Working smarter not harder

By Niall

Key to the success of any organisation is the performance of their sales team. Too often sales people work harder rather than smarter. Without the appropriate support, training and tools in place to support their sales activity they cannot realise the benefit of working smarter not harder. CRM of one of those tools that help sales people work smarter not harder. It provides the intelligence and insight to make educated decisions which, if used, can help make influence behavioural change.

Research findings on working smarter not harder.

Recent research has identified 3 things that were highly correlated with top performing reps: More time spent with customers; larger internal networks; and more time spent with managers and senior leadership. These three behaviours persisted regardless of region, territory, or sales role, suggesting that they are foundational ingredients for success. Working smarter not harder works!

Based on this research, here are broad frameworks for each of the behaviours identified (two of which we combined), plus an additional one:

Customer engagement. This not only includes overall time spent with customers, but also factors in the number of accounts touched; time spent with each; frequency of interactions; and breadth and depth of relationships built within them.
Internal networks. We’ve found that it’s useful to break internal network characteristics into three sub-categories:
- General: This includes overall number of relationships within the company; time spent interacting with other colleagues; and influence within the network.
- Support resources: A set of metrics focused on the relationships reps built with sales support staff, including pre-sales specialists, inside sales reps, and others.
- Management: A set of metrics concentrated on relationships between reps and their direct managers, as well as broader rep engagement with company leadership.
Energy: This new angle, which is very much related to the previous two, includes a collection of metrics that measure overall time and effort exerted by salespeople.

In total, the finds suggest that sales success requires the right engagement model with customers, the right relationships within your own company, and putting in the needed time and energy. Or, working smarter rather than working harder. These insights may seem intuitive — and in many ways they are — but, according to the data, the details matter.

CRM as a tool to working smarter not harder

There are multiple benefits of CRM software. Some of these benefits include:

Increased sales productivity as a result of better visibility.
Better collaboration between departments.
Integration with MS Outlook, MS Word, accounting software and other business specific applications enabling a 360 degree view of the business operations
Through ease of access to client information, CRM can improve the customers experience and create cross-selling opportunities.
Improved customer-service as a result of greater visibility, accountability, management, and control.
A lowered cost of sale due to streamlined processes and operations.
Acceleration of sales conversion resulting in revenue gain.
Productivity savings of an estimated 16 man-hours per month due to better reporting tools, data consolidation, reporting automation, and business insight facilities.

In addition, as an investment in your business, CRM software has been illustrated to deliver one of the best return on investments.

How ProAptivity can you realise the benefits of working smarter not harder.

ProAptivity are an independent CRM solutions provider. We focus on the implementation, training, and support of highly customised CRM software solutions. Our CRM software supported by our sales training provide customers with the tools needed to deliver successful sales process management.

Fundamentally, we help organisations embed CRM best practice throughout their organisation. This helps organisations become more competitive, customer focused and ultimately more profitable.

If you need help in understanding why my business needs CRM, maybe some of our eBooks could help! Alternatively visit Maximizer CRM for more information. Contact us today on 028 9099 6388 or via info@proaptivity.com. Contact us today for a free CRM consultation that will assess if your business is CRM ready.