The Tribune

"The ability to sell is the number one skill in business." So says Robert Kiyosaski, who argues that those who have not mastered this art should reconsider business ownership and entrepreneurship. Every sales executive seeks the 'Midas Touch', where everything they sell turns into platinum. Cracking the code to increased sales is the challenge for every team, and every work team is essentially a sales team.

The reality is that, on most teams, 80 per cent of the sales are driven by just 20 per cent of its members. The others are essentially 'dead weight' who fail to meet their quota and, in many instances, keep the overall team mired in mediocrity. Our discussion thus focuses on ways to enhance sales efficiency. Here are five ways to improve in this area, according to Jordan Rinaldo of SalesHub:

1. Streamline with

Technology

It is hard to achieve efficiency when your sales people have to spend a large part of their time inputting data, creating reports and finishing other administrative duties. This takes time away from selling. Reducing time spent on administrative tasks is beneficial to your bottom line.

The right sales enablement tools cut down the time spent on data entry, so that representatives can use that time to sell. Technology works to simplify the administrative process.

2. Create an Awesome

Sales Team

It may be time to take a step back and evaluate your current sales team. Is anyone underperforming or struggling with the current workload? If so, it may be time to add members to the team so everyone feels less overwhelmed. Adding more representatives to your team will increase sales efficiently when duties are evenly distributed.

When hiring more sales people, look for those who have excellent time management and organisational skills, and ensure they all balance each other out. For example, if your closers are not selling enough because they are working on creating presentations and inputting data, consider hiring a junior sales rep or sales assistant to take care of these tasks.

A well-oiled sales team, with the right team members, will improve sales efficiency.

3. Align Sales and

Marketing

Aligning sales and marketing is one of the best things you can do to increase your sales team's efficiency. Though these two teams are often on their own islands, working alone, they have a lot more in common than you think. When they work together to share data intelligence, content and customer questions and complaints, your sales team can sell more efficiently because it will have the right information, assets and data.

4. Clarify the Sales

Process

An effective sales process has a yin-yang approach. It cannot be over-engineered to the point where it is complicated, but it cannot be ignored, or sales representatives will not truly understand what they are doing. A standardised process defines how to approach and work with customers to close sales. When the process is overly complex, sales representatives will be unsure about how to approach customers and clients.

Provide guidance to avoid a 'trial and error' process. Hold regular training meetings, and repeat this to ensure positive results each time. The sales team will be happy to have clearly defined steps. The right data, preparation, training and communication among the sales department will make all sales process steps clear, so sales people will not waste time on ineffective processes.

5. Communicate

Communication is key. It is hard to know what is working if consistent communication is absent. Regularly ask sales representatives for feedback to get an idea of areas that need improvement or what parts of the process can be abandoned completely.

Your reps know what is wasting their time. Ask them where they are wasting time and resources. Ask them where your processes could be improved, and which tools or strategies could help them have more time to sell. No two sales organisations are alike. What increases efficiency in one company will be ineffective in another. Look to your team for answers, and implement the changes needed, whether it is doing away with weekly meetings or adding another system in place that is currently missing. • NB: Ian R. Ferguson is a talent management and organisational development consultant, having completed graduate studies with regional and international universities. He has served organsations, both locally and globally, providing relevant solutions to their business growth and development issues. He may be contacted at tcconsultants@coralwave.com