As sales leaders look to maximize return on investment as quickly as possible, we explore three levers that can increase productivity across sales teams.
Shifting market dynamics are forcing sales leaders to find productivity improvements wherever possible - in other words they’re wondering “how to do more with less”. Our research shows that salespeople only spend 32% of their time selling, so sales leaders are looking for both leverage and scale in their efforts to get quick wins that will deliver improved productivity.
Charlie Dorrier, an Associate Client Partner in our Global Sales & Service practice, explains three different levers that can drive sales productivity.
1 Weighted opportunity scoring
Weighted opportunity scoring is a method of scoring deals to make sensible, data driven decisions about how to prioritize limited resources in support of new sales. Take a close look at your most recent and biggest wins, as well as some losses, and use the insight from this exercise to develop a scorecard, where deals are rated based on the presence (or absence) of your win/loss themes. As your team determines the specific criteria that work for your business, you can then build a weighted opportunity scorecard to evaluate the deals.
This numbers-based approach helps teams make better business decisions based on insights from previous deals instead of instinct in the moment, and is proven to deliver higher win rates and improved productivity across the sales organization. Additionally, when embedded in the CRM, it helps transform your CRM platform into a valuable resource for sellers.
“As we’ve studied the behaviors of sellers inside of Korn Ferry Sell, we’ve learned that updating opportunity scoring criteria is the single biggest driver of seller visits to the CRM,” Dorrier commented. He went on to explain that through this approach, sellers can also study what’s working and not working with their individual pursuits so they can continue to grow and develop over time.