Chances are you’ve heard it before: Way too much of your sales reps time is devoted — or should we say consumed — by tasks that have absolutely nothing to do with actually engaging with prospects so that they’re getting closer to closing deals.
On average, according to the CMO Council, the average sales rep spends about 40 percent of his time on busy work like developing materials, customizing messages and other content, reading emails and researching material.
Of course, not all these activities are useless. It’s that just when a good portion of the day is dedicated to them, it’s easy to see how your team could be missing out on opportunities to expand their sales numbers.
In another study, this one not specifically related to sales, boosting employee engagement can lead to significant gains in productivity. According to the Workplace Research Foundation, increasing employee engagement investments by 10 percent can boost profits by $2,400 per employee annually.
What does that mean for the sales force? Whether you’re investing in employee engagement programs, sales enablement tools or other solutions, you can free up sales reps to perform their jobs more effectively and, as a result, boost the impact it has on your company’s bottom line. Here are 3 ways to boost your sales team’s productivity by leaving behind antiquated methods:
1. Develop comprehensive marketing materials.
If you’re not regularly updating your marketing materials, there’s a good chance you’re forcing your sales team to do more work than necessary. As part of your inbound marketing strategy, make sure you’re developing white papers, slide presentations, blogs and case studies to assist your sales team in convincing prospects that you’re providing the best solutions and services.
2. Provide sales support.
Technology is making life easier for plenty of employees. If you haven’t leveraged tablets and apps for your sales team, you could be missing out on a massive opportunity to streamline your team’s processes — from presentations to tracking expenses, reviewing documents and signing forms. Explore the options and determine which ones are a best fit for your team. Also, make sure you ask for feedback on pain points in the sales process. Determine if you can address those with apps.
3. Reassign tasks.
While it’s not always feasible to hire more support staff, you can expand your efforts by contracting out certain tasks currently being handled by your sales team. For instance, consider outsourcing sales functions like cold calls or initial calls to contacts you gathered through inbound marketing strategies.
With more services offering ways to cut the time it takes to get a job done, there’s no reason your sales team can’t be better equipped to spend less time on non-sales related tasks — and more time on actually making sales. MonsterConnect can help. Talk to us about our sales prospecting enablement solution. It will give your team more time to focus on those important conversations. Contact us to find out how.
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