If time is money – and it is – sales processes sure do waste a lot of it.
According to Salesforce, the average rep spends just 28% of the day on sales activities like prospecting and interacting with customers.
Where does the other 72% go? Most of it goes to administrative tasks like planning, generating proposals and entering data in the CRM.
Consider a high-value sales rep’s salary – that’s a fair bit of dosh for data entry. Not to mention the cost of missed revenue opportunities.
One study estimated companies may lose as much as 38% of potential revenue every quarter to inefficiencies in their sales process.
Taken all together, it’s pretty clear the fastest way to fatten up the bottom line is to slim down reps’ to-do lists.
THE OBSTACLES TO AN EFFICIENT SALES MACHINE
Ready to tune up your sales engine? The first thing to do is eliminate tasks that take up time but don’t provide value.
For example, does every prospect need a detailed, custom proposal? (Hint: The answer is no.) Create customisable templates for any documents the sales team needs frequently.
Unfortunately, you’ll soon run into the problem of having cut everything you can cut and automated everything you can automate. Most of the non-sales activities taking up reps’ time really are essential. Things like:
Customer research – Salesforce says 86% of buyers expect their vendors to understand their goals. To persuade their prospects, sales reps need a solid background on each one.
Lead prioritisation – That research hopefully separates the high-intent buyers from the low-intent tyre kickers. Reps waste hundreds of hours every year pursuing leads with no intention to buy.
Market analysis – Understanding the market trends and how competitors are adapting is crucial to reps’ ability to position your company as the obvious choice.
Lead nurture – There’s a natural tendency to prioritise new leads over those who have been in the pipeline for a while. But the faster and more frequently reps can follow up with an email or gift to a hot lead, the shorter the time to close.
Interdepartmental coordination – Sales doesn’t exist in a vacuum. A successful sales rep has to coordinate with other departments like marketing and customer service – one more activity that keeps them out of the field, but is too valuable to cut.
UNLOCKING EFFICIENCY
The old adage about spending money to make money was never truer than it is in sales. Most companies just spend it in the wrong place.
Why add another productivity tool to the tech stack, when reps are already spending more time in front of their computers than their customers?
Why add more high-paid reps to your sales team, when the ones you’ve got aren’t being used to their full potential?
More tools and more reps won’t bring in more sales. What will do the trick is freeing up your reps’ time and energy to focus on selling. According to a McKinsey study, delegating just half of support activities to a sales assistant immediately adds 20% to a rep’s capacity.
WHAT DOES A SALES ASSISTANT DO?
A sales assistant is an administrative aide trained in selling. They’re experienced in outside sales and understand the specific support that will be most useful to a sales team.
A single, dedicated assistant can support an entire team. Based on the McKinsey research, if you have four sales reps, you can increase the department’s capacity by 80% for less than the salary of a fifth full-time rep.
“Dedicated” is a key word here. Despite their unique qualifications, in-house assistants are often poached to help out with other administrative tasks like events and office admin.
And that puts us right back at square one.
You can skip the drama with an outsourced assistant. You get a qualified, experienced aide who can support your entire team, but is protected from requests by other departments to “help out just this once.”
Activities a sales assistant might take off a rep’s plate include:
Updating the CRM
Creating document templates
Building pitch decks
Generating quotes and proposals
Planning itineraries
Researching prospects
Prioritising leads
Analysing the market
Following up with leads and customers
Sending gifts and messages to maintain customer relationships
Coordinating with other departments
Creating reports
Planning travel
Managing the reps’ calendars
Administrative support such as expense reporting, inbox management and record organisation
AN EFFICIENT SALES MACHINE HAS A REAL IMPACT ON THE BOTTOM LINE
Executive assistance can be valuable to any department in an organisation, but sales is where that impact shows up the fastest and the clearest.
With an assistant’s support, reps can spend their time on activities with the highest ROI. It’s not just about making more calls. It’s also about focusing on the 20% of accounts creating 80% of impact.
When reps are able to concentrate on high-value accounts, rather than performing admin and entertaining tyre kickers, a company’s costs drop by 10 to 20%. Better yet, revenue per rep rises by 3 to 15%.
Your team can also give more attention to existing customers. It’s common knowledge that customer retention has a greater ROI than constantly chasing new leads.
A Salesforce study found recurring revenue, upsells and cross-sells are the most valuable sources of revenue for most companies. When reps aren’t juggling a million other tasks, they can give their attention to building those long-term relationships.
GET THE TOOLS TO BUILD YOUR SALES MACHINE
Ready to stop faffing about with tools and process tweaks? Get your team the support to knock out their KPIs. Book a free consult to find out how the Zembr Experience can deliver customised support to take your business to the next level.
