How to Increase Productivity of Sales Reps?

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Improving sales performance of sales reps remains the top challenge for businesses of all sizes. This should not come as a surprise as data suggests that field sales reps on average spend only around 25% of their time selling, which is a big hit to overall productivity. Managers on the other hand expect their sales reps to spend at least 50% of their time on selling.

This disconnect between expectations and real world performance is usually not because of lack of effort. In addition to selling, sales reps are also busy dealing with administrative and other tasks and distractions, which can consume a significant portion of their work hours. Sales productivity can be defined as maximizing sales results with the available resources.

This can be done in a variety of ways, but here we’ll cover the ones that can have the most impact. Let’s have a look at the biggest factors that contribute to sales inefficiency, mitigating which can help boost productivity and drive sales reps to close more deals.

What Causes Sales Inefficiency?

  • Inadequate ICPs (Ideal Customer Profiles)
  • Constant distractions from irrelevant or outside sources
  • Unrealistic targets and unnecessary performance pressure
  • Inconsistent sales processes/strategies
  • Lack of proper communication
  • No or poorly designed training and coaching
  • Inadequate scheduling
  • Unclear priorities for sales activities
  • Lack of interest for adapting new technologies and sales tools
  • More than usual turnover (according to the industry)
  • Ineffective change management
  • Lack of inter-departmental communication, including marketing, sales and operations
  • Always-evolving sales funnel dynamics
  • Business culture that promotes negativity

How to Improve Sales Productivity?

Consistency, concentration and innovation serve as the building blocks to improve sales productivity. Managers also need to reduce pressure from sales reps as everyone can have an off-month. Although it’s pressure that usually keeps us moving, too much of it can have negative consequences. The key strategies to boost sales productivity include:

  • Adopt modern sales software and technologies such as CRMs, sales and quote automation solutions
  • Measure and keep track of sales metrics such as conversion rates, average sales, actual vs. forecasted
  • Establish and follow schedule and structure
  • Calendar all appointments, tasks and activities, and implement time blocks
  • Create goals on a daily basis
  • Establish a well-defined and effective training/on-boarding plan
  • Think of sales reps as prospects and provide them with the most relevant and informative content
  • Over communicating with sales reps never hurts
  • Motivate them without overlooking accountability
  • Establish a solid lead qualification framework that filters out unqualified leads
  • Complete administration tasks in batches
  • Standardized processes make it easier for sales reps to learn about the business and its strengths and weaknesses
  • Celebrating wins is important to keep sales reps motivated
  • Development/coaching is an ongoing process not a one-time job
  • Keep marketing, sales and operations teams aligned

How Osmos Cloud Can Help Sales Reps Stay Productive?

With up to 10X faster quotes and anywhere-access, Osmos Cloud is designed to help sales rep send more quotes in less time. This boosts productivity and helps them close more deals. The solution also includes client profiles and contacts, quote-to-invoice and payment collection, allowing sales reps to complete a variety of tasks using a single system.

The intuitive web-based interface minimizes distractions and is designed to put quotations on auto-pilot. Creating, sending and following up on quotes can take a significant amount of sales reps’ time. Osmos Cloud takes the weight of repetitive tasks off the shoulders of sales reps and enables them to focus on what matters the most.

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