How To Eliminate Sales Productivity Gaps

One of the biggest reason for performance gaps on sales teams is due to productivity challenges. With the rise of remote work along with the emergence of new sales technology, productivity gaps are becoming a more common reason as to why some sales organizations perform better than others. The good news is that productivity is now easier than ever to measure allowing sales leaders the opportunity to close productivity gaps that lead directly to more revenue growth. Since productivity helps measure what inputs (emails, linkedIn messages, calls, etc.) lead to sales outputs, it provides more context into where sales performance can be improved in areas that would usually go unnoticed.

What tools do you need to close sales productivity gaps?

The tools you need to close sales productivity gaps are productivity intelligence software and a performance analytics platform. A productivity intelligence tool collects data in areas like email, CRM, linkedin and other productivity tools to give insight into how productive your sales reps are on each platform. Additionally, a performance analytics tool provides you insight into how your productivity data is impacting your most important sales metrics (quota attainment, revenue, etc.)

Below are some examples of how you can use a combination of performance analytics with productivity intelligence to close sales productivity gaps.

1) Determine What Sales Productivity Habits Lead To More Revenue

One way you can close sales productivity gaps is by understanding what productivity habits lead to more revenue. Every sales organization has difference strategies for how they generate revenue, and how sellers spend their time on a day-to-day basis is critical to revenue growth and success. By measuring productivity, you can focus your time optimizing the habits that drive the most revenue growth for your team. 

In the below example, you can see how at the below sales organization their is a direct correlation between email activity and revenue per/sales rep. Sales reps are more likely to generate more revenue if they send more emails. It is particularly true among top performers at this company, who are sending almost 3x the amount of emails vs. the average sales rep. This could be a sign that sales reps that produce more revenue at this organization are more likely to follow-up, which can help you when coaching sales reps who are not performing as well.

2) Understand Sales Productivity Habits Of Top, Middle and Bottom Performers

Another way measuring sales productivity habits can help you drive revenue is growth is by understanding the differences between top, middle and bottom performers at your organization. By looking at the differences in productivity between your sellers, you can start to understand what habits separate top performers from other performers at your organization. This gives you insight into why some sales reps performer better than others, and can be used to help coach underperforming reps become better sellers.

In the below example, you’ll notice at this sales organization top performers spend the most time on linkedin compared to other performers at the organization. You can see how less amount of time that someone spends on Linkedin leads to less revenue for the sales rep. This data can then be used to create sales strategy that motivates sales reps to use Linkedin which should lead to more revenue.

3) Get Ahead of Underperforming Sales Reps Before It’s Too Late

The last way you can close sales productivity gaps is by getting ahead of new sales reps before they underperform. A lot of sales organizations have long lead cycles, which makes it very hard to predict which sales reps are going to perform. Sales leaders have to wait months before seeing if a sales rep is going to perform as expected, which can create unpredictable results. By leveraging productivity data, you can get ahead of underperforming sales reps by measuring what inputs ultimately lead to sales outputs early in their tenure.

In the below example, you can see the average email send activity for hires in the past 90 days. You’ll notice that most of the sales reps are below the desired amount of emails sends per/day. This can be a sign that these new sales reps could underperform, so it gives you an early indication that they need some additional coaching and training.