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Improving Your Sales Performance
Of all the aspects of a business, sales can be said to be one of the most important since it brings the money that helps a business sustain its operations. It is also a common practice for companies to establish a sales quota which can run each month, quarterly, and yearly.
That said, reaching the sales target has become harder and harder to achieve these days, all due to increasing competition in the market, as well as the changing buying preference of the people. With a lot of factors at play, achieving higher sales means that your sales team is equipped will all the right knowledge and skills in order to grip your target customer and their attention, and entice them to become a loyal customer of your brand.
It can be quite daunting at first, but there are little-known secrets that you can use to improve your sales performance today. When done right, these tips will not only help you achieve better sales but also build a stronger relationship with your prospect in the long run.
In summary, here are the key takeaways from the infographic below from Healthy Business Builder:
- Provide them with continuing training and follow-ups
- Inspire them
- Know the key strengths of each team member
- Hold them accountable for what they do
- Provide your sales team with better data
- Conduct regular one-on-one meetings
- Have a complete view of the customers
- Don’t over-engineer the sales process
- Lead nurturing and scoring
- Make sure that sales, customer service, and marketing are integrated
To learn more, check the infographic below.
![10 Ways to Improve Your Sales Performance [Infographic]](https://cdn.confessionsoftheprofessions.com/infographics/improve-sales-performance-infographic.jpg)
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10 WAYS TO IMPROVE YOUR SALES PERFORMANCE
Reaching the annual or monthly sales is one of the most sought after outcomes for many businesses. But many of these companies (it might be including you) are still clueless, let alone unsuccessful on making their sales perform well in this tightly competitive digital age.
According to Australian Bureau of Statistics, more than…
60% of small businesses cease operating within the first three years of starting.
One of the reasons pointed out by the experts on why these organizations fail is the lack of clear strategy and proper training on their overall operations – including their sales.
Sales inefficiency can trickle deep down on your business and can lead to serious consequences if not addressed immediately.
In this infographic, we will discuss the different ways on how you can further improve the efficiency of your sales team so that your business can continue to thrive and prosper today and years to come.
1. Provide Rigorous Training and Follow-ups
The very first step to ensuring the efficiency of your sales team is to provide them with proper training. Remember that in order to close a deal, your team must first understand the product or the service itself, and what purpose it serves to your target customers.
They must also learn by heart the intricacies of the sales process so that sales pitching will come out as natural as possible.
Observer their performance and reinforce their training if possible.
You have to remember that it takes a lot of practice and rehearse before your team can actually make it in real world scenarios, so better prepare them for the worst e.g. indifferent or irate customers. Once you hone their skills, it’s time to move on inner workings.
2. Inspire Them
Being in sales doesn’t make you less of a human, and so to speak, your sales team need to be inspired by what they do. Sure enough, giving them high commissions is certainly a necessity to keep them motivated on their job.
But in the long run, money alone is not going to be enough. You have to create a program or a product that excites them and keeps their passion burning.
The bottom line is that if you can create something that is unique and different which can “carry” your sales team instead of the other way around, and that can be seen valuable and special by your customers, then your sales force will be more grateful.
3. Know the Key Strengths of Each Team Member
One way to reach the maximum efficiency of your team is to know the personality style of each team member. Those team members who have a strong organisational and planning skills should be the one to map out the sales process for selling and delivering solutions.
Those with problem-solving skills can be tasked to develop the best solution for the customer.
A team member with strong persuasion and presentation skills can use their ability to outperform the competition. And those that have great interpersonal and relationship skills can use their ability to establish trust and win the customer over.
Each of your team members has unique traits that can be maximized if you know how to use them. When they work collectively, your sales performance will surely improve.
4. Hold Them Accountable for What They Do
Most salespeople tend to work on a commission instead of receiving a regular salary. This makes them think that you, as the employer, can’t force them when and how they should do their job.
To ensure that your team is functioning at an optimal level, consider setting strict sales policies such as the official working hours and dress code, and hold them accountable for everything they do.
This will create a more professional atmosphere in the workplace, plus they will feel more confident about your company, thus making them more efficient.
5. Provide Your Sales Team With Better Data
Another way to improve the efficiency of your sales team and improve your sales is to provide them with quality data.
There are things that you should consider in that regard:
- Verify all the data to ensure that all the titles are relevant and accurate and contact information are correct and complete.
- Structure data into groups of similar leads. This allows the sales managers to craft customize messaging strategies to entire groups for better results.
- Develop call cadence. This refers to a structured campaign that includes the pattern of calls, emails, and voicemail messages.
This allows you to pinpoint when diminishing returns takes place, and which aspect of cadence works best.
6. Conduct Regular One-on-One Meetings
Conducting a regular meeting, say a weekly one-on-one meeting with your sales team can help you identify the current struggles and issues that your team is having, and is also more efficient for both of you since all the questions that come up during the week don’t become interruptions, thus maintaining their productivity.
Weekly one-on-one meetings also help you to know your team members better.
A 30-minute talk about anything that is not work-related e.g. their family life can immensely improve their morale and makes your image as an employer as trustworthy and reliable.
7. Have a Holistic View of the Customers
A lot of sales is lost because the sales team is unaware that the customer they’re dealing with has current issues with their company. If your company is not yet equipped with a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software, your sales reps can only assess the current sales transaction.
If the customer file a complaint regarding other departments, such as Technical Support, your sales reps may find themselves in a deadlock situation.
CRM systems allow you to track any communications and interactions with your past and current customers, allowing your sales reps to see any unresolved issues and have the solution or update on the issue even before the customer walks inside the store premises.
8. Process: Don’t Over-Engineer It
A formal and standardized process is a requirement to ensure that each team member knows how to approach, qualify, work with, and close a deal. However, a well-ordered and complex process, though effective, is not always efficient – meaning that it can confuse your sales team rather than help them do their job.
To ensure the efficiency of your process, you can use techs and tools available to track the performance of your sales team real-time.
This allows you to make up-to-minute adjustments, providing your team with the flexibility that is optimal in changing sales environment nowadays.
9. Lead Nurturing and Scoring
The efforts of your sales team will only go to waste if the leads they’re working with are of low quality. You need to nurture your leads- that is creating a deeper relationship with your prospective customers until they’re ready to be passed along to sales.
After the long journey of lead nurturing, you’ll then proceed to lead scoring.
Lead scoring is the system you used to qualify the readiness of each leads to sales. Each lead is basically “scored’ through an algorithm that includes factors such as company size, location, job title, and other.s
leads also tend to score higher if their traits resembles your typical buyer, and interact with your content regularly.
10. Make Sure That Sales, Customer Service, and Marketing are Integrated
Though it may take some time to integrate, having these groups working together-like a well-oiled machine-ensures that you hit your revenue goals effectively and efficiently.
Integrating these groups might require strategic planning, as well as investing in technological tools, but overall, the collaboration can lead to massive improvements as the information gathered by one component can boost the efficiency of the others.
There are just some of the tips that can help improve your sales performance today. Considering these tips and your sales team will surely improve their performance and your business will see a better top line today.
Source: http://www.healthybusinessbuilder.com/single-post/2017/02/08/10-Ways-to-Improve-Your-Sales-Performance-Infographic
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