improve sales, please add them in our comment box.
