07 Aug Pedal to the Metal: Let Enterprise Sales Support Solve Your Productivity Problems

Do you often find yourself wondering where the day went? Are unwanted distractions bogging you down? Are you searching for a way for your sales team to work smarter?

Navigating your way through the many stages involved in a sale is complicated. Products change, suppliers can be unreliable, and customers are often fickle. To maximize your time and meet your sales targets, it’s vital to have a strategy that keeps your focus on your #1 goal – making the sale!

LiveHive CMO Micheline Nijmeh defines sales acceleration as “a set of tools that drives, pushes, promotes the sales cycle – that is, their goal is to push a sale across the finish line”.

Sales productivity services like this are often the best solution to problems of distraction, wasted time and duplication of effort. We at Sales Beacon have found that by off-loading non-sales tasks to support staff through Enterprise Sales Support (ESS), we can give our clients much more of our most valuable resource – our time.

Think about how much quicker your vehicle can go when it’s not loaded with gear, bike racks and tiresome, long-winded passengers. It’s time to get into a higher gear.

Do you need Enterprise Sales Support?

1. Are your sales cycles expanding instead of shrinking? If the answer is yes, then you need Enterprise Sales Support now. Sales organizations operate in a fast-paced environment. To stay ahead of competitors and maximize opportunities, it is essential to shorten sales cycles with less friction and fewer process delays. Doesn’t it make sense that shorter sales cycles will maximize revenues while also motivating sales reps and improving productivity outcome?

2. Is your sales team wasting time on non-selling activities? Did you know that 60% of sales rep’s time is spent on actions other than selling? Crazy! That impacts not just their sales numbers but how they interact with customers and ultimately their ability to close deals quickly.
3. Is your sales team empowered? Today’s buyer demands customized support and undivided attention at all stages of engagement. To make sure sellers meet these demands, it is vital to empower sales teams with the tools to effectively support the buyer’s needs.

There is no doubt that the dynamics of B2B sales interactions are rapidly changing and continuously evolving. Today’s buyers are better informed than ever. They can do an incredible amount of research themselves just by scouring the internet, digging deep into products, solutions and their competition.  It’s no wonder that sales techniques must adjust accordingly.

In a 2015 interview, Trish Bertuzzi, President and Chief Strategist at the Bridge Group, said the year 2016 would “be the year of modifications to the sales process to truly reflect how our buyers want to buy”. She emphasized the need for every interaction with the buyer to be well thought out and one that delivers value. After all, clients will switch to your competitors if they’re not getting the level of service they need.

When asked what trends and issues sales professionals will face in the future, Jill Konrath, sales strategist, speaker and author of many bestselling books, said they will face a continued struggle to deal with increasingly complex sales processes and decisions, the demand from buyers to know more and the need to adapt their skill set in the advent of new technologies. When we combine these with the endless flow of information and distractions thrown at sales professionals daily, it leads to a decline in their productivity – exactly what sales leaders are trying to avoid.

Let’s look at some of the ways that ESS can work to get your team on the right track. As a mechanic needs to have a full complement of wrenches, sockets and diagnostic equipment, so must a sales team be provided with all the right tools.

Enterprise Sales Support Tools

CRM – Customer Relationship Management. Data automation software collects CRM data from your sales team’s daily activities to give a clear picture of both the customer/salesperson interactions and their impact on actual sales.

Centralized Content Management. Flooded with emails, reports and scattered information? Creating a single content library which houses all the relevant material, studies and up-to-date processes is a fantastic way to save time.

Sales Productivity Tracking. Advanced software programs find inefficiencies and problem areas in your sales methods. These programs look for differences in the habits and behaviors of salespeople, guiding the team to more consistent and profitable results.

Market Intelligence. A combination of competitor intelligence, product intelligence, market analysis and market research. This tool makes sure the sales force has the right content at the right time.

Content personalization plans. By personalizing your sales materials to cater to individual buyers with custom tailored content, you will instill loyalty and appreciation from your clients.

Marketing and Sales Alignment. Creating a symbiotic relationship between these two divisions will have compounding, long-lasting benefits.

DOTW – Days of the Week. Sales Beacon’s own methodology, a set of regular communications and actions that ensures that all parties accomplish their tasks on time and on budget.

RACI – Responsible, Accountable, Consulted and Informed. A matrix or chart that keeps track of who is responsible for all the different aspects of each task of the entire sales process.

Crossing the Finish Line

Making sales is no longer a matter of knocking on a few doors and hoping for the best. Those days are over.  In 2018 salespeople are increasingly distracted, drowning in irrelevant information and wasted time and effort. Sales teams need to streamline their operations to spend more time on meeting their customer’s needs.

Contact Sales Beacon to find out more about how ESS can help close deals faster, empower your sales people and stop them wasting time on non-selling activities. Drop us a line at info@salesbeacon.com.