Leading sales expert, Jeff Gardner, recently joined us here at sales-i to discuss the top strategies to maximize the adoption of sales-i across your company and ultimately, maximize your resources. According to recent research by Aberdeen Group, a premier independent provider of research and guidance in the IT industry, some common characteristics for firms with ‘Best in Class’ sales performance include:
- Executive level support for sales productivity tools
- Formalized sales training program
- Define performance metrics to measure sales effectiveness
Having spent many years coaching and training sales professionals to go the extra mile, Jeff knows, all too well, that encouraging them to see the value in new technologies can sometimes be a struggle. Jeff has seven simple, easy-to-implement tips that will allow you to maximize adoption across your user base.
Buy-in and commitment from the top
Senior management has to believe in the value of sales-i and communicate this to their team so the rest of the company should be more inclined to spend time learning about sales-i and how it will help them.
The senior management team at Clover Technologies, the global leader in consumable imaging supplies, is a huge advocate of sales-i and user adoption is paramount. Scott MacKenzie, VP of Marketing Operations and Communications adds, “Unless the sales managers understand the value of the insight you can get out of sales-i, they’re not going to see the value in the system for themselves, nor will they promote it with their teams.”
sales-i should be integrated into the company’s day-to-day operations, it should become a part of the culture and once fully integrated into the business, sales-i will become an organizational strategy.
Alignment of sales-i with your sales process
Integrating and aligning sales-i with your sales process will yield the most benefit for your sales team. It is important that adoption is standardized across the team and KPIs are measured in critical activities (for example: monitor usage, track daily logins, number of calls recorded and so on).
President of sales at Clover Technologies, Eric Martin has a fantastic expression to encourage usage with his team: “If it is not in sales-i, it didn’t happen!”
Establish a clear WIIFM (What’s In It For Me?) for your sales team
sales-i helps your sales team to maximize each interaction with your customers, fostering stronger relationships and keeping them organized. Yet, the most tangible benefit to sales-i is that it grows your sales, making you more money and improving your bottom line. “You can almost see the light bulbs going off over people’s heads,” Scott says. “It’s like you can hear them thinking, ‘Wow, this is great information.’”
Get everyone involved, not just sales
The flow of information within sales-i means the system is not just limited to your sales department. Other departments need to understand what sales-i is and how its applications relate to their jobs, be it Finance, Marketing, Customer Service…
Improving customer relationships cross-functionally is key for any business and used to its fullest, sales-i will optimize inter-departmental communication, making your business stronger and more profitable in the long run.
Begin with baby steps and invest in ongoing training
It is essential that the introduction of any new technology be coupled with ongoing training to ensure the transition is a smooth one. Your team needs to be aware of the benefits and value of sales-i, as well as the key measures for success in your business and how to make sales-i part of their daily working lives. Keeping track of the performance of their accounts should become almost habitual and every call should be logged, notes recorded and saved within sales-i.
Regular training sessions are always available from sales-i for you to keep up to date with our latest developments. We hold sessions for each and every new customer to ensure their ROI is maximized and they can begin using sales-i from day one.
Reward and recognize adopters
Motivating your team to use new technologies to ensure the best return can be challenging, we know that. Incentive systems often work well when coupled with simple recognition and acknowledgement from senior management. These can work hand-in-hand to directly reward those who are putting in the time today to learn, because they will save time in the long run. Many sales-i customers have had success using iPads as incentives since they can be used in conjunction with sales-i through our native applications.
Let sales-i help!
Here at sales-i, we are here to help whenever our users call on us. From our live support chat to our on demand training video library, we can help you whenever you need us the most. Used in conjunction with our regular training webinars and the new sales-i Pit Crew, you and your team will be able to take your sales operation to a whole new level.
Jeff’s final remark? “It is an efficiency thing. Everyone is so overloaded in today’s workplace and if you can free up just a few minutes a day, for a salesperson – that is truly invaluable!”
Contact us to see how we can help you to sell sales-i to your sales team.
