Sales Productivity Blogs That Every Sales Team Should Read

In this fast-paced world, what are the ingredients of success for a business? Take product or service quality, throw brand reputation in the mix, and top it up with attractive pricing. Is the formula complete? No! Productivity and efficiency add the final touch of success!

Productivity dictates the success of any business, throughout its entire journey. The stage however where it becomes the most important is at the very end of a business’s operations- the sales stage. Any business that falls short in sales productivity stands a chance of becoming irrelevant in the competitive space of today.

18% of sales professionals who use a CRM believe that it helps by increasing productivity and reducing time spent on administrative tasks.

Understanding Sales Productivity

Sales productivity is a measure of how various resources are deployed by an organization, to achieve its goals in a way that reduces the costs incurred, and the time spent behind it. It offers insights into the manner of conduction of sales and helps in identifying certain crucial aspects such as:

• Whether all resources, tools, and personnel are being properly utilized.

• If there is any lag or gap in the sales cycle.

• Whether the costs of incurring sales dilute the profits earned from sales.

• Whether the sales process is consuming more time than necessary.

Once an organization gains clarity on these aspects, it is in a better position to rectify the flaws in its sales and optimize them for the best results.

Why Do Sales Teams Need Knowledge Of Sales Productivity?

There can be no business growth without sales, and no sales without sales teams. Add two and two together, and it is evident that they are among the most important resources of a company. But the question might still arise, why do sales teams need to have knowledge of productivity?

Imagine a young chef starting out his career, with no idea of how to simultaneously manage all his prep work. The result is going to be hours and hours wasted on the cooking of a single dish! This same logic can be applied to sales teams and sales productivity. Once they have in-depth knowledge and understanding of the concept, their techniques can be aligned with the standards required to achieve sales productivity.

Best Sales Productivity Blogs

There is a ton of informative content available today- be it videos, podcasts, or the good-old written articles and blogs. For those who enjoy learning by reading the words of others, blogs can be a treasure trove of knowledge.  

In the space of marketing and sales, countless sales productivity blogs have been authored. However, only a few of these will truly talk from the point of view of a salesperson. If the sales team cannot relate to the blog, reading it will have no benefit for them.

Any blog that talks about the subject should necessarily include a few pointers:

• Explanation of the concept of sales productivity

• Importance associated with it

• Aspects that can adversely affect it

• Strategies to achieve it

Keeping these requirements in mind, there are certain sales productivity blogs that can make an insightful read for every sales team:

1. Boost Your Sales Productivity With These Proven CRM Hacks

Source: Kylas

This blog is a comprehensive write-up that talks about sales productivity, as well as tech adoption for growing businesses. At the outset, it talks about the pain points of growing businesses with respect to budget constraints for advertising, training, etc. These constraints are the true reason why growing businesses have difficulty in scaling, and not simply due to the inefficiency of their sales teams.

It then speaks about how growing businesses can adopt sales CRM software to streamline and optimize their work. At the crux of the blog, it explains certain CRM hacks that can be leveraged to attain sales productivity:

• Track Key Metrics Regularly.

• Create Custom Reports.

• Automate Regular Sales Tasks.

• Use Auto Lead Capture to Reduce the Workload.

• Use the Support Tab More Often.

The useful insights provided in this blog can guide businesses and their sales teams on how to utilize a sales CRM appropriately to boost their sales productivity.

2. The New Science of Sales Force Productivity

Source: Harvard Business Review

This blog is a refreshing take on the concept of sales productivity, as it has been likened to a scientific study. It explores an emerging trend witnessed in most of the successful sales teams of today. The key features of this trend are:

• Enhancement of sales productivity must be done with a scientific approach.

• Data and analytics can sharpen the basic instincts of salesmen, and lead to better results.

• This method bridges the gap between the top-performing members of the sales team and the others.

• The productivity of the team as a whole can hence be increased.

• Instead of hiring new people, the results of the existing team can be optimized.

• This saves time, money, and resources for the business.

The blog emphasizes the need to leverage data to categorize customers and set specific targets. These will clarify the specific goals of the sales team and streamline their work.

3. The Ultimate Guide to Sales Force Productivity

Source: Sales Hacker

This engaging write-up includes every pointer elaborated above for good sales productivity blogs. It explains sales productivity through an equation, linking it to the concepts of efficiency and effectiveness. These three factors work together to determine the success of the sales process.

The blog includes a series of informative statistics that establish the importance of tech adoption for businesses and has brief case studies that differentiate between productive and unproductive sales activities. These case studies use real-time situations to explain how productivity can be achieved, which is relatable for sales teams. It then explains certain strategies and tools through which sales can be made more productive.

4. Six Keys To Driving Sales Productivity In A Modern, Ever-Changing Commercial Model

Source: Forbes

Businesses operate in a very dynamic setting, and they have to constantly remain on their toes to keep up with the changing trends. The theme of this blog addresses the challenge of maintaining productivity in this ever-evolving commercial setting. The aspects that seem productive today might not be the same the next day, and the blog offers a basic framework for sales productivity:

• Keeping up with the pace of the market.

• Sales technology should improve and simplify the seller experience.

• The sales process should be well planned.

•  Incremental processes should be improved.

• Help sales teams adapt to new trends.

• Focus on the training managers.

By adopting this framework, a business can cement a position of growth and success for itself, even in evolving environments.

5. 10 Practical Sales Productivity Tips

Source: Brevet

This blog is a reliable guide for sales teams on how their daily tasks can be optimized for enhancing productivity. More than theoretical strategies, this blog gives practical suggestions on how sales teams should perform:

• Email interactions should be crisp and well-planned.

• Meetings should not be too lengthy.

• Research your consumers and competitors.

• Improve your marketing techniques.

• Use a sales CRM as productively as possible.

By learning about these tricks, sales teams can alter their working methods and increase their productivity.

Conclusion

The above-listed sales productivity blogs can help sales teams improve the efficiency and effectiveness of their work.

Tech adoption and utilization is a common factors cited in almost every blog that addresses this subject. This is because of the very noticeable impact that technology has had on the work of sales teams.

Manual tasks, endless time spent on following up with potential consumers, etc. have been replaced with automation, smart work, and error-free results. CRM software can greatly help sales teams to use their time and resources in the best manner possible, thereby leading to sales productivity.

It brings ease and convenience to a business and takes away the hassles of its operation. It is this perfect give-and-take that makes CRM software such an ideal partner for a business to optimize its operations and makes its sales efficient and productive.

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