Any seasoned Sales Leader will tell you: It has never been easy.
While the global pandemic hangover has been subsiding in recent months, we now face a new and ongoing flight of challenges including political tensions, higher interest rates, rising inflation, supply chain issues and the looming threat of the next recession. Add to this recruiting challenges and sorting out hybrid/remote work (a conversation here to stay, even if some employers would prefer otherwise). It is a challenging environment for any Sales Leader. And always will be.
For business owners and those accountable for company revenues, higher levels of uncertainty can instinctively trigger a more cautious approach to new investment, be it in new products and services, entering new markets, or making new hires. While there is no doubt that “revenue solves a lot of problems,” selling in times of uncertainty requires that sales teams find the absolute top of their game. For the Sales Leaders, specifically, managing and maintaining a high-performance team is, in turn, essential for revenue growth.
The one-two punch that ensures sales organizations will consistently hit their targets:
- Tracking the right metrics. Are you tracking leading indicators, those that enable you to get out in front of sales funnel problems before it is too late? Or are you still relying on traditional lagging indicators and naively hoping for the best? Read more about leading indicators.
- Leveraging the right CRM tools. If you are doing CRM-by-spreadsheet, or using a generic system that is ill-suited to sales, it’s time to adopt a purpose-built sales CRM and leverage the power of its company-wide transparency and revenue-generating opportunities.
Maximizer Sales Leader Edition, is a CRM solution that provides sales leaders with the ability to monitor, manage and coach their teams using real-time performance and activity data available with one click. Several features unique to Sales Leader Edition provide managers with the information they need to sell more, regardless, or in spite of, any and all business environment challenges:
- Quota Tracker shows how reps are progressing against their monthly, quarterly and annual targets. This is where you can identify your star reps and also those who need a nudge.
- Activity Tracker shows what reps are actually doing (or not) every day (see ‘leading indicators’, above). If they are not following your sales process, this is where you can spot the problem and start a coaching conversation. For sales teams that are fully remote or hybrid, Activity Tracker is an especially valuable tool.
- Opps Viewer shows the entire pipeline in one view. Finding new revenue is critical, but renewals and upgrades are also an important, low-cost way to increase the top line. Opps Viewer shows the weighted and unweighted size of every deal. This is where you can see a funnel that is perhaps top heavy with deals but are not moving forward – giving plenty of time to intervene and help break up the logjams. Sales is an expensive activity requiring maximum attention to the most lucrative deals. In Opps Viewer, you can see if reps are in fact targeting the right deals.
- Sales Intelligence is a reporting engine that provide fast access to a variety of results-in-progress reports from the corporate, team and individual rep levels. If your sales are off track, this is where you can see why and understand where to focus your responses and coaching efforts.
In uncertain times, sales leadership matters more than ever. Equipping sales leaders with Maximizer Sales Leader Edition provides them with real-time data for effective coaching and team management, and does so well in advance of a sales crisis. It also provides both full transparency and protection of sales data if and when you have employee turnover- an otherwise risky, costly and time-consuming task. Above all however, it also empowers Sales Leaders to do what they were born to do: improve their team’s performance and sell more. Now.
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