Make Your Company More Sales Intelligent with These Methods

Michele Warg
Posted by


Your dynamic sales team has all the best tools, training, scripts, technology and connections to take your company to the highest levels. Does your team have sales intelligence to match its all-out effort? Examine three methods to help determine if your team has what it takes to compete in the contemporary sales climate.

What Is Sales Intelligence?

Sales intelligence is a concept that encompasses how your team uses the copious amounts of information it has on hand. Sales technology lets everyone track cold calls, leads, purchase histories, response rates and industry activity. The best software solutions combine as many metrics as possible into analytical tools that help salespeople make decisions about which prospects to target, how and when.

Sales is a fast-paced environment thanks to on-the-go apps, mobile devices and cloud computing. Your team can access sales metrics at anytime and anywhere. It's how this technology generates revenue that forms the basis of sales intelligence. When you incorporate a new comprehensive tool to utilize your metrics, you must examine a few things first.

1. Determine the ROI

Before onboarding sales technology, your team must determine its ROI. Sure, everyone gets a brand-new program to bring sales data to your fingertips in an instant. However, is the investment in new computers, mobile devices, access to the software and maintenance of the system worth the up-front costs? If the technology saves time, increases productivity and brings in new revenue, then the answer is "yes."

2. Boost Productivity

The main goal of sales intelligence tools is to boost productivity. The CRM should connect to any devices, alert your team to any changes in contacts, leads or business information, and help everyone create automated proposals for prospective clients. Time savers reduce the time your team spends on researching prospects so they can get to the heart of the matter, and that means nurturing prospects through the sales process one step at a time. If your new platform enhances your team's productivity, you have a winner.

3. Evaluate Key Features

Don't be afraid to see a full demo version of the software ahead of making a purchase. A demo video or sales presentation you watch isn't enough to fully see what the sales tools can do. Inquire about a demo version your team can try for 10 days. The IT department from the software company could certainly find a way to make the free trial expire after a particular time without giving up any proprietary secrets. Once you ascertain the full value of the software, then you can make a decision whether or not to buy it.

Sales intelligence, and the lack of tools to foster your team's sales smarts, hinder your firm's revenue and profits. Technology prices continue to drop, even for small businesses, so there are plenty of reasons why you should at least investigate what software system is best for you.


Photo courtesy of Stuart Miles at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Comment

Become a member to take advantage of more features, like commenting and voting.

Jobs to Watch