CRM and other tech tools have gone a long way to eliminate inefficiencies from sales and marketing processes. But some problems fall outside the reach of technological solutions. More time is wasted as a result of poor strategy, bad hiring, unqualified leadership, and a lack of performance management than from flawed sales tactics. Ken Krogue, founder and president of InsideSales.com, offers tips on how to reclaim lost hours by beating back these three huge time wasters:
Respond immediately to inquiries. Repeated research and experience shows that only 45 to 50 percent of all leads get contacted, and reps only attempt contact between four and five times. Recent research by InsideSales.com shows that the odds of contacting a lead increase 100 times if the attempt is made within five minutes versus even waiting 30 minutes, while the odds of setting an appointment increase 21 times in the same timeframe.
Be persistent. Most sales reps give up too early. While it may seem that giving up on a lead after five contact attempts saves time, this practice is actually a huge time waster. Vary your call schedule. If a lead is unavailable in the morning, continuing to call them each morning for five days will waste time and yield little result. Track how many attempts your sales reps make to contact leads and the actual percentage of contacted leads for 30 days. Once you form a baseline, begin increasing contact attempts to increase your contact ratio.
Take fewer notes. The average sales rep spends a surprising 7½ minutes after every call making notes. Many record unimportant information. Encourage reps to gather one unique aspect (OUA) from a conversation and record it rather than the entire conversation. Use the OUA for future communications and as a memory recall tool. Also, get reps in the habit of
typing notes and linking information throughout the phone conversation to reduce time spent after the conversation taking notes by as much as 75 percent.
