One of the best ways to evaluate a salesperson’s productivity is to track and measure their results. The right technology can simplify and automate this process. Choosing the wrong tools, or using too many tools, can impede your efficiency and work against you.
Let’s dive into using the right tools to measure your sales and marketing productivity and get real results.
Quick takeaways:
- Choose a tool that is easy to use and properly designed for the task
- A CRM is effective for measuring sales and marketing productivity
- Use the CRM to track customer interactions, monitor your sales pipeline, check progress against sales forecasts, and prioritize sales tasks
What Are the Best Tools to Measure Sales and Marketing Productivity?
“Best” is a subjective measure. What’s best for you might not work for someone else. Finding the right tools for your business will depend on your needs. What matters most is what works for you.
The best tools are designed to do the job at hand. You could hit a nail with a wrench or a tomato can - they will do the job, but not well. A hammer is perfectly designed for hitting a nail. A nail gun is more efficient, as it has a singular purpose.
For a startup, sales and marketing tools should be lightweight and easy to use. If a tool is too complex, you won’t want to use it. It also becomes an unnecessary expense, as you’ll have to replace it with something you will use. Avoid overbuilding your sales tech stack or buying too many tools. It’s great to have a fully equipped toolbox, but you don’t need a bunch of tools that do similar things, especially when you need to control costs.
Most tools that measure productivity also provide data. But data alone won’t answer all your questions. And you don’t want to spend all your time manually entering data or configuring the application to get results. The best tools will help you organize your data according to relevant factors. They also automate the process of generating actionable data with easy-to-understand dashboards and reports.
Many tools will help you measure sales and marketing productivity. One tool will do the job well, is relatively easy to use, and makes it easier to organize and analyze your data: a customer relationship management (CRM) system.
Using a CRM System to Measure Sales and Marketing Productivity
Every startup should add a CRM to their toolbox. Over 90% of companies with at least 10 employees use a CRM for their business.
Startups can use a CRM to:
- Capture data on leads, prospects, and customers
- Track interactions to show the path each customer takes for a sale
- Organize and analyze customer data for sales forecasting and improving sales strategies
- Provide strategic data visualizations using a customizable dashboard
- Automate marketing and forecasting tasks
CRMs are customizable, allowing you to define who you track, what data you track, and what you do with the data. They enable you to draw deep insights from the data to analyze your sales and marketing efforts. Here are four ways to use a CRM to measure sales and marketing productivity.
Track Customer Interactions
Use the CRM to track the number of prospect interactions, including number of calls made and emails sent, number of appointments booked, and number of conversations held with qualified prospects. Track the duration of calls, dates and times for calls, and call outcomes. Assign values to customer conversations to monitor the quality of interactions. Produce reports to identify which sales reps are doing well (i.e., closing sales) and who needs help with improving their numbers.
Monitor Opportunities Within the Sales Pipeline
Use the CRM to monitor the number of opportunities at each stage of the sales pipeline. Track progress based on number of prospects at the beginning of a stage, how many moved to the next stage (i.e., how many were qualified), and how many deals closed. Identify whether sales reps are generating enough leads to move through the pipeline, and whether they are properly qualifying leads. Identify bottlenecks in the pipeline and where you can improve. Produce and analyze reports on key pipeline metrics (e.g., reasons for deals being lost, average lead response time, closing ratio, customer acquisition cost).
Check Progress Against Sales Forecasts
Use the CRM to create sales forecasts to compare sales reps’ progress against a baseline. Work backward to determine if you will hit quarterly revenues or the required number of deals made and closed. Produce reports to show progress toward goals and identify activities to help with meeting quotas. Use reports to provide directions for meeting targets, such as contacting prospects with a higher likelihood to purchase or how much more prospecting needs to be done.
Prioritize Sales Tasks
Use the CRM to organize your calendar to prioritize sales activities and prospect conversations. Create a list of tasks, and sort them by due date, priority, and other filters. Track your tasks and your sales reps’ tasks. Prioritize specific customer conversations, such as emails by highest priority or customers with the highest likelihood to close.
Choose the Right Sales and Marketing Tools for Your Business
Setting up a CRM should be a priority for your startup. It is the ideal tool for measuring your sales and marketing productivity. Hubspot is one CRM that can help startups to effectively track the results of their sales and marketing efforts.
Need help setting up a CRM that can scale along with your startup? Sellerant can guide the way.