How productive is your sales team? Productivity is a hot topic in many sales organizations as we face unique economic challenges. COVID-19 has had a significant impact on virtually all industries. It’s made it more challenging for sales teams to meet quotas. It’s also been a challenge to stay productive. With so many people working remotely from home, having to care for their children, and navigate the new and ever-changing situations associated with coronavirus, it’s been difficult for sales professionals to maintain their pre-CVOID productivity levels.

With social distancing in full effect and with in-person sales meetings and prospecting on hold, most companies have shifted focus to online sales. Check out these online sales techniques by Toronto sales recruiters to ramp up your teams’ productivity:

1. First, Define What Productivity Means to Your Organization

How your organization defines what is and is not productive is an important distinction to make. Clearly outline what is considered productive. Define quotas, sales numbers, prospecting expectations, and all other key metrics. When you understand how much revenue you expect individual sales reps to produce for a given period of time, you can then better identify the online sales techniques you can implement to improve.

2. Hire the Right People

You are only as good as the sales talent you have within your organization. Great productivity starts with your ability to recruit and hire productive sales professionals. Have a strong recurring process in place. If you feel as though your sales team has a higher than normal number of under-productive reps, look into your hiring process to see if there are ways you can improve. Consult a sales recruiter to help you improve your hiring process and identify better talent.

3. CRM

Your CRM is one of your most important online sales tools. It can have a significant impact on your productivity and ability to sell. The first question to ask is, “Do you have a CRM?” If not, it’s worth researching your options and considering investing in a CRM.

If you have a CRM, it’s important to ensure it’s aligned with your sales needs. CRMs are only as good as their features and functions that support your sales process. How effective is your CRM in helping your reps? Does it have all the functionality your sales reps need? Is it helping or hampering productivity? Perform a review of your CRM to ensure it’s serving your purpose and helping with productivity.

4. Automate Routine Tasks

Did you know that most sales professionals spend most of their time doing other things than actually selling? They spend time doing administrative tasks, order processing, planning and many other non-sales activities. The amount of time sales reps actually spend selling can have a huge impact on productivity numbers. Assess how your sales reps are actually using their time. If you find they are spending too much time doing other things, look for ways to automate these tasks using online tools.

5. Marketing Automation

Marketing automation can boost your sales reps’ productivity. Look for online tools that can help your sales reps automate certain marketing tactics so they can spend more time selling. This will help you increase leads, better qualify candidates, and increase conversions.

6. Align Sales and Marketing

There is a lot of synergy between sales and marketing. However, most companies are not taking advantage of the similarity in the two departments. Aligning tasks, eliminating redundancy, and assigning roles strategically can help your sales team focus more on sales and let marketers focus on marketing.

7. Social Selling

Social selling is a powerful online sales technique. It can help you build stronger relationships with your prospects. You can quickly build trust and connect with customers in a different way. Monitor customer behaviour, get access to different metrics, and better understand their situation. You can use it at all steps in the sales process, gain new insights and even shorten the sales cycle. Quicker sales processes will help to improve overall productivity.

8. LinkedIn Sales Navigator

LinkedIn Sales Navigator is an effective online sales tool that allows sales professionals to target people and companies, track leads, and engage with prospects. You can get lead recommendations, integrate the tool with your CRM, get real time updates, and even see who has viewed your profile. You can choose from a number of plans and scale access based on the size of your sales team.

Read More From Our Sales Recruiting Blog

Looking for more ways to improve your sales process? Learn more from our sales recruiters by checking out these blogs about how to close better, save sales, negotiate more deals and much more:

Tips for Leveraging Technology to Close Sales Remotely

7 Tips for Closing Sales in an Economic Downturn

7 Top Sales Trends of 2020

Don’t Give Up! 4 Ways to Salvage a Sale

6 Ways to Come Back From a Drop in Sales

How to Own Your Negotiation Skills to Close More Deals

SalesForce Search is a Toronto sales recruiting company that specializes in the recruitment and placement of sales professionals. We recruit salespeople in every sector of the economy including, software, manufacturing, financial services, and medical devices. Find the right salesperson for your organization, start your search here.