If you're a sales rep, you've probably struggled with productivity issues at some point. As with any other job, this one takes plenty of time, effort, and dedication.
However, despite being utterly dedicated, it’s normal to struggle to float through, mostly because of unsuccessful calls or your procrastination. What's more, there might be other underlying issues that can take a toll on your productivity.
In this article, we will attempt to dig deeper into these issues and try to figure out how to up your productivity game. So, if you're looking for productivity tips for sales reps, here are a couple of things you need to know about.
1. Write Shorter, Crisper Emails
Nobody wants their inbox clogged with plenty of unnecessary emails. That is why it is all the more important to stand out with your email content. Contrary to popular notions, longer emails are not always the best bet! Why? Because most readers lack a proper attention span and while skimming through their email, they just want to hear about the relevant parts.
So, if you are making a sales pitch or trying to send a regular newsletter to your customer, it is crucial to be to-the-point, so that your email only contains the information that might be useful to the user. Trust us, this is the only way they would read the email.
If you're looking to go the extra mile, you might just want to add some videos, images, or infographics because people have a general proclivity to read something that's well-formatted and has pictures.
2. Have Short But Effective Meetings
While this may not occur to everyone, short meetings are always key to employee productivity. You might have a false notion that blabbering for hours about the same problem will lead to an immediate fix.
But that is not always the situation, at least, not in the majority of cases. To get your team to be productive, you need to cut the meetings short just like the emails. This also applies to meetings with potential leads.
In case you haven't timed a meeting before and are wondering where to start, we recommend 20-minutes as it offers ample opportunity for every stakeholder to speak, assuming your organization is small. If you are having a bigger team meeting, you would want to prolong it to give everyone a chance. However, the best idea would be to have shorter meetings with smaller teams. This will help you set the right plan of action and also keep the sales reps productive.
Related article: 5 Tips For Successful Virtual Sales Meetings
3. Use Sales Enablement Software
While sales might seem like an exciting adventure, it often comes with boring paperwork and plenty of data-entry-specific tasks. As a sales rep, it can often get quite hassling to juggle between the paperwork, getting new clients, and managing your existing customers. And that is exactly why you need sales enablement software.
The best part of this type of software: it facilitates the entire customer lifecycle from scratch. This way, deals are processed faster and you have plenty of time to focus on other relevant aspects of your business.
The final and perhaps the biggest highlight of these tools is omnichannel compatibility. This enables you to align your existing marketing tools. So, if you are committed to learning new skills or delegating some usual sales tasks to an automated tool, sales enablement software might just be what you're looking for.
4. Research Your Leads
Very often, sales reps struggle with staying productive because they haven't researched their potential customer properly. This is one thing you want to avoid. The last thing you want is to talk to the right people only to realize later that you missed out on opportunities. That is why it is especially important to research your leads.
If you are serious about striking a deal and making a connection, do not send a generic email. Mass email texts are evident and if you use some popular template, there's a high chance your email will land in the spam folder.
That is why you need to devote more time to customize the text so that it only contains stuff that your customer finds relevant. This way, you will certainly land a deal which in turn will boost your productivity.
5. Learn New Skills
Currently, you will find hundreds of online skill-sharing platforms across multiple domains. Interestingly, sales are no exception and you will find tons of good content online. To stay an inch ahead in the productivity game, it is crucial to focus on enabling yourself.
That is why you should take this training on the first go. Just explore the available trainings in your field, check their testimonials, and enroll for the one that you think works best with your services. This is an excellent way to stay constantly motivated regardless of the ups and downs of your job.
Bottom Line
Remember, productivity might not seem like the easiest thing especially when you're already struggling with it. However, nothing is impossible. Here, the key is to understand your problem with productivity. Because you have already identified a problem, you are now only a step closer to fixing it.
Try our suggestions and if nothing else seems to work, consider being mindful and take short breaks during work. This will typically keep you from procrastinating and help you stay more productive than usual.
While we understand that it might get difficult at the outset, once you have a clear path ahead, you know which pulls to string and there's no going back!
Because we've also recommended a sales rep tool, you might just want to use it to simplify your work. This will ease your workload and help you automate simple tasks. This way, you have more time to focus on skill-building.
The Right Conditions For Sales With Vectera
Do you also want to conduct professional virtual sales meetings, be able to rely on the technology, and stay in touch with your coworkers? Then our sales enablement software is for you!
Feel free to contact us to discuss the possibilities for your organization!
