Recently, I was reading a great Forbes article in which the author shared some recent research about sales productivity.
From this research, there were three statistics that caught my attention. All engaged sales and business leaders need to be aware of and take steps to address these sales productivity issues in their organizations. They are:
63.4% of reps' time is spent in NON-revenue generating activities (Whoa!).
33.2% of their time is spent in email.
19.1% is spent in manual sales follow-up or manually updated spreadsheets used to organize their CRM activities (This one kills me!).
What Kills Sales Productivity?
Sales reps are often the most expensive people on our payroll, right? So how is it that their perceived productivity in their primary job function is so diffused? Anyone who has been in Sales before will know this as well as I do, but it's because of all of the sales minutiae. Sales minutiae is defined by Dave's dictionary as:
Anything manually done to support the sales process, including but not limited to lead research, drafting emails, reading through and sorting/responding to emails, scheduling appointments, updating calendars, updating the CRM, attending coordination meetings with internal teams, etc.
With 33.2 of all sales reps' time spent in their Inbox, it's not a shocker that they are constantly falling behind on the outbound lead follow-up, client retention calls, and activities that will help their current prospects advance to a close.
The statistic that really makes my skin crawl is the last one. 9.4% of all sales reps' time is spent in manual lead or client follow-up and 9.7% of their time is spent manually updating spreadsheets to try to keep their CRM activities organized.
The average rep spends more time in a spreadsheet organizing his or her tasks, calls, and CRM notes (Outside of the CRM) than they do following up with leads and clients! That is insane.
The important thing to consider is why this is happening. Salespeople are not unintelligent, nor are they generally lazy. The reality is that their behaviors are the product of a broken, antiquated sales approach - an approach that was reliant upon a human to remember to call someone, to look their number up, and to dial that number before speaking with him. Despite organizations investing tens of thousands of dollars per year (or more) in CRMs and other sales productivity tools, these are often cumbersome, insufficient, or simply don't provide the automation needed to build efficiency into most sales models.
And this is where the grim story pivots.
Creating True Sales Productivity & Marketing Automation
Whether you are in a small business or a growing business of any size, you can't afford to have your sales team buried in this kind of antiquated minutiae-laden process. Frustration with that model is what led us to develop ClientTether.
Have a lead come in on your web form? No worries. ClientTether will immediately get them on the phone with your available rep.
Didn't reach the lead immediately? No sweat. ClientTether will immediately nurture that lead with your custom content, three different contact modalities according to your defined cadence until you get them on the phone or otherwise disqualify them. And this can be set up in minutes with simple, menu-driven action plan builders. Once done, you can review and edit the timeline at any time.
Yes. You heard me correctly. You don't need a marketing veteran with years of Pardot, Marketo, Hubspot, or Eloqua training to reengineer it for you.
I was on a demo the other day and I got a text "out of the blue" from a prospect. At first I was a bit confused about why she was apologizing and giving me some times she's available via text. Then, I realized that she received a text from my action plan that was designed to move her to the next stage in the sales process.
Imagine what this can do for your sales productivity.
80-90% of your lead and prospect follow-up automated, so you and your team can focus on what they are paid to do - sell.
Systematic management of each lead or client's communication plan, so your team doesn't need to manually track their efforts in spreadsheets.
Integrated marketing automation, so you can properly take care of your clients after you win their business without the need to hire a full-time marketing automation manager with a $3K per month software bill.
