5 Sales Performance Challenges Easily Solved with Performance Support

If you are leading a sales organization today, then you know that it is far from easy.  In the blink of an eye, new competitors emerge, products similar to yours are released, and before you know it your sales goals are hanging in the balance.  To remain on top, you hire the best sales team and teach them everything you know about selling.  And that’s not all – you also invest in the best training tools, CRM, and technology guaranteed to improve your organization’s sales performance.

Despite all this – or in spite of all this – your salespeople are still finding it difficult to meet their sales quotas; what they learned in training is forgotten shortly after, locating the information they need in the CRM takes too much time, and they are ironically overwhelmed by the complexity of technology that is supposed to make their jobs easier.  So now what?

Now there is a new class of business solutions called Performance Support.  These systems create a quick and lean solution to address day-to-day business challenges.  They use a business-rules engine to deliver sophisticated functionality designed to help your sales team overcome performance challenges and get the job done.  Here’s how:

Sales Performance Challenge #1: Increase revenue (up sell/cross sell)

At the end of the day, the primary objective of every salesperson is to generate revenue.  In today’s inside sales landscape, this is easier said than done.  Sales reps are required to do a lot more than just pick up the phone and dial. They must comb through leads, select the best opportunities, tailor their scripts, find the right sales materials, and pass along the right information at the right time.

Performance Support to the rescue:  Performance support provides sales agents with next-best-action sales recommendations.  It identifies sales opportunities by analyzing the customer profile and eligibility for possible promotions or sales campaigns while the call takes place.

Sales Performance Challenge #2:  Reduce handling times

For most sales people, time is their most valuable commodity.  Searching for information in the knowledge database or asking someone for help can waste too much time.  This is especially the case when a customer is on hold and waiting for an immediate reply.  Closing a deal is all about having the right information at the right place at the right time.

Performance Support to the rescue:   Performance support offers context relevant support.  This means that it applies business rules and logic according to the situation in which the sales agent is engaged and then provides them with the relevant information at the moment of need, thus reducing handling time.

Sales Performance Challenge #3:  Prevent costly errors

Even your “A” team is going to make errors.  After all, we are only human.   Unfortunately, these errors can sometimes come at a high price, especially if you consistently notice similar errors by multiple users.

Performance Support to the rescue:  Performance support systems identifies errors in real-time, based on pre-defined rules.  It alerts the user and then guides them through the correct task completion, preventing costly errors.

Sales Performance Challenge #4: Focus on the customer

Every time a sales agent needs to ask a customer for their information – to seal the deal – is another opportunity for the customer to change their mind.  Needing to ask for the same information repeatedly is frustrating for both the agent and the customer.  Best case scenario, the customer gets annoyed; worst case scenario, they lose patience and end the call.

Performance Support to the rescue:   Performance support allows your sales agents to concentrate on the conversation with the customer. Task automation performs the actions/steps for the user.  This not only helps seal the deal faster, but also the customer is thrilled not to have to repeat their information over and over again.

Sales Performance Challenge #5: Simplify complex systems

At the rate that new technology is rolled-out in an organization today, it is no surprise that sales agents are having a hard time keeping up.   Even the most tech savvy worker can be perplexed by the complexity of the latest applications.

Performance Support to the rescue:   Performance support guides users through each step of the business process (within the application) towards its successful completion.  Think of it like a GPS for business applications.  This provides your sales team with both the peace of mind and confidence they need to focus on the customer and follow through with the task at hand.

With performance support solutions in place, you can feel confident that your sales agents are able to successfully perform their job in the timeliest, most efficient, and most accurate manner possible.

If you have a sales performance challenge and would like to know if performance support can help, please comment below.