Having an efficient sales process is an important step for any business in normal times. Today, I will explore ways to make your sales process more efficient.

Sales Efficiency vs. Sales Effectiveness and Why Sales Efficiency Matters

Before you can make your sales process more efficient you need to understand what sales efficiency is. Sales efficiency is mostly a way to measure the speed of your sales process. It is a way to measure a timeframe of how quickly you are converting prospects into leads and eventually into opportunities in your sales funnel.  From here, your sales efficiency works to measure how you are able to convert opportunities into sales while maintaining the highest return on investment by sales reps. Time and how it is managed are important to engage and maximize revenue-generating activities which should be prioritized as a salesperson, however there are more things to consider. Sales efficiency can be tricky to calculate, however there is a simple ratio you can use. The sales efficiency ratio can be calculated by taking your quarter number of revenue and dividing it by your prior quarters’ sales and marketing expenses. Your sales process should be within 0.5- 1 to be considered efficient. Consider this article for more information.

Create a Repeatable Sales Process

You should have a guide available that your reps can learn from. Having a guide that allows salespeople to follow can help gain qualified leads that will increase their efficiency in assessing which leads meet your ideal customer profile and which ones are likely not a fit.  The key steps in your sales process should include:

• Preparation and Research– knowing the scope of your product and the wants and needs of your ideal customer 
• Prospecting – searching for potential customers 
• Objection Handling – addressing questions or concerns that prospects may have before considering your product
• Follow Up – after your initial outreach you are unlikely to get a response from a prospect so you will need to conduct follow ups with them to qualify them as a lead or to move on
• CRM– A customer relationship management (CRM) system will help you track all interactions with your leads and sales opportunities
• Email Templates– can be customizable emails created in your CRM that you can use to send to your prospects

These steps can be used and repeated for different prospects in your sales processes. For more information how to stay organized in sales consider this article.

Ways to Improve Sales Efficiency

You should have goals that are defined as “smart goals,” these are goals that are specific, measurable, action–oriented, realistic and time-based. These will help you use the appropriate KPIs which you can use as benchmarks. Always have a clear picture of who you are selling to, which can be determined by your buyer personas. Remember to focus on selling to your customers’ needs, meaning you should be conducting research on what issues your customers are potentially struggling with. Make sure you can communicate how your product is the best solution to their needs. Focusing on the basics is often a good starting point, this can include fine tuning your sales process by finding new ways to search for prospects, presenting sales pitches and how you conduct follow ups. For more tips on increasing efficiency consider this article.

Remember, the goal to sales efficiency is to identify what works for your business. If you need help you can connect with me.