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In today’s highly competitive business scenario, companies are focusing their efforts to boost sales productivity, efficiency and close as many successful deals as possible! A good robust sales performance is one of the crucial factors that impact the financial health and bottom line profits of an organization.
It is often seen that a poor show by the sales teams affects the entire financial performance of an organization. There could be a number of reasons that impact sales negatively such as:
- Lack of training
- Excessive pressure to meet sales targets
- Inadequate knowledge about sales strategies and processes
- Poor communication about organization’s goals
- Lack of coordination between sales, marketing, and production departments
- Fear to adopt, unique sales strategies
Sales productivity is absolutely essential and results have to be produced with the least time, money and effort for maximum sales efficiency! It is necessary for managers to be on the top of their game and always have a couple of strategies up their sleeve to propel their sales. Let’s now have a look at some unique sales strategies that can be a boon for sales managers by enhancing their productivity levels to new heights!
1. Use Technology as a Prime Asset
The advent of technology has led to the disruption of the traditional sales methods. Technology has crept into all aspects of sales and has changed the way the game is played! Sales teams now have all the data they require at the mere click of a mouse – they know whom to target, when to call and what content to utilize in order to achieve the most optimal sales results. It is crucial for sales teams to adopt novel sales tools which will help them save time and aid them in bolstering a personal touch with customers (See Inside sales tools for rapid growth). Various sophisticated sales software are available in the market today and they enable automatic integration of a client’s contact number, email address, and calendars to the organization’s database. Marketing intelligence software also helps sales managers get a concise idea about the preferences of prospects and customers. Technology has become a boon for sales managers across the world and is a prime tool in building meaningful relationships with the customer base.
2. Learn to Prioritize
One of the most important lessons for a sales guru is to learn the art of prioritizing activities on the basis of importance. Sales teams often have their hands full, with dozens of crucial tasks that need to be completed. One of the best qualities of an effective sales manager is time management (Click here to get the best time management Software)! Tasks and activities have to be classified on the basis of urgency and a priority has to be given to the important work. We must remember here that quantity does not always translate into quality. Putting in long work hours endlessly does not mean you are going to grab more sales numbers – it may just be that the focus, discipline, and effort are missing. What is important is that the hours have to be counted, by ensuring that the right man is performing the right job. Hence, utilizing time effectively to the fullest is something which can greatly drive productivity of sales teams.
3. Become a Smart E-Mail Manager
One of the first things we do as soon as we reach office is to log into our mailbox and answer all pending emails. Just like that, we don’t even realize that half the workday is over! It’s important for sales managers to realize that though a majority of their work will happen over email, not all emails are important and urgent. A smart sales employee has to learn the craft of formulating crisp, short and to-the-point e-mails, which will enhance communication clarity and also save on valuable time. It is also better to allocate a fixed amount of time for answering e-mails and stick to the time frame strictly. One of the most important things for a sales manager is to remember that not all emails are urgent and require immediate replies. The non-important emails should be marked and answered at a later time, in order to utilize time for essential work. Learn everything about sales emails.
4. Shorten Meeting with Prospects
One of the greatest tips a sales manager will share with you is to have short, successful and meaningful meetings with prospects. While it’s important to connect and form a lasting relationship with prospects, extended meetings don’t always translate into better outcomes. Longer meetings often result into a diversion from actual business and also a wastage of time. A brief 15-minute meeting will be far more impactful and increase employee productivity to drive up your sales numbers exponentially! Useful tools such as screen sharing and presentation sharing also play a huge role in helping you reduce meeting time. It’s important to ensure that a prospect knows that the main aim of the meeting is to ‘connect’, so it would be a good idea to mention the word in your e-mail title. 15-minute meetings often lead to better conversions and form a greater rapport between sales managers and prospects, so it’s important to adhere to that time limit strictly. Apart from that, set up guidelines and processes around making sales calls, so onboarding new SDRs is easier, and the entire team can be consistent with their time and efforts.
5. Improve your Follow Through
It’s often frustrating for sales teams when positive interactions do not result in successful conversions. Well, don’t despair because it’s important to remember that a successful conversion requires many frequent and methodical follow-throughs. Many times a sales team is labeled unproductive because they are not doing they’re follow-throughs right and giving up too easily. You need a system for follow-up and tools to implement the system. The follow-through must be well planned, not too persistent, professional and repetitive. Send relevant, valuable information to every prospect regularly, relentlessly and frequently. Sales teams can use various mediums such as phone calls, messages, e-mails to remain connected to a prospect and ensure top of the mind recall. The trick is not to give up too quickly and keep following through in a positive manner. A sales manager needs to track the progress of each lead through the sales pipeline, so you always know where every lead stands.
6. Communicate and Collaborate
Sales is an extremely competitive arena to play in and it’s necessary to communicate with prospects efficiently, aside from the normal, time-consuming, one-on-one methods. Communication with prospects must be customized to suit their requirements. Arm all sales representatives with an arsenal of specific information that they can send to prospects on request. Sales team members need to engage in an open, consistent and collaborative dialogue with existing customers and prospects. An updated Customer Relationship Management System is a valuable tool and its data can be capitalized to build a strong rapport with prospects (Tips to inspire your customers Loyalty). Sales leaders must establish clear CRM objectives that make it easy for sales teams to adopt and deliver consistency and accuracy throughout the sales process. Constant communication and specific interaction is the key to success in the sales world!
The sales profession is moving faster than ever today. In the blink of an eye, new competitors emerge, products similar to yours are released, and before you know it, you are in the bottom few of the industry! It’s important to remain on the top of your game and be vigilant. No matter what industry you’re in, what worked well a few years ago isn’t good enough today. This is no time for trial and error; this is a time to sell. These six strategies will go a long way in ensuring your sales team is the strongest link in your organization.
