Reps meeting their sales quota is what makes the world go-'round for sales managers. And if revenues are growing month-on-month thanks to a highly productive sales team, your company is running like a well-oiled machine.
Unfortunately, though, this isn’t always the case. So what do you do if your sales reps are among the 67% who aren’t meeting their quotas? In an increasingly competitive marketplace, that’s not going to fly.
If you want to give your team members a boost and help them hit their targets, it's important to make the selling process as seamless and intuitive as possible. Using the right strategies and tools - from training to eSignature apps - is a crucial part of the solution.
6 ways to empower your team to achieve their sales quota
- Set realistic sales quotas
- Leverage CRM analytics for better data control
- Automate sales processes
- Increase productivity with eSignatures
- Motivate the team with sales commissions and other tactics
- Plan for lead nurturing and revival
1.Set realistic sales quotas
A sales quota is the key measure for your team’s overall success. Managers set a dollar value or other KPI that must be achieved by each salesperson for the day, week, month, quarter, or year.
If you want to establish targets that are equally ambitious and reasonable, you must take into account historical sales data, sales initiatives during that time period, and your sales team’s bandwidth.
The key is to strike a balance between realistic and stretch targets. If a goal is too unrealistic, you stand to overwhelm and overwork your employees. On the other hand, if your sales quotas are too easy to meet, your team will end up bored and unmotivated.
Ideally, the targets should be personalized to every team member, based on seniority and past performance.
It's also important to continually track each person’s progress and course correct whenever they hit any roadblocks.
2. Leverage CRM analytics for better data control
Managers need easy and centralized access to the data that underpins every sales activity and deal. It’s the only way to truly understand whether sales quotas are being met.
The data recorded in your CRM is a rich source of insights just waiting to be leveraged. This information can help you identify sales bottlenecks while enabling managers to automatically track reps’ progress towards meeting their quotas.
Armed with a clear understanding of your sales system, you can make well-informed tweaks to the sales processes, which will ultimately help your team reach their goals and targets.
For example, if reps who are using a particular cold calling script are not converting enough leads, you will need to test out a few other script options to give them a better chance of hitting their quotas.
Meanwhile, your CRM can also save sales reps a lot of time by making it easy to update and organize lead contact information, calendar appointments, conversations with leads, and other sales activities.
3. Automate sales processes
Non-core sales activities like account activation, billing, and data entry are time-consuming. Every hour sales reps spend on administration is an hour that could have been better-spent selling, prospecting, or closing.
Did you know that about 50% of a salesperson’s time is wrapped up in admin tasks? That automatically cuts your potential revenue in half!
To free up man-hours and boost revenue, businesses need to automate mundane sales tasks, from verifying data accuracy to developing monthly sales reports, scheduling appointments, and creating proposals.
By eliminating tedious and time-consuming tasks, your team can dedicate their time to selling, which is all but guaranteed to translate to better performance and higher sales figures.
4. Motivate the team with an attractive sales commission scheme and training
Nothing motivates a sales team like a little extra reward. If you offer sales incentives that are tailored to each rep’s unique abilities, years of experience, and interests, that might just be the boost they need to double down on their efforts. Incentives may come in the form of trips, cash, or professional recognition.
If you think your team would thrive on some friendly competition, you can also run contests where rewards are given out based on sales figures or another relevant KPI.
Additionally, since knowledge is power, providing proper training about the product or service they are selling, as well as hosting workshops that cover key selling skills (like objection handling and persuasion), will make your employees feel even more equipped to close more sales, faster.
According to a CSO Insights report, businesses with sales skills training initiatives that ‘exceeded expectations’ had 52.6% win rates. Meanwhile, those with training programs that ‘met expectations’ had win rates of just 48%. This number dipped further (40.5%) for companies whose training ‘needed improvement.’
5. Plan for lead nurturing and revival
It's always disappointing when a lead goes cold - but just because now isn’t the right time doesn't mean the opportunity is gone forever. Make sure your team has the necessary systems in place to actively track unrealized leads and keep an eye out for opportunities to re-engage them.
Staying plugged into industry news, attending workshops, and engaging in social prospecting will give you the fodder you need to check in with relevant updates. At the end of the day, B2B sales is all about building strong relationships - the more tailored your messaging, the better.
6. Increase sales productivity with eSignature solutions
Proposals, quotes, invoices, and sales receipts all have to be signed by the buyer and seller in order to close a deal. However, signing and sending these documents can be a very time-consuming and difficult process, especially since the pandemic rendered in-person meetings impossible. Â
In a remote-first world, wet-ink signatures have become outdated. To speed up the document signing process, sales teams need to adopt eSignature solutions like Signeasy.
