All of us are always looking for ways to be a little more productive at work and in our personal lives. The following article discusses what most of us do now and highlights a couple of new apps that will help make you more organized and productive. The nice thing about them is that they are very easy to use and you can get started with the basics within an hour.
Read moreHow to Increase Your Appointments 20-Percent using New Technology
The Traditional Way
Just about every salesperson spends time setting appointments each week. If you're lucky, you may have someone helping you. But very often if you’re trying to set up time with an executive, you’re handling it yourself. Traditionally, we make phone calls and we send emails trying to find a convenient time for a meeting. It will take on average 4-6 emails (and calls) going back and forth to set up an appointment and to confirm it. This can be challenging during the best of times.
Read moreThe #1 Secret to Motivating Your Sales Reps
- It's NOT more Money!
- It's NOT a Trophy!
- A Sales Manager Can't Do It!
- So... What is it?
Salesforce Admin & User Self-Paced Training
Top Salesforce Training for Administrators, Managers and Users
Over the last five years, Salesforce.com has become very complex to successfully implement and manage.
However, the CRM System is still very easy to just turn on with their standard configuration and start working. It's quick, not too painful and many companies just do that. They really need some training basics before they start using it.
Read more5 Tips to Increase Sales Productivity This Quarter
Many Small and Mid-sized Businesses (SMBs) are looking for ways to Increase their Sales Productivity over the next few months. We have always been told (and believe) that "If you do a few things well, you will be successful."
The following 5 easy-to-implement Tips should significantly increase your sales and reduce your cost of sales.
- Define Goals, Metrics and Reports Have a team meeting and get agreement to a 90-day program. Set weekly goals, metrics and reports. If it doesn't get measured, it doesn't get done. Result: Team focus on closing sales
- Leverage Lead Process All leads need to be contacted and qualified in 24 hours or less. Fastest response time is king these days. I just contacted a software company and was told that it would be two days to hear back from a sales rep. I'm now talking with their competitor instead of them. Result: More Qualified Leads
- Increase Sales Calls per Week The average outside sales rep can make a maximum of 10 customer sales calls per week (2 per day). Three quick ways to increase sales calls: - Add an Inside Sales Resource - Add a web service like WebEx or GotoMeeting to add two extra web sales calls per week - Ask for referrals on every call Result: More Sales Calls per week
- Increase Skills & Knowledge Create weekly in-house workshops to improve closing skills, best practice sharing, meeting skills, phone skills, product knowledge, competition and industry issues. Workshops should be held during non-selling hours and run no more than 45 minutes. Implement web-based meetings if your team is geographically separated. This is one of the best suggestions in improving sales productivity. Result: More Deals in Forecast
- Improve Sales Recognition Most sales teams are pretty beat-up right-about-now. Reps sell more when recognized on a regular basis. Set up weekly recognition in a team phone or web meeting. A happy Sales Rep is a more productive Sales Rep! Result: More time selling and more sales closed.
Which Sales Productivity Tips are working for you this year?
Sales Productivity Tip: Measure Key Sales and Marketing Ratios
William Hewlett, Co-Founder of Hewlett-Packard often said: "What gets measured gets done." You can increase Sales Productivity if you focus on Tracking, Reporting and Reviewing these Metrics on a regular basis.
Five Key Sales & Marketing Metrics
- Closed Sales Ratio
- Qualified Lead Ratio
- Pre-Qualified Lead Ratio
- Marketing Response Ratio
- Sales Cycle Ratio
Here are the Five Key Sales and Marketing Metrics and their descriptions:
1. Close Ratio
Measures the number of Sales Orders Closed divided by the number of Total Sales Deals that were listed in a Sales Forecast.
Example: It takes 5 Qualified Leads to close 1 Sales Order. This would be a 20% Close Ratio.
2. Qualified Lead Ratio
Measures the number of Qualified Leads divided by the number of Pre-Qualified Leads in the Sales Funnel (or Sales Pipeline).
Example: It takes 10 Pre-Qualified Leads to get 4 Qualified Leads. This would be a 40% Qualified Lead Ratio.
3. Pre-Qualified Lead Ratio
Measures the number of Pre-Qualified Leads divided by the Total Suspects that responded to all marketing events.
Example: It takes 100 Suspects to get 30 Pre-Qualified Leads. This would be a 30% Pre-Qualified Lead Ratio.
4. Marketing Response Ratio
Measures the number of Suspects divided by the total number of contacts sent marketing communications documents.
Example: It takes 1000 names on list to get 20 Suspects to respond. This would be a 2% Marketing Response Rate.
5. Sales Cycle Ratio
Measures the Date a Suspect has first Contact with a company minus the Date an Sales Order is Closed/Booked by the company.
Example: It takes an average of 6 months for a new Suspect to become a New Customer (or book its first sales order). This would be a 6-month Sales Cycle.
Intro to Web Conferencing
Q. How can a Small Business Save lots of money using Web Conferencing?
A. Learn how web technology can dramatically reduce the time and cost of travel for the following activities: Meetings, Conferences, Sales Calls, Sales Demos, Service Calls, Customer Support Calls, Training, Partner Meetings, New Product Roll-outs, Team Meetings, Executive Meetings and Board Meetings.
1st Action Step - Watch this fun short video on "What is Web Conferencing."
[slideshare id=1934947&doc=whatiswebconferencing-090831214025-phpapp01]
Note: DimDim was purchased by Salesforce.com in 2011. They discounted the service. However, the video is an excellent intro to web conferencing.