Improving your sales team performance is essential for the bottom line, but also for the happiness and well being of your team.
Providing your team with the proper tools and strategies will improve productivity. Not only will your employees be more successful, but they will also be happier and feel like a valuable team member - a true win-win for your company culture.
3 Ways to Improve Sales Team Performance
1. Teach Your Employees to be Consumer-Centric
At the end of the day, consumers are the only reason you are in business, and they need to feel heard in order to become repeat customers. Your sales team needs to be educated and trained on what it means to be consumer-centric. They need to understand inbound marketing and the use of personas so that they know who they are selling to. A few additional ways to serve and delight customers include:
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Networking and keeping in touch (the best referrals come from satisfied customers)
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Being available to answer questions (even 30 minutes a day goes a long way)
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Being versatile (always be looking for different ways to engage with your consumers so that you meet them where they are - social media, in person, email, etc.)
2. Be Employee-Centric
Your customers aren’t the only ones who need to feel important. Your employees make many sacrifices for your success. A Forbes article explains that employees who have high job satisfaction generally are more productive, engaged and loyal to their companies.
In fact, research has shown that happy salespeople produce 37% more sales!
Open up time in your schedule for your sales team employees so that they know they can come to you with concerns. Getting problems solved quickly will save your company time and money. By giving your employees support and empowering them with the tools and skills to succeed, it will also free you up from time previously spent micromanaging your team. There are three more ways to make your employees happy:
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Let them work remotely. In our connected world, many jobs can be done from a bus, a coffee shop or on the couch with a sick child. Showing your employees that you trust them to manage their own time will greatly increase their happiness.
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Embrace their differences. As a boss, it is easy to expect things done your way. However, there are many different ways to solve a problem. Allowing employees the freedom to work in their own way will show that their voice matters.
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Invest in work-life balance. Life happens. People get sick. Families move. Putting employees’ personal needs before work will make for much happier employees. And the best way to promote this lifestyle is to practice a balanced life yourself. Don’t be afraid to skip a last minute work dinner for that long-planned piano recital.
3. Invest in Technology that Can Move Your Team Forward
There are many different types of technology that can provide your sales team with more qualified leads. Using an inbound marketing software such as HubSpot can also ensure that leads are nurtured through the buyer’s journey and that sales processes are effectively tracked. Using an inbound marketing strategy includes creating and publishing content in order to attract the right type of customers to your brand. You can also use technology to increase sales through:
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Social media, which keeps us all connected. Use social media to build meaningful relationships that can convert followers to customers.
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Blogs (or vlogs!), which can help solve any problems that consumers have. Formatting can vary, from a quick ‘how-to’ video to a blog on your website that details the step-by-step solution to a problem.
How To Improve Sales Team Performance for Everyone
If employees feel valued, they will become trusted long-term employees, who will then work hard to build up your customer base. Learning how to improve sales team performance will ensure that everyone’s needs (the company’s, the employees’ and of course, the customers’) are being met.
Increase Sales Team Success Further
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