Managing Training and Sales Tools

No matter the industry, there is always room for improvement in sales productivity. Every year, companies spend close to $13 billion on tools and software that attempt to accelerate the overall sales process. In fact, the typical organization spends $24k per person on sales productivity. However, nearly half of those organizations have no way of measuring the effectiveness of that spending and its impact on revenue. Without the ability to analyze and upkeep the effectiveness of reps, as well as the impact that spending on sales productivity tools has towards reaching company goals, how can you be confident in your investment?

For starters, one way is to continuously train reps to ensure they are taking full advantage of the tools they are provided with. Sales tools alone cannot help you reach your revenue goals, and neither can training your reps without accurate insights into their daily performance. It is a combination of the people, process, and technology working together at your organization that makes a difference when it comes to whether you’ll hit quota this quarter. So, here’s how sales tools and training together can optimize the productivity of your sales team:

Sales Tools

Besides hiring new sales reps, sales productivity can be majorly improved through the implementation of business and sales intelligence. With these tools, sales leaders can analyze the success of certain sales techniques and methodologies so they can apply that knowledge to improve training initiatives. When reps have access to automated tools which provide information that otherwise would have taken days to discover or document, they can spend much more time selling – and ultimately surpassing revenue goals.

Not only does sales intelligence improve individual rep productivity, but it can also increase the accuracy of sales forecasts by up to 61%. The information provided by sales intelligence allows managers to not only understand their reps better individually, but it may also provide the best opportunity to maximize ROI in their training initiatives as well.

Sales Training

One way to ensure the implementation of a sales tool is successful is through establishing a process, or training program, to integrate the tool at your organization. Even though 2/5 companies believe they are putting their biggest productivity initiatives towards training and onboarding, a lack of insight into these initiatives will prevent organizations from improving over time. One-third of CSOs believe their enterprise’s ability to hire successful reps needs improvement; however,  it is usually management of training initiatives that need improvement. A sales tool will allow you to see the stats on your reps, notifying managers where training is needed and setting a baseline for success. Inversely, your organization will not see full benefits from a sales tool without a proper training and upkeep program.

Training is an essential part of any sales organization, and the most successful will upkeep training while establishing a culture of continuous improvement. But even a rep trained to standard can only be so productive if he or she lacks the technology to enhance their day-to-day performance. As mentioned, if a rep is manually logging their activity data, this takes away valuable time they could be spending on the phones setting appointments. Together, training and sales tools are the keys to sales performance optimization, and when implemented properly, are certainly worthwhile investments for your organization.

Learn how you can optimize sales performance and training initiatives with Gryphon’s sales enablement solution.