The 2 Day Sales Reboot

The 2 Day Sales Reboot:from (title unknown) by Aswin Natarajan

We’re dedicated to bringing you the most relevant and interesting sales insights. And we’re passionate about helping you increase your productivity and sell with greater sincerity.
So we publish lots of content.
But if you’re not sure where to begin, this blog post was made for you. We’re going to tell you how to achieve a 2 day sales reboot. Ready? Lets jump in.

#1 (Re)-Identify Your Ideal Prospect Profile

The most efficient way to qualify your prospects is to create an Ideal Customer Profile. This will allow you to consistently evaluate inbound leads, improve list building, and speed up qualification.  This shouldn’t take more than 30 minutes.

#2 Define Your Inbound Strategy

The sales game has changed dramatically just in the past three years. If marketing is not doing it, you need to create a simple content and inbound strategy revolving around your blog, social accounts, and email. The goal is to keep things simple at first in your path to becoming a thought leader. If marketing is already doing it, team up and show them you find it valuable.

#3 Get Your Outbound Game Right and Tight

Break reps into two categories, setup guys and the closers. Measure the setup team by appointments set and leads qualified and the closers by revenue.

#4 Clean your CRM

It’s time to rethink the lost causes who have lingered in your sales pipeline for too long. Delete old contacts and lists which are no longer relevant. Establish a standard convention for entering data, append any missing data, and create labels to give context to your incoming contact information. Don’t feel compelled to do it all at once. You can begin by attacking the low hanging fruit.

#5 Establish Repeatable Metrics

Chances are that you’re already taking note of your sales numbers, but take some time to define them further. Segment so you can make your data actionable. Establish metrics on the quality of your inbound leads, on conversion rate after qualifying leads, and on the average time to convert a prospect into a sale. Build out your reporting dashboards and set yourself up to receive daily, weekly and monthly reports (preferably through email).

#6 Use Sales Tools for Automation

We’ve made the most comprehensive list of sales software on the internet but we suggest you begin with these 6 tools. The goal is to get maximum value with minimal time investment.

#5 Cut down research time

Instead of spending excessive amount of time researching on prospects, limit yourself to searching for just 3 pieces of contextualized information you intend to use during your conversation. Finding this information shouldn’t take more than 3 minutes. It’s called 3×3 research and it strikes a perfect balance between sincere selling and efficiency. 

#6 Meet Agile & Use Measured Performance

Establish firm but minimal meeting requirements. Use the agile methodology of daily standups, weekly tactical, monthly strategics, and quarterly off-site review. Keep them on time, target and by the books.

#7 Incentivize & Reward

Create incentives for sales people to pursue higher value leads. Reward collaborative efforts which bring in bigger sales and discourage salespeople from going after value-destroying customers. This might range from reorganizing your commission package  to a simple affirmation of guidelines.

All of these suggestions are actually habits which must cultivated and practiced. They’re the building blocks to creating a sales process which is efficient, intelligent, and people-centric. We hope you’ll find this a good starting point.