Categories: Sales Coaching Tools | Front-line Managers | Sales Leadership | Sales Process
Maintaining rep productivity is one of the top focus areas for the sales leaders right now. The most effective sales teams are the ones who are keeping focus on their buyer and executing a plan that's setting them up for success when business opens again. We've written a lot about productivity over the years. So, we're pulling together our top content resources for maintaining productivity.
(If you're an Ascender customer, don't forget to check out even more resources available exclusively on that platform.)
Here are 8 resources you can use to improve sales productivity:
1. Discovery resources to ensure reps move their deals forward
We often say deals are won or lost on discovery. Now more than ever, your account teams need to be focused on uncovering high-level business issues and problems that are intense enough for someone to take action. Our recent podcast on playing back sales discovery sessions covers ways your sales reps can recap their conversations in a way that moves the opportunity forward.
2. Best practices to keep reps focused on selling value
Deals move forward when sales reps are effectively focused on the value their solutions provide. In this post, we’ve outlined five ways you can focus your reps on selling value. Use these insights to keep your sales teams aligned on the critical components of the opportunity, like the specific problems your organization is solving for buyers in this environment.
3. Sales negotiation resources to preserve margins
Many companies will be living with the deals they close now for several years. The longevity of a contract means your teams need to be focused on getting the right components in the final contract. Avoid deep discounting and preserve your anchors with a value-based approach to negotiation. We have several sales negotiation tools that your teams may find valuable. They can help coach reps on successfully identifying and responding to buyer tactics in a way that allows them to preserve margins and sell at a premium.
4. Role play best practices to improve rep performance
Now is the time to focus on the fundamentals. Your sales teams simply can not wing it. They can’t afford to stumble on their answers or miss their chance to ask crucial trap-setting questions. Much like elite athletes, this is where practice plays a big role in on-going success.
Pre-call prep and role plays can be used to help sellers be productive on every sales call. They also help managers uncover what areas their sales reps need to work on to improve win rates and overall sales performance. Create an effective role play process to ensure your sales reps make an impact in every sales conversation with the buyer so they can continue to move their opportunities forward.
5. Six questions that produce more revenue
Regardless of external circumstances, good selling is always good selling, so make sure your sales reps are focused on the fundamentals. This blog post shares six questions that will help make sure your opportunities are correctly aligned to your value, differentiation and the customer's requirements. .
6. Checklist for manager and sales rep alignment
Manager and rep alignment is critical to maintaining productivity in this virtual environment. Even if your teams have always worked remotely, outside pressures are intensified right now, making the remote workplace less conducive to success. Are your managers proactively checking in with sales reps? Are they making sure your sales teams have what they need to continue to move deals forward? Use this checklist to make sure your reps and managers are aligned on what key activities they should be focused on to maintain sales productivity.
7. Resources to test champions and improve time-to-close ratios
Champions can be a critical component to moving an opportunity forward. Just as it's important to effectively build and enable a Champion, elite reps also test them. Share our podcast on testing champions with your sales reps to make sure they’re still on the same page with their valuable buyer contacts.
8. Manager enablement tools that improve sales rep performance consistently
Maintaining sales rep productivity on a consistent basis requires focus and expertise from front-line managers. But, for managers to be effective coaches, they must also work on improving their coaching and leadership skills on a regular basis as well.
Take professional athletes, for example, they don’t sit around between seasons, they put work in to improve their game. Your managers should be motivated to do the same every quarter. That is why it is crucial that managers have the resources they need to improve their skill set on an on-going basis. Use our "Coaching the Coaches" guide for best practices on enabling your front-line leaders.
