About 23 percent of companies surveyed by The TAS Group said they aren’t sure if their sales team is achieving its quota. Only 61 percent of salespeople say they know how to uncover their customers’ problems.
But your inside sales team has a mountain of leads to tackle. Your sales reps are constantly in the field, meeting with prospects. Everyone is hitting the mark, right?
If your actual revenue isn’t growing, you aren’t yielding success – you’re simply being productive. While there’s nothing wrong with having a team of productive salespeople, their efforts don’t go far unless there’s a certain amount of efficiency behind it.
Quality must always be valued over quantity, especially when it comes to sales. Of course this results in one key question for the VP of sales – is it possible to have a productive and efficient sales team?
The Hard Facts
If you aren’t generating the revenue you expect from your company, you may want to take a look at your sales strategy. Consider the following statistic: about two-thirds of salespeople miss quota. More than half of salespeople close at 40 percent, showing that there is obvious room for improvement in terms of efficiency.
The problem may have nothing to do with the number of opportunities salespeople have to make calls and meet with prospects. Instead, the issue may be that you aren’t focusing on onboard training, continued training and smart selling – sales enablement – to put your sales team in a better position to improve efficiency.
Striking the Perfect Balance
It may be difficult for a sales rep to see why he or she is lacking efficiency if meetings and leads are abundant. However, you should trust in your bottom line to give you realistic insight into how successful your team is operating.
Developing a sales enablement strategy is becoming a common solution at companies where efficiency needs to increase. Here are a few starter tips for rolling out sales to improve overall sales results.
- – Make training and education key focal points for the sales team. This applies to both the onboard training process and on-going training. Salespeople should be knowledgeable on everything from customer pain points to the product or service itself.
- – Provide relevant, up-to-date content at the fingertips of salespeople meeting with prospects or clients. This can ensure a successful, personalized customer experience.
- – Give salespeople the tools they need to excel. This can qualify as a content management platform, CRM or even a mobile device such as a tablet, promoting productivity and efficiency on the go.
Take Action Now
Balancing out productivity with just the right amount of efficiency is a work in progress for many executives. However, patience can pay off as long as action is being taken to strike the perfect balance.
For instance, creating a sales enablement strategy can put your salespeople in a better position to close deals. Approximately 28 percent of sales reps who feel that they have the ability to uncover their customers’ problems are more likely to achieve quota. Sales enablement encompasses onboard and continued training, which can give your reps a better grasp on your target audience’s pain points.
When you’re unsure of how to improve efficiency, maintain productivity and boost your bottom line, take a look at your competitors. There’s a good chance that they’re already incorporating a sales enablement strategy.
