You have your sales software locked and loaded. Everyone from the intern to the CEO is fully wowed by your dashboards and is ringing the death knell to cells, spreadsheets and formulae. Good job. But hold on for a moment. Are you by any chance thinking ‘now what?’ Settle down and read on. It’s time to start milking that technology for some useful sales insights and intelligence and the experts at Varicent are here to show you how.
Where do I start?
Getting familiar with a suite of sales performance management (SPM) software is a bit like taking the wheel of a high-performance automobile for the first time. It’s thrilling, it’s fast and should make complete sense, but once you step on the accelerator, you’re not completely sure of where you might end up.
We’re taking a bit of a guess here but dragging that car analogy out for one last time, you want to get to your destination quicker and more efficiently than with your last model. And if you’re buying a fleet, you want to know exactly where your drivers are at all times.
The difference between average performance software and excellent is that with something like the Varicent solution suite, you can immediately gauge how a sales rep has performed in a month, contrasting with last year or compared to a colleague. The tools and data work for you, not against you. The dashboards are not only easy to decipher but each has purpose and can help you come to an informed decision.
So, are you getting out of your system the sales insights you were hoping for? Whether that’s a more balanced quota plan, a new view on sales territories or a more robust compensation scheme, are you getting back what you thought you signed up for?
More importantly, any sales intelligence software worth its price is backed up by a knowledge team that helps you to integrate the system and educate the users, rather than picking up the check and leaving you to figure out the rest.
What can you tell me about territory management software?
Your business is growing, your product base is expanding while some areas may be ready to abandon. The question you should be asking of your sales software is ‘where to next’? A simple answer is the name of a town, state or region untouched by your business. Intelligence is who else is there, what have we sold there in the past, what is the demand and conversely, what are the factors that may make our entry an unwise idea? That full picture is only revealed with a rigorous sales territory software package. Anything less is like a jigsaw puzzle missing the final piece.
How do I get the right people in the right place?
The natural successor to the territory question is quota management. A good sales manager may argue that they know their reps and execs so well, that no software can match up to natural instinct and savvy. Possibly. But even the most incisive manager needs the tools to understand how many prospects and clients a rep can handle, how likely there are to hit targets and where those resources are best placed. In short, why rely on guesswork when those killer instincts can be backed up (or occasionally shattered) by the sales insights and output of a first-rate piece of quota management kit?
How can I track my team when they’re out in the field?
Once your sales team is in place and ideally working their way through the sales pipeline to a satisfying close, your next priority is to track all elements of the sale in real-time. You want the intelligence and analysis at your fingertips to see if there is a pattern of under-performance for one individual or all the signs of continuing success across a whole team. A 360 SPM software package can enable laser-focus on one area, such as sales conversions in a week or dig deeper and reveal if there is a weakness in a product sales strategy or person.
Is our compensation plan motivating my guys?
Maybe all sales insights and intelligence comes down to commission and bonuses while every other piece of insight along the way just gets you to the number crunch. If that’s the case and you’re main aim is to incentivize the troops or whether you’re taking a more far-sighted approach, the insight gained from implementing the right software ensures all is fair and there are enough motivating factors to keep everyone invested.
We’ll end as we started – in that high-performance car. Simply put, take it for a road test, open the engine and play with the buttons. Are you comfortable taking the wheel? And of course, make sure your motor is compatible for your driving needs. It’s not so different from ensuring your sales software choice is the right decision for your business.
Find the match to your sales insights and intelligence needs from your Varicent sales representative or visit www.varicent.com today.
