Improve Sales Efficiency in 4 Steps
Sales efficiency is all about understanding and measuring the revenue produced by every dollar spent on sales investments. Say a sales team generates $10 million in revenue and it costs them $2 million in expenses. That team’s sales efficiency would be 5 (500%). To calculate sales efficiency, take the total revenue (over a specific time period — a quarter or year, etc.) and divide it by the total cost of sales and marketing expenses. Bam! You have your sales efficiency score. If you want the result to be transformed into a percentage, multiply it by 100.
So what’s a good score? Basically, it’s best to have a sales efficiency number above 1. This suggests that your sales team is generating more revenue as each dollar is spent on expenses. However, if your number is below 1, your team is not selling efficiently and may need new resources and support. In this article, we’re taking a look at the 4 steps to improving your team’s sales efficiency. Let’s dive in!
1. Prioritize sales enablement to boost sales efficiency
The first step to improving sales efficiency is to develop sales enablement strategies. Sales enablement strategies and tools simplify and streamline the sales process. Consider content management, for example. The right sales enablement software will house all sales collateral in one centralized location. This way, sales reps have quick and easy access to the most updated and relevant sales materials. Your reps will never have to spend hours scouring the intranet for the right infographic again. On average, only 33% of a sales rep’s time is spent selling and the rest is spent on admin tasks. Having quick access to accurate sales materials boosts sales efficiency by reducing the time spent on non-value adding tasks.
In addition, sales enablement software can speed up sales with email and CRM integrations. When a sales rep’s email account is integrated with a sales enablement platform, the rep saves valuable time that can be focused on moving buyers through the sales cycle. Instead of manually shifting from the sales enablement platform to their inbox, the rep can send out emails directly from the platform to any contact in their CRM. These time-saving sales enablement strategies and tools enable sales teams to speed up sales velocity and improve sales efficiency.
2. Execute effective onboarding
Hiring the top talent is always great. But it’s even more important to set the expectations and guidelines for each new hire during their onboarding experience. This process will bolster sales efficiency ensuring that every team member is on the same path to success. Here’s a fun fact for you: 62% of companies with effective sales onboarding programs report having greater productivity. And greater productivity leads to greater sales efficiency.
The best way to get every new hire up to speed on your team’s sales processes and best practices is to utilize sales enablement tech. This is especially helpful for virtual teams due to the ability to house training videos developed by sales managers in the sales enablement platform. Whenever a rep (seasoned or new) is ready to learn a new skill or improve upon a current skill, they have instant access to the training videos when necessary.
In order to improve sales efficiency post-onboarding, sales reps need to gain valuable insights on their own performance. Sales enablement software provides analytics on a rep’s interactions with their prospects. With these insights, sales reps will become familiar with their own skill set. What are they excelling at? Where can they improve? These insights are also beneficial for sales managers to understand, which leads us to personalized coaching.
3. Personalize coaching to improve sales rep skill sets
If there’s one thing sales managers can agree on, it’s that no two sales reps are the same. It’s critical to understand the strengths and weaknesses of all your sales reps to better equip them with the tools and resources they need to improve the team’s sales efficiency. Using sales enablement technology insights on sales rep performance helps determine areas where an individual sales rep may need help as well as what areas they’re excellent at. From here, sales managers can tailor training based on each rep’s capabilities and shortcomings.
For example, say a rep is so great at virtual video meetings that 60% of their meetings lead to a sale. However, the data shows that when the same sales rep holds meetings over the phone, they lose 30% of their prospects to competitors. This insight is super helpful in determining a course of action to improve this sales rep’s phone calling skills. It’s up to the sales manager to train this rep so that they can close more deals and help increase the team’s overall sales efficiency.
4. Keep your content library updated to bolster sales efficiency
Outdated, duplicated, and missing sales materials reduce sales efficiency. As we stated in step 1, sales reps spend almost two-thirds of their time in admin tasks searching for the right content. A sales team with a positive sales efficiency score will not need to spend time digging through old files to find the most up to date content. Instead, they continuously keep their content library updated. How? With — you guessed it — sales enablement technology. The right sales enablement platform will help organize and categorize all sales content in one central location.
It’s best to organize your content by the categories that make sense to your use cases. For instance, if you sell to companies in multiple industries, you should categorize your content by industry. Makes sense, right? The right sales enablement software will provide you with the tools to tag, categorize, and organize your content. This enables your sales reps to easily search for the most relevant content based on use case, industry, and more.
Final Thoughts
Prioritizing sales efficiency is critical to driving revenue. By choosing the right sales enablement software that enables your team to do all of the above, it’s a surefire way to boost your sales efficiency. Lucky for you, Prezentor does just that! Schedule your personalized demo with our team today to visualize how Prezentor can help you improve your sales efficiency.