Q4 is a precarious time for productivity. The chaos of the holidays combined with the end-of-year crunch means competing priorities for employees and plenty of opportunities for performance to slip. As Fast Company says, “The season is rife with distractions in and outside work, where everyone is twice as busy and half as focused”. Indeed, a study by the Institute for Corporate Productivity found that 62% of companies experience a dip in workplace productivity during the holiday season.
But being productive this time of year doesn’t have to mean working overtime. Turn a productivity slump into a productivity spike with these helpful holiday hints, and Q4 can be one of the most wonderful times of the year.
What is Sales Productivity?
Sales productivity means maximizing sales results while minimizing the resources expended, such as cost, effort, and time. The 20/60/20 rule says that about 20% of your sales team are top performers who often meet or exceed quota. That leaves a majority of your team with room for improvement and opportunity to increase productivity.
How to Increase Sales Productivity
1) Embrace Automation
Less than 1/3 of a sales person’s times goes to core selling, and the distractions of the holiday season will reduce this even further. Time spent on repetitive or non-best practice tasks is time spent not selling. When you can automate an activity, you will save steps and time so that sales reps can get back to core selling activities. Reduce or eliminate admin tasks, such as data entry, and automate the sales workflow as much as possible.
2) Align Marketing and Sales
Forrester research shows that only 8% of B2B companies have tight sales and marketing alignment. The lack of communication can cause organization-wide disconnects, missed opportunities, and lost revenue. However, alignment and shared goals can result in 25% increases in quota achievement and 15% increases in win rate, emphasizing the need for collaboration, particularly during this critical time of the year.
3) Provide the Right Content at the Right Time
Sales reps spend 30% of their day looking for or creating content – one of the biggest consumers of their time. Yet 70% of marketing content never gets used by sales. Why? They can’t find relevant material. And when 95% of B2B deals are influenced by content, this is not only a waste of time but can also negatively impact opportunities. Q4 is not the time for stalled deals! To make content productive, the sales team needs to know what content to use and when to use it.
4) Get Social
The power of social selling can help sales reps relate to and engage more intelligently with buyers. And as the holidays draw near, people are generally in good spirits and willing to connect or engage in conversations. Sales can use social media in every stage of the sales process, from prospecting to customer service. With insights about prospects such as demographics, pain points, and industry trends, sales reps can more quickly and effectively drive an engaging and meaningful conversation. And according to Aberdeen, sales reps who leverage social media in their sales process are 79% more likely to attain quota.
5) Measure Key Metrics
Measuring ‘sales’ is easy – revenue and dollars are good indicators of success. Measuring ‘selling’ is the challenging part. Many organizations are not consistently improving sales productivity because they don’t regularly track productivity gains and results. Consider metrics such as call rate, win rate, sales cycle length, pipeline conversion rates, and average number of touches. Collecting and analyzing the proper data can quickly uncover opportunities for improvement. And now is a great time to evaluate what worked and what didn’t throughout the year, as well as during Q4 in previous years. Use those successes to boost momentum for the end-of-year push and to get the new year off to a good start.
6) Invest in the Proper Tools
Tis the season for giving, so give your sales teams the right tools to help them do their job efficiently and effectively. Sales enablement technologies, for example, aim to align marketing processes and goals and then arm sales teams with the tools and content to improve sales execution and drive revenue. Sales enablement, by nature, empowers and enables sales reps to work more efficiently. And remember, a more productive sales team means more revenue is being generated!
7) Focus on the End Goal and Prioritize
This time of year can be overwhelming for many people. The key to surviving Q4 is to have realistic expectations for the rest of the year. Identify the most important milestones and critical tasks you must achieve by January 1 and then prioritize accordingly. Be realistic – what can you actually accomplish? Having a focus on a manageable goal is better than trying to do too much while achieving nothing.
Secondly, clear what you can from the to-do list; this is not the time of year for pointless meetings, changing the sales process, or launching brand-new initiatives (unless they are seasonal). And work smarter, with a focus on quality over quantity. For example, instead of prioritizing prospecting, reconnect with past customers and lost opportunities – those people who have already journeyed through a majority of your sales funnel. Your decision-makers may be distracted by their social calendar, holiday happenings, and upcoming vacations, but they also may be even more ready to buy as end-of-year urgency sparks the pressure to use up 2015 budgets or to acquire tools and technologies for the new year.
8) Relax!
All work and no play means burn-out for the new year! Taking some time to refresh will help to beat mental fatigue and recharge. Studies show that people perform at their highest levels when they feel energized and that even small breaks will improve concentration and job performance. And enjoying the holiday cheer has been proven to reduce work stress. So take the time to participate in the office holiday party, the secret Santa gift exchange, or the hot cocoa social!