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Every business is driven by customers. Customers equal sales. So – what do customer insights translate to then? If you guessed increased sales, then you’re already starting to understand the benefits of a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system. Beyond bringin’ in the dough, customers provide companies with a clearer direction and purpose. They offer feedback and directly promote the growth of your business. For that reason, understanding your customers is the key driver to growing your company’s sales. A properly implemented CRM system stores everything related to managing customer relationships – contact information, data, metrics, notes – all in one place. The tools within a strong CRM system aim to help your company develop effective and personalized strategies for managing customer relationships. Once you determine the right CRM system for your industry, sales reps and customer base, the resulting benefits to come are endless. Here, we highlight the major benefits of introducing a CRM system into your business: 1. Improve customer outreach through automation According to Campaign Monitor, “72% of customers open an email due to the discount it offers and 62% customers open due to the personalised subject line.” CRM systems capture data and insights on an ongoing basis, while analyzing industry and market trends, allowing you to create and automate more relevant and personalized messages to your audience. By placing different customers into groups based on shared interests, different drip campaigns can be created for each group. By leveraging the automated email function, you can set up a series of emails targeting a specific audience that are sent when triggered by a certain action. For example, on an online bookstore, if a customer creates a list of memoirs, instead of sending them emails about books, you can add them to a drip campaign for people who add memoirs to their list. Your customer is more likely to open your email due to this personalization, forming a direct connection with them. 2. Increase sales productivity According to Salesforce, “CRM apps can increase sales by up to 29%, sales productivity by up to 34%, and forecast accuracy by 42%.” CRM platforms provide businesses with invaluable information about their customers, which arms sales reps with the knowledge to better meet their customers’ specific needs. Tools like sales reporting allow salespeople to understand how their customers interact with their business and how the business can meet those needs most effectively. Due to the variety of tools available on an effective CRM platform, such as sales enablement tools, process automation, sales reporting, and access to tons of personal customer data, sales reps have the correct information to engage in meaningful and personalized interactions with prospects. Additionally, CRM’s ability to streamline and automate processes reduces the time sales reps spend on tedious duties like data entry and in turn, frees up time to focus on customer concerns and strategizing sales practices. 3. Growing Customer Retention According to Capterra, “CRM users found that 47% of respondents say that CRM usage has a substantial impact on customer retention.” By implementing an effective CRM system, more accurate and focused marketing strategies can be developed to target certain segments of your audience. Through appealing to customer interests and addressing their concerns or even anticipating their needs, you can keep current customers loyal and attract new customers. CRM Questions? Interested in learning more about how to use your sales data? Thinking about implementing a CRM platform for your business? Feel free to reach out to us and we’d be more than happy to help!

People buy from people they like or are like. I say this ALL the time. Let’s be honest, there’s a pretty good chance there’s someone else doing exactly what you do. And it’s never been easier to find those people. So how do you stand out and close that sale? By connecting with your prospects through great conversation. Stop filling awkward silences with the standard, "what do you do?" or "how about that weather?" Start having meaningful and memorable conversations with your prospects. So how do you get started? 1. Don't settle for just yes or no Choosing a question that requires more than a single word answer is an easy tactic. By not letting your conversation partner get off easy with a single syllable answer you also gain a great opportunity to learn what makes them tick. It's just one step towards building a strong connection. 2. Active Listening It's easy to get distracted and simply just wait for your turn to talk. Or worse, just line up a series of questions just to fill dead air but then completely ignore the answers you're getting. Your listener can sense this and can back off. On the other hand, if you actually focus on the conversation in order to give insightful replies or questions then help them feel more confident and hopefully share even more. 3. Compassion Now that you've been listening with your full attention you can use what you've learned to understand exactly what they're feeling. You may have even have experienced a similar situation. Resist the urge to simply repeat back your story. Instead, help your listener feel more included and comfortable by keeping the focus on them. 4. Memory Game So you've been listening, right? Now prove it. Bring back relevant details that your conversation partner has shared with you. It proves you cared about their story and are now willing to strengthen the relationship. This goes a long way towards building trust. 5. Offer Insight We're at the finish line. Now that you've been a great conversation partner you can bring it all together by offering insights. Bear in mind, not all conversations require advice but if you're able to offer helpful guidance based on careful deliberation then you've established yourself as a credible confidant While this list isn't all-encompassing it's a great start to having stronger, more productive conversations with your prospects. Each tip is designed to make your prospect feel more at ease and to validate their position. By doing so, you'll find it a lot easier to connect with them and become that trusted partner that your prospects are looking for. Just do your best not to talk about the weather.

In the role of a sales manager, there’re many people that depend on you. Whether is your knowledge, experience or techniques, you are expected to uphold a certain level for each quality. Along those characteristics as a sales manager, your ability to coach is what help keeps your team capable. For a great sales coach, there are 3 most important qualities you need a master: The ability to listen The ability to keep from interfering The ability to build positive relationships with your sales rep Tip #1: Master your listening skills Allowing your reps to talk and while listening carefully to what they have to say is an essential skill for sales managers. It is important to for your reps to freely express themselves on the issues or situations they are experiencing. Not does it helps you identify a solution for them quicker, it helps build trust with your reps. As a Sales manager, you should ask open-ended questions when you are helping them come up with a solution. These questions should help your sale reps identify their own solution rather than providing them with the answer. As they find their own solutions, they will be able to tackle much more difficult tasks in the future. Tip #2: They will learn with their own experiences - Stop Interfering One of your ability as a coach is to sometimes do nothing. As a sales coach, you want them to achieve independence. It is difficult to not interfere when one of your rep is struggling, but their lessons learned from their own attempts and failures will stick them much more. Through you training sessions, guiding your reps to see why things weren’t according to plan with their prospects is an important task. They will learn much faster through their own experiences. Of course, the mistakes that you let them stumble on should be minor. The objective is to help you reps see what went wrong by themselves. Build a positive relationship through trust Coaching your sales representatives becomes much easier and productive when they trust you. Reps that feel confident that they can freely express themselves and know their sales manager have their back will listen and learn much quicker. Sales reps that don’t trust their sales managers will be dishonest to avoid consequences. They will tell you what you want to hear, and not what they plan to do. You do not want them to hide their bad behaviours out of fear you will judge them. If they can’t express themselves freely, then you can’t help to address their problems. As a sales manager, your main goal is to help improve your reps help and building a strong positive relationship with them is the fastest route. Final Thought The best way to coach your reps is to help them develop their own solutions. Ask open-ended questions to guide them and to give them the opportunity to learn their own lessons. Your sales representatives improve much quicker when they know you are there to support what they do.

Your sales people are the face of your business, which means you want to keep them happy, motivated and engaged. Sales people who perform exceptionally well are difficult to find, so when you have them, you want to keep them. However, even the happiest team members can become unmotivated at times. Salespeople oftentimes feel they are constantly under fire from having goals and quotas to meet, being the primary point of contact for potential and existing customers, and oftentimes being at the receiving end of complaints from disgruntled clients. Still with all the demands they may be faced with, quality sales people want to succeed. Below is a list of tips to keep your sales people happy and motivated. #1 Build Trust: There is perhaps nothing more important than staying in constant communication with your team. But, the communication can’t be shallow; it must be in-depth conversation whereas everyone is being entirely upfront, honest, and transparent. Trust plays a major role in motivation. Your sales people need to have confidence that you trust them and that they can trust you as well. Having this form of open communication will build trust and lay the groundwork for discussing goals and challenges. #2 Build Relationships with Your Sales Team: It is difficult to motivate the members of your sales team without knowing and understanding their personalities. Each one will have their own style of selling and an effective manager will understand this is an important factor in knowing how to develop a strategy and set goals for all sales personnel. For instance, some people thrive on public recognition of their accomplishments while others prefer a more personal approach. Also, in regards to other forms of feedback, you will have some members of your sales team who want to know the moment an issue arises, whereas others may prefer an email. Building relationships and finding a common ground for communication will enable problems to be readily addressed and praises to be acknowledged. So, when motivation falters, the problem can be resolved quickly. #3 Set Goals: As you nurture the business relationship with your salespeople, you’ll know whether they are motivated by recognition, friendly competition with peers, cash, or a desire and commitment to positively impact the organization. Being challenged with goals is a key motivator. Always set realistic goals and create different types of objectives, ranging from quotas to goals that will help each person grow individually. #4 Encourage Self-Care: Motivation can falter when your team is not taking time for self-care. Regardless of long days or quotas that need to be met, if stress is an issue, the drive to excel will lessen. If you notice a sales person not producing at his or her normal capacity, or less personable than normal, take time to find out what the issue is and if possible help the person get re-engaged. If it’s been a while since he or she enjoyed time off, encourage it. Having a healthy balance in life is essential to success, both personally, and professionally. #5 Inspire Camaraderie: It is easy for salespeople to become isolated from other departments in the business because they are juggling so many tasks. However, department members should get together routinely to avoid finger pointing and miscommunication. Through being provided with the opportunity to openly discuss issues, goals, hurdles, etc., it ensures that everyone is aiming towards the same result and encourages everyone to work together. This builds relationships and mutual respect, which has the ability to quickly launch into new growth for the company. #6 Make the Rewards Meaningful: Cash rewards, public recognition, and higher commissions are great incentives, but when you take it a step further, it makes it more personal; which can be a great inspiration. By making the rewards meaningful, you convey that you know the person as an individual. For instance, perhaps one of your sales people has three small kids and he and his spouse never go out due to lack of reliable childcare. A meaningful reward in this instance would be to provide childcare for them, or give them a weekend away. On a group level, the reward may be treating everyone to a barbecue at your place, or going out to lunch in the middle of a workday. The point is, show that you appreciate them for more than their sales efforts; and recognize each of them as individuals whom you appreciate and respect for their hard work and dedication. #7 Be Creative: Ask for input from your sales team as to what they’d like to see implemented. The results may take you by surprise and include anything from fun group outings, team building exercises, or additional vacation time. Knowing how to motivate your team could result in more participation in the less fun tasks such as cold calling. When it is attached with a desired reward, some members will step up to the challenge without a second thought. Final Thoughts Ultimately, when you have salespeople who want to succeed, they can be easily motivated by these simple suggestions. As you hire salespeople, evaluate them carefully to ensure they have the morals and values that fit your requirements. Anyone can lose motivation occasionally, but there are people who lack motivation altogether and regardless of the amount of effort or training you invest in him or her, you can’t change their personality. Select people that have the right personalities and invest in making them happy so they will be devoted to you long-term.

A good sales manager will have certain qualities and skills that sometimes differ greatly from those of a sales rep. And because of this a great sales rep will not automatically make a good sales manager. The qualities of the two vary in many ways. Although sales is primarily based on communication skills, something that both a sales rep and sales manager should have, not everyone has the management skills required to guide a team to success. A sales manager may not have a knack for executing a sales technique, like a sales rep would, but they will have great organizational skills and the ability to create a plan of action. The successful management of a team is based on understanding strategies and techniques, and having the ability to motivate others to do what is necessary. Motivates the Team The best sales manager will take ownership of the company’s mission and values, aligning himself or herself in a way that motivates the team and leads them to accomplishment. A good sales manager will listen to the team and encourage their feedback, realizing that the sales team has valuable insight into customers needs and interests. When the manager is a strong leader, the sales team will feel valued and respected, which is generally a strong motivator in achieving goals. Another aspect of mastering motivation is the ability to build relationships with the team as a whole as well as knowing each person individually. Knowing how to identify what motivates each person will provide insight as to how to build him or her up and even provide redirection when necessary. Showing empathy and appreciation is a necessity for a good sales manager as well. Team members appreciate being recognized for a job well done and it doesn’t always have to come in the form of money. For example, if the team environment is light hearted then silly trophies or other forms of recognition can be great morale boosters. Avoids Micromanagement A good sales manager will have full trust in his or her team so the need for micromanaging would never be an issue. Micromanaging the sales team will not encourage them to increase sales, and may in fact result in the opposite. Micromanaging occurs when the sales manager lacks confidence that employees are capable of doing the job, and thus feels the need to watch over shoulders. A strong sales team is one that has a clear understanding of what is expected, is equipped with the tools necessary in order to do what is expected, has received appropriate training and knows the goals and timelines for meeting goals. Salespeople are generally independent and having someone monitoring or questioning every move will deter motivation and only create frustration and unhappiness. Micromanagement can be portrayed as a lack of trust and eventually sales team performance will falter. The ideal approach is in taking action to address shortcomings so issues can be resolved. Knowing each person on the team will increase loyalty and is just as important as recognizing the traits and skills needed as new team members are hired. Invest in Your People Being familiar with human resource skills is advantageous regardless of the direct involvement of the sales manager in the hiring and firing process. A successful sales manager will know the skillset and qualities to look for in candidates, as well as having the ability to confidently ask candidates questions during the interviews. This will facilitate an accurate assessment of skills. Perhaps more important than properly assessing skills the cultural compatibility. Communication Skills Are Always Crucial Communication skills are important across the board. As a sales manager, it is crucial you are able to communicate goals and objectives to your team, as well as having the ability to listen. These skills are also important in conversations with upper management or owners. On occasion upper management sets unrealistic goals or expectations, generally due to their unfamiliarity with everything involved in sales. In such situations, it is crucial the sales manager has the communication skills to convey the issues at hand and be the liaison between upper management and the sales team. A loyal sales team will remain loyal when they know the sales manager will stand up for them, when necessary. The ideal sales manager will have the ability to see the big picture, regardless of the company size. The sales manager is constantly involved in the roles of communications, motivation and managing progress; making changes whenever necessary. A strong sales team is created by strong leadership skills of the sales manager. It's a tough job, but someone has to do it.

The buying process has seen a drastic change in recent years. The rise in technology has brought buying opportunities to our fingertips through the smartphones in our pockets – all we need is an internet connection. Of course, the fundamentals of the buying process have, essentially, stayed the same: your customers still have to recognize that they have a specific need, they still need to collect information and do their research, and they still need to determine if your competitors offer a better alternative before they purchase your product. But, with so much technology available to them, this buying process is happening at a substantially accelerated rate. In this blog, we’ll talk about three things that you need to know about the new buying process, including the importance of data and reviews, the science behind the buying process, and how your SMB can take advantage of technology to get ahead. #1: Understanding the New Buying Process and the Importance of Data & Reviews The buying process is the journey that your customer goes through – from understanding they have a want or need to researching what’s available, to purchasing something that helps, to post-purchase behaviours. Understanding your customer’s buying process is not only important for your salespeople, it will also enable you to align your organization’s overall marketing and sales effort. Engel, Blackwell, and Kollat’s 1968 book on consumer behaviour set the standard for defining the buying process and helping marketing teams to better target those potential customers in various stages of their buying journey. Today’s New Buying Process But today's buying process is different because of the sheer number of streams that are directing specialized information to us every single day. Consider how much is out there: social media, television, radio, billboards, in-app ads – everywhere we look, we’re being bombarded with information and marketing from thousands of companies. And if you’re being bombarded, so are your potential customers. There’s one thing that has remained constant from 1968 to now – there is still a vital need to understand the new buying process to come up with an overall marketing and sales strategy. Two stages of the buying process, in particular, have become much easier with the introduction of technology, social media, and apps into the mix – the “Information/Research” stage, and the “Alternative Education” stage. This is where reviews come in: reviews are playing a huge role in the buying process, which is both a blessing and a curse. In the next section, we’ll explore why. The Role that Reviews Play in the Buying Process Let’s take a look at the following statistics: The majority of customers will read up to seven reviews before forming an opinion of a business. 93% of consumers say online reviews do impact their purchasing decisions. A product with at least five reviews has a 270% higher likelihood of purchase than a product with zero reviews. It’s clear by these statistics that online reviews are important to your small business’s success. If you’re selling a product or a service and you don’t have online reviews, you might be seriously missing out on business opportunities. But online reviews are also becoming a major catch-22: you need reviews to be successful, but potential customers are also getting lost in reviewing your reviews! Source: https://www.getapp.com/collaboration-software/a/microsoft-office-365/reviews/ Think of how much time goes into reviewing those 7 or more reviews before they purchase your product or service. With that much screen time, it’s no wonder that “analysis paralysis” sets in, and, rather than actually going to purchase the product or service, they keep researching reviews instead. Or, as part of the overall buying process, this reviewing stage could actually lead to a new need being discovered. For instance, a customer who’s decided to purchase your brand of tires might decide they need a new car instead. This would lead to a delay in the buying process while they search for new information and new reviews on cars, as opposed to tires. One way that you can break this “analysis paralysis” is to provide the ability for them to review several comparable products or services right on your page. For instance, consider Geico, the insurance provider, who allows potential customers to compare their rates with those of other insurance providers, even if it shows a cheaper price than theirs. This serves Geico well, though, because it helps to establish a trusting customer relationship for being upfront and honest. #2: The Science Behind Reviewing the New Buying Process Internally You know your customer buying process better than anyone. So, take the time to map it out. Generally, the new buying process involves 5 phases – recognition, education, comparison, solutioning and selection. Your buyer is searching for key pieces of information to help them move along the buying process and fulfill that need that they have. Keep in mind, they are as eager as you are to find a solution to their problem. Now, let’s map out how we can help them in this journey: Consider your interactions with the customer during each phase of the buying process. Is the customer doing a simple Google search? Or, are they using your YouTube channel to look at product reviews or listening to a webinar you’ve put together to become better educated on the product or service you’re offering? Each of these shows the stage that they’re currently in – a Google search typically means they’re at the beginning of the “education” stage, whereas listening to webinars might be closer to the “solutioning” phase. Either way, what is your call to action for that potential customer? Have you determined how they’ll reach out to your sales reps to get more information? Do you have a plan to make it easy for them to compare you to your competition? Friendly, helpful, and non-intrusive interactions with the customer during each phase of the buying process will help you to build a rapport with them and develop that relationship that will sway them in your favour when making their final decision. Consider the content you’re providing to your customers, how they’re getting it, and when they’re getting it. Are your potential customers searching through analyst reports to get the information on how to book a demo of your product? Do they need to scroll through your website to find a “contact” button? How long do you wait to contact them after they download one of your whitepapers? Are you sending emails that ask for a conference call on a specific date at a specific time because they liked one of your organization’s tweets? Considering what content you’re providing, and when you’re providing it is vitally important to the buying journey. You don’t want to be asking for the close when your potential customer is just starting their search. Knowing what to give your customers at exactly the right stage of their buying journey is a science. Consider who you’re engaging with and what authority they have. Determine who you are engaging with and what authority they have in the buying journey. Is the person who is downloading your whitepaper the decision-maker or someone on their staff who’s been tasked with gathering information about various options? What is the title of that person who’s signed up for your webinar? It’s important to remember that some of the people who are reviewing your content are information gatherers, and not the decision-makers. If so, you might want to give them the content they need to help them facilitate a faster and more informed decision. After all, if you make them look good to their superiors, there’s a far greater chance of them recommending your product or services to help them fill that need. If it helps, you can map out your Buyers Journey on a worksheet – we recommend something like this: #3: Utilizing Technology to Predict the Customer Buying Process There is absolutely no question in our minds that technology has the capability to take the guess-work out of the customer buying process. With advancements in mobile technology especially, technology is changing the way that we purchase not only products, but services too. We not only determine what restaurants we want to eat at, but we can make a reservation right from our phone. Our Amazon app will help us place orders for everything from diapers to drones. Spotify takes our musical preferences and provides suggested playlists that they think we’ll want to listen to. Almost anything we want is now at our fingertips – thanks to the smartphones in our pockets. Predictive technology, therefore, will become a key tool that every marketing team for every SMB will want to have. Utilizing predictive analytics, like you find in Microsoft’s Power BI or Dynamics 365 for Sales, can help you to better understand what your customers are likely to do based on key data such as previous purchase habits, social media interactions, online behaviours, or demographic information. Power BI: Data Analytics You Can Trust With a data analytics tool, like Power BI, you can create custom reports and dashboards that allow you to track sentiments, which will track tweets, Facebook posts, blogs, articles, and more, and will show you how your potential customer base views your organization as a whole. Source: https://powerbi.microsoft.com/en-us/desktop/ Dynamics 365 for Sales: Turning Your Relationships into Revenue A CRM, like Dynamics 365 for Sales, can actually utilize sales force automation to help you gain visibility into your company’s overall sales performance. An analytics dashboard that’s based on historical and predictive data allows you to reach out to potential and current customers and get the right information into their hands at the right time. Source: https://dynamics.microsoft.com/en-us/sales/capabilities/#sell-smarter Also, built-in AI capabilities allow you to show your sales team who their best prospects are, and what are the most relevant and impactful actions to take in order to move those relationships forward towards a sale. This blog post is co-authored by ProServeIT and Change Connect. We publish a monthly blog specifically written for small businesses. Some of the topics we have discussed include security, CRM, Cloud computing, Business Intelligence (BI), Data Security, Training, Artificial Intelligence, Internal Communications, and Internet of Things Technology. Click here to view our other co-authored blogs for Small to Medium-Sized Businesses. About ProServeIT As a multi-award-winning Microsoft Gold Partner, ProServeIT has been helping SMBs increase efficiency for over fifteen years. We’re constantly looking for ways to help our customers get the most out of their technology investments, and we love to introduce our small business clients to new tools that can help them be more productive. Interested in implementing Microsoft Power BI or Dynamics 365 in your organization? Talk to us to arrange a complementary demonstration of these great tools, or chat about other options that might be right for you! About Change Connect Change Connect specializes in helping clients to work more efficiently and effectively in pursuit of their revenue goals. We offer customized solutions for small to midsized businesses with a focus on Sales Transformation, which includes implementing strategic Sales and Marketing plans. Whatever stage your business is at, whether you’re a start-up looking to expand or an established company looking to move from a plateau to record growth, Change Connect is your partner in transformation. Change Connect – Making Sales Scalable.

Often times when the term sales person is heard, people conjure up this vision of an individual with an extroverted personality; but being successful in sales requires much more than an outgoing personality. Sales require excellent communications, including the ability to convey details about specific products and services and also listening to the needs of prospects as well as having the know-how required to close sales repeatedly. So while the extroverted individual may innately possess some of those skills, training is essential in order to continuously be successful. People have more information than ever at their fingertips, and because of that expectations and demands are harder to meet. They have conducted their own research and are not only interested in specific products or services, but they want to know that the companies they buy from are trustworthy and reliable. The sales team will ultimately be the face of a company. You want everyone singing from the same songsheet. Here are a few things that should be incorporated into your sales training agenda: Refining Communication Skills A large part of sales is having the ability of truly listen to others and know when and how to ask questions. This ensures that the prospective clients questions are answered while building relationships with new prospects as well as existing customers. Knowing how to effectively communicate with others, regardless of personalities or professions is key to making a sale. Statistics indicate that 71% of consumers base a purchase decision on the trust of a sales person and / or company. Communication and interaction is the basis for that trust; trust that should be enjoyed by both parties which paves the way to building trust and loyalty. Incremental and Planned Improvements Sales training can provide valuable insight into learning how to be successful. It is a road map of sorts that teaches the importance of setting a target, or goal and knowing the processes required to achieve the goal. Each transaction is tracked and feedback provided to ensure and builds up to the next interaction. Training your sales team on specific techniques alleviates the incidences of your sales personnel “winging it” and potentially missing out on sales. Knowing When to Close One major component that should be incorporated with any sales training is the method of identifying signals from prospects. Knowing how to recognize when a prospect is undecided is just as important and recognizing signals that indicate the prospect is ready to make a purchase. Learning to read people and gain an intuitive understanding is crucial to making the sale. Overcoming Rejection No matter how good a sales person is, not every prospect will buy. It is simply the nature of the game. Rejection occurs for a variety of reasons and regardless of those reasons, knowing how to deal with rejection is advantageous. On occasion rejection comes completely unexpectedly and at other times, prospects are undecided. However, having the skills required to handle rejection discreetly are vital. Prospects may return later and will likely remember the sales person. Training the sales team that rejection is never personal and techniques on remaining professional at all times helps everyone be successful. The Importance of Administrative Skills Sales aren’t only about the process of talking with people, or cold calling for sales, but also involves administrative tasks including organized record keeping, logging daily prospects to ensure appropriate follow ups are made, and also tracking ratios on successful closings. These administrative skills help in assessing progress, time management and staying organized. The portion of training relating to administrative skills may involve instructions on using software or applications that support proper tracking, organization and time management skills. Sales Training Is an Investment When companies view sales training as an investment versus an expense, the success rates increases. The sales team is the front lines of a business and they are the face of the business. Successful training in sales will equip individuals with the appropriate communication tools and techniques involved to get through each stage of the pipeline. It will supply them with organizational tools, and teach the necessity of self-evaluations, being able to recognize when strategic changes should be made, and knowing how to make those changes. The sales team will also know the products and/or services of your company inside and out, which will be effective in building consumer trust, loyalty and even new leads for sales. When you concentrate on the means to the ends, good things will happen.

Productivity = f {Efficiency x Effectiveness} The terms sales efficiency and sales effectiveness are buzzwords you're bound to hear in today's workforce. The key difference is that sales effectiveness is all about what you work on to drive revenue while sales efficiency is focused on doing those things quickly, without wasting time. Figuring out how to be effective in your sales strategy is tricky, but once you figure out what you need to be doing, becoming efficient at it can also be a challenge. That's where technology is beginning to play an ever-increasingly important role. With that said, there is a lot more to achieving sales efficiency and leveraging technology than simply subscribing to platforms or installing software. With time being such a valuable and finite resource, you have to be strategic in your approach to improving sales efficiency. What Does It Mean To Be Inefficient? One thing is for certain, efficiency is relative. A sales process that is inefficient can end up costing an organization a substantial amount of lost revenue each and every year until the inefficiencies are addressed. This is a part of business that needs constant attention and analysis too, because a sales process that is efficient today may be lackluster with tomorrow's innovations. Remaining competitive and having efficient sales processes go hand in hand. With the latter, you'll be able to drive sales more quickly and with less investment (of time and money). But, how do you know whether or not your current sales processes are inefficient? One of the two ways that inefficiency occurs is with sales reps not being able to find content. In fact, the most common source of both ineffectiveness and inefficiency directly relates to content. It takes an average of 18 minutes for a representative to find the content they're looking for. S/he ends up recreating content, that wastes even more time. Inefficient. Or, the rep blindly, without knowing what works, or without tailoring it to the person's needs, sends generic content. Ineffective. Therefore, one of the first inefficiencies your workplace should address is how sales reps access content. This will also tie into the effectiveness of the sales process as a whole because you’ll have to look at how sales reps determine what content to send. 4 Steps to Better Efficiency Achieving better sales efficiency is by no means impossible. While it's a worthy undertaking, you should expect to invest a good deal of time and energy into the process of achieving higher efficiency. There are three steps you should look to follow. Step #1: Benchmark your Processes You cannot begin to worry about sales efficiency until you have established the fact that your sales processes are effective. You must first review your sales processes to ensure that your organization is committed to doing the right activities, in the right order, before you begin to dive into sales efficiency. Trying to make an ineffective process efficient is a waste of time. In order to make sure your sales processes are as effective as possible, you need to assemble your sales leaders. These leaders then need to be tasked with outlining a sales process that they can consistently follow to drive revenue. You'll then need to discuss and set new sales objectives based on this process. Define the activities that relate to the various sales goals the team needs to set and then have the company follow-through with a plan of action. According to HBR research, companies that follow a defined workflow are 33% more likely to be high performers. Step #2: Streamline your Technology As the old proverb says, “time is money.” It can't be more true than when you are in sales. Every minute we spend doing reports is a minute away from talking to our customers. Reducing time spent on administrative tasks has direct impact to your bottom line. Are the administrative tasks driving the business forward? Technology can help to simplify the administrative process. Once you've identified your value-added effective processes, you might even be leveraging technology to help you with some of it already. Take a step back and see if you can streamline your technology. Why are you using Office 365 for emailing and Webex for conferencing? Are you using Salesforce as a CRM and Freshdesk for trying customer service calls? Step #3: Invest In Training Whether you’re having to alter your sales process a little or a lot, investing in on-going training is one of the most effective ways of driving revenue within your organization. The facts tell all. While fewer than 45% of companies have established a formal training process on sales, continuous training has been shown to bring up to 50% more net sales per sales rep. Even if the team knows what they should be doing, they may not know how to do it. Training ensures they can put the plan into action. Step #4: Begin Optimization Finally, once you have established an effective sales process and trained your reps on how to execute it, you can begin optimizing all of it. The optimization process will consist of analysis and discussion where you look for areas in the process where sales reps are spending a lot of time. Redundant activities, like follow-up emails, are one of the first areas you’ll look to optimize as you begin exploring the many ways technology can help. Automation is my best friend. Later, you can move onto implementing tools that will promote greater efficiency with the actions sales reps have to take themselves--for instance, you might implement a knowledge library so they can easily find content. Hello Docurated. Last Thoughts With technology's ability to automate, cut costs, and increase output, achieving sales efficiency without it is a difficult feat. Chances are, your competitors have already adopted many technologies to help improve sales efficiency, so if you aren't doing the same, you're lagging behind. Ignite the engines. It's time to optimize. Stay tuned. Next week, I'm going to share with you my 3 favorite sales efficiency tools.

How can we improve customer service? Have you found yourself asking this question? Is improving customer service one of your goals for 2019? With the start of a New Year, you’re no doubt quite busy setting organizational goals for 2019, and more than likely, one of those goals will be focused on increasing revenue. Revenue is often tied to customer service, so there’s no time like the present to understand how you can improve customer service in your organization. One of the best ways to improve your customer service is to take the time and improve your internal communications, and in this blog, we’ll show you seven great tips on how you can improve customer service through better internal communication. Tip 1. Prepare Your Staff on How to Respond to Difficult Situations Ask any frontline staff member and they will tell you that the most stressful part of their day is when a customer’s concern is escalated into a stressful or potentially explosive situation. It’s imperative to prepare your staff on how to be able to respond to difficult situations and train them on: How to better recognize hostile situation and customer issues, How to utilize verbal, vocal, and non-verbal communication techniques, How to understand the role the rep plays in this situation and build rapport for positive communication By implementing a better internal communication tool, like Microsoft Teams, you can have the ability to document what employees should do in specific situations, and, more importantly, each scenario that your employees are likely to come across can have its own tab or place where they can go to get instant information on how to handle that situation. An internal communication tool also provides a space where employees can document their own experiences and what worked for them when handling a potentially tricky situation, thus adding to the collaborative workspace you’re looking for, and making it easier to train new employees. Tip 2. Make it Simple for Your Staff to Stay In Touch! Twenty years ago, the technology simply wasn’t in place to enable work from home or remote working capabilities. So, the majority of your employees worked from your physical office, with your sales team often on the road. But, as we advanced in our technological capabilities, we also advanced the ability to let our employees work from wherever it was comfortable for them – home offices and satellite offices gave way to working from a local coffee shop or library using your laptop, or even just your smartphone. This shift to a more geographically-diverse team also led to a shift in how customer service was handled and placed a major emphasis on ensuring proper and effective communication and collaboration between team members. If you want to improve customer service in your organization, regardless of where your team members are located, you need to make it simple for them to stay in touch with each other, collaborate with each other on important documents, and stay up-to-date on the latest customer updates and interactions, no matter what device you’re using. A collaboration tool, like Microsoft Teams, has the capability of keeping everyone on the same page. Microsoft Teams is being heralded as the ultimate hub for teamwork in Office 365, enabling staff and consultants to communicate with team members through voice and chat capabilities, and seamlessly manage document collaboration in real time without having to leave the platform. Tip 3. Make Sure Your Staff is Engaged A recent HR survey done by Morneau Shepell says that improving employee engagement is considered to be one of the paramount priorities for 2019, with 67% of the respondents putting it as the highest priority of the top HR trends. And with a recent Gallup poll showing 85% of employees classifying themselves as either “not engaged”, or “actively disengaged”, it’s no wonder why employee engagement is such a major buzz-word these days. But actively disengaged employees have more impact on a company than just their financial drain (which, at $3,400 for every $10,000 of their salary, is quite significant). Disengaged employees can also negatively impact the overall customer experience. So, in order to improve customer service, you need to make sure that your staff is engaged! Googling “how to engage your employees” reveals suggestions like providing feedback on performance, thanking employees for a job well done, creating a productive work environment, and operating an open and transparent organization. A collaboration tool, like Microsoft Teams, can offer a platform that can do all these things, and can be one way to re-engage with those disenchanted employees. Tip 4. Train Your Staff on How to Make a Good First Impression You don't get a second chance to make a first impression – in fact, studies show that you have about eight seconds to make that positive first impression. So, whether it's for an event, a business development meeting, you need to make those eight seconds count! A good smile, handshake, eye contact and body language can help when meeting someone face-to-face, but what if your first impression is online? What can you do to leave a lasting impression with those who are following you on social media, or reaching out to you for the first time via email? Here are a few things worth considering: Your prospects are on social media. So, having a social media strategy is essential for driving B2B sales. Have a seamless and professional appointment scheduling mechanism. Share success stories amongst team members. Success breed success like no other. Tip 5. Strengthen Your Staff’s Customer Service Skills Employees in a customer service role must be well-trained in several key areas. The most successful employees in customer service share some specific personality traits, like empathy, patience, adaptability, and (let’s be honest) thick skin! In addition, they need to have finely-honed skills, like crystal-clear communication capabilities, a solid work ethic, and extensive knowledge of the product or service offering of the organization they’re working for. If customer service seems to be lagging in your organization, a good way to improve it is to look at your staff’s customer service skills. Are they up to snuff? Do you have employees that have the right combination of skills and traits? Even the best customer service agents can do with a little pep-talk. It may seem odd to consider a collaboration tool, like Microsoft Teams, for training purposes, but it is a great way to share content with team members. In this particular situation, you could create a “Customer Service Skills” group in Microsoft Teams, which could serve as a base of operation to share best practices, tips & tricks, and important training documents with your team members who are front and centre with your customers. Tip 6. Improve Your Customer Interactions Gaining new customers is key to a company’s initial success, but keeping those customers is equally important. A bad customer experience at any point in the customer lifecycle can ruin your relationship. It all comes down to improving your customer’s interactions and customer experiences. Do you know what the number one customer complaint is? It might not surprise you, in this world of instant gratification, that the number one customer complaint is a lengthy wait. A survey in 2016 found that 60% of customers feel that waiting on hold for just one minute is too long – any longer than that, and 6 out of 10 people will hang up. Having real-time communication channels via social media, or a customer service management solution that can help to reduce the time your customers spend on hold can have a huge positive impact for your business. Or, why not ask bots for some help? Source There are a number of bots available that are easy to configure and ready to implement right away. One unique feature of Microsoft Teams is the full support for Microsoft Bot Framework. The use of AI bots is trending and Microsoft Bot Framework is a good way to get started. This could be a simple, cost effective way for you to improve your customer experience immediately. Tip 7. Ensure Clear Communication At All Times with Self-Service Portals Spelling out payment terms, cancellation policies, and other customer service details can help ward off customer service issues. Consider, we are in the world of instant gratification. People don’t want to wait on the phone to talk to someone about their latest bill, or the warranty information on the product they’ve just purchased. They want answers, and they want answers now. And self-service portals are a way to provide those answers. According to Forrester Research, self-direct portals are on the rise. Their research claims self-serve usage is at 80% of customers across all industries and forum usage is at 60% of customers and increasing. This tells us that customers are looking for an omni channel approach to gathering data and being serviced. A dedicated self-serve model comes with some benefits. You can: Decrease the number of escalated issues that your team has to deal with. Help your customers no matter their time requirements: 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. Increase transparency between transaction and better communication between parties. By implementing a self-service portal, this can lead to happier, more loyal customers. This blog post is co-authored by ProServeIT and Change Connect. We publish a monthly blog specifically written for small businesses. Some of the topics we have discussed include security, CRM, Cloud computing, Business Intelligence (BI), Data Security, Training, Artificial Intelligence, and Internet of Things Technology. Click here to view our other co-authored blogs for Small to Medium-Sized Businesses. About ProServeIT As a multi-award-winning Microsoft Gold Partner, ProServeIT has been helping SMBs increase efficiency for over fifteen years. We’re constantly looking for ways to help our customers get the most out of their technology investments, and we love to introduce our small business clients to new tools that can help them be more productive. Interested in implementing Microsoft Teams or Office 365 for your SMB? Talk to us to arrange a complementary demonstration of these, or other tools, that might be right for you! About Change Connect Change Connect specializes in helping clients to work more efficiently and effectively in pursuit of their revenue goals. We offer customized solutions for small to midsized businesses with a focus on Sales Transformation, which includes implementing strategic Sales and Marketing plans. Whatever stage your business is at, whether you’re a start-up looking to expand or an established company looking to move from a plateau to record growth, Change Connect is your partner in transformation. Change Connect – Making Sales Scalable.

Did you know? We are phasing out 1 million sales job by year 2020? Order taking jobs are giving ways to kiosks and automation. We need reps that understands the clients’ needs, can analyze data, drive trends, and put together a creative solution that addresses every point. Six principles defined by Hubspot are the basic key to consultative selling. Consultative sales process helps you structure your selling methodology to increase its efficiency. It based on the focus of the lead’s experience during your conversation with them instead of only pushing the product, service, or business. It starts off with research on your lead. Acquire meaningful information about your lead like contact preferences, pages they visit on your site, and the size of their company. The more research you have gathered on your lead, the easier it becomes when you’re ready to talk to them. The next step is to contact your lead and ask questions to gather more information you couldn’t acquire through your research. But do not be mistaken, you may also ask questions you have the answers to. This will essentially help build the relationship between you and your lead. The questions you ask should uncover the problems they face, what their goals are, and as well as their budget. During your conversation with them, be mindful of their tone and choice of words, as these subtleties’ will provide hints to what they are. As you are more familiar with your lead, find opportunities where they can learn more from you. With the insights about your lead, you should be able to give valuable advices, even if the solutions does not lie with your product or service. At this point in the conversation you should be ready to judge if your lead is going to be qualified. A qualified lead should have a challenge to overcome, a budget, goals to be met, and might or might not have any plans. If you deem a lead to be unqualified, it still gives you a chance to help and be friendly, but be careful of not consuming too much time. As Coco Chanel once said, “Don’t spend time beating on a wall, hoping it transforms into a door.” Identifying your lead as soon as possible is in your best interest. If you feel that your lead is qualified and you have discovered their goals, challenges, and needs, closing your lead should be simple. If your lead has the budget and the authority to purchase your product or service, they will most often accept your offer. If they do resist, you can seamlessly transition the conversation to what might happened if they do buy your product or service. Remind them why their goal is important and why your product will help overcome their challenges. As you follow the steps, you should keep in mind that the process from one step to another should transition smoothly into your conversation. The main point of the consultative sale process is to not only think about your product, but give an answer to your potential customer’s problem.