How to Increase Sales Velocity with a Sales Enablement Powered CRM
Sales velocity measures how quickly sales generates revenue. Basically, it analyzes how fast deals are being made throughout the sales team. As G2 states, “Determining sales velocity shows businesses how much revenue they can expect to make in one day or over a certain period of time.” But knowing how quickly or slowly your deals are won is only half the battle. It’s important to invest in the proper technology to increase your overall sales velocity.
There are two types of technologies that when working in unison, enable sales teams to increase sales velocity. The first is a CRM, also known as a customer relationship management platform. The other is a sales enablement platform. A CRM keeps track of all customer data and sales interactions. It not only gives the sales team, but also the marketing team, insight into the entire sales cycle. A sales enablement platform helps sales reps qualify leads, build engagement, and speed up sales velocity with helpful features like content management and sales analytics.
Ultimately, a CRM and sales enablement platform are like milk and cookies. Everything “tastes” better when they’re together! Read on to learn how a CRM and sales enablement platform increase sales velocity and drive revenue.
Reduce manual data entry with the right technology stack to increase sales velocity
CRMs are great for managing customer data. However, data is only useful if it’s up to date and relevant. For instance, manually cleaning up the database and entering contact information is a time-consuming process. Sales reps are always needing to update contact records with the most recent notes from their last conversation, the materials sent to leads, and other information in the CRM. However, with a sales enablement platform, all of that information is already ported over automatically after a sales meeting. As a result, sales reps save valuable time from having to manually add those notes in after every meeting.
A sales enablement platform automatically improves and maintains CRM data hygiene. This saves sales reps hours per week and allows them to focus their efforts on selling. A sales enablement platform automatically logs all activities and shared content to the contacts, accounts, and opportunities in the CRM. Essentially, a sales enablement platform joins forces with your CRM to reduce manual tasks and as a result increase sales velocity.
Equip sellers with relevant resources to reduce clutter and impact time-spent-selling
Sales reps spend only 30% of their time actually selling. The rest of their time is spent on administrative tasks or searching for the right materials. Without being able to focus on selling, sales reps are slowing down their own sales velocity. Additionally, sales reps often report not having direct access to relevant and up-to-date sales collateral. Moreover, spending hours per week searching for the right sales materials makes it much more difficult to close deals quickly.
A sales enablement platform serves as a one-stop shop for all sales materials. The right sales enablement platform will allow sales reps to take control of the sales content. With everything gathered in one place, sales reps are able to speed up sales velocity. This is because they now have quick access to the latest version of each piece of sales content. With a sales enablement platform and CRM, sales reps can send sales material to customers and leads within the CRM seamlessly. Furthermore, sales reps can send presentations and materials directly from the sales enablement platform to contacts in the CRM at the touch of a button.
Improve the customer experience with quick personalization to speed up sales velocity
According to our research, 52% of sales leaders don’t believe their sales material is of enough value to be effective. So how does providing prospects with valuable content improve their experience? How can it increase sales velocity? Forbes states, 80% of buyers are more likely to make a purchase from a brand that provides valuable personalized experiences. Personalized sales experiences ensure that the prospect is delighted at each stage of the sales cycle.
To personalize the customer experience is to create specific content for each lead based on their needs. To accomplish this, sales reps use customer data within a CRM to tailor sales efforts to individual leads and customers. Based on CRM data, sales enablement platforms go a step further to recommend personalized content for sellers to present to buyers.
A recent Gartner survey states brands can potentially lose 38% of their customers due to poor personalization practices. By improving the customer experience, sellers provide prospects with valuable interactions which lead to happy customers. Moreover, a positive customer experience encourages prospects to make a purchase sooner in the sales cycle. This leads to an increase in sales velocity.
Close the loop between sales and marketing
Both the marketing and sales teams affect a buyer’s experience. By working together, marketing and sales can streamline the buyer’s journey thus increasing sales velocity overall. Marketing’s view of the buyer oftentimes ends once the lead submits a conversion form and heads into the sales CRM. This leaves marketers with little to no insight as to which content the salespeople are finding most useful. Additionally, marketers are unaware of which content resonates with buyers.
A sales enablement platform helps bridge the gap between marketing and sales by tying revenue information from your CRM together with engagement data from your enablement platform. With this unification, marketers can see beyond the point of hand-off to sales. Then, marketers will be able to see which pieces of content are most impactful based on engagement analytics in the sales enablement platform and CRM. Therefore, when marketers create valuable content for the buyer, sales velocity increases.
Final Thoughts
When working together, a CRM and sales enablement platform can speed up sales velocity by reducing manual tasks. What’s more, sales velocity increases when sales reps have more time to focus on their most important role: selling. With more time to focus on selling, salespeople will also be able to quickly drive revenue. HubSpot states, “How effectively you sell makes a difference to the bottom line. How quickly you can effectively sell can make an even bigger difference.”
Transform your sales now! Request a demo with Prezentor to see how a sales enablement platform can help you increase your sales velocity and drive revenue.