Sales reps are as successful as they want to be. In a technology driven landscape with constant of distractions, how do you keep your reps on point? Giving them the right processes and coaching can change your low performers to all stars.
Teach these five simple tips to all sales reps and help prevent any slipping.
1. Quick Follow Up
Early bird gets the worm has never been more applicable than with sales. Sales reps who follow up quickly, and frequently, most often nab the deal. One analysis even found that those who attempted to reach leads within an hour were nearly seven time more likely to have a meaningful conversation than those who waited more than that.
Train your reps about the importance of follow up, and timeliness. Show them the statistics, and lay out what it could mean for their sales. Then, give them the technology to help them make it happen. Make sure they can easily get alerts and send out quick email responses even if they can’t get to the phone right away.
2. Dedicate Time for Prospecting
It’s easy to get lazy or to push off prospecting just one more day. But when days add up to weeks, and weeks add up to months, your sales reps can slip. Suddenly they don’t have any new opportunities in the pipeline, and their quotas are looking grim.
Coach your reps to use time blocking strategies to ensure they’re devoting the right amount of time to prospecting every week (or daily). Have them block off a specific time of the day, on specific days of the week. Then, make sure they don’t allow anything to conflict with their dedicated time. This will make prospecting more of a habit, and ensure it gets done.
3. Maintain & Update Data
The more accurate the data, the better the sales rep. If data in your CRM is inaccurate, your sales reps will waste valuable time trying to identify where to spend their time. Make sure they’re tracking prospects, leads, qualified opportunities, and deals with the right labels and information in your CRM.
Sales reps with updated data can keep a better handle on their daily responsibilities by knowing what they need to do when. They can also provide much more accurate forecasts, which will greatly benefit your organization as a whole.
4. Ignore Bad Leads
The worst thing your sales rep can do is waste valuable time on a dead lead. The worst thing you can do as a leader is not help them figure out which leads are which. Create a simple yet effective lead qualification system that reps can use as a guide to identify their target customers. Data points like demographics, needs, wants, likes, and spending patterns can greatly impact your sales productivity.
Don’t forget to hone in on your pre-sales and marketing teams too. One source says only 25% of leads are actually legitimate and should be sent on to sales. If the teams supporting sales are sending everything in the kitchen sink, they could be doing more harm than good.
5. Provide Support
Speaking of support teams, it’s time to focus on the areas that can help make your sales team most successful. Consider customer success teams that provide sales support like upselling, cross selling, and creating long term relationships. Or, marketing teams, who can help inform potential prospects, and generate leads. If some of these responsibilities were offloaded from sales, they could actually do more selling.
Build processes that will set your sales reps up for success by giving them support from the rest of the organization. Educate other departments on the big picture, and how their efforts help the company as a whole to get them on board.
Don’t let your sales team fall down the slippery slope of low productivity. Keep them up and running at high performance levels all year long so your team has a strong year.
