Creating a truly successful sales team is a key part of elevating any organization and accelerating growth. Gaining a competitive edge often hinges on providing the right people with the right tools to optimize their chances for prospecting efficiently and closing deals.
Below are the three steps to creating a sales culture rooted in success.
1. Hire the right salespeople
If you don’t fill sales positions with the right mix of personalities, abilities and experience, it can seriously hobble your company’s potential. The hard sell is no longer effective with today’s connected consumer. Today’s sales rep must be able to listen to and connect with each individual customer, understanding his or her challenges, goals, and providing honest, helpful advice and solutions. Understanding the customer’s business environment and delivering solutions is a must in every interaction.
2. Salespeople have to sell
According to the Salesforce Research Second Annual “State of Sales” report, today’s rep spends just 36 percent of his or her time on direct selling activities — connecting with customers or prospects either virtually or in person. A whopping 64 percent of an average rep’s time is spent on non-selling activities; the largest share of that — 25 percent — is spent on administrative activities. That amounts to two hours a day on tasks that could likely be automated. It’s essential to take time to understand the salesperson’s day to maximize their selling time.
3. Salespeople need tools that make them more efficient
Take the time to learn what tools will give your salespeople that extra edge to generate better results over time. The right technology stack can relieve some of the burden on the sales team, enabling them to spend more time selling and to do so more effectively. Areas of focus which will benefit the sales process — and the seller — include:
- •Intelligent document automation: to remove the manual, error-prone processes of producing the many documents created during the sales cycle and improve ROI
- Easy access to data: to provide a clear, quickly accessible look at data in order to help sales reps pinpoint the most effective action to take, thus simplifying outbound prospecting efforts and other selling activities
- Systems of engagement: to help drive higher CRM adoption and increase sales productivity across the team
Automation, easy access to data, and the right content and communications can increase any sales force’s productivity. The correct combination of tools can empower sales reps to prospect more efficiently, sell more effectively and close more deals.
Allan Peters is the chief revenue officer of Conga, which provides a suite of sales acceleration software.
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