12 Ways to Increase B2B Sales Productivity: Close More Deals!

Phone calls. Emails. Meetings. More calls and more meetings.

Sales as a function are fast-paced and sometimes, it can get hard to ensure all the parts are running smoothly.

In 2022, increasing sales productivity is in fact, one of the fastest ways to increase sales.

79% of sales reps say that the leading factor for hitting new target goals is by improving sales productivity.

Without a well-oiled sales engine in place, businesses cannot sustain themselves.

Not just that, sales teams are only as effective as they are efficient. By focusing on being productive, you can -

1. Close more deals
2. Improve sales performance metrics
3. Have a higher conversion rate

An average salesperson spends 33% of their day selling, and the rest on performing routine tasks.

12 B2B Sales Productivity Tips to Boost and Improve Sales Performance

Here are 12 B2B sales productivity tips that sales leaders can leverage to position their teams to be highly productive and expedite their revenue engine -

#1 Embrace Sales Tools and Technology

77% of sales leaders say that their digital transformation has accelerated since 2019.

Leveraging technology for every task may seem daunting, but it actually allows sales teams to simplify data capture, increase collaboration, and scale B2B sales strategies seamlessly.

Sales teams spend a chunk of their time working on administrative tasks - there's a glaring need for technology and tools that help sales teams improve their sales process.

One significant way to improve sales productivity is to utilize sales tools built for the modern landscape to reduce the amount of time spent on redundant tasks and free them up to generate more revenue.

Optimize, consolidate, and streamline everyday tasks with the help of sales tools!

#2 Track and Measure Sales Performance & Activities

To improve sales productivity across teams, it is imperative to understand where you currently stand.

Sales reports are incredible to help you visualize trends to gain deep, valuable insights into each sales rep's performance.

An intuitive sales platform such as Salesken allows sales managers to view their sales reps' activity logging with the help of a real-time dashboard.

Tracking the 5 must-know sales productivity metrics will help you understand where exactly your team is spending their time - conversion rates, average sales, actual vs forecast sales, lead follow-up, and close rate.

#3 Automate Redundant Tasks

Some of the sales process components that can be automated are -

1. Data entry
2. Leads
3. Texts and emails
4. Everyday routine

#4 Establish a Routine and Schedule

Each kind of sales team typically has different schedules that may or may not be busier when compared to their counterparts.

The key is to get things done.

What works for one, may not work for another. But, therein lies the beauty of sales - there's ample opportunity for creativity and flexibility.

By maintaining and having a consistent everyday schedule, improving the overall productivity is a breeze.

Sales productivity demands a certain level of structure. However, not all aspects can be maintained due to other colliding work, which puts them in a tough spot.

Having a schedule helps sales teams prioritize their activities and place significant, long-term clients at the top of the list to ensure they always receive optimal, timely responses.

To set up a schedule, follow these four things -

1. Choose a rhythm
2. Add all tasks, appointments, and activities to your calendar
3. Implement time blocks
4. Stay on top of emails

#5 Personalize your Sales Process

Personalization elevates everyday processes and improves the overall business goals.

More than half of B2B consumers say that marketing personalization leads to higher conversion rates and closing deals.

The most efficient sales teams turn the process of personalization by integrating their existing systems that allow a sales rep to conduct the relevant research and weave data into an effective message seamlessly.

Personalize and streamline processes such as email templates, phone scripts, sales research, and more across the team to increase sales productivity metrics, speed, and consistency of your messaging.

#6 Use Sequences to Boost Sales Productivity

Getting potential customers to respond to you, let alone engage with you, takes time and persistence.

If you decrease your sales activities and give up too soon, you're reducing the chances of turning that lead into a sale.

To overcome this problem, utilize a multi-channel sales sequence to ensure leads do not slip through the cracks as a result of not following up.

Leverage a sales intelligent tool to build and customize easy workflows for multi-channel outreach - texts, calls, emails, and visits. In addition, set intervals for when the next contact attempt should be made.

Boost overall sales productivity by following a sales sequence and testing out the workflow regularly to expedite the process.

#7 Collaborate Virtually to Improve Sales Efficiency

With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, all buyer touchpoints have migrated online - including internal communication amongst the sales team.

Goodbye, team standups, and hello, Zoom meets!

The most productive sales teams leverage online collaborative tools where team members can easily understand the team's activities, priorities, and goals.

Virtual spaces allow sales teams to contribute easily with more visibility into the pipeline and also, coordinate with each other to improve engagement.

Sales leaders know that aligning teams around shared revenue goals is critical for capturing big accounts and increasing productivity.

#8 Smarter Way of Prospecting

The process of researching and finding appropriate prospects is a time-consuming task.

Fortunately, sales teams can automate the process with the help of a CRM tool, designed for sales reps to make a list of highly-targeted prospects that match your criteria.

An intuitive sales tool leverages high-functioning technology to filter through various unique data points to identify the right leads and not waste time on leads that do not convert.

#9 Coach your Sales Reps Consistently

Continuous learning definitely packs a punch, with a myriad of benefits to it.

The world of sales is ever-evolving. Be it a new sales technique, or an emergence of a novel tool, ensuring your sales team are up to date with the latest trends requires consistent coaching.

Not just that, typically, a sales team is brimming with middle-performers.

These middle-performers have the potential to perform at par with the best sellers - they just have to be coached with the right techniques and learn directly from top sellers.

By studying top sellers' notes from lost deals, sales leaders can extrapolate and learn new pain points, and thus, coach team members with techniques that meet the customers’ needs and improve the rep efficiency.

#10 Understand your ICP (Ideal Customer Profile) Well

In order to drive revenue to your business, the most critical question to answer is - who are your customers?

A business cannot sell its product to everyone and anyone.

Understanding your ideal customer profile will create maximum value for your business which is crucial to increasing sales productivity.

Learning who your best customers are, coupled with market research, is a sure-shot way of spending more time prospecting more such customers, thus, increasing overall revenue for your business.

#11 Automate Lead Scoring

Lead scoring helps sales reps prioritize which potential customer needs more attention as opposed to the ones that do not.

It also helps you identify the perfect moment to respond to.

Set up lead scoring with the help of a sales intelligent tool to track the activities of your potential customers. Get notified every time your prospects trickle down to the next stage of the sales funnel so you can follow up accordingly.

#12 Understand Sales Efficiency with Key Performance Indicators

If your sales metrics are not in place and ironed out, how do you know if your method is paying off?

Track key sales metrics to identify weak links in your sales process.

Carefully gauge and understand places where deals are slipping through the cracks to improve conversion rates and produce better results.

If a deal that could be easily won has instead slipped through the crack, having a better understanding of the reason behind it, and fixing it can drastically improve your sales game.

Create content that fits your narrative better, qualify leads that are highly likely to convert, and personalize your sales approach with the help of sales metrics.

4 Key Pillars of Sales Productivity

With most sales leaders failing to understand the hurdles standing in the way of building an efficient sales team, there are four key pillars that serve as a foundational block to increasing sales productivity.

Consistent Innovation

While sales effectiveness isn't just lip-service and requires out-of-the-box ideas to overcome mediocrity, understanding sales resources and tools to be at par with your competitors definitely helps.

Holding onto what's working just fine, isn't necessarily bad, however, it prevents progress.

Sales trends and marketing change rapidly and refusing to innovate new ideas such as producing creative video content or an overhaul of marketing ideas, and more importantly, hinders the overall sales productivity.

Consistency

An essential component of consistency is based on a company's sales structure.

Wrinkle out the existing sales process and ensure to follow a sales process that has a higher rate of winning.

Use what works and share the same strategy within the company to drastically improve sales productivity.

Pay Attention

We can't help but agree with the number of distractions that pull us away from reaching our daily goals.

Eliminate things that take away your focus from your everyday work and build a specific routine to ensure all essential tasks are completed and fit into your daily schedule.

Minimize Pressure

The competitive nature of the sales landscape adds to the pressure to perform and meet monthly quotas.

Sometimes, even the best salesperson gets affected and thus, affects their performance.

Sales quotas that are perceived as being impossible to meet are likely to prevent your team members from even trying because they believe they might fail.

Re-evaluate sales quotas every quarter with your team to ensure they're attainable and yet interesting.

Final Words

A combination of traditional selling methods with advanced technologies could be the way forward to improve sales productivity for your company.

Remember, the more time you save, the more chances your team gets to acquire more customers to increase sales and thus, revenue.

Salesken is the best sales engagement tool that will help your business to increase revenue, maximize productivity, and boost overall profitability.

Want to see us in action? Book a demo to elevate your sales game to the next level!