Companies with successful sales organizations know that sales productivity is about being both efficient and effective, according to The Power of Enablement, Bridging the Sales Productivity Gap, a recent report from Forbes Insights and Brainshark. The report is based on a survey of 216 U.S. based executives.
“Sales enablement is about how to improve productivity of sales by squeezing out inefficiencies and maximizing effectiveness, says Jim Ninivaggi, service director, sales enablement strategies, at SiriusDecisions. “The salesperson has to show up on the call, be knowledgeable and skillful, and have the right assets.”
Four out of the top five sales productivity challenges deal with effectiveness of sales reps—onboarding new sales reps, cutting time to close first deals for new reps, shortening the sales cycle, increasing percentage of reps who reach quota, according to the Forbes Insights and Brainshark survey. Top performers have already identified these impactful areas and are less likely to have critical issues there. They have also found ways to speed up the process outside of core selling activities and identified how to make reps more efficient.
Top-tier companies know that many factors work together to drive efficiency and effectiveness within a sales team. That means that there are many things that compete for attention, as management considers how to apportion limited budgets and finds ways to simplify and streamline the selling process. Technology is part of the answer, and an aspect that requires a thoughtful approach.
“Technology plays an important role,” says Tamara Schenk, research director at CSO Insights. “The sequence is important, though. Companies should have a solid foundation of strategies, processes and methodologies. That will enable them to select theright technology and be well prepared for a successful implementation. If the homework is done before, technology can create a lot of value for an organization.”
For organizations with a strong and consistent methodology, technology is an incredible tool—one that helps their reps train and prepare faster, find the right content and communicate the right messaging to each customer.
“Salespeople are spending hours searching for information and recreating things,” says Nicolas Lihou, head of global sales enablement at Xerox. “They are mobile and doing things in the car or a coffee shop. The resources should be available to them, and access to those resources can now be enabled with technology.”
When looking at how they invest in technology to drive sales, top-performing companies are investing at a higher rate than their counterparts in underperforming companies. And they are looking to sales enablement technologies, analytics, CRM systems and learning technologies to make the difference for their teams. In today’s climate, companies face a plethora of technology options.
There are many available solutions with the goal of helping sales reps become more productive—to the degree that it creates confusion. It may even reduce sales productivity in organizations that do not approach a technology solution thoughtfully. With the number of functions that need to work together to drive true sales productivity, this makes the case for companies to look to sales enablement platform solutions rather than to individual or piecemeal technology approaches.
“What we are running into is that some companies have upwards of five to 10 different productivity tools, and that makes it challenging for sales reps,” says Jackie Quint, global director of sales enablement at Extreme Networks. “There is a tipping point where [using] too many of these applications has a negative impact.”
Companies with successful sales organizations know that productivity is about being both efficient and effective. And they recognize that sales enablement technology can help take them to the next level. Top-performing companies look to sales enablement technology to consistently empower their sales reps beyond the basics—to improve their efficiency and effectiveness by enabling marketing to create high- quality sales content, shortening the sales cycle and ensuring salespeople get up to speed and trained faster.
Companies that are not performing well look to sales enablement technology for more fundamental selling tasks like enabling value conversations with buyers and differentiating the company’s product from the competition.
