- Because strong employees are one of your strongest assets...
You’ve put together a talented sales team, and they aren’t any less skilled than when you hired them. But lately, you’ve noticed morale decreasing and your numbers slowly dwindling. You used to show them off at monthly all-hands meetings, boasting about just how much your hires were exceeding targets. But now they’re barely hitting them, and you’re reluctant to show your face.
Your team needs a boost — something to remotivate them to perform and to help everything run a little more smoothly. You need to remove roadblocks to their hard work and get them back on track for steady growth. Here are some ways you can get your sales team performing up to their true potential.
1. Optimize Your Tech Stack
The last thing you want is a bloated tech stack, bogged down by dozens of software solutions no one uses. But a single enterprise suite isn’t necessarily a better choice for your sales team. It could be slow and clunky, and you might still have to add programs to get all the functionality you need.
To achieve optimal efficiency, you have to find the right balance of leanness and abundance. You need software that will enable your team to run its very best, without anything extra adding bulk.
The first step in optimizing your tech stack is to audit what you’ve got and get feedback from your team members. Find out which solutions are working, what’s redundant, and where there might be gaps. Then make a core list of features you need, so you can tune out less relevant sales pitches. You may be surprised how much time you can save with fewer, better tools.
One example is contract management, often a messy process involving multiple applications and disjointed communication across sales and legal teams. A lack of integration between programs and transparency between departments, among other issues, can cause major slowdowns in contract cycles. Sales teams are increasingly adopting contract management software to root out these inefficiencies.
2. Make Your Sales Process Repeatable
Talented as your associates are, they shouldn’t have to reinvent the wheel each time they engage with a prospect. Their natural creativity is undoubtedly an asset, but it’s best used in adding personal touches to each connection. The more decisions that are made before they start the sale, the more energy they’ll have to win the client.
The most obvious way to make a sales process repeatable is to standardize your pitches. Reps shouldn’t ever be writing emails or call scripts entirely from scratch. They should begin with a standard template that can be easily customized to each prospect. Repeatable pitches must contain enough information that even the greenest trainees can use them to start selling.
Scripts and templates ought to be data-driven, written based on pitches that have worked well in the past. One of the components in your tech stack should be capable of analyzing which pitches have the highest conversion rates. As you collect more data, you can iterate and further optimize each pitch based on what is and isn’t working.
Remember that a pitch should always focus on solving the customers’ problems, not belaboring the features of the product. When you set out to write each pitch template or script, keep this basic sales rule in mind. Your associates can then segment and tailor individual pitches more specifically, based on research about each client’s needs.
3. Eliminate Bottlenecks
Like any other department, sales teams are often weighed down with administrative burdens that can slow down their work. Activities such as report generation and meetings can really eat into associates’ days. The difference between sales and other departments, though, is that every minute not well spent could mean thousands of dollars lost.
Consequently, your sales team should be devoting as little time as possible to activities that don’t generate income. Any process that can be automated, delegated, or eliminated needs to be taken out of your sales associates’ hands. Technology (see above) can be a big help here, but it isn’t the only answer. A thorough sales process audit and smart planning can be just as important, if not more so.
Some bottlenecks can frustrate both the salesperson and the customer, like processes that require both to wait unnecessarily for answers. One example is overly complex pricing, which forces team members to make detailed calculations and prospects to wait longer for quotes. Another is any part of the sales process that requires customers to communicate with multiple team members.
Sales processes with too many holdups can diminish your associates’ morale, making it harder for them to stay motivated to sell. They can also lead customers to change their minds about the sale midway through the process. When setting up your sales processes, think of the logic of abandoned carts in online shopping. Customers will forgo a purchase at the slightest inconvenience, like having to create an account or re-enter their credit card information.
Never Stop Learning
The most valuable thing you can do for your team’s efficiency is to build in mechanisms for learning and growth. Incentivize your team members and give them lots of options for continued education, coaching, and training to improve their skills.
Also allow your own learning — and your team’s input — to inform decision-making so you can keep improving bit by bit. What worked last year to drive profits might not get you anywhere close to this year’s goals. In sales, you can’t afford not to be constantly analyzing and updating the way you work.