Prospecting is essential to generating new business and increasing revenue. But its effectiveness is dramatically reduced when your sales team is tied down with inessential admin tasks.
Continue reading to understand how sales teams can prioritize prospecting, and the top five tips your media businesses can use to increase sales time and reduce admin.
Prospecting vs. admin: Why you’re losing out
When your sales teams spend more time on prospecting, it allows them to increase their pool of potential customers, generate new business and grow their sales pipeline. Prospecting is essential to three other key areas: building relationships, improving conversion rates and diversifying revenue streams.
Building relationships
Prospecting is an opportunity to build relationships with potential customers. By spending more time on prospecting, your sales teams can get to know their prospects, understand their needs and position themselves as a trusted advisor.
Conversion rates
Prospecting also leads to higher conversion rates. By understanding the needs of potential customers and addressing their pain points, your teams can increase their chances of closing deals.
Diversifying revenue streams
Diversifying revenue streams is important for long-term business growth. By spending more time on prospecting, sales teams can identify new market segments and opportunities to expand your revenue streams.
Prioritizing prospects in 4 steps
By considering these factors, sales teams can prioritize prospects and allocate their time and resources more effectively to close more deals and grow their sales. There are four steps sales teams can follow to prioritize prospects:
1. The first step in prioritizing prospects is to determine their fit. This means evaluating whether the prospects have a need for the product or service being sold and whether they are a good match for the company’s target market.
2. The second step to consider is the prospect’s budget. Prospects with a higher budget are typically given a higher priority as they are more likely to make a larger purchase.
3. The third step is to consider the prospect’s decision-making timeline. Prospects who are in the market for a solution right now should be given a higher priority than those who may not be ready to make a purchase for several months.
4. The fourth step is the prospect’s level of authority. Prospects who have the final decision-making power should be given a higher priority than those who only have influence over the decision
Sales teams can also use tools that make it easier to prioritize prospects, like Adpoint Assistant. This connects Adpoint to the user’s inbox, allowing salespeople to access the CRM without switching screens or systems. Adpoint Assistant for Gmail improves the prioritization of prospects by allowing sales teams to – directly from their Gmail inbox:
- View prospect information while writing emails, ensuring messages are informed and relevant to the individual prospect
- View, create and assign follow-up activities from within their inbox so that no prospect falls through the cracks
- Add and generate new pipeline opportunities directly from their inbox for optimized funnels
- Quickly and easily add & update contacts or attachments in Adpoint.
5 tips to slash sales admin time
Motivating a sales team is all about making your staff feel valued, supported, and competent. There are many ways you can do this, from rewarding good performance to providing professional development opportunities to setting challenging, yet attainable goals.
1. Automate repetitive tasks
Utilize tools such as customer relationship management (CRM) software, email marketing automation and document management software to automate repetitive tasks like data entry, follow-up emails and report generation.
Featuring enhanced automation capabilities, Adpoint Assistant for Gmail is another tool that can be used to free up salespeople’s time by making it easier to manage admin and customers more effectively, as well as speed up the sales to cash cycle.
2. Free up sales teams’ time
Making it easier for sales teams to generate new business and book orders is one of the key ways media companies can increase revenue.
To free up your sales teams’ time, you can delegate non-sales tasks such as data entry and administrative duties to a virtual assistant or an administrative staff member. This will allow your sales team to focus on what they do best: selling.
3. Time management
Prioritize time management by focusing on the most important tasks and delegating or eliminating less important ones. This will help to streamline workflows and increase productivity because your sales teams won’t be tied down by inessential work.
Using software like Adpoint Assistant for Gmail makes it easier for teams to view high-priority tasks like follow-up activities directly from their inbox.
4. Leverage technology
Leveraging technology like video conferencing and online meeting tools are essential for saving travel time and reducing the need for face-to-face meetings. In fact, virtual meetings save 50-80% of the costs required to meet face-to-face.
In-person meetings also take a huge chunk of time out of a salesperson’s day. Using video conferencing means that time can be put back into where it’s most important: prospecting and driving sales.
5. Plan ahead
Plan ahead for customer interactions by researching their needs, preparing for potential objections, and creating a script for the conversation. This is another area where Adpoint Assistant for Gmail can help sales teams.
By connecting the Adpoint CRM to their inboxes, your sales team can view customer information and history logs as they respond to emails. This improves message relevancy and ensures emails are always informed by the bigger picture.
By implementing these tips, sales can spend less time on administrative tasks and more time with prospects and customers, allowing them to better understand their needs and close more deals.
To start optimizing your sales team’s workflows with Adpoint, book a call with Lineup today. To find out more about Adpoint Assistant for Gmail, click here.
