Telemarketing Software Featured Article

 

  By Paula Bernier, Executive Editor, TMC

 

Getting sales people to read a simple email can be a challenge. So you know how tough it can be to get them buy in to – and actually implement – new practices and technologies in their everyday activities. 

It’s understandable, of course. These individuals rely on commissions as their lifeblood, so they want to spend all, or at least as much as possible, of their time selling rather than concerning themselves with details that they believe won’t positively impact their bottom lines.

That said it’s important when introducing new methodologies that impact sales people’s work habit that you not only introduce those new practice, but also that you reinforce them on an ongoing basis. As Rachel Clapp Miller of Force Management suggests in a recent blog, organizations can do this by scheduling follow-up opportunities through which sales people can ask questions, offer feedback, and participate in role play to educate and remind them about how and why your organization is taking these new steps.

Information sharing among sales team members also benefits the whole organization, notes Miller, who suggests businesses should take steps to encourage collaboration among team members by rewarding shared successes. Using an internal sales portal as well as various social media tools to both enable collaboration and highlight new business can be effective, Miller says.

And, while you’re at it, don’t forget about the customers’ interests and their relationships to your sales staff. This exercise should include providing customers with proof that your organization can and does deliver what is promised. At the same time, these proof points are yet another tool added to your sales staff members’ toolboxes, which they can use both with the initial customer and with other customers and prospects.

Aligning marketing and sales efforts also frequently results in better returns for organizations, according to a recent blog by David Hood, co-founder and CEO of digital image content company Hemera Technologies. According to the Aberdeen (News - Alert) Group, organizations that are highly aligned realize average annual revenue growth of 32 percent while their unaligned peers, as a group, experience a 7 percent annual revenue decrease.


Edited by Maurice Nagle