The sales world moves fast: there’s no time to waste when it comes to boosting revenue.
Salespeople don’t have the years it typically takes to hone best practices. They need to know what works for moving leads through the funnel and closing sales – now.
TTEC recently hosted a LinkedIn Live event, “Rev up your revenue with insider secrets,” where two of our inside sales experts – Ryan Adams, global vice president of operations, and Ryan Nichols, director of sales service delivery – shared some insights about how to quickly grow sales revenue. Here are a few key takeaways:
1. Define ‘winning’
It’s important for all members of the sales organization to be on the same page when it comes to what constitutes success.
“What really needs to happen at the start of any kind of launch, or even in a reassessment of a program, is really defining what winning means,” said Adams.
The main goal of a sales team, of course, is to grow revenue, but targets need to be realistic, attainable, and make sense to everyone involved, he added.
“What’s an important KPI or goal for one level in a company might be very different for another, so it’s very important to pull back and understand that,” he said. “From there, every communication to every employee needs to be within that mindset of what does winning mean. Once you have that, you have everyone running to the same goal.”
2. Conduct an honest assessment
With a common goal in place, organizations can then take a hard look at whether they are doing what they need to in order to reach that goal. By asking tough questions of itself, the group will shine a light on what’s working well – and what pitfalls are impeding success.
TTEC’s Sales Excellence Accelerator, which gives companies access to hundreds of sales best practices and a customized playbook for putting them into action, includes an assessment of more than 400 questions. The questions are designed to get to the heart of what’s working, what’s not, where in the funnel companies are losing sales, and what they can do about it.
Based on the assessment, companies in the Sales Excellence Accelerator program receive a customized playbook – within 45 days – for taking sales to the next level.
3. Prioritize people and processes
The greatest sales tools in the world are meaningless if the people using them aren’t well trained, prepared, and engaged.
“This is a people business,” said Nichols. “If you don’t have employees that are happy employees, none of this is going to work.”
Before rushing to embrace the latest tool, be sure there’s a strong foundation of processes in place.
“If the process isn’t in place, the tool is irrelevant,” Adams said. “The tool enhances a process you have built. The process needs to be there first. Too many times we look at the new shiny tool at the end of the road and say, ‘I need that to fix this problem.’ That actually doesn’t fix a problem; it enhances a solution.”
For more of Adams’ and Nichols’ top tips for growing sales revenue, watch the on-demand replay of “Rev up your revenue with insider secrets.”
