How to choose the right tools to boost your sales strategy

The success of any business depends on products and productivity. Productivity depends on a successful sales strategy and a strong culture. But what if your sales force is getting distracted by too many responsibilities? They are not about to deliver their best.

Don’t worry too much about that, though. Choosing the right sales tools can cheer your sales team up and your production graph, too. But you need to choose your steps wisely, as follows:

How to choose the best tools for your sales strategy?

Pinpoint the pain points in your sales process

Before treating a disease, the doctors have to diagnose it properly. They analyze your symptoms and ask you where it hurts. The same goes for your sales strategy. In order to boost your productivity, you need to recognize the pain points for your sales reps.

Yes, you heard me right. As with your customers, your sales team can (and will) have their own worries and aches. Because sales reps are as good (and as demanding) as their own customers when it comes to buying, it’s very important to find out the best sales tools to help them get rid of their misery.

Here are a few common examples of pain points and complaints among sales teams:

• Bureaucracy and a mounting pile of administrative tangles (marketing, customer service, tech support, CRM upgrading, etc).
• Lack of training and disorganized sources of information. Regular technical training on services or products and on new sales processes will extract the performances that you’ve been searching for from your sales force.
• Not enough qualified leads, makes it harder for the sales stack to make deals. Innovation is needed in marketing and lead generation strategies to gain more quality leads.
• Too many meetings, too little sales. Qualify every interaction with the customers, cutting down on unnecessary meetings and wasted time. Choose the proper time, and only when you need to discuss or to deliver something new.

Look for the solution to that pain: Sales tools

Customer needs are the very reason why your products and services exist. Admittedly, sales tools are best when they can extract more efficient information about client needs from the customer accounts directly, or by talking to the client personally.

The more human the tools are the more knowledge the sales reps will gain from their clients. Here are some tools that can help boost your sales strategy:

• Pipefy: Simplified process management tool that allows your sales reps to manage all sales processes in a single platform, integrating different processes, creating customer databases, sending automated email messages, and much more. Automate and streamline your workflows to create a seamless experience and avoid losing time (and information).
• Acquire live chat software: Live chat software allows salespeople to personally connect with clients through voice calls, video conferencing, etc even though they’re not in the same country/timezone. Further remote co-browsing allows agents to find the exact pages visitors need, providing technical assistance through the website based on the client’s recommendations.
• Skyward CRM: New automated CRM systems to keep track of customer instincts directly through customer accounts.
• Yesware: Email tracking tools; all in one sales tool and automation tools to integrate collected information into your system software and to create automatic sales reports to know the exact condition of your sales strategy regularly.

Choose the right tool for your team’s needs!

Having a lot of choices often makes people confused and funneling down to the right alternative can take a lot of time. A survey report by Accenture PLC shows that 55% of salespeople have faced more challenges than before while using their company’s sales tools to improve their performance level.

Again, 59% of all surveyed sales reps think that they have too many sales tools to get acquainted with. To overcome the indecision, SlideShare is here to help you.

I would say that keeping alternatives to a minimum is probably the best strategy in this case. It is always advisable to go with the personal human element when solidifying a bond between sales agents and visitors.

The agents will automatically be rewarded with information about the client’s needs when they successfully gain their trust, personally. Try keeping the required tools in one platform as much as possible.

How do the customers benefit from it?

Foster a relationship with your customers and it will foster your company’s sales culture. Initiating regular sales training helps not only the salespeople but the customers, too, as they get trained by the sales team in expressing their actual needs using tools like CRM and more.

Customers are more likely to remain on your site when they get acquainted with your company’s tools and believe that your salespeople can fulfill their requirements by listening to them heartily.

Sales-friendly tools are out there to heal your wounds. Choose your healer wisely and you’ll see the results.

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Sam Makad is an experienced writer and marketing consultant. His expertise lies in sales, marketing, and advertising. He helps small & medium enterprises to grow their business and overall ROI.