How to Make Your Sales Team More Productive, Part 2

Well-trained sales personnel who are equipped with sound product knowledge, soft skills, and customer-centricity are in the best position to drive sales while maintaining long term relationship with the customers. Part One of this series discussed 5 ways to make your sales team more productive and enhance their performance. Here are 3 more:

Customer Relationship Management

Having effective CRM software helps the sales team track sales leads, opportunities and records.  CRM must be established with customized reports and a dashboard to help the sales personnel see and identify the activities to be undertaken and any changes to be implemented. In absence of CRM, the sales personnel may make use of diaries, calendars, spreadsheets etc., which has the possibility of errors and data being lost.

Related Article: What CRM Can Mean for Small Business

CRM, whether on premise or via cloud will provide an opportunity for the sales personnel to interact with the customers using a ‘customer centric attitude’, do follow-ups, resolve customer queries, and request the customer to provide more sales leads by referring family & friends. It will also help the salesmen to maintain long-term customer relationships, make them aware about new arrivals, discounts and promotions, and stimulate them to make repeat purchases.

Business cards

Business card use is an age old practice of sharing business contact information with potential clients or customers. Even in the current digital age, the use of ‘rectangular paper’ is one of the best medium for a sales person to leave his/her contact details to be called back. A well-printed business card helps to establish the identity of the sales person and one of the best ways to remind clients about the business.

In the age of smart phones, a business card reader is used. For instance, Scan Biz Card is an app that is used for Android and iPhones. It converts the photographs of business cards in the form of address book entries which can be exported to the CRM apps. It also helps the users (sales person) to add notes, client details and reminders regarding follow ups.

Following effective leadership practices

It is essential for the sales manager to follow the most effective leadership strategy according to the organisational situation. Following a Participative leadership style will help to foster team-work, engagement, idea-sharing, and creativity.

Transformational leadership is essential to encourage a culture of ‘change’ in sales practices. According to your business needs, a change in the vision, culture, or technology must be implemented but the sales personnel need to be counselled to accept such change. A transformational leader controls employee ‘resistance to change’ and motivates them to adjust to any changes that are necessary to achieve the business objectives. An example of change would be motivating a salesperson to pitch sales leads in a new geographical location even though the person resists going.

Similarly, following a servant leadership practice will help the team manager take care of basic employee needs, address them, inculcate a sense of belongingness and stimulate them to exhibit better performance.

Implementation of all 8 of these techniques will keep the sales team motivated and ensure that they remain committed towards your organizational goals.  The onus to drive superior performance mainly lies with the sales manager/supervisor taking care of the sales team.

Author: Sawaram Suthar is a digital marketing geek, helping small and medium business grow their businesses. Currently he is marketing manager at Skyward CRM. Anyone can reach him @sawarams or via his blog thenextscoop.com