For sales development teams, the activity of coaching is vital because it ensures continuous improvement of sales development representatives (SDRs). However, most organizations are not implementing true sales manager to SDR coaching sessions.
So why is there a lack of coaching in the sales development space? First, most sales managers don’t quite understand what constitutes coaching. Second, many sales managers believe that the training the SDR received in their onboarding during the first few months of their employment was sufficient training. It is often assumed that the SDRs will just figure it out as they go.
“Implementing FrontSpin across our sales development business, featuring over 150 SDRs and close to 20 SDR managers, has created a significant impact on the effectiveness of our real-time call coaching. The platform incorporates the most well-designed, seamless whisper and call monitoring functionality we’ve experienced in any power dialer. As a result, we’ve seen our prospect conversion rates rise by nearly 14% since we fully installed the platform in early 2020.”
Kristen Wisdorf, Head of Client Services and Delivery, memoryBlue
When using the FrontSpin whisper functionality, sales managers only need an internet connection to monitor and coach their SDRs. No additional plug-in is needed. By using whisper functionality, SDR coaching sessions are proven to be more powerful and yield better results.
Coaching can improve SDR performance if it is executed on a consistent basis. By consistently coaching, managers can be aware of the SDR activities and identify problem areas that the manager can help coach. The manager can then offer specific suggestions in order to help the SDRs in the areas they are struggling in. Using the FrontSpin whisper functionality, the managers can listen to live calls and coach the SDRs in real-time without the prospect hearing.
Consistent coaching, partnered with the right tools, will ensure your SDRs are converting more prospects in 2021.
2020 has been a year like no other and it is probably safe to say that almost every business across the globe is looking for some ways to cut costs. Now is the time for companies to take a look at their expenses and see where they can save.
A lot of the time, this means tech stacks need to be reduced. The thought of reducing your tech stack can be stressful. What tools should you keep and what should you cut?
Let’s take a look at five ways businesses can reduce their stack while still keeping their favorite tools.
Pinpoint needs versus wants
Pinpointing needs vs. wants can also help you determine how important the bigger tools that you are paying a lot for really are. You may be paying for a larger solution with extra add-ons you may not even be using.
By pinpointing needs vs. wants, you’ll find ways to remove potentially frivilous tools or replace high-priced solutions with lower-priced tools.
Decrease the number of seats you are paying for
When you pay for software, you typically pay per seat. Make a list of the users you are paying for and reach out to see if they are actually using the software you are paying for.
If the employees aren’t using the software, cut your number of seats.
You can also ask your sales rep at the software you are using if they are willing to give you a deal on the number of seats you currently have. There may be some Covid offers that you can benefit from.
Streamline Your Tools
With so many different tools that offer very similar functions, it’s not unusual to find a company that uses multiple tools when they really only need one.
We recently reduced one of our clients, memoryBlue, tech stack from four vendors down to two. With using FrontSpin as their sales engagement tool and power dialer, no additional software was needed.
Confirm You are Automating Everything
While saving money is important, so is saving time. Are the tools you are paying for helping you automate everything they can? With FrontSpin, SDRs, BDRs, and AEs are able to automate their calls, emails, and social touches with cadence playbooks. Along with being a power dialer, the sales automation process is streamlined.
Outsource
When you outsource your SDR team, you significantly reduce in-house hiring and training costs. The hiring process is simplified and you are able to keep new employee costs down. Every time you hire a new SDR, you are spending between $6,000-$10,000 a month for payroll, infrastructure, and benefits. When you outsource, you can reduce that down to $2,490 a year.
When CloudTask first started working FrontSpin, they had 40 reps using five different systems. They have since grown to over 85 reps all using FrontSpin. This means as an outsourcer, they can control training, the tech stack, reporting, and onboarding. They only have one database environment to manage, no longer have a need for additional phone hardware, and also decreased operational vendor costs.
We all know all the actions you go through when deciding to add a new tool to your tech stack. You do your research, read the reviews, and try it out with a free trial or demo.
Tech makes our life easier. It is designed to make to relieve some of the stress of our day-to-day tasks but if you are paying too much, it won’t relieve much stress. If you are feeling overwhelmed, follow the five steps we outlined above to see where you can reduce costs and still streamline your daily tasks.
Distraction limits efficiency. This inescapable fact of human nature is too often ignored by employers, as they frequently sabotage their own efforts at creating more efficient processes by overloading employees with a variety of different tasks.
Context switching, or the process of mentally switching gears from one task to another, takes time. Some psychologists have even likened the process to a computer reset, as a new task requires the brain to take the time to “recontextualize” to the new situation and expectations.
Most people, especially strong multitaskers, claim they hardly notice the brief mental processing delay, but it can be measured, and this processing delay can add up to a significant amount of time over a full shift, especially if the sales rep is frequently changing between a number of disparate tasks.
Focusing on more than one thing decreases productivity by 40% and lowers IQ by 10 points, according to Harvard Business Review. It also leads to a loss of 2.1 hours a day.
It might be hard to believe, but according to Gloria Mark, Professor of Informatics at the University of California, Irvine, her research shows that information workers (i.e., salespeople) switch tasks every three minutes and five seconds on average. Moreover, close to half of these context switches were actually “self-interruptions”.
Reducing/Mitigating Context Switching
Larger employers are becoming increasingly aware of the costs of context switching, and many have begun to fine tune their operations to minimize context switching and prevent their sales reps from losing focus.
Thoughtful scheduling of a rep’s daily activities can help in minimizing context switching. For example, a sales development rep on an inside sales team might spend the first hour of her day cleaning up leads and resolving problems, then she logs into her sales communication tool and puts in three hours sending emails working to qualify leads. After lunch, she’ll reach out to leads using an auto dialer like FrontSpin for three hours or so, and spend the last hour of her day responding to emails and finalizing qualified leads to pass on to the account exec team.
Grouping calls is another way to minimize context switching. One idea is to group calls by roles, so sales reps can focus on the same messaging for the same buyer personas and not have to mentally switch gears.
With this kind of block scheduling and carefully considered grouping of calls, you can make sure that your team is exposed to minimum distractions so they can get more work done. The use of an integrated sales communication tool and autodialer also means the employee is switching to a designated work environment that encourages staying on task.
Not surprisingly, a growing number of sales managers are turning to technology in their efforts to streamline their operations and improve rep productivity. The latest sales communication & acceleration tools and auto dialers offer a ton of useful features to save time and improve productivity.
Sales Communication Software and Auto Dialer Improves Focus, Improves Productivity
Sales communication & acceleration platforms and auto dialers continue to evolve, and most of the new features are aimed at eliminating unnecessary work and distractions, so that sales reps spend more of their time contacting customers and closing deals.
An integrated, multi-modal sales tool that includes an auto dialer should allow reps to more than double the total number of email or phone contacts made during a shift, dramatically increasing productivity and resulting in more, higher-quality leads and more opportunities for account execs.
An integrated, multi-modal sales tool that includes an auto dialer should allow reps to more than double the total number of email or phone contacts made during a shift, dramatically increasing productivity and resulting in more, higher-quality leads and more opportunities for account execs.
The latest generation of sales communication solutions have significantly leveraged the value of an inside sales team. Technology has made it possible to integrate a number of tasks into a single interface, enabling the development of a more effective sales process, and giving your team the tools it needs to rapidly qualify prospects and close more deals.
Forward-looking sales managers are closely tracking the technology-driven sea change that is hitting the inside sales world today, and are taking steps to ensure their sales teams have the productivity tools they need to succeed.
