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Salesforce AppExchange: 9 Simple Rules for Savvy Sales Leaders

Date post: 14-Jul-2015
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1 SIMPLE RULES FOR SAVVY SALES LEADERS
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Page 1: Salesforce AppExchange: 9 Simple Rules for Savvy Sales Leaders

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SIMPLE RULESFOR SAVVYSALES LEADERS

Page 2: Salesforce AppExchange: 9 Simple Rules for Savvy Sales Leaders

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Ability to change is ranked as the number one skill needed for effective leadership.

EMBRACE CHANGEOver the last few years, the average tenure of a sales VP has gotten shorter. This turnover reflects a general failure on sales management’s part to adapt their sales activities to new market conditions. The number one job for sales management, therefore, is to accept change as a constant and adapt to new circumstances.

The Global Leadership Research Project, Chally Group Worldwide, 2014

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of buyers reported using social media to explore, gain knowledge, and evaluate potential providers.

IDC, Social Buying Study, February 2014

GET SOCIAL2 Empower your sales reps to sell where your buyers shop for insight and solutions. Use what is shared on social networks to address the hidden portion of the sales cycle — the 60 percent that occurs before prospects engage. As a leader, have an active presence on the relevant social networks for your industry so you are accessible to customers and your team.

More than

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ACTIVELY MONITOR SALES PERFORMANCE 3Establish performance expectations for your sales team and create a system of measurement that everyone understands. What gets measured gets managed. Use the metrics to determine when reps need more coaching or training, or where your sales process might be broken.

TOP 5 METRICS SALES MANAGERS USE TO DETERMINE WHICH REPS NEED COACHING*

PAST-FORECAST ACCURACY

KEY-ACCOUNT TRACKING

CLOSING RATIO

PIPELINE ACTIVITY

PREVIOUS SALES PERFORMANCE

* CSO Insights — 2014 Key Trends Analysis

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Worldwide data McKinsey & Company

USE DATA TO SELL SMARTER4Utilize data intelligently and strategically. Know which metrics are the most important to achieving sales goals, and monitor that information on a consistent basis. Use predictive analytics so you can direct your sales team to the best opportunities, improve forecasting, and optimize every territory.

is growing per year.

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MOTIVATE AND REWARD ACHIEVEMENT Incentive plans must align specific sales behaviors with your corporate strategy and goals. Even if you have a sales-compensation scheme that’s popular with the sales team, never hesitate to alter it to better match corporate strategy.

of organizations report that compensation plans are not adaptable or flexible.

Ventana Research Sales Compensation Management Benchmark Research, 2014

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The mark of a good manager is knowing who to work with. The mark of a great manager is knowing when it is time to say goodbye.

Peter Drucker, Writer, Professor, and Management Consultant

FOCUS YOUR EFFORTS ON SALES REPS WITH POTENTIALOffer continuous sales training, coaching, mentoring, and personal-development programs. Align the training to the needs of sales reps and key business goals. When you find you have reps who lack the qualities to become solid performers, cut them loose. They’ll be better off in the long run, and so will your team — and your results.

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The average annual turnover rate in sales organizations is

CSO Insights, 2014 Key Trends Analysis

To reduce turnover rates, learn the key attributes for success in your sales organization. Hire new recruits based on a profile developed using insight from past success in the role. Make sure to hire candidates with the right attitude, because failure in sales can come from either poor skills or poor attitude. Skills can be taught, but it is nearly impossible to change a person’s basic attitude.

HIRE WITH INSIGHT7

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Companies that make extensive use of customer analytics are 126% more profitable than competitors.

McKinsey & Company

8 LEVERAGE THE VOICE OF THE CUSTOMERThe customer’s voice is essential to sales success. Be sure to capture real-time feedback from customers before, during, and after the close. Create a system to manage this information, and use it in future sales conversations to deliver more marketing messages and ensure that customers’ expectations are being met.

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DELIVER VALUEAs buyers are now more informed than ever, the burden is on sales reps to quickly connect with prospects and deliver value. Value must be delivered both during the sales process and after the close. Make sure your reps can have useful and valuable conversations with customers in order to secure the close.

of pipeline ends in no decision or stalled deals because sales has not presented value effectively.

Sales Benchmark Index

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E-SIGNATURE

“DocuSign completely revamped our whole process. Our time to turn around a contract went from a week to a few days.”

Alex Correa, Salesforce Admin, Shutterstock

CONFIGURE, PRICE, QUOTE (CPQ)

“Cloudera was up and running on SteelBrick in only two weeks. Our reps are thrilled at how quickly they can get a quote out the door as well as the fact that they don’t have to worry about inaccuracies anymore.” Lars Nilsson, VP of Field Operations, Cloudera

Generate quotes and proposals quickly and accurately with CPQ. Sales reps love CPQ solutions because they help streamline the sales process, ensure consistent pricing, and result in fewer contract errors. Try SteelBrick CPQ, built on the Salesforce1 Platform.

Close deals faster with e-signature solutions that make the signature process amazingly simple and fast for your sales team. Customers love that they can send, review, and sign contracts at any time, on any device. Check out DocuSign for Salesforce, a popular e-signature app on AppExchange.

Beyond following these nine rules, savvy sales leaders know how to leverage technology to work smarter, not harder. The Salesforce AppExchange has more than 1,000 sales apps that help automate and accelerate your business. Here are two to start with:

Visit AppExchange to find 1,000+ sales apps to help close more deals, faster.

AppExchange.com


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