In the current era of rising costs, with consumers and businesses spending less, have you been losing sleep over the need for sales improvement?
As sales leader, a lot depends on you to move things forward and get your team firing on all cylinders. You know you need your sales strategy to be on a sustainable basis. And you’ve probably lain awake thinking up effective sales improvement strategies such as retraining your sales reps or buying into more technology.
And considering sales may be slow while inflation remains high, you want to be sure every spend counts.
So what do you opt for? How can you improve your sales engine to meet your growth targets?
In this article, we’ve gathered together five of the most effective sales improvement strategies to help you move things up a gear. It’s part art, part science!
1 Sales Improvement Via Training and Development Investment
Everyone on your sales team – both new and experienced – needs to learn, revise, rethink, and try new ideas. Providing training and development helps them improve their skills and knowledge. Bringing in consultants or learning from each other in teamwork are both beneficial.
THINK: To achieve increased sales from your investment, consider:
- Offering regular training sessions on innovative methods for sales improvement. Following up any initial training with regularly scheduled refresher sessions is always a must!
- Providing access to properly curated and relevant online resources and training materials.
- Sending your sales representatives to conferences and workshops.
2 Track and Measure Sales Improvement from Training Results
The only genuine way to determine whether your sales training program is effective is to track and evaluate the outcomes.
THINK: Even when your sales team may respond positively to seminars on various themes, what are you really getting out of them if you aren’t seeing a rise in sales?
So – keep an eye on the data coming from your scorecards and CRM to ensure that the work you put into sales training is successful in the long run towards your business goals.
The scientific bit is tracking and measuring your critical outcomes so that you can see what’s working and what’s not. Don’t worry about feeling “something didn’t work” – information, both good and bad, can be used to make changes to your training approach, sales strategy and sales process to improve your results.
We recommend you do the following:
- Track the number of valuable sales leads and opportunities.
- Track worthwhile sales activity and performance in your pipeline.
- Measure sales results against your overall goals and objectives.
3 Leverage Technology for Sales Improvement
Now is the time to leverage technology more than ever before.
THINK: Don’t harbor fears about technology replacing jobs as AI advances. Think of how your team can collaborate with the technology to improve your sales! There’s an art to it.
Here are a few ways you can leverage technology to do that.
1 Use CRM software to track leads and opportunities.
This can be a huge time-saver and help ensure your sales team doesn’t forget to follow up important leads. If you already have a CRM, you’ll need to carry out a pipeline analysis to identify areas for improvement within it.
2 Automate social media posting.
Remember, your goal is to improve sales. You can’t afford to leave any stone unturned. Automating your social media ensures you continue to reach out to your customers in a more personalized way. It complements the offline efforts of your sales team.
Automated social media allows you to:
- Post content on a regular schedule even when you’re busy.
- Target your content to specific audiences based on their interests.
- Answer frequently asked questions in advance, in the postings.
3 Automate the selling process
By utilizing automation solutions in your sales process, you can increase efficiency and offer your clients a better experience.
After your customer makes a purchase, complementary products can be recommended to them, or they can be reminded to renew their purchases, licenses, etc. via email automation.
Enabling more prompt and personalized interactions helps your sales teams increase client satisfaction and loyalty.
Another relevant automated tool here is a chatbot. Choose an avatar relevant to your brand and let it react right away to queries your customers ask most frequently. It can deal with thousands simultaneously. Your helpdesk can’t!
Shorter response times bring loyalty and repeat sales, and your sales team can focus on projects only a human can do well.
4 Optimize Content Creation and Management to Improve Sales
Content optimization is a long-term strategy, but it can be an effective way to improve your sales. However, you want to ensure you’ve chosen the right content format and that your content is relevant.
THINK: Here are a few things to note when optimizing content creation for customer consumption:
- Optimize for search engines. This includes using the right keywords, writing clear and concise titles and descriptions, and using headings and subheadings to break up your text.
- Respond to comments and questions on your content to build relationships with your audience. This shows you care about what they have to say and are willing to help them.
- Keep your content fresh by regularly adding or updating material. This will help you stay top-of-mind with your audience and keep them coming back for more.
And don’t forget to make sure your team’s other available resources – such as your playbook and extras like sell-sheets and videos – are up to date and easily found.
5 Ask Your Sales Team for Advice About Sales Improvement
It’s true that a lot depends on you as the sales leader. But you don’t know everything! Unlock your team’s pool of knowledge by asking them questions. They’re on the front line and will have good insights to share.
THINK: Doing this often fosters collaboration and trust among your sales team and a sense of ownership.
Ask questions such as:
- What are some new ideas you have for improving sales?
- How have you overcome the challenge of X recently?
- How could we think outside the box on this point?
- Is our sales process helping you move deals through the sales cycle and close more deals faster? If not, how do we tweak it?
Ready for Sales Improvement Help?
At 360 Consulting, we know that implementing these strategies can be overwhelming, especially if you have an assortment of reps and marketing personnel rather than two world-beating teams!
After many years of experience in the industry, we believe our 360 Sales Engine is central to improving sales. Why not let us help you identify the most impactful strategy suited to your own sales needs?
Contact us today and let’s tune up your sales together!