Have you ever found yourself wishing there were more hours in the day? Time is our most valuable resource. And while there’s no way we can add more hours to the day, we can use our time wisely to gain more value from it. This is especially true for sales reps.
Closing deals today is time consuming and it’s hard to know where to best spend your efforts. Far too many sellers expend energy and time working unwinnable deals and according to Forrester, sellers spend 27% of their time on non-sales activities. Imagine what sellers could accomplish with that time back in their day.
One of the greatest ways you can empower your sales team to do more is to find ways to make them more productive. That’s why we’ve compiled a list of 5 surefire methods to help your team increase sales rep productivity and effectiveness.
1. Calm Content Chaos
Isn’t it crazy how you can never seem to find that one thing you need at the exact moment you need it? Sales reps run into this issue daily. In our 2023 State of Revenue Enablement report, nearly half of the organizations surveyed (46%) stated that their reps spend too much time handling content. That means sellers are wasting valuable time either searching for content or, even worse, creating it themselves when they can’t find what they need.
Keep life simple for your sellers by giving them a centralized content hub packed full of on-brand, relevant content they know they can trust to get the job done. Or, better yet, eliminate their voyage through the chaotic content sea entirely and deliver the perfect piece of content directly into their hands. With that leg of their journey covered, they’re sure to reach their treasure chest (a closed deal) faster than ever.
2. Work the Winnable Deals
You’ve no doubt heard the old saying, “Pick your battles.” For sales reps, the battles are with the buyers. Sellers may be tempted to follow through on every potential deal, but they only have a finite number of hours. No matter how talented they are, they will inevitably have to decide between pursuing some deals and abandoning others.
Some of the best guidance you can give to your reps is helping them identify which deals are worth their time. It’s incredibly valuable for sellers and other members of the team to develop the skills necessary to pick out the deals that have a higher likelihood of closing. Working unwinnable deals is simply a waste of resources, so why not channel that energy into the deals you can bring over the line instead?
3. Sell with Value
When purse strings are tight, buyers only speak one language: value. Slapping a list of benefits onto a slide deck doesn’t cut it with today’s buyers, especially in the current economic climate. Sales reps need to be able to weave convincing value stories if they want to close their deals and drive them along at a faster pace.
Value selling has become the antidote for stalled deals, making value tools a necessary gadget in every sales reps’ toolbelt. Take the sales teams at Splunk, for example. They managed to shave 30-90 days off their sales cycles using Mediafly’s value selling technology. NxStage’s also teams also found success using Mediafly’s Value360 to increase deal velocity by up to 300%.
4. Consolidate Your Tech Stack
Toggling between apps takes a toll on our minds and our time. Each time sellers switch from one tool to another, they pay a toll equivalent to a few seconds. Throughout the course of a day, that time adds up. Every toggle saps a bit of cognitive power too, slowly draining sales reps of their much-needed energy.
Help your sellers save their time and energy by consolidating your tech stack into a unified seller action hub. These streamlined dashboards bring together all the tools and resources reps need to succeed in one intuitive platform, enabling them to prioritize the right deals, automate mundane tasks, and collaborate on a whole new level. Our research suggests that high-performing organizations also use seller hubs to track all their revenue data streams in a centralized, convenient location, thus creating a 360 degree view of each buyer’s journey.
5. Leverage GenAI
While we’re on the topic of tech, we can’t possibly leave out the capabilities of GenAI. We’ve already noticed a number of GenAI use cases developing for sellers over the past year, including:
- Summarizing calls.
- Providing next best action recommendations.
- Creating marketing content.
- Automating time-consuming administrative tasks.
The world is in the midst of an exciting technological revolution, and there has never been a better time to start experimenting with creative ways to take advantage of GenAI. How can you use it to drive efficiency for your sales reps? We’re willing to bet there’s at least one time-consuming task popping into your mind right now that GenAI could help automate. Work with your team to identify unique use cases that fit your internal operations and start driving productivity today.
At the end of the day, you can’t earn more time. But, you can use your time to earn more money. Give your sellers a boost by helping them become more productive and watch the benefits they bring to your bottom line.
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