{"id":2876,"date":"2020-08-10T07:50:26","date_gmt":"2020-08-10T07:50:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ceo-worldwide.com\/blog\/?p=2876"},"modified":"2025-03-06T07:30:49","modified_gmt":"2025-03-06T07:30:49","slug":"improve-your-sales-efficiency","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ceo-worldwide.com\/blog\/improve-your-sales-efficiency\/","title":{"rendered":"How to improve your sales efficiency"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Most people think their own sales teams are not \u201cWorld Class\u201d and that they lack sales efficiency and effectiveness. Possibly you feel the same. Do you think that your sales could be better? Do you wonder why deals are just not happening?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Time and sales \u2013 Do you have too much or too little?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The good news is that you are not alone; almost all companies think the same, including your competition. Not many people however know what is causing the problem or even how to fix it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Have you ever asked yourself why, when you spent so much time, effort and money on recruiting the very best salespeople you could find and afford \u2013 why things are just not clicking? Well, here are two of the largest issues regarding sales efficiency:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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  1. The biggest waste of any salesman\u2019s time is not travel, or writing proposals, or email, or indeed any one of a thousand other things that can burn his time. It is quite simply working on deals that he is never going to win. FACT<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. The average salesman spends less than 25% of his time actively \u201cadvancing a sale\u201d in front of a customer (source performance101 study 2009). Indeed, our study showed that Account Managers, as opposed to New Business Salespeople, are often only spending 10% of their time actively advancing a sale. FACT<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    If you put the two facts together it is no wonder that sales results are what our American cousins term \u201csub optimal\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Sobering isn\u2019t it? It is possible that between 75 to 90% of your salesman’s time is not spent selling. When he is, he may well be working on a deal that he simply has no chance of winning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \u201cThe biggest waste of a salesman’s time is working on a deal he is never going to win\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    How would you rate the performance and sales efficiency of your sales people \u2013 have you ever measured it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    There is an old corporate saying that I am sure you have heard time and time again. If you can\u2019t measure it, you can\u2019t manage it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Just imagine what would happen if you could improve the efficiency of your team and got them only working on deals they could win and allowed them to have more face time with the customer. You know what? It doesn\u2019t take much to improve sales efficiency by 50%!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \u201cIf you can\u2019t measure it, you can\u2019t manage it\u201d.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    If you could improve sales efficiency by 50% everyone wins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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    1. The salesmen stop doing things they don\u2019t like and focus on the things they do \u2013 namely selling.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    2. You effectively get twice as big a sales team at no additional cost.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    3. The salesmen become happy as they get more commission.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    4. The customer becomes happier as he doesn\u2019t waste time with a salesman who is trying to sell him something he doesn\u2019t want.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    5. The rest of your organisation doesn\u2019t waste time supporting a sale that is not going to happen.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    6. Your company starts to make real progress when selling against the competition.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n
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      \"sales<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

      Sales Efficiency: Bottom Line Results<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

      An efficient, happy and successful sales team<\/a> is what every company should aspire to. They will not only increase turnover and margin, but increase what psychologists call \u201cvalue attribution\u201d. Strangely enough a happy and successful sales team also starts to get noticed by your customers and your competition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Where to begin? Those of us who have spent a career managing sales teams will know that the Sales Director and Sales Managers are swamped. Their day is taken up with supporting sales teams, helping out on deals, forecasting, reporting, recruiting, motivating, presenting, cajoling, negotiating, writing compensation plans, doing annual appraisals, account planning, territory planning, succession planning and customer complaint handling. No wonder you are where you are today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Help is at hand. There is a methodology that can help your existing Sales Directors<\/a> and Managers. For instance, to prevent a salesman working on a deal he is unlikely to win \u2013 the whole company needs to buy into the concept of \u201cdeal qualification\u201d. We have two tools for this, one is a very simple approach that is guaranteed to get you quick wins, and the other is more methodical and thorough. Whichever approach you take \u2013 the sooner you start the better.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Selling is fun when it goes well and this can only happen when the whole company is involved and your sales team is efficient and effective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Have Fun. Enjoy the journey and get more deals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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