5 Reasons Why Your Sales Team Is Underperforming

Learn how CRM systems can help raise sales team performance and customer satisfaction.

Why is your sales team underperforming? Here are five common reasons:

Not following up on leads

Without follow-up, sales leads won’t convert. If your sales team is not following up leads, your business is losing sales. It is essential that your team has a CRM system that allows them to record leads and progress each opportunity through the sales pipeline to its conclusion, and also allows you to effectively monitor lead follow-up and and address any unfollowed-up leads before it’s too late.

‘On average 70% of the leads marketers sent to sales were never contacted at all. And of those abandoned 70%, 43% ended up buying something from a competitor over the next 13 months.’ 

  Poor use of email   

Email is, for many customers, the communication method of choice. It is therefore essential that:

• Sales staff use email to contact customers where appropriate.
• File email against customer records for future reference.
• Automate email and use email templates as far as possible to increase efficiency and reduce manual intervention.
• Use email for new marketing efforts.

Keeping email stored against customer records in CRM systems ensures a full audit trail for communications and a better understanding of each customer.

‘77% of people prefer to receive permission-based promotional messaging via email.’

ExactTarget survey 2012

‘Personalised emails improve click-through rates by 14% and conversion rates by 10%.’

poor organisational understanding  

Your team needs to identify and understand each client so they target the correct person with each sales effort:

• Who are the deal influencers?
• Who are the decision makers?
• Who are the gatekeepers?

CRM systems that capture the organisational structure of client companies will save time and get deals in front of the right person.

Poor relationship building

Relationships are built on trust, which is why your sales team needs to deliver on promises. If a client requests a call back, they must receive that call when they ask. CRM systems provide the ability to record call notes and set reminders for follow-up.

‘Companies that excel at lead nurturing generate 50% more sales-ready leads at 33% lower cost.’

Missed opportunities 

Well-established customer relationships provide opportunities to upsell and cross-sell. But there are two key factors to make this happen:

• A solid, trusting relationship between customer and account manager.
• A good understanding of the client’s needs, preferences and company culture.

CRM systems can store:

• The personal information required to maintain a relationship with each client stakeholder.
• Data that allows account managers to match products to customer preferences for upsell opportunities.

‘Nurtured leads make 47% larger purchases than non-nurtured leads.’

Remember…

• A CRM system offers many ways for sales teams to improve performance.
• A CRM system will increase customer satisfaction, ensuring ROI.