Sales Reps

Improve Outside Sales Lead Generation Success

When you’re trying to generate leads outside of your territory, things can get a little overwhelming. Not only must you locate those quality leads, but you also need to nurture them along so that they become completed sales.

Fortunately, there are tools and techniques available to make it easier to close the sales leads you’ve generated.

Industry Verticals

To generate more leads, try expanding into vertical markets where you’re more likely to encounter customers who need your solution or product. You can expand your business by categorizing the leads you want to target based on territory and product type so that you know what message to cultivate when you contact them.

Route Optimization

Once leads are categorized, it’s time to figure out your route. This involves planning your day and strategizing the order in which you will visit potential outside sales customers.

With Spotio’s route optimization tools you can put together the ideal schedule to maximize your time in the field. Plan routes based off meeting time, meeting length, and distance in between meetings just to name a few.

You can also optimize the best order in which to visit your leads to ensure you always arrive on time when you meet a lead.

Geocentric Campaigns

As you expand your reach and cultivate stronger vertical marketing strategies, you need to collaborate with your marketers so you can generate a geocentric campaign. Develop a strategy to engage outside sales leads in various locations by tailoring your message in a way that resonates more effectively with the respective audiences at each location.

While working on your outside sales engagement strategy, you’ll want to analyze your sales data regularly using a CRM to reach more potential leads and generate increased outside sales business.

This CRM data will help you locate untapped opportunities. It will also allow you to visually review and locate places where you can sell to similar audiences.

Educate

The best way to capture more outside sales leads is to focus on helping your prospects solve their problems.

A simple way to do this is to answer their questions, resolve their concerns, and educate them about how you can help. Doing so will position you as a reliable and authoritative leader in the industry, and not as a pushy salesman.

You need to be a highly-trained rep who knows every aspect of your company and market, especially when tackling territories and areas where prospects are not yet familiar with what your company can offer them.

These prospects will have even more questions than local prospects because they don’t know if they like you or trust you yet.  Answering their questions and becoming the go-to resource for your prospects will help you to develop trust and eventually close the sale.

Establish Relationships

No matter what industry you’re in, it’s important to establish a relationship with your prospects. In a new territory, you’re going to have to work harder to nurture your leads and to prove that you are an authority in your field. You’ll want to show them that they can trust you even though they may not yet know much about you.

Why should they trust you?

Because you’re an industry authority and you are willing to teach everything they need or want to know about who you are and what your product or service you offer. Many buyers need additional information. They might want to compare different options or speak with an attorney or another business partner before they make a decision.

To that end, as a sales rep, you can use Spotio to keep active notes for each of your leads so that you know where they are in the sales pipeline, what questions they have about your company, and what information you can give them each time you reach out to them.

How Can You Improve your Outside Sales Lead Generation?

The way you end calls with your leads is very important. An average rep will only attempt to reach a prospect twice. However, when you break it down in terms of numbers, only 2% of sales are made through the first contact and only 3% more are made through the second contact. Stopping after the second attempt means your chances of making a sale are a measly 5%.

Leads need to be contacted on a regular basis – anywhere between 8 – 12 times over a 10 – 14 days period. Do this, and you will increase your chance of a sale to 90%.

Given that it requires so many attempts to reach and establish connections with your outside sales leads, you need to use an automated sales engagement system to make the most out of your time. Having a good sales cadence means using the correct number of attempts, across different mediums and spaced out appropriately with customized content.

You can use Spotio’s tools to reduce the amount of time you spend creating these contact attempts. You can do things like setting up all reminders and automatic check-ins.

You can also create automated follow-up messages for your email campaigns and to address your lead’s unopened emails.

Referrals are Important

Being in unfamiliar territory with people who don’t necessarily know much about your company or your product doesn’t have to be a waste of time just because one lead doesn’t pan out.

Studies indicate that 91% of people contacted who don’t follow through with a sale would give a referral if prompted. But, only 11% of reps ask for a referral.

Even more striking is the fact that these additional referrals usually result in follow-up appointments 80% of the time. This means that in order to generate more outside sales leads you should ask each of your leads for a referral at some point in the call attempt process, especially if your lead does not pan out.

Conclusion

Generally, outside sales lead generation is now more accessible and manageable than ever. If you utilize careful planning and preparation and you are willing to dedicate your time long-term you can successfully reach more potential leads in less time.

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Questions or comments? Contact SPOTIO at info@spotio.com or comment below.

SPOTIO is the #1 field sales acceleration platform to increase your revenue, maximize your profitability, and increase your team’s productivity.

Want to see a product demonstration? Click here to see how SPOTIO can take your sales game to the next level.

Your Guide to Salesforce Territory Management

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If you are tracking field sales reps, then you need effective territory management software. By pairing the powerful planning and mapping software of SPOTIO with the flexible Salesforce platform, teams will strategize, scale, and grow business better than ever. 

Boost your productivity by customizing your Salesforce instance by territory, and your users will never see irrelevant data again.

Territory Management in the Sales Cloud uses an intuitive user interface that guides your users through company procedures and best practices. Not only that, but managers have a view from above that allows them access to data at a glance. 

With Territory Management, geography and hierarchy come together to help your company function as a cohesive unit.

Here we’ll take you through a quick look at how territory management can help your business, and show you solutions to empower your teams with even more practical field sales tools.

What is Salesforce Territory Management?

Available in both Classic and Lightning experience, Territory Management enables your company to use your management hierarchies already in place to guide an automated organize data and user roles in the same way that you manage sales territories. This new system of organization can revolutionize the way your teams bring in sales, which allows for even more accurate forecasts.

For a guided tour of how this works, click here. 

Salesforce gives you territory modeling, letting you compare performance projections for new assignments and management hierarchies. It also provides management and team leaders a range of other tools to effectively collaborate and close more deals. 

Let’s take a closer look… 

Enterprise Territory Management Features

You may be familiar with the Territory Management Component that was only available in Classic. Salesforce will phase this feature out in the Summer ‘20 update, so get ahead of the curve and learn about Enterprise Territory Management! 

Organize Your Accounts, Opportunities, Leads, and Cases By Territory

Role hierarchies are one of the touchstones of Salesforce, but what about when you can take them a step further? Use territories to guide your profile assignments, and you will make sure that your field reps only have access to what they need when they need it.

Worried about complex accounts? This robust tool allows access to users based on account characteristics, not just geography. This means you can sort accounts under multiple territories. Set up your company structure, and user permissions will fall into place!

Enabling Enterprise Territory Management

Once you’re ready to build out your territory management, simply follow the instructions in Setup under Territory Settings.

If your Salesforce instance already has a role hierarchy in place, great! All you have to do is assign users to territories based on the predetermined structure. If not, no worries! Simply create your hierarchy based on the territories they cover.

What if everyone in your company needs access to a certain set of records? Maybe there are some big projects that reps from multiple territories need access to. This is where org-wide permission sets can come in handy. 

Set your rules, and everyone can have access to the same version of information!

Reporting and Forecasting By Territory

Generating leads and closing opportunities is great, but when it comes time to evaluate sales strategies, you’re going to want historical data and powerful forecasting tools. 

Enterprise Territory Management comes with plenty of custom report types to accommodate your needs, such as: 

– Accounts by Territory
– Territories without Accounts
– Users Not Assigned to Territories
– Territories Per User

With these reporting capabilities, your collaborative forecasting is going to be more accurate than ever. However, with such a dynamic feature, you’ll need to consider how your data will be impacted once you introduce territories. Make sure you test all new functions in the sandbox, and your company will thank you. 

How SPOTIO Helps Field Sales Succeed

So you know how to use and enable territory management within Salesforce, but what if you need even more specificity when it comes to sales records on the go?

SPOTIO is specifically designed to keep your field data and CRM working as a synchronized unit.  

2-Way integration with Salesforce syncs your information in real-time, allowing reps to leverage the power of historical reporting and enriched lead information no matter where they are. 

Assign territories as specifically as you want with SPOTIO, even down to individual territories per sales rep. Enhance your Salesforce Mobile experience by automatically recording every step of your sales rep’s journey to Closed Won. 

SPOTIO’s flexible integration boasts complex field-mapping as well as guided next-steps. When you complete an activity or update a pin within SPOTIO, a new task is created in Salesforce, ready for when you get back to the office.

Here are just a few of the powerful features and benefits that you can look forward to when turning to our proven field sales and territory management platform:

– Visual customer mapping for logical routes
– Real-time outside sales tracking
– Real-time performance metrics
– Custom maps of territories and assignments
– Enriched out-of-office notes

Investing in field sales is an investment in the future of your company. The better opportunities and leads are managed, the higher the chances of reaching a good rate and quantity of turnover. 

After all, statistics show that sales reps spend just a third of their time selling, and only 65% hit their sales quotas. 

No matter how good your reps may be, there is always a need to find better ways to improve sales accountability. Better performance means happier, more productive staff. Re-evaluating and optimizing sales territory management strategy is essential to meeting your core goals and quotas. 

With the intuitive integration of SPOTIO’s sales support and Salesforce’s Enterprise Territory Management, your reps and teams will reach an all-new pinnacle of performance. 

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Questions or comments? Contact SPOTIO at info@spotio.com or comment below.

SPOTIO is the #1 field sales acceleration and performance management software that will increase revenue, maximize profitability, and boost sales productivity.

Want to see a product demonstration? Click here to see how SPOTIO can take your sales game to the next level.

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Your Field Sales Team Needs a Mobile Solution – Here’s Why

The value of customer relationship management systems (CRM’s) to senior management is widely accepted and critical to strategic decision making. By having a system of record for customers, you’re able to clearly identify success, failure, and opportunities for growth across your customer base. However, in speaking to sales teams and the mobile workforce, you find reluctance, misunderstanding and an unfavorable perception of CRM technology.

The general feeling from sales reps towards CRMs is that of micromanagement, a barrier to productivity, and outdated functionality.

Without end-user adoption, CRM’s are useless. The ol’ saying of “garbage in, garbage out” comes to mind. Often times organizations invest hundreds of thousands of dollars into customizing their CRM of choice to create a seamless end-user experience anchored in the belief that data will give them the edge they need to compete. However, companies find they still aren’t getting the accurate data they desire and CRM adoption remains at less than 40% industry wide.

At the end of the day field sales driven businesses are left with a large software invoice and unhappy sales reps — still with little visibility to what’s actually occurring in the sales process. What gives?

Companies are missing a key component in the sales stack – a mobile solution. One that fits the sales motions and needs of their field sales team.

Mobile Growth Explosion

Before we get too deep on where a mobile solution fits in the sales stack we must first recognize the growth of mobile as the primary means of communicating. During 2018, mobile internet access accounted for 48.2% of all internet usage. This is massive growth considering that mobile traffic made up just 0.7% in 2009. The number of mobile users vastly outnumber desktop users.

As of January 2018, the world held 3.7 billion mobile internet users in total. Add to this the fact that projections for mobile e-commerce are estimated to reach 67.2% of all e-commerce sales by 2021, and it should be crystal clear that mobile is the future for all business applications.

Even Google Analytics shows that 50% of B2B queries are made on a smartphone. Whether you’re buying products online or accessing your internal database via a company app, mobile is the only viable option.

Phones & Mobile Devices Are a Part of Life

Statistics show that roughly 53% of all emails are opened on a mobile device while 90% of all internet users own a mobile phone. At the current rate of smart device adoption, 90% of everyone on the planet will own a smartphone by 2020.

Using a mobile device like a smartphone or tablet has become second nature. In fact, the number of mobile phone owners outnumbered the number of people who own toothbrushes way back in 2011. The average US citizen spends more time using the apps on their phone than they do watching TV.

No one can argue the value nor convenience of real-time access to information. In a business environment, timing is everything. A rep disconnected from their resources may as well be cold calling blind at a random location.

Long story short — the mobile device is here to stay and will soon become more prominent than our stationary computers as our means to connecting to the rest of the world (socially or professionally).

Today’s Workforce Trends

As the millennial generation continues its march towards the largest generation in today’s workforce, the need for practical, functional business technology also increases. There is no room for antiquated infrastructure involving constant micromanagement and software which delivers limited mobile functionality..

The millennial generation, or people born between 1981 and 1997, are indeed taking over the workforce. Through the course of 2017, a total of 56 million millennials were either employed or looking for work. Today millennials make up the majority of the workforce in the USA. Not only have all these people grown up with connectivity and technology, but studies show that the average millennial owns seven or more connected devices, with at least 18 hours a week spent on a smartphone.

Asking millennials to capture customer information and sales data manually into the CRM at the end of the day is not only time-consuming but a waste of productivity. Millennials already use higher-end technology in their day to day lives making it senseless to leave their proficiency untapped.

Enter the outside sales team’s secret weapon… the mobile CRM. A mobile CRM lets the workforce work smarter and faster, capturing data in a manner which is as natural as selling for your reps.

Millennials, Mobile Technology & Field Sales = Winning

Most mobile employees spend a lot of their time using out-of-office hours to extend and enhance their work. Studies show that 91% of all mobile employees use their personal time and smartphones to conduct work business.  

61% of the mobile workforce sleep with their phone by their side in case of a business related call or notification. About 10% of all employees are so devoted to their technology that it causes issues in personal relationships.

We are hooked on our technology, and the present and upcoming workforce is even more attached to their smart devices.

In the business world, mobile technology leads to employees working an average of 240 hours more per year. When one considers that these extra hours are filled with improved consulting, and better selling and service, it becomes nearly impossible to estimate the potential peaks of productivity that will be reached.

Asking your outside sales team to use inside sales technology is not only inefficient but silly.

In the 2018 State of Field Sales Report, we ask reps how much many more prospects they could speak to if they didn’t have to spend administrative efforts fighting their CRM.

Over 35% said they would increase revenue by as much as 25%!

When you have a generation that is proficient and expects modern business applications, stuck to their mobile device, and by the nature of the job “on-the-go” it only makes good business sense to equip them with the proper solution – mobile solution.

My CRM has a Mobile App

The largest and best CRMs on the market indeed have a mobile app. However, when the enterprise software architecture was designed, it was intended to be a desktop solution for the inside sales team. Let’s take a look at the largest CRM on the planet – Salesforce.com

Love it or hate it, what Salesforce has done in the CRM space is nothing short of impressive. Anyone familiar with Salesforce knows the limitless capabilities and available customizations. But, one of the largest complaints about Salesforce is just how heavy the software can be. Now take that complex software and put it on a 6 inch mobile device and require your field sales team to use it.

The issue is larger than simply taking your inside sales CRM and creating a mobile version. In order to maximize your field sales efforts, you must create a software ecosystem built for an outside sales team. Asking an outside sales rep to use inside sales rep is the epitome of “square peg, round hole.”

Path Forward

As you consider mobile solutions for your outside sales team, there are 2 paths to consider:

1. A Mobile CRM. A fully dedicated mobile CRM built for the outside sales team. If your business is dedicated to sales reps in the field as the primary business model, then it only makes sense to equip your field sales.

2. Bolt On. Layer a mobile solution on top of you existing CRM.

What Makes a Mobile CRM Essential

Good mobile CRM software will give sales reps access to all the platform’s functionality while facilitating real-time communication and access to company data in a mobile friendly way. Collaboration across service desks, sales and marketing will be working together seamlessly when the right system is employed.

Hardware and software costs are kept to a minimum while instant access to customer records, geographic and demographic data, territory info, and critical lead insights all help staff sell better. Client accounts and sales pipelines need to be managed from the office workspace and on the road.

Scheduling, queue control, and rep/performance tracking are all facilitated no matter what device you’re using and regardless of whether you’re online or not. Sales staff can indeed sell anywhere.

Finding Functional, Practical Mobile Value

Workforce mobility is no longer about relaying updates between field agents at the office, or even dispatching jobs and managing territories effectively. Mobility has become the ultimate channel for efficient field service. But, the full potential of your CRM platform will only be reached if both staff and upper management understand its practical value.

All too often a disconnect forms between sales reps and the goals of owners and management. Sales reps and CRM platforms have a strained relationship to say the least. However, if both parties have their needs met by an excellent mobile CRM, then all that is left is understanding the benefits and functional value before productivity and sales skyrocket.

How a Mobile CRM Helps Sales Reps

A mobile-focused CRM solves many of the problems which usually make sales reps dislike popular platforms. Instead of having an assortment of paperwork or having to manually enter the days information into your CRM, reps have streamlined workflows and easy data management.

There is no writing things down, no waiting for information, and no extra work at the end of a long day.

Routes are more automatically more efficient, and sales reps have more time on their hands. Here are just some of the key features of interest to outside sales:

Unified dashboards on desktop and mobile.
Full access and updating of leads, opportunities & contacts.
Enhanced file opening, sharing & collaboration tools.
Customer service tracking, management & responses on-the-go.
Unified communication control panels with dial-into meeting functionality.
Offline access to internal database and sales processes.
Performance tracking and route optimization.
Overheads are reduced for both the business and sales rep.

Mobile CRM technology does the opposite of what reps have come to expect, simplifying and enhancing existing aspects of their successful sales strategies instead of giving them more work. Existing and future employees are empowered with solutions which address actual issues within their day.

Say goodbye to back and forth phone calls and software designed for desktop users. Sales representatives can look forward to an app which puts all sales processes within reach no matter where they are.

Better Customer Interactions

Sales reps are given more time to focus on their consulting services which in turn raises the favorable opinion of your enterprise across-the-board. Personal service is memorable service.

Customer and product information can be accessed using a mobile phone or tablet giving immediate insights and answers to questions. Software like SPOTIO even gives you full access to the entire CRM without an active internet connection. Past customer purchases can be reviewed, customers can be better advised, order statuses updated, purchasing trends can be monitored, and in-demand items can be kept in stock while out of the office.

Customers and sales reps are fully supported.

Higher Average Order Volumes

Sales transparency combined with elevated customer service translates to higher average order volumes for outside sales reps who are supplied with a practical mobile CRM. The immediate access to account history, product information and any promotions upcoming or ongoing give reps more options to inspire sales from their leads.

Sales pipelines operating more efficiently means less lag in communication and in turn less time for purchase interest to waver. Customers given instant access to the pricing and information that they ask for or (at the foresight of a good up-sell) need, are more likely to carry through. Average order volume increases by as much as 20% as a matter of consequence.

Keep in mind that reps won’t only be visiting more clients and selling a higher volume, but they’ll also be closing deals faster.

Mobile Productivity & Efficiency

Sales and admin staff benefit from the lack of paperwork, data capturing, and general admin duties. Mobile real-time data capturing minimizes staff errors which improve the overall efficiency of all teams involved.

Good mobile sales software will also include features like real-time messaging, document management, and the ability to take notes and add lead information digitally.

A CRM which is designed for mobile use will also operate faster and more intuitively that a more robust server-desktop solution. Navigating an app which offers mobile connectivity as a side-line benefit can be so tricky that reps refuse to use it at all. Yet, with a responsive tool in their hands at all times, it will become an extension of the way that they work.

Total Sales Transparency

Sales processes and marketing information was an area of business shrouded in secrecy, with far too many initiatives doing their best to hide their real intentions and the full scale of their efforts and marketing. Fortunately, in today’s hyperconnected world of business, there is no room for these veils of ambiguity in background planning and sales pipelining.

Business communication needs to be open and shared with customers and internal staff so that everyone knows that they’re getting their worth. Sales transparency sets the foundation for better interdepartmental communication, steadfast relationships with clients, and management which works so closely with staff that there is never a misunderstanding nor a lack of motivation.

A mobile CRM puts everyone on the same footing, supplying a platform enabling access to the whole of a business’s internal processes. Staff understand their responsibilities better, and customers love the way that on-demand data drives decisions.

Unlocking the Full Potential of Your Enterprise

Every business needs to invest in both its internal and field sales teams. CRM solutions are integral, but outside sales have to have the right tools made available to them.

The right mobile CRM like SPOTIO runs in conjunction with existing desktop/server based platforms and vastly streamlines the way that sales reps capture and access data. Mainstream CRM software is designed for desktop use first with mobile functionality arriving as an afterthought.

After all, multi-million dollar companies like Salesforce and Microsoft Dynamics give a range of tools too broad and powerful that most field sales reps would never be able to navigate through the complexity on the limited screen size of a phone or tablet. Platforms like these are not designed with the mobile workforce in mind.

Implement a leading mobile CRM, and it’ll handle the data transfer to your resource-heavy desktop CRM automatically without transferring any burden to your reps.

Magnify the Impact of Outside Sales

SPOTIO B2B Sales technology supplies stellar mobile access to internal resources which results in no less than a 47% increase in efficiency. When you combine this with the way that the emerging millennial workforce views an enriched workplace, you’ve got a recipe for success.

Today’s workforce values IT strategies which improve productivity and communication. Companies investing in the needs of their staff exhibit a high trust culture and millennials are twenty-two times more likely to want to continue working there and show an eight times increase in agility and a seven times increase in innovation.

Empower your staff by picking software and solutions which resonate with the way that they already do business and prefer to interact, and you’ll not only have higher productivity but greater dedication as well.

SPOTIO puts everything at your fingertips; everything is logged automatically and managing sales processes couldn’t be easier. Whether you’re a sales manager or sales rep, the functional value and practical benefits are outstanding. A sales rep lives life on the road and needs a solution to match.

A comprehensive mobile solution gives you a customer relationship management program which will maximize output and efficiency in the field.

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Questions or comments? Contact SPOTIO at info@spotio.com or comment below.

SPOTIO is the #1 field sales acceleration platform to increase your revenue, maximize your profitability, and increase your team’s productivity.

Want to see a product demonstration? Click here to see how SPOTIO can take your sales game to the next level.

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References:

1 – https://www.websitehostingrating.com/internet-statistics-facts/

2 – https://www.statista.com/statistics/241462/global-mobile-phone-website-traffic-share/

3 – https://hostingfacts.com/internet-facts-stats/

4 – https://ecommercebooth.com/47-ecommerce-stats-to-know-for-2019-and-beyond/

5 – https://www.smartinsights.com/b2b-digital-marketing/b2b-mobile-buyer-behaviour-research/

6 – https://litmus.com/blog/53-of-emails-opened-on-mobile-outlook-opens-decrease-33

7 – https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/us/Documents/technology-media-telecommunications/us-global-mobile-consumer-survey-second-edition.pdf

8 – https://www.ericsson.com/en/press-releases/2014/11/ericsson-mobility-report-90-percent-will-have-a-mobile-phone-by-2020

9 – https://rebeccamurtagh.com/more-mobile-devices-than-toothbrushes-or-people/

10 – https://www.marketwatch.com/story/millennials-are-taking-over-the-workforce-2018-04-16-11884422

11 – http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/04/11/millennials-largest-generation-us-labor-force/

12 – https://www.fool.com/retirement/2017/07/19/14-millennial-statistics-that-will-blow-you-away.aspx

13 – https://www.ipass.com/press-releases/mobile-workforce-report-05242011/

14 – https://spotio.com/blog/why-your-sales-team-hates-your-crm/

15 – https://www.quantacrm.com/2016/02/18/mobile-crm-increase-sales/

16 – https://salespop.net/sales-management/transparency-in-your-sales-process/

17 – https://dynamicsignal.com/2018/10/09/key-statistics-millennials-in-the-workplace/

The Ultimate Guide to B2B Sales

B2B sales have evolved dramatically over the years, especially since the dawn of the digital age.

The days of cold calling and direct mail aren’t forgotten, but the way in which we do business has changed a lot.

More companies are investing in B2B sales teams – inside and outside – across a range of industries.

The B2B sales environment is evolving, and now has more decision-makers and touchpoints involved than it did just a few years ago. This growing complexity is creating longer sales cycles, which pose a host of fresh challenges for all B2B sales stakeholders.

In this article, we’ll explore B2B selling in detail, covering a range of the most effective sales strategies and tools so you can learn how to sell B2B products and services.

What is B2B Sales?

B2B means “business-to-business”, so B2B sales is the practice of one business selling products or services to another business. Here are some well-known B2B sales examples:

Spotio – This field sales acceleration platform helps businesses build pipeline, increase sales, and boost productivity.

HubSpot – The all-in-one platform for sales and inbound marketing helps companies attract more visitors, convert more leads, and close more sales.

Salesforce – A leading force in customer relationship management (CRM), which helps businesses connect and communicate with prospective customers in a more efficient, effective way.

This is distinctly different from B2C, otherwise known as business-to-consumer sales, where companies sell directly to end users instead of to other businesses. The best example of a B2C company is Amazon, which makes billions of dollars every year selling products directly to consumers all over the globe.

The Tactical Differences Between B2B and B2C Sales?

When we look at the B2B sales process in more detail, we can identify a few unique differences compared to B2C:

More stakeholders to convince – In B2B sales, you must convince multiple stakeholders in varying roles, each with different needs and priorities. By comparison, B2C is just about convincing one person.

Higher price points – Generally speaking, B2B sales have a much higher average order value, which is one of the biggest attractions.

More touchpoints – Prospects often need to review product information, and talk to several people before committing to a purchase.

(Source)

Longer sales cycles – With the more people involved, higher prices, and additional touchpoints, the B2B sales funnel is longer. According to a CSO Insights report, almost ⅓ of B2B sales cycles last longer than 10 months:

(Source)

B2B Selling: Inside vs Outside Sales

In B2B sales, your business can be viewed as two interconnected teams – inside sales and outside sales.

Quite often, inside sales representatives sell products and services remotely, and therefore, they’re usually based in an office. By comparison, outside sales reps are “out in the field”, negotiating face-to-face deals with prospects at their business premises, conferences and trade shows.

Studies from Spotio indicate that outside sales earn a 30% higher close rate than inside sales. Furthermore, outside sales teams also clinch deals that are over 130% larger.

Despite this, there has been a shift towards inside sales in recent years:

While outside sales reps can nurture business relationships in a more personal way, many organizations are attracted to inside sales because it offers a more cost-effective, automated approach to B2B selling.

Numbers Don’t Tell The Full Story…

This in-depth guide will highlight the key operational difference between inside and outside sales.

The B2B Buying Process Has Changed

Digital transformation has been shaking up global business in many ways, and the B2B sales process is certainly not immune.

Here are three reasons why B2B sales have changed so much in recent times:

Number of stakeholders

You already know B2B sales involve more people. The thing is, that number is growing. A report from the Harvard Business Review asserts that the number of people involved in the average B2B sales process – known as the decision-making unit (DMU) – rose from 5.4 to 6.8 between 2015 and 2017.

Buyers are more educated

Research from Forrester found almost 74% of B2B buyers conduct about half of their total research online before they make an offline purchase. The B2B customers of today have greater access to information online and offline – and they’re putting it to good use.

(Source)

Alignment between sales with user intent

Understanding the customer journey is a critical aspect of B2B selling, especially in a highly competitive field. Ultimately, the companies who map their sales process to the customer journey will have more success targeting the right people, with the right offer, at the right time.

The Modern 8-Step B2B Sales Process

Now that you’ve gotten to grips with the fundamentals, let’s see how to sell B2B.

This process starts from scratch, and if you do every step comprehensively and correctly, you should be able to close with a sale. Best of all, this B2B sales process works for both for inside sales and outside sales teams.

Let’s dive in.

Step #1: Research

If you don’t have a clear understanding of where your business will fit into the existing market, you will struggle to get anywhere and could waste a lot of your resources chasing the wrong targets.

To begin, make a list of your nearest 4 or 5 competitors that are selling similar products or services. Now, consider the following:

i. Unique Selling Proposition – What do they offer that nobody else can? By comparison, why should B2B customers choose your brand over the competitors?

ii. Differentiators – Take notes on their brand voice, content style, products, and pricing. Identify the traits and characteristics that shape their brand identity.

iii. SWOT – With your competitor analysis at hand, you can move on to conduct a SWOT evaluation of your own business. Consider the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats you have right now.

Next, turn your attention to potential customers. A HubSpot study found that about 50% of your prospects won’t be a good fit.

Therefore, before you get started in B2B sales, it’s absolutely vital that you know your audience.

The most effective way to do this is by creating customer personas. Through research, you can gather insights from real customers to build a very accurate picture of your ideal customer.

Just remember that with B2B sales, your customer personas should be for decision-makers that have the authority and budget to negotiate and close deals with your company.

(Source)

An example B2B customer persona may include the following details:

Demographic – Age, gender, income, living status, education, etc.

Company role – The current position at the company, and an overview of their authority.
E.g. VP of Sales , controls $500K budget for the sales department.

Goals – Professional and personal ambitions. E.g. She wants to increase sales by 20% in the next year.

Challenges – The problems they need help with. E.g. Her sales reps aren’t clear on which areas and prospects they should focus on.

Interests – Favorite websites, magazines, news sources, software, apps, etc. These insights can inform how and where you contact prospects.

When you take the time and effort to research your market, your competitors, and your ideal customers, it will give you the strong foundation you need to succeed at B2B selling. With this much done, you can move forward to the next step in the B2B sales process.

Step #2: Prospect

In the past, B2B salespeople simply bought a list of prospects, however, that has changed. Now, you can create your own list of B2B prospects through social media. Platforms like LinkedIn and Facebook are great for outbound sales, as you can engage business owners directly on the platform.

Alternatively, you can use inbound marketing by creating content and promoting it on your company blog and social media channels. This will let prospects discover your products and services in a more natural way, which usually makes them more open to a sale.

Whichever route you go, collect a list of top prospects that you believe fit your ideal customer persona before moving to the next step.

Editor’s note:

A sales rep could use a sales intelligence tool like SPOTIO’s Lead Machine to map a target geographic location, filter by prospects in that area using different persona data points, and then export the finished list and import into their lead management tool.

This way, reps are only working leads in target areas that meet defined criteria. This drastically improves sales efficiency and close rates.

Step #3: Initial Contact

After prospecting, you can approach potential buyers to introduce yourself, and start building a relationship. Traditionally, this may have been done with a cold call to follow-up after a brochure had been mailed.

Rapid advancements in automation technology have transformed sales and marketing processes in a big way. This is good news for B2B companies and also for customers.

You can use data analytics to check email open rates, video views, and website visits. Then, you can tailor your approach to get in touch with prospects that seem most interested.

This initial contact gives you a chance to learn a little more about each prospect, and it also puts your brand top-of-mind with potential B2B customers.

Editor’s note: If you’re having trouble reaching prospects, check out this in-depth guide on how to get past the gatekeeper.

Step #4: Assess & Qualify Your Prospects

Studies show that while most B2B marketers send all their leads directly to the sales team, a mere 27% of those leads will actually be qualified.

While technology certainly improves the chances of success, it’s by no means guaranteed. Before you move forward with prospects, you must confirm they are a viable lead.

An effective way of doing this is by using the Sandler Pain Funnel:

This strategic series of questions helps you discover your prospect’s real needs. Better yet, it goes beyond the pain point to reveal whether they have the budget and the decision-making authority to do business with you.

The eight questions in the Sandler Pain Funnel, in order, are:

1. “Tell me more about that…”
2. “Can you be more specific? Give me an example.”
3. “How long has that been a problem?”
4. “What have you tried to do about that?”
5. “How did that work?”
6. “How much do you think this has cost you?”
7. “How do you feel about that?”
8. “Have you given up trying to deal with the problem?”

When you size up each prospect with these qualifying questions, you will develop a better understanding of how your products or services can assist them. This will be instrumental in the next step.

Step #5: Pitch

Today, you can make pitches through video content, such as a webinar, live video conference, or even in a private video meeting.

The latter is best for maximum personalization. Indeed, it’s best to tailor the pitch for every single prospect, and if possible, do it in-person. If your product is quite technical, you can bring an engineer to the meeting to field any technical questions.

In any case, the pitch is sure to be a time-consuming process. It requires considerable effort and planning, as it’s such a crucial stage of the B2B sales process.

It can make-or-break the deal.

On the upside, you’ll only be doing pitches for prospects that have already been qualified, therefore, it’s worth the effort to create a good pitch.

Editor’s note: Want more inspiration? Check out these sales pitch examples.

Step #6: Respond

It’s easy to think the B2B sales process is all one-way traffic. However, it’s important to listen to your prospects.

Act as a guide, simply steering the conversation and letting the prospect fill in the gaps. Ideally, you should only do around 30% of the talking. This makes people feel like they are being heard and understood.

Another technique is to teach rather than sell. By offering advice to help someone improve their business without any expectation of a sale, you’ll quickly earn people’s trust.

Learning to adapt your sales process in this way takes a little practice. However, when you get it right, you’ll forge stronger relationships with prospects.

Step #7: Follow-Up

(Source)

Research from Forrester found that 59% of B2B customers would rather manage relationships on their own, which compounds the belief that people still don’t really like to be approached by salespeople.

For B2B sales professionals, that poses a dilemma:

Should they follow-up?

The answer is yes. That being said, timing matters.

If you follow-up too soon or too often, you may annoy your prospect, and lose the sale. If you’re too nonchalant, you won’t close many sales.

The art of following up requires a delicate balance of personalization, persistence, and perception. You have to understand how your prospects like to be approached, and what they may be worried about.

By putting yourself in the prospect’s shoes, you can understand their mindset, their needs, and their concerns.

Step #8: Close

The final step in your B2B sales funnel is the close. Quite often, this is seen as the most difficult stage of B2B selling. However, if you have completed the rest of the B2B sales process correctly, your close should come easy.

When you get this far, your prospects should be ready to purchase. If you get the sense that they’re still hesitant, it may be best to discuss their concerns again to address any outstanding issues.

Ultimately, if you and the prospect are aligned, the sale is much more likely. If not, you can still close, and then tee-up another appointment or product demo in the near future.

Some prospects need a little more time, so the sale isn’t always dead if you don’t get it the first time around.

11 Strategies to Improve B2B Sales Performance

Now that you’ve got the basic steps to the B2B sales process down, here are eleven B2B sales strategies that are sure to get the needle moving in the right direction.

1. Identify ALL the Decision Makers

The sooner you identify key players in your target companies, the better.

When you start researching prospect websites, check pages like “Meet the Team” or “About Us” for information about the big players.

You can find details about the key decision-makers and their roles by searching on LinkedIn. This approach ensures you start off on the right foot and give your search the laser-focus it needs to succeed.

2. Utilize PAIN-Based Selling

Almost 70% of B2B customers claim their business needs aren’t being addressed during the first contact. If you don’t meet your prospect’s needs, they aren’t likely to stick around.

By embracing solution-based selling, you can target a pain point of your prospect, then tailor your sales pitch to help people overcome their problem.

Here are some example questions that can help you drill down and discover the challenges your prospect is facing:

“What are your company’s goals for the short-term and long-term?”
“What do you believe is your greatest strength and greatest weakness?”
“What aspects do you like best about your current supplier? What things don’t you like?”
“Name one thing you would change about your business.”
“What deadlines are you facing now?”
“Which resources do you want to use more?”
“Would you rather cut costs, improve productivity, or increase profits?”
“Does your business struggle with [pain point]?”

This tactic is hugely successful now because it is all about the prospect and their problem, which is a more welcoming proposition than a pushy sales pitch.

3. Fill Gaps and Maintain Momentum

Remember that the B2B sales cycle is longer than B2C.

It will serve you well in the long-run if you develop closer relationships with prospects as they will be more inclined to become a loyal customer who continually makes purchases.

If that’s not motivation enough, consider this:

Over a period of five years, most B2B companies lose about 50% of their customers.

Momentum matters.

Even when you think you have it made, it’s crucial to keep the momentum going so that you continue building filling your pipeline with more B2B customers. That way, even when you lose a customer, the show goes on.

4. Strategically Assign Offline Sales Territories

Sales territory management is a popular system that B2B teams use to assign prospects and geographical areas to specific salespeople depending on the industry, location, or account size. This strategy ensures that there is no overlap between your sales reps.

Segmenting your target audience in this way is an effective use of your resources, and it gives each rep the chance to foster closer relationships with the leads in their territory. This is particularly beneficial to outside sales reps who meet the prospects in-person on a regular basis.

Editor’s note: You can use a tool like SPOTIO’s Territory Manager to quickly map territories and assign them to different reps. Managers no longer have to spend hours reviewing physical maps and drawing out territories for assignment by hand.

5. Create Content to Enable the Sales Team

Online content creation is a powerful way of providing value for your audience, and by doing that, you can establish a strong online presence and a brand identity that resonates with people.

Research indicates a direct link between content marketing and successful closes. The least successful B2B companies spent just 22% of their budget on content marketing, while the most successful B2B companies allocated 39%.

Also, Gist reports that after they read custom content, 82% of B2B customers view a company in a more positive light, and 70% of customers claim they feel closer to companies after engaging with their content.

Over time, with great content, you can position your brand as a thought leader – one that B2B customers respect and trust.

It’s little surprise that over 90% of B2B marketers use content marketing.

It can be used to nurture relationships at every stage of the customer journey, to teach prospects, and build your authority in their minds.

There is a ton of ways to leverage content, including:

Blog posts
Educational articles
Case Studies
eBooks
Videos
Webinars
Whitepapers
Courses

Done right, this strategy can reduce the B2B sales cycle, and drive more people through your sales funnel, which will increase your leads, conversions, and ultimately, your profits.

6. Harness the Power of Social Selling

Social selling is all about using social media to identify key decision makers, and joining meaningful conversations with them at the right moment. That becomes the first step of your selling process, and from there you can guide prospects through your B2B sales funnel.

Research from LinkedIn shows that 78% of people who are engaged in social selling will sell more than those who are not using it.

Some great B2B sales examples of social selling in action include IBM, which drove a 400% increase in sales, and SAP, which increased revenue by 32%.

So, why is it so effective?

Nowadays, B2B customers do a lot more of their own research, so brands need to be agile to meet prospects on multiple different touchpoints.

Social selling helps you leverage omnichannel marketing in a way that establishes brand recognition quickly, so people automatically think of your brand when they are ready to buy. This means you can bypass the awkward situation of cold calling to generate warm leads.

7. Incorporate Video Throughout the Cycle

Studies from Google found that 70% of B2B customer watch videos when they are researching products before purchase.  

Video content gets more engagement, and it’s highly shareable, which makes it great for creating brand awareness. Better yet, video content is a powerful way to convey emotion in your brand messaging, which is useful when you are trying to sell anything.

Ultimately, B2B customers don’t want a sales pitch – they want valuable information and engaging solutions that can help them with pain points. With video content and case studies like this one from Slack, companies can cut the salesperson out of the equation.

8. Develop a Lead Qualification Framework

Almost 80% of leads never turn into sales.

It takes time to build trust, and for people to move through the B2B sales funnel to the point of purchase. But you can improve your B2B conversion rates with a structured approach to analyzing your leads.

Classify your prospects by how willing and ready they are to make a purchase by considering the following:

need;
interest;
budget;
timing;
role.

Every high-growth B2B company needs an effective sales process. Without it, all your best-laid plans and marketing funnels will count for little.

By devising a solid lead qualification framework, you can fill your sales pipeline with quality leads. This will optimize your use of resources, and ensure your sales team has a strong chance of closing valuable deals.

9.  Implement a Lead Nurturing System

According to InsighThought, up to 97% of B2B leads are not ready to make a purchase.

The nature of B2B means that companies are typically considering an expensive commitment, and several decision-makers need to discuss it and agree.

This complex sales cycle creates an opportunity for B2B sales companies to build a relationship, where you can provide relevant information throughout the decision-making process.

Research from Marketo indicates that companies with a solid lead nurturing strategy generate 50% more ready-to-buy leads. Better yet, these hot prospects come cheap, at around 33% lower cost.

10. Prepare for Common Objections

B2B selling is all about presenting the opportunity for positive change. You’re offering companies the chance to improve their business fortunes.

The problem is that not everyone likes change. Unless you have bottled the Elixir of Life and the sales patter of a Jedi barman, you’re going to encounter some tough customers that seemingly can’t be convinced.

The most common objections are related to:

Budget – “I can’t afford it”
Competitor – “I’m already using another product”
Competitor at a lower price – “I see your competitor is cheaper”
Timing – “Can you get back to us in Q4?”

In each of these scenarios, if you have well-prepared responses, you can turn objections around by focusing on the value your product offers.

Ideally, try to back this value up with social proof and case studies of similar B2B customers who had great results. Your prospects will see that what you’re offering is something truly unique, and they’ll realize it’s a long-term investment that delivers a great return on investment (ROI).

Editor’s note: This guide dives deeper into some of the more common sales objections, and shows how to overcome them.

11. Pursue referrals

When you think about all the big-ticket products in B2B sales, it’s wonderful when something free comes your way. Whether you’re on a tight budget or you have deep pockets, referrals are not be turned away.

Not only is it a new business opportunity, but a referral is much more likely to result in a sale. Research indicates that referrals close 70% quicker, and they deliver almost 60% more lifetime value.

Word-of-mouth is the cheapest form of marketing, and sometimes, the type that delivers the best bang for your buck.

5 Costly B2B Selling Mistakes to Avoid

Now that you’ve learned how to sell B2B the right way, let’s look at some common pitfalls. Here are five mistakes that can quickly derail your best-laid B2B sales strategies.

1. Ignoring Opportunities in the Field

Many companies are drawn to inside sales because it can be more cost-effective than outside sales. In fact, it can be up to 90% cheaper than managing a field sales team. However, cheaper isn’t always a good thing.

By ignoring outside sales, companies pass up on a lot of leads, and risk creating a brand identity that doesn’t have much of a personal touch.

Outside sales teams win hands-down in this regard, as they have more human interaction with prospects, and are very effective at building strong customer relationships that can increase overall sales volumes, and also the customer lifetime value (CLV) of each buyer.

This is particularly important for companies that are selling complex products that need some explanation and discussion to alleviate concerns or confusion about how to use the product.

Sometimes, you have to speculate to accumulate. With savvy hiring, and smart territory management, you can strategically lower the cost of an outside sales team, which ensures it will deliver a higher overall ROI.

2. Selling to Low-Level Buyers

Getting in front of C-suite prospects can be a challenge. While you could take the easy route to negotiate with purchasing managers, they’ll rarely have the budget or the power to sanction huge deals.

This is a common problem, with 39% of professionals in B2B sales saying the inability to reach the right people is their biggest obstacle.

B2B sales strategies that focus on low-level buyers can’t deliver the high-growth and huge ROI you may be targeting. It’s much better to seek out the top-level decision makers who have the authority to agree to bigger deals. It may take more work, but it’ll be worth it.

3. Focusing on Features Over Value

Your product could be revolutionary.

However, when it comes to B2B selling, your prospects don’t care about the fancy features or the latest techno-jumbo buzzwords.

All they want to know is whether or not your products or services can solve their problem.

Instead of focusing on the product, focus on your potential customer. Identify their pain points, show them you care, and prove that your product or service offers the solution they need.

4. Implementing a Single-Track Content Strategy

For many years, content marketers have sung the praises of using the Pareto Principle.

Paretos 80 20 rule

Also known as the 80-20 Rule, marketing experts believe that it’s best to only spend 20% of your time creating content, and the other 80% of the time marketing it.

The evidence suggests this a solid barometer, especially when you are just getting started and need to promote your online presence to attract quality traffic to your website.

Unfortunately, many marketers put all their eggs in one basket, and simply throw everything behind a single channel. While SEO is a great one to back, even it alone may not yield the B2B customers you want.

Now, omnichannel marketing is seen as the future of e-commerce.

To succeed, you must have a presence across multiple mediums, from your company blog to Facebook videos to paid ads to influencer marketing partnerships. There is a lot to explore, and the most successful companies are those who work hard to create a seamless, unified experience from one touchpoint to the next.

5. Not Following-Up

It’s very rare to close a deal with just one or two engagements, especially in B2B sales. SPOTIO research shows that there is an average of 7 decision-makers involved in the buying process, and that 80% of B2B sales require at least 5 follow-up calls.

Businesses that are considering your high-ticket product will need to be nurtured through the customer journey before they decide to get the checkbook out.

Therefore, it’s vital that you follow up with prospects.

It’s okay if they need some time to think, but you shouldn’t let leads go cold. If someone contacts your company on social media or email to ask some questions, make sure to respond.

A lot of B2B companies struggle with this, and miscommunications between prospects and different sales reps can cause friction in your B2B sales funnel.

By keeping track of your leads and following up regularly, you can build a relationship that helps close more deals.

5 Helpful Tools for B2B Sales Teams

In the age of innovation, B2B companies have a plethora of fantastic tools to help them enhance their marketing and sales efforts.

Here are five tools for B2B sales.

1. SPOTIO Territory Management

A lot of sales managers struggle with limited resources, which hinders the company’s performance and growth.

With a territory management solution, managers can improve the efficiency of their sales team by strategically assigning reps to specific areas. This ensures minimal overlap in sales efforts, and allows managers to place top performers in the most valuable sales territories.

For example:

The SPOTIO platform is a go-to solution for many outside sales teams, as it is equipped with many great functions well-suited to field sales, such as:

Google Places Integration – This integration offers a map view and business information of every company within your territory. This is great for sorting and targeting leads, as you can filter by aspects like name, email, and business type.

Route Optimization – Managers can view real-time data from outside sales reps. This features allows reps to plan the most efficient routes using many different data points, such as distance, scheduling and meeting lengths.

e-Contracts Web + Mobile – Reps can use the mobile CRM to manage their sales pipeline and close deals with B2B customers while they’re on-the-go.

2. LinkedIn Sales Navigator

This is a good option for companies on a smaller budget. Sales Navigator lets you tap into the immense database of LinkedIn, which is home to the personal accounts of over 562-million professionals and businesses.

By using Sales Navigator, you can discover new leads in your market that suit your target customer profile. This tool allows you to track growing companies, keep tabs on developing trends and opportunities in the market, and gather data that enhances your outreach efforts.

The Google Chrome add-on also helps you find correct email addresses for leads, making it easier to connect. Without a doubt, this is one of the best B2B sales tools to have in your locker.

3. Sellhack

Claiming to be “the only tool you need” seems like a bold statement, but Sellhack may just back it up. When it comes to sales prospecting, it’s certainly one of the more powerful tools sales personnel can find today.

Its key features include CRM database cleaning, pipeline automation, and multi-task email verifications. However, you will need to upload some contact details first for Sellhack to do its thing.

The best feature is its ability to create custom social media audiences, which opens up another huge channel for lead generation.

4. NerdyData

If you want a pure sales prospecting tool, you should consider NerdyData. This has been specifically designed with software companies in mind, but it can work wonders for B2B sales in many fields.

NerdyData aims to identify new leads through the technology a company is already using, which is effective because that technology is a sign of the company’s intent and maturity.

The technology will also provide information about preferred brands, so NerdyData can leverage this to make rapid decisions on which leads to qualify or disqualify.

5. Salesforce CRM

There aren’t many lists of B2B sales apps that don’t mention Salesforce.

Setting the bar for CRM platforms, this robust system integrates with virtually every other service or app you could want in B2B sales.

Better yet, it has a vast array of cloud-based applications for marketing, sales, and customer service. These are easy to get started with, which makes Salesforce suitable for teams of all sizes.

Whether you are creating a B2B sales funnel, managing leads or analyzing reports, this one-stop solution is perfect for inside sales teams.

Editor’s note: Inside and outside sales teams have very different needs when it comes to CRM functionality. Sales teams already using Salesforce for their inside sales efforts can use SPOTIO to quickly bolt-on the functionality needed by field sales reps.

Ready. Set. Sell.

So, there you have the ultimate guide to B2B sales.

Now you know how to sell B2B, and between the steps, strategies, and tools, you have everything you need to get started with B2B selling.

The time for talking is done.

Let’s take some action.

Which strategy will you try first?

________

Questions or comments? Contact SPOTIO at info@spotio.com or comment below.

SPOTIO is the #1 field sales acceleration platform to increase your revenue, maximize your profitability, and increase your team’s productivity.

Want to see a product demonstration? Click here to see how SPOTIO can take your sales game to the next level.

SPOTIO Recognized as a Top Sales Tool by Smart Selling

Smart Selling Tools, an analyst and consulting firm specializing in sales productivity and performance technology, has just released their 2019 Top Sales Tools Guide and recognized SPOTIO as the leading Field Sales Engagement Tool.

“SPOTIO recognized that outside sales reps suffer from a lack of tools compared to their colleagues in inside sales. So, they created a platform designed to address the specific needs of field salespeople like, customer mapping, route planning and lead management”, said Nancy Nardin, Founder & CEO, Smart Selling Tools.

“By recognizing and solving this pressing need, SPOTIO was a shoe-in for this years accolades.”

Smart Selling Tools evaluated a multitude of sales software and solutions across seven technology categories to produce this years guide. SPOTIO received recognition in the Field Sales Engagement category.

“Our goal is to provide outside sales teams with tools and resources designed specifically for selling in the field, and we’re thrilled to have our efforts recognized.”

“SPOTIO is focused on making outside sales teams more efficient, productive and successful. The development of our one of a kind software provides outside reps the technology they need to be successful.”

– Ryan Dunagan, VP of Marketing, SPOTIO

About Smart Selling Tools

Smart Selling Tools, Inc., is an analyst and consulting firm that specializes in sales productivity and sales performance improvement through the use of smart sales tools. Businesses of all sizes can find suggestions and reviews for sales and marketing software along with great resources to learn about revenue generating tools.

Smart Selling Tools doesn’t sell sales software. They just provide great information to help you find the right sales tools for your organization.

_______

Questions or comments? Contact SPOTIO at info@spotio.com or comment below.

SPOTIO is the #1 field sales acceleration and performance management software that will increase revenue, maximize profitability, and boost sales productivity.

Want to see a product demonstration? Click here to see how SPOTIO can take your sales game to the next level.

11 Ways to Improve Sales Efficiency for Optimal Sales Performance

Every business owner wants to keep their pipeline full.

To keep sales flowing in, there’s a near constant push for better marketing, better salespeople, and better business processes. This is the momentum that all businesses need for consistent growth.

But generating more sales is only part of the equation.

While sales effectiveness does well to improve conversions, there’s another component that business owners often leave by the wayside: sales efficiency.

Sales efficiency is the key to not only generating more sales for your business but also streamlining your sales process so that you get more sales, faster.

In this guide, we’re covering what sales efficiency is, why it’s essential to your business, and 11 ways to make your sales process more efficient than ever.

What is Sales Efficiency?

So, what is “sales efficiency”? How is it different from “sales effectiveness”?

Let’s dive into the definitions.

Sales Efficiency vs. Sales Effectiveness

Sales Effectiveness refers to your sales team’s ability to convert prospects into leads, and eventually paying customers or clients, at each stage of your sales funnel. If your sales process is effective, you will experience more “wins” than losses every step of the way.

Sales Efficiency, on the other hand, refers to the speed of your sales operations. That is, how quickly you are able to convert users into leads/sales and while still generating the highest return on your investment. It is the revenue generated by your sales team relative to the cost.

A sales process that is both efficient and effective will be able to close sales in a reasonable time frame, at a sustainable cost, and on the right terms.

The Sales Efficiency Ratio

Sales efficiency is the “Magic Number” that’s calculated by “taking current quarter new revenue annualized, divided by prior quarter sales & marketing expenses” (Source):

Sales efficiency = (revenue / sales cost) x 100

For instance, if you spend $4 on sales in Q2 and generate $4 in revenue in Q3, your ratio would be 1. But if you spent $4 on sales in Q2 and instead only generated $2 in revenue in Q3, your sales efficiency ratio would be .5.

Your sales process is considered sufficient if you have a ratio of .5-1, indicating that your company is essentially breaking even. However, this is not sustainable for the long term.

With a sales efficiency ratio of 1 or greater, you can be confident that your business has strong sales efficiency. Just note that if your ratio is significantly higher than 1, it could mean that you are under-investing in marketing or sales.

Why Sales Efficiency & Effectiveness Should Be Your #1 Priority

Sales inefficiency is a huge issue that many businesses are facing, but few take the time to run the numbers on before it is too late. Your sales team closing the majority of new prospects isn’t always an indication of success.

The reality is that sales quotas have risen by over 33% since 2007, but the percentage of sales reps actually hitting their quota has fallen by 25%. Sales inefficiency is such a pervasive issue that 65% of B2B businesses listed it as their #1 business challenge.

Calculating your sales efficiency ratio is the best way to determine whether your business is on track.

If there’s room for improvement – a major comeback – you will need both sales efficiency and sales effectiveness in order to move the needle.

11 Ways to Improve Sales Efficiency

If your business is struggling with sales efficiency, just know that you are not alone. Many business owners are making sales efficiency their #1 priority, and you can too.

Here are 11 ways to improve sales efficiency in your business.

1. Specify Business Goals and KPIs

The first step in laying out your sales efficiency game plan is to get super clear about what your goals are and how you will measure success.

Are your sales reps expected to close a set # of sales per month? A certain amount per sale? Make sure those expectations are set from the beginning.

We highly recommend using the SMART goals method to set goals that are measurable and realistic.

For example, the Measurable acronym could be: increase sales by 17% by the end of the next quarter.

Once you are clear on what your goals are, and what key performance indicators (KPIs) will be used to measure success, make sure you track sales activity closely. Identify any bottlenecks and fix problems in a timely manner to avoid further inefficiency.

2. Identify Your Ideal Customer

50% of sales time is wasted on unproductive prospecting.

Creating a profile of your ideal customer will improve your close rate significantly. That’s because the best way to move a prospect to buy is by addressing every one of their needs and wants.

You can use sales intelligence tools like Lead Machine to create robust customer profiles using a range of data points, essentially creating a persona of someone who is ready and excited to buy your product.

Building your ideal customer avatar consists of three main components:

1. WHO they are (demographics)
2. WHERE they are (location)
3. WHAT they want (pain points and needs)

Lockdown this information and you can pinpoint exactly what features and benefits of your product would appeal to them most.

Then your sales team can focus on pitching exactly what your potential customers want to hear without wasting breath on specs that won’t be of interest to them.


3. Create a Repeatable, Consistent Sales Process

If you want your sales team to be efficient, then you must train outline a repeatable, consistent sales process. Having a go-to guide for qualifying leads, selling at the right moment, collaborating with the team, and other important sales tasks will only help them work better and faster.

The key steps in a sales process are:

1. Preparation & Research. Know the scope of your product, what your ideal customer wants and needs, and what your company’s unique selling point is.

2. Prospecting. This includes the search for potential customers with the goal of moving them down your sales funnel. This is where the ideal customer data comes into play to help you identify promising prospects.

3. Needs Assessment. This is a way for your sales team to dig deeper into what the prospect needs and what issue(s) they are trying to solve. That way, they can custom-tailor a solution for them.

4. Pitch & Presentation. This is where your sales rep communicates the unique value of your product to the customer. It’s best that your rep establishes trust and hones in on what benefits your potential customer is looking for. Then they present your product as the ideal solution.

5. Objection Handling. The customer may have questions or concerns that need to be addressed. This is another opportunity to establish trust and communicate how you are different from your competitors.

6. Closing. This is when the sale is made or the proposal is sent. Reps should pay attention to the details here so that all the proper paperwork is taken care of.

7. Follow-Up. Referrals are the highest converting lead source. It’s worth it to follow-up with customers to encourage referrals and repeat business.

Not only will creating a clear sales process ensure that the same procedure is followed at every stage, but it will help you identify holes in the process. If leads are dropping off right before the close, you will be able to see this issue and address it quickly.


4. Align Sales and Marketing Teams

65% of sales reps say they can’t find content to send to prospects.

(Source)

Often there can be miscommunication between your marketing and sales teams that can cause inefficiency.

That’s because most businesses see the traditional sales process like this:

Marketing hands leads over to the sales team and the sales team closes the leads.

Unfortunately, this method can lead to some major issues.

For example, a sales rep may pitch a product that was never marketed to the prospect. Or they may try to sell to someone who isn’t primed to buy.

In fact, only 35% of salespeople think that the marketing team knows what content they need, and only ⅓ of sales and marketing teams talk on a regular basis.

By aligning both teams, you improve communication and collaboration between teams, increasing your rate of conversions and reducing drop-offs in your sales funnel.


5. Train Your Sales People Effectively

82% of B2B decision-makers think sales reps are unprepared.

If your sales team isn’t trained properly, they will likely be inefficient. Some issues that can arise are sales reps wasting time and resources on approaches that don’t work, pitching to a customer before they are ready, or drawing out the sales process.

New hires should all go through in-depth training that instructs them on effective prospecting and selling. It should address any common questions that sales reps may have during the process, as well as tips on how to handle objections from customers.

Providing ongoing training will also help your team stay sharp and up-to-date on the latest selling techniques.

6. Strategic Sales Rep Assignment

Image: screenshot of the SPOTIO territory management interface.

Strategic rep assignment is a method for avoiding redundancies in your sales process. That is, it ensures that no sales reps are selling to the same areas/leads at the same time.

We recommend assigning your top reps to the most lucrative territories to ensure a better close rate on those high-ticket offers. Check out our guide on Sales Territory Management for tips on how to create your own efficient rep assignment strategy.

7. Sell to Customer Needs

The research you conducted around your ideal client persona will tell you what issues your potential customers are struggling with, what they need, and what they want.

Understanding their needs and articulating how your product is the best solution to their needs is the surest way to win them over.

While your competitors are hitting on all the features of their products, you will be speaking directly to your target customer’s strongest pain points. If you are able to drive home the benefits, it will be a no-brainer buy for them and a straightforward sale for you.

8. Manage and Nurture Leads Effectively

Nurtured leads produce, on average, a 20% increase in sales opportunities versus non-nurtured leads. (DemandGen Report)

It’s always easier to sell to a “warm” lead – someone who is familiar with your brand and has been primed for the sale – than a “cold” one. That’s why it’s essential to have a lead nurturing process to warm up your prospects.

The best system for doing this is to use a centralized CRM or lead management system. This is software that allows your sales team to see where prospects are at in the sales cycle so that they can follow up with them in the right way at the right time.

A CRM tool will increase sales efficiency by:

– Letting your team know the best time to follow up
– Helping your team tailor communications to where prospects are at in the sales cycles
– Assigning priority to prospects that are further down the sales funnel


9. Work on the Basics

Sometimes the easiest and fastest way to improve sales efficiency is to simply brush up on the basics. No matter how long you have been in business or how precise your processes are, there is always room for improvement.

Consider new ways to find prospects, presents sales pitches, and extend follow-ups to fine-tune your sales process at every step. Don’t be afraid to look at your existing system from a different perspective.


10. Maximize Your Time

A recent study found that sales reps spend less than 36% of their time on selling. That means that the rest of the time is spent on non-selling tasks like traveling, attending meetings, or checking email.

There are many handy tools that you and your team can use to maximize your time and efficiency. For example, this route planning software helps your team determine the most direct route to their destination.

Look at your task or project management system to identify areas where your team can be more efficient, allowing them more time to focus on selling.

11. Measure Results

Knowledge is power and in business, that knowledge is in the numbers. To maximize your sales efficiency, you need to routinely look at your numbers to know where you are at and where you are going.


Top-Level Sales Numbers

Track your most important KPIs and schedule out how often your team should be reporting on these metrics.

Pipeline Velocity

Image: Pipeline dashboard inside the SPOTIO field sales CRM.

Set aside time to look for weaknesses at each stage of the pipeline. What is the ratio of new leads vs. qualified vs. opportunity vs. closed? In which areas are you lacking? Find areas for improvement.

Individual Sales Rep Performance

Image: Viewing individual sales rep performance inside the Sales Rep Tracker dashboard.

Check in on where reps are at in their quotas (if they have them) and if they are meeting expectations. Track which reps are performing at their best and which are underperforming. Then apply incentives and training accordingly.


5 Tools to Boost Sales Efficiency

Looking for fast and simple ways to increase sales efficiency in your business?

Try out these highly-recommended tools.


1. Prospecting: Leadfeeder

Leadfeeder helps you generate new leads by identifying who has visited your website.

You are provided with contact information for companies that have viewed pages on your site so that your sales team can reach out with content that is of interest to them.

Prospecting tools help you save time by generating warm leads for you fast.

Editor’s Note: if you’re an outside sales rep, use SPOTIO’s Lead Machine software to find ideal prospects in your territory. It uses over 50 different demographic data points to uncover the strongest leads.

2. Territory Management: SPOTIO

Save up to three hours per day with Territory Management tools. SPOTIO helps your team spend more time selling all while avoiding overlap with other sales reps. Assign your top reps to high-ticket prospects in order to get the best ROI from your team.


3. Lead Management/CRM: HubSpot

HubSpot’s marketing, sales, and customer service hubs make it easy to handle all your customer management in one place. Increase collaboration between your marketing and sales teams, track where prospects are at in the sales cycle, and ensure that no prospect falls through the cracks.


4. Document Hub: SPOTIO

Get access to important files when you need them with a reliable document hub tool. SPOTIO also offers e-contract and document software to streamline the closing process – ensuring that no minute is wasted creating documents from scratch. Your team can pull in exactly what they need in seconds.


5. Reporting/ Tracking: Pipedrive

Stay on top of the numbers and know that you’re always “in the black” with accurate reporting and tracking tools. Pipedrive works to help businesses measure the success of their sales efforts and make important adjustments along the way. With the right tool, you’ll always know whether your sales efficiency ratio is on point.

Editor’s note: Use the SPOTIO rep and sales tracking dashboards to measure performance at the company and rep levels.

Conclusion

Sales efficiency is the #1 priority for businesses that want to close more sales and get the best ROI for their sales investment.

Close rate alone is not an accurate measure of sales success; there are many metrics to track and steps to take along the way to ensure that your sales process is running as smoothly as possible (and keeping you profitable).

Is your sales team efficient?

See how SPOTIO can work with your sales team to increase efficiency, productivity, and more by requesting a demo today.

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Questions or comments? Contact SPOTIO at info@spotio.com or comment below.

SPOTIO is the #1 field sales acceleration and performance management software that will increase revenue, maximize profitability, and boost sales productivity.

Want to see a product demonstration? Click here to see how SPOTIO can take your sales game to the next level.

Best Sales Territory Management: A Thorough Guide for Reps & Managers

In most verticals, competition is at an all-time high and top sales organizations are looking to get the most value from their teams. With a focus on efficiency, sales territory management is a main driver for ensuring that the time and energy of each outside sales rep is focused on the activities that will have the most impact.

What is Outside Sales Territory Management?

Sales territory management is the process of using data to segment customers and prospects to ensure the best use of company resources. In addition to cutting out the noise of low-return accounts, thoughtful sales territory management aligns salespeople with the most appropriate customer base – whether that’s by geography, vertical, expertise, or past relationship.

Many field sales teams neglect to prioritize solid sales territory planning; even when they do, they often have trouble adapting and revising based off sales performance. In this post, we’ll introduce 6 steps to create a winning sales territory plan, best practices for managing sales territories, and finally, we’ll introduce six tools that are helpful for managing sales territories of any size.

6 Steps to Create a Winning Sales Territory Plan

# 1 | Analyze Your Customers

The first step in the process is analyzing your current and prospective customers. You should think about what characteristics your customers have in common.

Some key things to note about your customers are:
– Their locations
– The products or services they purchase from your business
– What types of problems your products or services solve for them
– What types of events lead customers to buy (or not buy) your products or services.

It is also important to seek out needs within the market that are not currently being fulfilled. This can help you to develop a unique plan that provides products or services in a way that your competition cannot or will not provide them.

# 2 | Analyze and Develop Your Team and Resources

The next step is to analyze your business’s resources and personnel. You should have an accurate picture of the type and volume of customer that your business is equipped to handle.

It’s particularly important to note the strengths and weaknesses of your business team to ensure that you can further develop and utilize strengths while simultaneously working to improve any weak areas. You should also consider the resources currently available, in addition to ways that you can best utilize or improve those resources.

# 3 | Set Measurable Goals

Using the data gathered from analyzing your customers, team, and resources, you should develop goals for your business. Some of the best goals you might consider are:

1. Income generated per month
2. Number of sales attempts per week or month
3. Number of sales closed per week or month
4. Ratio of leads to sales closed per week or month

After identifying goals for your sales territory plan, you should create a measurable strategy for meeting each of these goals.

Each goal strategy should include:

Goal statement: Putting a goal on paper transforms if from abstract to concrete. The goal statement should address what you’re planning to achieve and what is at stake.

Key milestones and deadline: The road to achieving a goal is much clearer when it can be broken into several smaller milestones. For example, if your goal is to attain $9k in revenue for the month for a given product, you can track progress by breaking it into smaller milestones, such as $3k by day ten, 6k by day 20, etc.  

Metrics for measuring success in the field: Clearly defined KPIs will provide you with a highly specific way to ensure that your business’s goals are met expediently. Measurements such as leads created, leads contacted, and leads closed, available on the SPOTIO sales dashboard, give great insight into productivity and can give you insight into how your tracking against goals.

These goals will inform your sales territory plan by helping you determine which segmentations will best equip you to meet these goals. Goals should be realistic and manageable, but at the same time, they should push your business to expand and grow to competitively meet the needs of your customer base.

Need help hitting your goals? This free template will help:

# 4 | Define Sales Territories

Based on the work you perform in the sections above, you should have an idea of how to divide your sales territories. It’s important to document these clearly, outlining details of each territory including things like:

– Geographic Boundaries
– Industry or Segment Boundaries (including any overlap and how that is addressed)
– Revenue Boundaries
– Product Boundaries
– Anything else that may be applicable to your sales organization

Creating a plan that differentiates territories will help you to organize and separate areas and ensure that you can develop a plan for your outside sales reps to reach out to every potential customer.

# 5 | Territory Action Plan

Once you have outlined your sales territories, it’s time to create routes for your sales representatives. This will prevent any overlap between territories or reps, which will save time, effort, and money. As you create routes, set a schedule that ensures that all parties along the route are visited in a timely and effective manner, determine how often to call on each account and whether the calls should be in person or by phone.

By investing in planning routes for your sales team, you’ll minimize time wasted by wandering sales reps.

# 6 | Field Data Entry – “Notes as you go”

As you implement your sales territory plan, keep an accurate and up-to-date record of its outcomes using your CRM. This record will help you to track successful aspects of your plan, in addition to what parts of the plan were not as effective. Using this information, you can adjust and optimize your best sales territory plan as needed.

Entering meeting notes as you leave each appointment is extremely valuable, both from a time savings and organizational perspective. Often times you have multiple meeting blocks and forget valuable nuggets of information you learned from that meeting. With a sales tools like SPOTIO, you can jot down your notes from your mobile device and sync them directly into Salesforce.

Now, not only are your client notes and meeting records full of fully recalled and valuable information, you just updated your CRM in real-time. As an added bonus, you don’t have to spend time after hours backtracking and manually entering notes from the days meetings.

Since no two territories and no two field sales reps are alike, you can use a tool like the SPOTIO sales dashboard to track performance and adjust as required. Insights you may track include how the team is tracking against KPIs, the average number of attempts it is taking to establish contacts, or the number of leads closed.

8 Sales Territory Management Best Practices

1. How to handle territory conflict

This is a fickle subject. As a manager, how can you fairly assign territories? And once assigned,  how do you ensure reps are not poaching accounts from fellow reps? To be fair with territory assignments, being mindful in how you go about dividing them up is where you’ll win:

Size. The reps who perform better with smaller businesses need to be assigned more accounts, while those who excel with large accounts should be assigned less. Although the number of accounts varies, the total possible revenue goal for each rep is equal.

Zip Code. Make sure rep assignments are in close proximity to on another to avoid them spending more time selling and less time in the car getting from one to the next.

Vertical. Some people connected better with specific industries. Once you identify each reps strong suit, give them more accounts with the business types they excel.

By understanding their strengths you can assign territories to match strong suits. When your sales team is excelling and closing business, territory conflict seems to disappear.

2. Mileage and expense tracking

What’s the company’s policy in terms of mileage reimbursement? Outside reps with a lot of ground to cover should receive some degree of compensation for their travel expenses (gas, oil changes and basic maintenance). When reps are reimbursed for their travel, they will be less likely to avoid meeting with a prospect or checking in with a current account in an effort to save money on travel.

Not sure what reimbursement plan is best? We’ve got you covered:

Mileage as a Tax Deduction

Employed and independent salespeople can claim mileage as a tax deduction. The mileage works as an expense, and those with intensive sales routes can write off the standard rate for every mile they drive for work.

Standard Mileage Reimbursement

Mileage rates are subject to change in each tax year. The standard rates are determined based on market research that determines normal expense ranges for using a vehicle. The rate increased from 2017 to 2018. The 2018 IRS rate for normal business use is 54.5 cents per mile. Additionally, you can write off 18 cents per mile for vehicle use relating to medical purposes. The standard 2018 rate for any charitable use is 14 cents per mile.

Reimbursement Based on Sales Routes

Salespeople are often reimbursed for mileage using the standard rates or a rate increase based on individual company policies.

Tracking Mileage

Diligent mileage tracking is critical for reimbursement. The ability to prove every mile to your employer and/or the IRS is imperative for you to receive the reimbursement or deduction. A spreadsheet that lists the date, starting mileage, ending mileage, total miles and notes is easy to store on a clipboard and log each day. Mileage-tracking phone apps are also convenient; they track trips and allow you to make notes and log those miles. For dedicated sales routes, a physical log is convenient and will not fail to record when your phone dies or loses service. (Source)

3. Create a rotating schedule for contacting customers

This will help to ensure you regularly communicate with prospects in a timely manner. It is important that your sales representatives not contact prospects too often, as this can be an annoyance. However, your reps should contact customers on a regular basis to ensure that their needs are being met.

4. Meet needs of current accounts while finding new leads

For the best sales territory management plan, it should have a dual focus on providing services to high value accounts, and developing relationships with potential new accounts.

High value accounts are those guaranteed to bring in higher volume sales in shorter amounts of time when compared to other accounts. While high value accounts are extremely valuable to the stability of your business, it is also important to cultivate new accounts, as these will bring about business growth. You plan should prioritize both of these customer types.

5. Consider the seasonal needs of customers

Depending on the type of products or services your business provides, your customer base may have needs of a more seasonal nature. You should take care to recognize these seasonal needs when determining when to contact customers and prospects. Understanding their seasonality also helps you ensure that you can meet their needs in a timely and effective manner.

6. Ensure data can be updated and accessed synchronously

Synchronous data updates allow your sales representatives to update and access customer data in real time. This means all reps will always be able to view the most current customer information. This allows them to further expedite the sales process.

7. Keep thorough and up-to-date notes on customers

Any communication with customers should be documented and accessible to sales representatives. This should include personal information such as the customer’s favorite food, in addition to more sales-specific information such as the customer’s budget.

8. Think big picture

It is important to think big picture when it comes to producing your best sales territory plan. You should always be seeking out ways to foster the growth and development of your business. Thinking long-term will help to ensure that your business does not stagnate, but instead continues to flourish and grow.

6 SPOTIO Features to Manage Sales Territories of Any Size

Tool Name: Customer Mapping

What it does: Customer mapping software allows you to create a map of your territories. You can drop pins on specific locations, which allows you to track routes within territories.

Why it is important for a manager or rep: Customer mapping software can help you to optimize sales routes. With a tool like Spotio’s Precise Location Tool, you can drop pins on a map, creating a visual way to design the most logical sales routes. This saves valuable time and money so that you can introduce more customers to your product or service.

Tool Name: Outside Sales Tracking

What it does: Outside sales tracking enhances the sales process by providing real-time updates about the locations and activities of sales representatives.

Why it is important for a manager or rep: This feature saves time for managers by providing a quick and easy method to map out and assign territories to sales reps. It also helps managers to quickly recognize any areas where sales reps may be struggling and in need of additional coaching or training.

Tool Name: Territory Manager

What it does: The territory manager enables managers to create custom maps of different territories for assignment to sales reps.

Why it is important for a manager or rep: The ease with which territories can be created, assigned, and viewed means that managers will no longer have to spend hours reviewing physical maps and drawing out territories for assignment by hand.

Tool Name: Sales Dashboard

What it does: The sales dashboard provides data in real time related to the performance of your sales representatives.

Why it is important for a manager or rep: The sales dashboard promotes organization and allows managers to easily track their teams’ activities.

Tool Name: Lead Management

What it does: Lead management software organizes information related to leads and provides it to users in an organized and easy-to-understand format.

sales-intelligence-section-1

Why it is important for a manager or rep: This software helps to generate more sales by ensuring that leads are organized and easily accessible for users.

Evaluating Sales Territory Performance

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are defined as, “a set of quantifiable measures that a company uses to gauge its performance over time. These metrics are used to determine a company’s progress in achieving its strategic and operational goals, and also to compare a company’s finances and performance against other businesses within its industry.”

KPIs are measured in different industry-specific ways. According to Steve Andersen, these measurements can include this such as the following:

Growth of current accounts
Development of new sales opportunities
Advancement of sales against a consistent set of criteria
Development and success of a high percentage of sales targeted
Ability to accurately predict sales within a given territory

Sales dashboards can help you to track KPIs to ensure that your business has a specific set of standards that can be used to measure its success. One such sales dashboard is Spotio.

Sales territory management can help your business to grow by collecting and organizing all information you need. This is beneficial to all team members at any level of your organization. Understanding and utilizing sales territory management software in an effective manner can ensure that your business will flourish in the modern sales market.

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Questions or comments? Contact SPOTIO at info@spotio.com.

SPOTIO is the #1 sales acceleration and territory management app to increase your revenue, maximize your profitability, and increase your team’s productivity in just 2 weeks.

Want to see a product demonstration? Click here to see how SPOTIO can take your sales game to the next level.

Create a Sales Presentation That Will Close The Deal

The impact of any sales presentation is often measured by one specific metric: whether or not you close the deal. Unfortunately, many account executives go into full-on sales pitch mode during these client-facing opportunities. These reps deliver a static list of product and service features, completely dismissing the many benefits offered by a dynamic, engaging, and effective sales presentation.

Deliver A Sales Presentation That Tells A Story And Converts Listeners

As a salesperson it’s very tempting to develop a presentation that focuses primarily on your product’s endless list of essential differentiators and high-end clients. However, most prospective customers don’t care about the what (key differentiators) or the who (other customers); more often than not, your clients are focused on why your product solves a problem that makes it impossible for them to live without.

If you’re not consistently closing deals with your sales presentations, it’s officially time to change your approach.

Here’s how:

Be Relevant

Many sales reps use a one-size-fits-all model with their presentations, using the same generic template again and again (and again). Don’t force your clients to sit through a formulaic slide show. Instead, develop a customized presentation for every customer that highlights relevant information specific to their company to capture their attention as soon as you launch.

Address Specific Pain Points

Every company has its own unique set marketplace pain points, performance gaps, and competitive needs. Know your client’s most significant concerns before developing your slide deck, so you can create an outline that systematically addresses each one, strategically demonstrating how your product does more than offer a seemingly endless litany of features and functionality – it actually solves their perceived problems.

Walk them through exactly what they can expect as a return on their investment, giving detailed examples of how your services may:

– Save money
– Boost profits
– Increase efficiencies
– Generate new opportunities
– Create leads
– Reduce operational risks
– Help achieve goals
– Capture consumer attention
– Help them stand out in market
– Drive overall business value

Get To The Point

Put simply: no wants to listen to a long-winded sales ramble. Recent statistics showed that 1 in 25 people surveyed reported walking out on a sales presentation that lasted too long. Additionally, another 25% of viewers admitted that the presented material was so uninteresting that they actually fell asleep during the delivery.

Bottom line, not only do you need to know the biggest points to address in your demonstration, but you must also be prepared to navigate through each major selling differentiator as quickly as possible to ensure you don’t drone on so long that you talk yourself right out of a sale.

Make It Visually Compelling

Of course, when it comes to developing an effective sales presentation, it’s not just what you say – it’s also how you say it that can make a major impact on your audience. Avoid long paragraphs of copy on your slides. Instead, opt for short bullets to give your customers the data they need in easy-to-digest snippets.

Also, leverage other visual tools such as charts, graphs, and images to better show rather than tell your story to viewers.  

Make It Interactive

Finally, make your sales presentation as interactive as possible. Allow for questions and dialogue both during and after making every key point, making a concerted effort to really listen to the information your prospect is sharing. Respond to any concerns, reservations, or objectives your prospect may have about the product during the conversation. When you don’t have an answer, be honest about it. Take notes and follow up once you have the right information to share.

Most importantly, use the feedback you receive from clients to improve delivery (and ultimate results) of future sales presentations.

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Questions or comments? Contact SPOTIO at info@spotio.com or comment below.

SPOTIO is the #1 field sales automation and performance management software that will increase revenue, maximize profitability, and boost sales productivity.

Want to see a product demonstration? Click here to see how SPOTIO can take your sales game to the next level.

69 High-Impact Sales Enablement Tools for 2019 (By Category)

On average, 50% of a sales rep’s time daily is wasted on poor prospects.

Even if you only have five full-time reps, that’s 100 paid hours every week that have zero ROI. You can almost hear the cash going down the toilet.

However, this stat might be less surprising when you learn that companies spend 5x more on hiring a sales rep than they do training them.

Wait, what?!

That’s right. Talk about failing to set your reps and managers up to succeed.

Poor sales training and unequipped reps is a problem that persists in any industry — despite the fact studies have shown trained reps sell 50% more effectively.

The solution to this mess?

Sales enablement.

Let’s Get Clear on Sales Enablement

Sales enablement is a support function. Its goal is to provide sales reps with information, customer-facing content, and tools, so they can guide a buyer through the purchase process successfully.

This could involve creating fact sheets, industry-specific case studies, and comparison tables that help a rep persuade a lead to buy.

It also means coaching reps on best practices and equipping them with the tools they need to be efficient.

Being able to do this in your organization requires an understanding of the ideal buyer, so you can provide resources they actually need and want throughout the journey.

There are two key stages involved in building a good sales enablement strategy:

1) Understanding who the ideal customer is, and mapping the buyer’s journey.
2) Creating sales plays, content, and training for reps to leverage at each stage of the journey.

Sales organizations in 2019 have a plethora of tools available to make every part of this process easier, and in this post we’ll dive into the best for your arsenal.

But first, a look at the power of sales enablement technology…

The Importance of Sales Enablement Technology

According to SalesHub, only 13% of customers believe sales reps understand their needs.

Crazy, right?

When the majority of your reps aren’t connecting with customers, there is costly disconnect.

The solution? Better support for reps, and better content for customers to support them throughout the buyer’s journey.

Propellor research shows that this is a big differentiator for customers:

Being able to do this at scale (or at all), you need a sales enablement strategy. Tools are essential to this, research from Brainshark shows:

“More than 2/3 of companies that invested in sales learning and development technology realized a positive ROI.”

On the flip side, companies that failed to invest in sales enablement technology in the last year have seen a 12% drop in sales goal achievement.

Almost two thirds of companies that have piloted sales enablement programs and seen positive ROI attribute the success to software; according to a study by CSO Insights, 62% of organizations view tools as the top priority investment in sales enablement.

(Source)

Tools can be used for the majority of the top priorities in the study above, too, like content and process improvement.

So, what are the effects of investing in sales enablement tools?

This research from Salesforce found that 84% of companies hit quota with the support of sales enablement tools and coaching.

Let’s look at the tools across each category that can help you research, deploy, and optimize your sales enablement strategy.

The Best Sales Enablement Tools for 2019 (By Category)

Sales enablement is built around the idea that reps can optimize the way they sell, and provide customers with informative content that helps them make complex purchase decisions.

That makes it part market research, part content management — and heavily reliant on analytics to understand and support your ideal buyer segments.

We’ll look at tools across each of these core functionalities:

Market Intelligence
Sales Intelligence & Prospecting
Content Analytics
Content Sharing & Management
Market Automation
Sales & Team Communications
Sales Emails
Sales Presentations
Contract Management
Sales CRMs
Sales Training
Sales Management
Customer Feedback

Market Intelligence

To accelerate sales and ramp up rep productivity, you’ll need to make data-backed decisions. For sales, some of the most important data is around the companies in your target market. How many employees do your prospects typically have? What about funding, or annual revenue?

With that intel, you can make the way your reps sell and prospect more effective, and waste less time. Let’s look at the best sales enablement tools for market intelligence.

Artesian

With Artesian, you get access to a vast bank of proprietary company data through a convenient interface that lets you discover new prospects, track engagement metrics, and deliver content to targeted segments.

Artesian can help your team deploy custom sales enablement strategies by letting reps create lists of leads based on rich data from millions of companies. To make sure you get the right content to the right prospects, Artesian uses AI to analyze prospects and cuts the amount of time reps spend on manual research.

For £89/user/month, a team of up to 10 users can use Artesian for company profiling, content research, and team performance optimization. Teams with over 10 users should get in touch for the enterprise plan.

D&B Hoovers

D&B Hoovers integrates with the tools your team already uses — Marketo, Salesforce, Microsoft Dynamics, and more — to enrich lead data and help sales enablement teams analyze the pipeline and develop relevant content.

As well as enriching current data, it can be used to research leads in new markets and support strategies that expand your reach.

Pricing for Hoovers isn’t public, but a free trial is available before you connect with a rep.

Emissary

Ever wanted an expert insider when you’re chasing a big lead? Emissary gives you exactly that, by matching you with a recent former employee from any given company that can guide you on how to close the deal.

It’s aimed at enterprise sales — with 75% of its connections coming from firms in the Fortune 1000 — and over two-thirds of its contacts were VP or higher at the company. Emissary is an effective high-touch way to develop enterprise enablement material, but also serves as a way for reps to get coaching from successful insiders.

Get in touch with the providers for pricing info.

Mattermark

Mattermark combines company profiles with social listening to provide lead and contact profiles, with over 80 fields of data per entry.

It provides data on 4,000,000 companies and 20,000,000 contacts imported via API into your CRM, or in exports to spreadsheets. With Mattermark automatically gathering data on prospects, the sales enablement process is made simpler; far less manual research is needed when a tool can fill in the blanks.

Aimed more at startups (and companies selling to startups), Mattermark also lets you segment companies by funding recency/amount, and growth signals. It also has a lower price tag than the other intelligence tools on this list, at $49/user/month.

Sales Intelligence & Prospecting

Prospecting tools help your reps find the ideal customers for your product, based on a selected set of specific set of demographic and firmographic data points, like “leads within 50 miles of me, with over 200 employees, in the healthcare tech industry”.

An improved prospecting process is a core part of sales enablement because it helps reps up productivity by spending less time on bad leads and more time selling to those likely to convert.

Here are the prospecting tools we recommend checking out.

LinkedIn Sales Navigator

LinkedIn has access to one of the biggest troves of business data on the planet, owing to the fact that it has gathered so much insight from user-submitted information on its social network and the connections between different professionals.

When you get access to that data (not fully available through the social network alone), you can unlock every insight the network has gathered, including data on company size, activity, news mentions, posts, engagement, and connections. It also lets you nurture leads and reach out with that data in context through LinkedIn messaging.

Pricing starts at $79.99/month.

SPOTIO Lead Machine

SPOTIO’s sales intelligence tool, Lead Machine, allows managers to generate a list of qualified leads for sales teams in seconds.

The tool allows users to define geographic territories and mine data on all the companies within that area. Reps can quickly create an ideal customer profile by mining and sorting over 50 different data points – income, credit capacity, square footage, age of home etc.

After leads have been qualified, extract the data and import into the CRM and start selling.

Lead Machine helps businesses close more deals by having reps focus only on the most qualified leads in a given sales territory.

SPOTIO is priced at $25/user/month for up to two users, with credits charged for lead machine usage.

NerdyData.com

NerdyData.com gives you access to company technology usage data. You could search the database for every Intercom customer because your tool integrates with Intercom. Or, see who’s running your competitor’s software so you can send over a relevant comparison sheet.

It’s easy to see how this enables your sales team to make more personalized and informed decisions, and how it helps sales enablement initiatives research the tech stacks of different market segments to better understand the lead’s internals.

NerdyData.com’s pricing starts at $50/user/month.

Clearbit

Clearbit is an API you can hook into your existing source of customer data, whether that’s Intercom, Close.io, or Salesforce. With a company name or domain, Clearbit pulls in anything else your sales team should know about that lead, such as the number of employees or industry.

As well as enriching existing data, Clearbit can enable sales to do a more efficient job by building prospect lists and revealing the company profiles of anonymous site visitors. This all helps your team get a better look at the kinds of companies they attract so you can create effective enablement content to support future deals.

Access to Clearbit’s Enrichment API costs $99/monthly. Pricing for other products in the suite is available on request.

SellHack

SellHack helps expand your funnel by making prospecting easier. It’s a browser extension, so you can add leads you find on LinkedIn to existing prospect lists and automatically hunt down their email address.

With segmented lists and easy email outreach built in, SellHack empowers teams to get the right content to the right leads, informed by data SellHack stores.

For 150 email lookups, you can get SellHack at $19/user/month.

Albacross

Did you know that a big-name exec and their team were browsing your site yesterday while evaluating solutions? You’ll certainly agree that would be powerful to know. But how will you find out if it’s not something you’re tracking?

Albacross enables all that and more by keeping a log of companies and potential customers that visit your site, and enriching the data with the best way to contact that lead.

Once the visitor data is stored in Albacross, you get a lead list that grows by itself and is able to be filtered by fields like revenue, company size, and location. Push that lead list to your CRM or any other sales tool you use by integrating Albacross with Zapier.

Pricing starts at $79/month for one site and 1,000 leads exported.

LeadFuze

LeadFuze helps sales teams build prospect lists quickly — not one-by-one — by giving reps access to data on a lead’s industry, media updates, company size, and even PPC spend. With that data, reps can search by tightly-focused criteria to expand their outreach lists and pipeline.

To help save time with data entry and manual research, LeadFuze can also take a list of domains or company names and turn them into the best point-of-contact with a double-verified email address.

Pricing starts at $97/user/month, for 500 lead credits.

DataFox

DataFox is an Oracle-owned CRM enrichment tool that allows sales team to harness AI — backed up by over 100 human staff — to expand sales intelligence and enable more targeted prospecting and conversations.

Based on filters, new leads in your CRM can be automatically assigned to reps. This makes it possible to train reps on specific plays with specific enablement content, and always ensure they’re pitching to the right people.

Despite being an Oracle product, DataFox has native integrations with Salesforce, Marketo, Slack, and Terminus. Its pricing is available by request only.

Growbots

Growbots allows you to create prospect lists by selecting an ideal customer profile, and then automate target outreach to those lists.

Straight away, it’s easy to see how this empowers a sales enablement strategy. Your Growbots prospect lists are created based on criteria like company size, industry, and email activity. With that insight, you can automate the distribution of relevant sales enablement content and design plays around specific market segments and prospect needs.

Pricing for Growbots is available by request only.

Owler

Owler is a lookup database for company information that can be used to explore profiles via the web or enrich CRM data with their API.

Uniquely, Owler focuses on the trust score of a company’s founders and the funding a company has historically received. This makes it great for selling to startups and early-stage high-growth businesses.

Alongside company profiles, you can see all recent news and social mentions for a given company so you can research competitor progress and prospects in context of current events.

Pricing for Owler is not public.

Content Analytics

Once you get a piece of sales enablement content like a product fact sheet in front of a lead, how do you know what happened next? With old school tools, you can make guesses on what content is converting customers and pushing the sales process along, but you can’t be sure how leads engage with it.

Content analytics platforms solve that problem by measuring user heatmaps, copy effectiveness, and other metrics beyond the scope of a non-specialized tool like Google Analytics. Optimize the way you measure the success of your sales enablement content with these hand-picked tools.

Atomic Reach

Ever wanted to know exactly how leads engage with your sales enablement content? Atomic Reach takes your content analytics past the point of just clicks and views, into the realm of rich engagement data that explains why content is performing, so you can replicate the formula.

To help you create content, Atomic Reach also analyzes pages you create for their ability to persuade and convert. Optimize enablement content easily, and accurately track its performance.

Pricing for Atomic Reach is available on request.

Crazy Egg

Crazy Egg provides heat maps and analytics that you can use to measure if/how leads and website visitors engage with your content.

With that data, you can run A/B tests on a page-by-page basis to boost conversions, dwell time, and other vital metrics you use to judge the effectiveness of your sales enablement content.

Crazy Egg pricing starts at $29/month.

Content Sharing & Management

You’ll need a centralized location to store and distribute customer-facing content and training material, or you’ll be stuck searching for files on your local computer (and so will all of your frustrated reps).

Content sharing and management tools let you create internal documentation, host files for customers, and control who inside your organization can access which resources. Let’s look at some of the best options for sales enablement.

Box

Your sales enablement training material and customer-facing content needs a home. When multiple reps need to access internal content — regardless of when or where — you need a robust cloud storage tool like Box.

Box is an enterprise file sharing and storage tool that integrates with plenty of top sales tools like Salesforce and Microsoft Dynamics. The integration allows you to associate Box documents with leads, making it easy to match the right content to the right person.

Box’s pricing starts at $5/user/month for unlimited storage.

SharePoint

If you’re already living in the Microsoft ecosystem at work, then SharePoint is a great choice to manage sales enablement content, either on-premises or in the cloud with Office 365.

Create internal wikis for your sales team’s training material, and neatly categorize centralized enablement material with ease.

SharePoint is available on its own for $5/user/month, but is at its most useful as part of Office 365. For $20/user/month, you can get the Office 365 Enterprise E3 plan that has SharePoint included alongside Outlook, Word, Excel, and other Microsoft software.

Allbound

Allbound is a sales intelligence tool designed to help businesses manage relationships with partners and deploy enablement content to those partners that will make selling easier.

It features company data lookup, content collaboration, and analytics reports that give insight into content performance. If you’re running a partner sales program, Allbound is the perfect line of communication between you and your external channels.

Pricing starts at $995/month for access to the full Allbound platform.

Bigtincan

Bigtincan improves sales success by helping sales teams better prepare for meetings, boost engagement, enhance collaboration, and ultimately improve overall win rates.

Bigtincan Hub is only AI-powered sales enablement automation platform. With Bigtincan, transform the way sales and service organizations access, share and collaborate on the sales content.

For pricing, email them at sales@bigtincan.com.

Showpad

Named a leader by Gartner in the field of Sales Enablement Automation, Showpad is one of the first dedicated sales enablement tools. It provides a platform where sales and marketing can collaborate, sharing content and metrics.

With Showpad, it’s easy for sales teams to surface and share relevant engagement content with buyers and match content to lead profiles based on filters. It is also possible to build and deploy sales training inside the app, then track rep engagement with it.

Pricing is available on request only, and the content platform is sold separately from the training platform.

Marketing Automation

Any efficient sales enablement strategy is built around automation. It only makes sense that reps can do a better job if their lead nurturing happens automatically and they get better qualified or ready-to-buy leads as a result.

Plus, many marketing automation tools also act as a way to get insights into your lead’s mindset — find which leads open and engage with your emails most often, or reference a lead’s historical engagement to know which content they have and haven’t seen.

Here are our top picks in the field of marketing automation.

Marketo

For many companies, Marketo is where lead and customer data already lives. Leveraging this data, you can use Marketo to analyze your site’s content and find sales enablement recommendations based on the lead’s company profile and history. After sharing content, Marketo logs the lead’s interactions to gather metrics you can use to make optimizations.

On top of this, Marketo is an industry-leading marketing automation platform you can use to nurture leads with targeted messages and build a stronger pipeline.

Pricing is unavailable online, but you can request a demo to find out more.

Eloqua

Eloqua is Oracle’s marketing automation solution, aimed at the enterprise market. It integrates with your CRM to enrich lead data, trigger automated messaging, and track engagement with your website and content.

Since it stores data on your existing leads, Eloqua can be used as a sales enablement research tool that gives you a pulse on your current pipeline.

Pricing information is unavailable online.

Customer.io

Customer.io is email marketing for companies that collect in-product data — namely SaaS and web tools. Sales enablement teams can use Customer.io to develop relevant content and training based on the different segments of product user.

Customer.io can be integrated with other customer analytics tools like Segment and Heap, so you’re able to deploy content over email based on historical data like signup date, industry, user count, and last bill amount.

Pricing starts at $150/month for products with up to 100,000 users.

Sales & Team Communications

Conversation and collaboration tools bring your sales team closer together and put the resources reps need right at their fingertips — they also give managers a platform to analyze how the team interacts and sells.

Sales communications is a broad category. It covers anything internal content management, rep call analysis, and instant messaging. Here are some of our top recommendations.

Guru

Wherever you are — Slack, or in your browser — Guru allows you to find the enablement content you need without wasting time switching between documents, your CRM, and a dozen other apps.

You can query Guru to surface the right content for the right leads, and then deliver it through Salesforce, Intercom, or other tools with which Guru has native integrations. This gives you a centralized place to store content, so you can control what reps are distributing without making updates in 10 places at once.

Pricing starts at $380/month, or $2,400 if you want API access.

Chorus.ai

Optimize the way your reps talk to leads by storing and analyzing their sales calls automatically. This is great for developing training material or providing an AI coach for your team that fine-tunes their sales technique and helps them close more deals.

Chorus.ai stores call analysis next to lead data inside your CRM, so you can see call history and outcome wherever you already work. Pricing for Chorus.ai is not publicly available.

Slack

Slack has quickly become to go-to chat and notification hub for teams everywhere. Since it’s where your sales team hangs out already, why not power it up with integrations? Slack can be used to automatically notify reps when new signups come in, segmented by potential deal size with integrations to a customer data tool like Clearbit or DataFox.

Outside of strict sales activity, Slack is a simple way to hold team meetings, search conversations, and even deliver presentations.

Pricing starts at $8/user/month.

Skype for Business

Skype for Business is a collaboration tool for teams, offering a way to streamline internal communication and great customer-facing presentation features for sales demos.

As part of Office 365, Skype for Business integrates with PowerPoint and Word Online so you can easily search and present documents and slide decks that exist in your org’s folders, all without leaving the app.

Skype for Business starts at $8.25/user/month when you buy Office 365 annually.

UberConference

Connect your conferences with lead data and your CRM by using UberConference to run sales meetings, both internally and externally.

UberConference automatically pulls in data on participants so your reps can be as informed as possible while they’re on the call. As well as UberConference data, it’s possible to display data from most other likely sources, such as Salesforce and Office 365.

Shared content and call history is logged inside UberConference, forming a basis for sales performance analysis and a way for reps to surface content they shared with other prospects.

Pricing starts free, with $15/user/month for calls with over 100 participants.

Calendar

Calendar was created to streamline your day and improve productivity. With features like recorded meeting transcripts, have a calendar that showcases you and maximizes your most valuable resource: your time.

Basic accounts are free, and paid plans start at $10/user/month.

Sales Emails

Vanilla email doesn’t cut it for sales. You need a tool that lets you create outreach playbooks, manage follow-ups, and track engagement metrics.

Here are our top tools for outreach and sales email management.

Attach

Attach is a centralized content hub for sales enablement material that allows your team to store material and then get insight into how leads consume and engage with it.

Unlike a generic solution like Google Drive, storing your content in Attach lets you see which leads viewed which documents and for how long. You can also easily deploy updates to live enablement content without having to send the lead to a new URL. In line with Forrester research that suggests 90% of reps don’t use content because it’s outdated, this is an invaluable feature.

Attach pricing starts at $27/user/month.

Yesware

Yesware is a Chrome and Outlook extension for sales teams, offering a way to supercharge your everyday inbox with CRM-like capabilities. This includes data on open/reply rate, attachment opens, and even presentation slide engagement.

With its email templates and sequences, you can add proven, relevant sales plays to your team’s repertoire easily.

Yesware is available for free, with premium plans starting at $12/user/month when billed annually.

Mailshake

Mailshake was built for sales teams to deliver personalized outreach at scale. It’s a platform that your sales organization can use to create sequences, lead segments, and automation that help reps reach more leads with more targeted messages.

Pricing starts at just $29/user/month.

Close.io

Close.io is a powerhouse CRM, with everything you need to track calls and emails with prospects, leads, and existing customers. It has support for custom fields and lists, so you can create tightly-focused segments that match your sales play and enablement material.

Integrated with a product data or enrichment tool, Close.io acts as a rich data warehouse, storing email history alongside in-app activity and company profiles.

Pricing starts at $59/user/month, but for automation the monthly fee goes up to $99.

Outreach



Outreach lets you create sales email sequences that save reps from the mental burden of remembering to follow up, or remembering to send the right content to the right lead. With its lead prioritization and task feature, reps will always know what the next step is with each contact. This keeps your team productive when they’re doing manual work, and automates the remaining emails.

Pricing for Outreach is available by request.

Sales Presentations

Reps need more than just a basic video chat tool if they’re going to deliver winning presentations. And managers need a way to file presentation content for reps and track its performance. Thankfully, there are powerful video conferencing tools that are built for sales demos, and dedicated meeting apps for measuring the conversion rate of outbound calls.

Here are the sales presentation tools we think are the best to check out.

GoToMeeting

GoToMeeting makes it easy for your team to give sales presentations to practically any lead, without having to get them to download a bulky desktop app or go through a lengthy verification process. For that reason, it’s low friction — a vital benefit in the low-patience world of sales.

For sales pitches and demos, its screen sharing and annotation features are among the best on the market. You can give presentations that are as detailed and engaging as you need, or offer one-to-many training sessions with reps when you roll out a new piece of software.

Pricing starts from $14/user/month for the starter plan.

CustomShow

CustomShow is a B2B sales presentation platform. Unifying sales and marketing, CustomShow is revolutionizing the art of sales presentations.

B2B companies from various industries around the world are using CustomShow to turn their sales presentations into an effective marketing channel the drives business and delivers results.

For pricing, contact CustomShow at info@customshow.com.

Prezi

Prezi is a different kind of presentation tool. Like PowerPoint 2.0, but with none of the boring WordArt.

Instead of forcing the presenter and audience through a linear narrative, slide by slide, Prezi is laid out like an interactive, free-form map that you can seamlessly zoom and navigate.

It also collects analytics on the audience’s reactions to the presentation, so you know where to improve in the future. In this way, it powers sales enablement to make optimizations to the standard presentation process reps follow.

Pricing starts at $7/month for the standard plan.

ShareDemos

ShareDemos is software specifically built for sales enablement. It’s a way to create and distribute sales enablement content internally and externally — that includes sales onboarding material and product fact sheets for customers.

Since rich content can be designed and edited through the ShareDemos platform, sales managers can make updates to content that appear whenever the lead or customer accesses it. This solves the issue of having old content being sent to leads, or reps worrying if the material they send to leads is up to date.

Pricing for ShareDemos is publicly available.

ExecVision

ExecVision is a sales call analysis tool that can process call recordings to gain insight into how the ways reps make calls is affecting your sales conversion rate.

Load you sales calls into ExecVision, and you’ll get an indexed database of your call logs which is searchable and includes metrics such as keywords and interchange frequency. With calls added inside ExecVision, you can get metrics like average call length, calls per rep, and more. As a bonus, you can feed all of this data into the CRM you already use, like Salesforce or HubSpot.

Pricing for ExecVision is available on request.

Contract Management

The exchange and review of contracts can be a long, drawn-out process. If it falls through, you’re wasting all of the marketing effort that went into winning that lead, and all of the sales work done to convert it.

Instead of relying on a Word doc template and freeform follow-up notes, try a dedicated contract management tool to help you create, distribute, and track metrics around contracts.

Proposify

Are you still making your sales proposals inside Google Docs? How are you going to track if your prospect actually reads and engages with the proposal you send?

With Proposify, you get a simple user interface to create proposals with, pre-loaded with data from your business that makes creating proposals a snap.

Pricing for Proposify starts at $25/month for one user account.

HelloSign

HelloSign is cloud-based document management software that makes paper contracts a thing of the past. For sales enablement purposes, you can use HelloSign to draw up contract templates for deals and make it easier for your reps to distribute them and track progress.

HelloSign features native integrations with Oracle CPQ, Salesforce, HubSpot CRM, and Zapier, which provides connections to over 1,000 other apps.

Pricing starts from free, for three monthly documents. The cheapest premium package, which offers unlimited documents from a single sender, costs $13/user/month.

DocSend

DocSend is a content management tool for sales enablement material. It helps you surface and organize your comparison sheets, white papers, and other content that your sales team needs to close deals. Since documents are distributed by the app, you can use DocSend’s analytics to track content usage and make optimizations.

Pricing for DocSend starts at $10/month for one user.

PandaDoc

With PandaDoc, you can create and send branded proposal documents that help you reps close deals.

Using pre-made templates and your in-built company data, you can spin up a proposal in minutes and get it distributed. Plus, after it’s sent you can track metrics that tell you whether or not a prospect is engaging with the material.

PandaDoc pricing starts at $49/user/month.

Conga

Conga is a content management system for sales teams that allows reps to create templated, branded documents with ease. Build approval workflows and templates inside Conga, and you’ll have the systems in place already to enable reps to create their own material and submit it for review.

Conga also integrates directly with platforms like Salesforce, so you can track customer metrics inside your CRM to get a better look at your content’s performance.

Pricing for Conga isn’t available online.

Sales CRMs

A salesperson’s CRM is their #1 most-used tool. If it’s a pain to use, won’t automatically enrich lead data, and doesn’t offer time-saving automation, it’s a big problem for sales enablement.

Since reps spend less than 36% of their time selling, the remainder is spent on data entry, menial tasks, and in the CRM. A good CRM could put an end to all of that time-sucking work.

Here are our top picks in the category.

HubSpot

HubSpot is a free CRM with a full feature set — contact management, email history, lead data, and more — all for free. This alone sets it apart from most other CRMs, which can come with a high price tag.

You can automation outreach and build follow-up sequences that are optimized to allow your reps to make the most high-converting plays.

As one of the most popular CRMs out there, HubSpot offers great support for other products and has integrations with over 1,000 apps through Zapier.

Best of all, HubSpot CRM is entirely free! No hidden costs 🙂

Salesforce

As the #1 CRM on the planet, Salesforce needs no introduction. It’s widely supported with integrations, so practically any data you collect from other tools can be added to your lead profiles easily.

It acts as a rolodex for your leads, whether that’s leads you haven’t reached out to yet, or leads partway through the funnel. For opportunities in the funnel, Salesforce tracks deal status so you can filter your sales opportunities and enable reps to save time.

Salesforce’s pricing starts from $25/user/month.

Pipedrive

Pipedrive tracks rep activity across every lead in your database and gives you a birds-eye view of your entire sales funnel.

Through its marketplace, Pipedrive has native integrations with over 100 apps you already use, like Asana, Intercom, Slack, and Help Scout. This allows you to pull in everything you already know about a lead and track sales activity no matter where it happens. More data means your reps are better able to make a pitch that converts.

Pipedrive is priced for the SMB and startup market, with packages starting from just $15/user/month.

SPOTIO

SPOTIO is a field sales CRM which houses your organization’s lead data complete with locations, rep and territory assignments. Leads are enriched with unique metrics like home value and eco-friendliness automatically, which gives reps a way to tighten their targeting and waste less time on qualification.



The SPOTIO CRM features a shared meeting appointment calendar and a historical log of rep activity.

Pricing for SPOTIO starts at just $25/user/month.

Sales Training

Sales training is a vital component of enablement. Not just as a one-off deal, but when practiced continuously. That’s because salespeople will forget 80-90% of what they learned in training within a month without revisiting the material.

Because of this startling reality, sales teams often use a dedicated platform to manage, deliver, and monitor training content for reps.

Here are our top picks from the category.

Brainshark

Brainshark is a sales training tool with a focus on video. With it, you can create sales training videos to deploy to your reps and enable them to close more deals.

Industry-wide, turnover for SDRs is high. That means you need good onboarding or you won’t be able to get reps up to speed fast enough. Brainshark optimizes your sales training by giving reps a centralized hub they can use to find and consume material. Then, you get metrics back that tell you how to improve.

Pricing for Brainshark isn’t available on the web, so contact sales for more information.

Playboox

With Playboox, you can build sales playbooks directly into Salesforce and make it easy for reps to know what to do next and cut time-wasting activities (like searching for information) to a minimum.

Taking a playbook-focused approach helps your reps ensure consistency and success because they’re using proven standards versus their own improvised techniques. With Playboox, this is simple to design and add to your CRM.

Pricing for Playboox is available on request.

Sandler

Sandler isn’t your typical sales training tool. Rather than leaving it all up to you, you get connected with a sales training expert to design your processes. Sandler teaches SDR their winning methodology to ensure you get the best results, and offers metrics that help you make optimizations.

As a service rather than a piece of software, all solutions are custom. Find a center near you for more info.

Lessonly

Lessonly is a sales training platform that helps you build, store, and distribute training content while tracking the most vital success metrics, like whether or not reps have undergone training and engaged with it.

Creating a solid knowledge base for new hires and existing reps — with material about selling a new feature, or key personas — is essential for onboarding and retaining reps because it empowers them to be successful and be motivated by more commission.

Pricing for Lessonly is not public, and only available through requesting a demo.

MindTickle

MindTickle helps organizations train and coach sales reps with microlearning, gamification, and quizzes. Admins can easily create and publish training content to the platform, and then analyze how it performs. Reps get a simple mobile-ready interface they can use to participate in bite-sized training courses that help them hit their goals.

MindTickle’s pricing is available on request.

Jiminny

Jiminny is an internal sales collaboration tool, CRM, and training base, all in one.

It’s a central place for you to share leads, notes, and training sessions with other sales managers and reps, ensuring that no vital information goes missing when you need it most.

Jiminny also integrates with Slack to feed your team’s best call into a channel you can use for training purposes and to keep reps on top of the company’s selling activity. For pricing, contact a member of the sales team.

Process Street

Process Street lets you create structured process documents, share them with your team, and then track their progress.

For example, you might want to make your lead qualification process more consistent and build a qualification checklist inside Process Street. This helps reps do the best possible job each time because they’re following an up-to-date, comprehensive process that has been tested and optimized.

Process Street integrates with over 1,000 other apps your sales team uses, like Close.io, Salesforce, and HelloSign, so you can automate your workflows with ease. Pricing starts at $12.50/user/month for unlimited processes.

LevelEleven

Managing sales rewards and training schemes can be difficult, especially if you have a lot of reps to track. That’s where LevelEleven comes in.

LevelEleven is a sales management and motivation tool designed to encourage revenue-creating behavior with competitions and scoring. With it, you can get insights into the top-performing reps’ habits so you can create training material that enables your reps to convert leads.

LevelEleven’s pricing is available on request.

Sales Analytics

Without sales analytics, you can’t hope to transform the way your reps sell. Why? Because you can’t measure what you can’t manage. Sales analytics tools let you collect and analyze data on reps and their deals, so you can make strategic decisions about the sales enablement work that needs to be done — and track your strategies effectiveness. Here are our top picks.

SPOTIO Sales Tracker

SPOTIO’s sales tracking software provides sales operations teams with real-time insights into what is happening in the field.

See detailed location activity of sales reps, deal support, and start making business decisions based on real-time data. Track sales rep activity across territories, and create custom reports using dozens of different data points.

Pricing starts from $25/user/month.

Lattice

Lattice is a platform for performance reviews, employee goals, and sharing feedback. It helps companies grow by giving managers a central hub they can use to track how sales reps are tracking against their performance goals — especially useful in large sales organizations.

Pricing for Lattice starts at $9/user/month, but reporting and analytics are only available on the $12 package.

6sense

With so much of the buying cycle happening in the background these days, sales teams desperately need to get insights into their anonymous traffic so they can be informed of the lead’s past activity and knowledge and be equipped to sell better. With 6sense, you get to look behind the curtain and reveal everything a lead has done before they reached out to sales — and analyze the lead’s behavior using AI.

Pricing for 6sense is available on request.

InsightSquared



InsightSquared makes it possible for you to create reports using your entire bank of sales data, from day one. Just connect it to your CRM, and you’ll get a library of pre-built reports that you can use to extract insight and sell more efficiently. InsightSquared has native integrations with Salesforce, HubSpot, and more — anywhere your data lives, InsightSquared will be able to access it.

Pricing is available by talking to the InsightSquared sales team.

Sales Management

Managing a sales process also means managing the people that run that process. That includes performance metrics, employee engagement, and sales contests to improve productivity.

The sales management tools selected below will help you make reliable decisions about your team’s health and drive up motivation.

Hoopla

Hoopla is a sales performance management tool that gives sales managers a platform to run competitions with leaderboards. It’s designed for a TV screen in your office, so can be used as a static leaderboard or a place to display alerts and updates on sales activity.

The metrics you collect from Hoopla can be used for performance reviews and monetary incentivization, so you get the immediate benefit of a competitive leaderboard and the long-term benefit of gathering historical data on your reps.

Pricing starts at $199/month.

SocialChorus

SocialChorus is an internal content management platform that teams can use to share playbooks, standard procedures, and other documentation.

It’s not like just storing your files in Google Drive, though — SocialChorus features analytics that help you (and stakeholders) see the value of having a central hub for internal documents and communication, rather than using multiple disparate tools.

Pricing for SocialChorus is available by request only.

SpearFysh

SpearFysh helps reps be engaged with leads during meetings instead of checking their computer for notes and log timestamps. It does this by recording meetings on a tablet app, and then allowing the person giving the meeting to tap quickly to add notes to the conversation.

Using Spearfysh means you get a detailed history of rep activity and reps will be more effective and less distracted during important meetings.

Contact a Spearfysh rep for pricing information.

Customer Feedback

Typeform

Typeform is a simple, powerful, and beautiful form creation tool you can use to distribute post-sale feedback forms to your customers and improve your sales processes. Or, you can use Typeform to collect missing lead data, pre-sale, and send it to your CRM automatically.

Typeform is so flexible, it’s just about the last form builder you’ll need. You can even just use its API to give your team a central place to store and analyze form data, regardless of the way it’s captured.

Pricing for Typeform starts from free, with premium tiers from 25 euros monthly.

OpinionLab

OpinionLab integrates with your product to help you deploy customer experience surveys with ease. After installing OpinionLab, you’ll get a Feedback button in your app or on your website that customers can use to leave feedback that OpinionLab stores complete with metadata.

By collecting feedback from your customers, you can transform the way you sell. Feedback can tell you which kinds of customers should be sold on which features, or even what to avoid mentioning around a particular type of lead.

Pricing for OpinionLab is available by request.

Chameleon

Chameleon is a product marketing tool that lives inside your app — like Sumo for in-product messaging, you can deploy banners, modals and tooltips that coach users on the benefits and get them to their aha moment faster. But that’s not all.

As well as in-product messaging, Chameleon offers the option to deploy surveys to different segments of users with data brought in through integration partners like Heap, Segment, and Intercom.

Improve your post-sale survey response rate by triggering surveys contextually in-app, driven by your product’s unique metrics. Pricing for Chameleon starts at $99 monthly for unlimited users.

UserReport

UserReport is both a feedback form tool and a way to communicate with customers that leave feedback. With it, you can gather NPS feedback that tells you how to improve your sales process. For example, poor NPS feedback could be the result of a bad-fit lead buying your product — and with UserReport, you can find that out and get to the root cause.

It’s free to add UserReport’s feedback forms to your app, plus it integrates with Google Analytics to enrich your existing data. Pricing for the premium package is available on request.

Crowdsignal

Crowdsignal is a form-building tool that gives you an easy-to-use platform to collect information from leads and customers. With its simple interface, you can construct mobile-friendly forms that you can distribute through social media, your product, or transactional email.

Pre-configured reports can analyze data as it comes in, or offer exports to Excel where you can crunch the numbers. Pricing for Crowdsignal starts from free, but for premium features like reporting you’ll need the Pro plan for $200 monthly.

Ready. Set. Enable.


There you have it – 68 sales enablement tools to level-up your sales performance in 2019.

Which tools are you going to try? Any good ones we missed?

Let us know in the comment below.

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Questions or comments? Contact Spotio at info@spotio.com or comment below.

SPOTIO is designed specifically for outside sales managers and reps to squeeze every drop out of their field sales efforts.

Want to see a product demonstration? Click here to see how SPOTIO can take your sales game to the next level.