The 4 best sales reps tools in a tight market

As the global marketplace changes and sales cycles get longer, now is the time to provide your sales team with all the 'tools' they need to succeed. The pandemic has meant for most companies; there is less business to be won. However, when the market is tight, this presents an opportunity to re-organize what is sold and how it's sold to refocus your people and satisfy your customers.

When it comes to recruiting and retaining the best talent , here are our tips for the best sales rep tools.

1. A great sales leader

Sales managers have a significant influence on the success of their team. Most sales rep who hit sales targets acknowledge that it is due to their leadership, not because they are mavericks who can 'talk the talk'. A sales leader understands where the company is going and why and makes sure the sales team does. The leader is behind the plans that drive the sales processes and motivates and coaches the team to achieve targets.

2. Clarity of products and customers

Customers' behaviour has changed in the last fives years and accelerated in the previous two. The best way to determine how customers have shifted preferences is by looking at your sales data. What products are performing well, what products have dropped in sales? How much are customers spending per transaction, how often are they buying, and what terms are they seeking?

Applying these insights will help focus the sales team on activity that counts and is more likely to drive revenue. Sales reps will make more informed decisions on product recommendations and have frank and useful conversations with customers.

The sales rep needs a clear direction, and if they know who is the ideal customer for your business, then this makes doing their job much more effective and enjoyable. They know who to target and what they are likely to be interested in. It's also vital that the sales reps distinguish your products and services from the competition, so clear messaging for this is also helpful to be transparent with the customer.

3. Improve the sales experience

Now is the time to promote value-add selling and provide a fresh experience with prospects and customer, so it's memorable. To do this, consider new opportunities to help customers recognize issues and identify opportunities they hadn't considered.

With video and phone, it's simpler to involve different people from your business, such as product engineers or customer support people, earlier in the sales process to provide greater insight and match the information that your customer is seeking straight away.

Videoconferencing also makes it easier to involve company leaders to provide higher-level connections, which is a powerful way of selling.

You can also make the experience a hybrid one – perhaps the salesperson can go to the prospect's office and provide a demonstration. Then he/she can zoom in to the customer support team, who can provide all the information on warranty, repairs and delivery times.

4. Sales dashboard

Assuming your sales team has CRM and BI tools to carry out their work, then the best tool that is created from this technology is a sales dashboard. The dashboard consists of widgets that represent the KPIs that the person is working towards. This can include information such as:

• the year to date average value order
• daily invoices sent
• month to date sales
• current month gross profit
• current sales vs previous sales graphed as actual numbers and as a percentage
• top 10 customers
• top 10 most profitable customers

Sales dashboards allow sales people to immediately see how your company's sales perform and drill down into the underlying data. For instance, if you see something strange in your sales data, dashboards allow you to investigate the issue quickly by "drill down" into the relevant data.

There's nothing static about a sales dashboard anymore. Dashboards provide up-to-the-minute information and updates based on performance metrics – so you never have to worry that the data you're working with is outdated.

Sales leaders are already implementing new tools to help diagnose their strengths and opportunities. These tools and strategies are helping them make targeted changes that will help their companies and team survive for many years to come.