The most successful salespeople don’t rely on luck. They’re disciplined about building relationships, optimising their sales funnel, and automating their processes – regardless of whether they’re selling from home or in the field.
Rather than hoping for sporadic wins, these productive sellers create winning routines that help them consistently close deals. In this article, we explore six ways to upgrade your everyday selling routine to be more productive. Sales success doesn’t hinge on what you do here and there – it’s about the habits and patterns you adopt every day, so think about how you can use these tips to craft a more effective, repeatable selling motion.
1. Unite your business on a single trusted platform
Your business can cut costs and reduce complexity by consolidating your systems on a single customer relationship management (CRM) platform. With your entire company sharing data on one trusted platform, you’ll have customer data at your fingertips that will let you optimise your selling.
Armed with that data — on their history with your company, the products or services that already pique their interest, and other notes — you can enter conversations with the relevant background information you need.
Plus, with the right CRM system, you’re able to automate a lot of administrative steps, allowing you to create more touchpoints and connect information across silos. This saves reps dozens of hours each month. That’s important because, as we saw in the latest State of Sales report, the average rep spends less than 30% of their time actively selling.
2. Sell from anywhere
You’ll be more productive if you can work from your phone instead of being chained to your desk. Fortunately, sellers today have plenty of options that allow them to sell from anywhere, including:
- Productivity and collaboration tools like Slack
- Video conferencing
- Salesforce Inbox
- Mobile CRM
You can get a complete 360-degree view of everything from prospects to pipeline, on any device.
This doesn’t mean you have to work 24/7. It just ensures that you no longer have to feel tethered to your computer. Take the time to set up your workflows and systems on your mobile device so you can stay productive wherever you are.
3. Focus on channels delivering high quality leads
Many inbound and outbound salespeople are naturally inclined to focus on the sales channels that bring them the most leads and keep them busy. This makes sense; more is usually better. However, successful salespeople look especially closely for channels that provide the best lead quality.
By taking a full-funnel look at which lead-acquisition campaigns bring the most revenue, you’ll invest more of your time on leads that drive revenue, rather than maintaining a large pipeline of lower-converting prospects. Speaking of which…
4. Proactively disqualify prospects
Effective salespeople deprioritise long-shot accounts and postpone activities that generate little or no revenue. This doesn’t mean you have to burn bridges. Rather, it just means you don’t expend an outsized amount of effort on customers who aren’t ready to convert. That way, you’re more disciplined with your time and resources.
Retarget your efforts to customers who are more likely to buy. Weigh the revenue potential against the chances of closing the sale and then budget your time and resources accordingly. Ruthlessly prioritising is key to sales productivity.
How can you increase sales while deepening customer relationships?
Leading online legal platform Lawpath turned customer transactions into relationships using Salesforce Customer 360.
5. Develop long-term relationships, instead of quick-and-dirty wins
Ask your customers specific questions to figure out whether the next conversation will be productive and mutually beneficial. If you determine this isn’t an advantageous opportunity for both parties, take the initiative to inform the client you both will be better served in revisiting the partnership at a later time.
By building long-term relationships, instead of relying on one-off, transactional selling, you’ll set yourself up for success. It may be more difficult in the short term, but it will pay dividends down the line.
These kinds of relationships rely on comprehensive, easily accessible customer data. With Customer 360 you’re able to put your customer at the centre of everything you do. Every employee has the apps and data they need to create experiences that wow your customers and grow lasting relationships.
6. Reinvest in existing relationships
Renewals and referrals make up a significant portion of most salespeople’s accounts. That’s why it’s important to regularly check in with existing customers to see how they’re doing and discover if you can still provide them with additional resources, support, and value, even if their next renewal date is still months away.
This might sound like a lot of work, but you can leverage artificial intelligence (AI) to help. Salesforce Einstein can act as your smart assistant, offering ‘next best actions’ and recommendations which can then be actioned at the click of a button.
Often, you’ll find that extra effort throughout the lifetime of your relationship with customers pays off when they happily renew their contract with you, increase the scope of their engagement with your business, and even go out of their way to share customer testimonials and new client referrals.
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