9 Legit Ways To Increase Your Sales Team’s Productivity

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There's a lot of tools and hacks that promise sales bumps to startup owners. And sure, some may even work. But at the end of the day, increasing sales team productivity will always take more than a single fix. It requires investing in several aspects of their work.

Whether your company is still a fresh face or you’ve been at it for a while, identifying areas that need improvement can be difficult. But, with the right approach, it’s entirely possible to see a significant boost to conversion rates.

So, if you’re a startup owner who wants to help their employees excel at what they do, here are nine legit ways to increase sales team productivity.

Investing In Culture Means Boosting Sales Productivity

Despite the multitude of evidence proving that company culture has an impact on revenue, many business leaders still ignore its importance. And that’s no surprise. If you think about it, it’s much easier to spend a couple of thousand dollars on a productivity solution than to put in the (never-ending) work that’s required to boost employee motivation from within.

But the thing is, making your organization a better workplace doesn’t have to mean turning everything upside down. You can easily make changes for the better, without actually having to start from scratch. Here’s how:

#1 Invest In Education

The number one way you can increase sales team productivity is to give the sales reps the opportunities to become better at their job. Nurturing a culture that’s based on lifelong learning will show your employees the importance of personal and professional growth. Plus, it won’t just tell them how they should aim to improve, as it will provide concrete opportunities as well.

As a business leader, it’s highly recommended that you provide your employees with the resources they need to continuously become better. Whether that’s a regularly updated set of resources, monthly training programs, or personalized education programs, rest assured that these investments won’t be wasted.

#2 Bridge Communication Gaps

For sales to flourish, your frontline workers need to be in the know all the time. And without exceptional communication, that’s just impossible.

Make sure that all your teams are well-connected. Marketing, sales, support, and product development all need to work together to create a coherent customer experience. By sharing information, they will all gain the resources and motivation to work towards the common goal.

Luckily, this is not difficult to do. With team chat apps like Slack and project management tools like Basecamp, you can easily ensure everyone’s got the right info, at all times.

#3 Become A Mentor

As a business leader, you are likely to have plenty of insights and experience. And what better way to help your team grow than sharing the lessons you’ve learned throughout the years?

By being prepared to work together with your employees and helping them find the best solutions to their problems, you’re guaranteed to see results. For example, you can teach your team to set SMART goals. Or, if they use time tracking software, you can take a calendar analytics tool and figure out areas of their work that could potentially be eliminated. But, the best thing about mentorship is that you stand to gain a lot as well. Who knows, you might just stumble upon your next brilliant idea while helping your team solve their latest challenge.

#4 Help Employees Find Meaning & Purpose In Their Career

Most people don’t work for fun, they do it to pay the bills. But, that doesn’t mean that it can’t be a source of meaning in life. Being the leader, you need to find ways to help your employees see work as something more than a source of income.

Encourage accountability, commitment, and a sense of pride in a job well done. Celebrate the ups and work through the downs together. These are all small changes in the way your organization works. But, in the end, they can drive a lot of improvement – and that’s precisely what you’re after.

#5 Help Your Team Lead Healthier Lifestyles

Last but not least, remember that working more hours doesn’t mean higher productivity levels. In fact, in a recent survey by Sleep Junkie, more than 50% of people who worked 40+ hours per week said they felt physically and emotionally exhausted. As a business leader, however, you’re in a prime position to ensure your workers maintain a healthy work-life balance. Encourage them to use their vacation days, allow remote work at least one day per week, and make sure that your team has access to health support. This way, they’ll be far more likely to take care of themselves, which will, inevitably, result in fewer losses due to illness and absenteeism.

Workflow Optimization Benefits Productivity

Once your team’s got the right approach to productive work, you can move on to technical solutions that will enable them to be even more efficient.

The great thing about workflow is that it can be hacked and optimized, allowing you to get things done without too much of a hassle. With modern software solutions, you can analyze, improve, and even automate a multitude of repetitive processes, letting your team focus on high-skilled assignments that bring in real profits.

#6 Use A CRM Solution

As you’re well aware, sales is very much about generating and managing leads. And, if you have a good system in place, you’ll know what stage of the sales cycle each of those leads is. So, by keeping track of your contacts, you can ensure that your marketing efforts are fully optimized for results. Customer relationship management software can help you do just that.

From solutions that integrate with email marketing tools to those that let you manage purchase orders, make sure you look into CRM. Even if you’re on a budget, there are great, free options you can start using right away.

#7 Make The Most Of Cloud Storage

Whether your sales team is working from home or from the office, you need to ensure they have access to all relevant data at all times. And that includes files as well. In addition to storing documents, images, and videos in the cloud for easy access, it’s highly recommended that you create a well-organized system so that everyone knows where to look for the documents they need.

If you’re on a budget, Google Drive offers 15 GB of free storage. If, however, you’re ready to take your digital asset management game to the next level, you’ll want to find a more streamlined solution like Filecamp.

#8 Let Your Sales Team Focus On What Matters

Having your sales team be approachable is a crucial aspect of improving results. In fact, on-page chat has been shown to boost conversion rates by up to 45%. But can your team afford to spend all their time interacting with web visitors? Probably not. So, a good productivity-enhancing solution would be to use automation where possible.

Nowadays, there are business messengers like Intercom, which use AI to automatically take care of most customer interactions. However, instead of offering a fully robotized customer experience, they allow you to layer support by combining chatbots, self-serve resources, and human representatives. This retains that sought-after human touch that’ll help your company forge strong relationships with clients.

#9 Analyze & Improve

Finally, keep in mind that there’s always room for improvement when it comes to sales performance. So make sure that you are proactive about using all the analytics tools at your disposal. Even simple solutions like Google Analytics and PPC data can give you clues on where you could invest to increase sales.

Don’t Forget To Prioritize

As you can see, there are a lot of things you can do to help your sales team perform better – but some actions will simply be more effective than others.

If you’re truly dedicated to helping your employees perform at their peak, stay away from superficial hacks. Instead, focus your attention on those that will bring in the biggest value. This way, you’ll not only get the biggest bang for your buck, but you’ll also help your employees focus on what matters, giving them clear goals and the resources they need to achieve them.

 

 

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