The term “quota” is frequently used in the sales sector. This one word determines so much success: how many sales you made, how much money you made, how many leads you contacted, and how many eyeballs saw your campaign.
It’s a significant thing to meet and keep a quota. So, why are most businesses ignoring the support systems required to assist their sales representatives in doing precisely that?
Not only is it tough to meet the average sales target, but it is also made more difficult by the way certain organizations choose to disperse their resources. According to Global News Wire, only 23% of sales representatives have enough leads to meet the quota. In addition, 48% of sales bosses said they were aware they didn’t have enough leads for their reps.
How can any sales representative be expected to reach their quota if they are not prepared for success?
This is the essence of sales support. In this article, we’ll take you through the realm of sales support and share our best tips for increasing productivity by shifting the burden.
What is Sales Support?
Sales support is any function that helps a sales team or group of representatives succeed. It frees up teams to concentrate on selling products or services and closing deals. Depending on the industry, company, and sales force, the specific sales support functions may differ. A sales support professional can assist their clients with all stages of the purchasing process. They may be able to answer their questions and track their purchases to ensure timely delivery. They may also be in charge of managing communications between individual clients and the sales team.
Productive sales support can help organizations boost their brand reputation and expand their customer bases. Having a sales support team can also help boost client happiness and service. client happiness is very crucial for increasing client loyalty.
What are the Responsibilities of Sales Support?
The sales support team of a corporation assists the primary sales team in acquiring new clients and maintaining connections with existing ones. They may also perform administrative tasks that the larger sales team may be unable to handle on its own. A sales support team’s responsibilities may include the following:
#1. Giving client service
A strong customer service experience is critical for gaining a consumer’s loyalty and improving the whole purchasing experience. Working with customers to help them choose the proper product, answering any questions or resolving any issues they may have, and collecting payment is all part of sales support.
Customer service may also include canceling orders at the request of the customer, following up with customers once they get their orders, and processing refunds. A sales support team may also conduct customer surveys to determine how to improve customer care.
#2. Managing administrative responsibilities
Working as a sales support representative also entails performing a number of mundane administrative chores on behalf of a bigger sales team. Data entry to capture sales metrics, eliminating old data from a system, keeping a filing system storing key client information, and reporting any strange activity to management are examples of these responsibilities.
A sales support team may also print or copy data for sales personnel, keep a customer relationship management (CRM) software system up and running, and plan appointments with customers’ clients.
#3. Creating and processing order data
Sales support personnel are frequently the primary point of contact for both the sales team and its customers. As a result, it is frequently required for them to process orders directly. They swiftly enter customer order information into the system so that the customer receives the delivery on time, assist in the expediting of rush orders, and update shipping information as appropriate.
Order processing typically begins when a customer places an order online or over the phone and finishes when the delivery is delivered to the customer’s shipping address. They may also address client concerns during this procedure.
#4. Creating a list of prospects
Sales professionals can delegate lead-generating tasks to the company’s sales support team. This allows them to devote more time to developing effective sales methods. Lead generation is the act of identifying, selecting, and qualifying potential consumers in order to maximize the possibility of them becoming paying customers. To find leads, it’s often important to contact them directly and ask them about their requirements. The following are frequently effective ways for locating leads:
- Professional networking sites
- Social networking sites
- Websites for businesses
- Email marketing campaigns
- Data mining techniques
- Meetings with sales representatives
A person in a sales support role may also arrange meetings with sales teams to discuss their strategies and assist them in developing new ones. Depending on their unique function, they may be required to conduct new sales possibilities research and report their findings to employees in more advanced sales responsibilities. They may also teach new sales reps how to appropriately answer phone calls and set up meetings with customers or clients.
What Good Sales Support Can Do for You
Sales support is frequently required by businesses in a range of industries. Companies with a good sales support team may profit from the following:
- Better customer interactions: Having a cohesive sales support team allows businesses to work on strengthening their customer relationships. Sales support personnel that understand how to engage with various sorts of consumers can develop strong relationships and fulfill their requirements more swiftly.
- More sales: Sales support teams can assist sales professionals in qualifying a bigger number of leads in less time. This can assist businesses in increasing their customer bases and sales, allowing them to produce more revenue.
- Increased productivity: Sales professionals in more advanced roles can increase their overall productivity by outsourcing some of their administrative chores to a sales support expert. This enhanced productivity can help them to overcome any hurdles during the sales process and respond to new knowledge more rapidly.
Sales Support Various Roles
- Product Education
- Following Up With Customers To Determine Satisfaction
- Creating Leads
- Communication in the Market
#1. Product Education
Sales support is frequently charged with product training — usually for individual reps — because you want your salespeople to be as aware and prepared as possible. The best sales process in the world won’t work if the salesperson doesn’t know what they’re talking about.
Selling a product without sufficient understanding puts you at a significant disadvantage. What if the prospect has a question about a specific product? What if customers want to know exactly how you compare to your competitors? How can you expect them to trust you if you don’t even believe in your product enough to take the time to learn about it?
Product training can be provided by a variety of sales support parties and in a range of ways. In some circumstances, product experts may conduct it through personal meetings with reps.
It could be through training classes, which can be delivered electronically or in person. And, in this context, “sales support” can sometimes be as easy as providing sales agents with manuals and other technical documents.
#2. Following Up With Customers To Determine Satisfaction
Customer outreach and follow-up are other potential functions of sales support. Your prospect’s interaction with your sales team does not end when they make a purchase. In many ways, that’s when it starts.
Being attentive and observant of your clients’ experiences is an important aspect of building long-term connections and sustaining success. And, while you don’t want to bother your customers too much, it’s a good idea to check in on them now and then to see how they’re liking your product or service.
In some cases, agents are expected to contact the customers they bring on, although this is not always the case. Many businesses transfer this type of job to sales support representatives.
#3. Creating Leads
If your sales reps are in charge of producing their own leads, they are most likely wasting time that could be better spent honing their sales methods, interacting with prospects, or mastering your sales process.
Lead generation is best handled by your sales support infrastructure. It is up to that side of the organization to identify new customers through channels such as social media, direct corporate research, and email advertisements.
When it comes down to it, a sales rep’s duty is to make the most of the leads that are supplied to them, thus it shouldn’t be their responsibility to find those leads in the first place. Their time is best spent converting prospect interest to business; your sales support infrastructure should make it as simple as feasible for them – lead generation is an important element of that process.
#4. Communication in the Market
Some sales support functions extend beyond the typical sales organization’s reach to other areas, including marketing. Active market communications — how your organization goes out to and interacts with the market — is frequently an important component of sales support.
Sales support may include tasks such as advertising, sending press releases, arranging email campaigns, or any other marketing-related action targeted at strengthening your brand image and spreading the word about your product or service.
When a sales representative speaks on behalf of a respected company that prospects are familiar with, their work becomes much easier. As a result, active market communication and informing the world about your company is a critical sales support function.
Regardless of the size, type, or structure of your sales organization, you should (and most likely are) employ some sort of sales support infrastructure. You need to cut as much fat as possible from your salespeople’s efforts, and the best way to do so is to build up and refine your approach to sales support.
Tips For Enhancing Your Sales Support
Here are a few pointers to improve your sales support:
#1. Train your team on a regular basis.
Train your sales support personnel on a regular basis to ensure that everyone understands your expectations and can do their tasks effectively. Allowing them to participate in professional development opportunities is also beneficial. These possibilities can help individuals enhance their communication and interpersonal abilities, as well as more easily adapt to new sales methods.
#2. Make a system for qualifying leads.
Setting up a clear method for your sales team to qualify leads will help you ensure that they are locating the proper type of lead and are making the best use of their time. Meet with your team to ensure they understand the expectations you’ve set for them. Make certain that they understand all of the requirements for qualifying a lead. For example, if you sell cleaning supplies, you might develop a list of questions for your sales support team to inquire about a prospective customer’s cleaning needs.
#3. Promote the usage of technology.
Encourage the sales support personnel to use any available technology, such as CRM software. This program can help you keep track of and manage crucial client information. Online sales prospecting and lead enrichment tools can also aid in the automation of the lead creation and qualification process.
Why Does Sales Support Make or Ruin a Company?
It’s no longer a trade secret that effective sales support has a significant impact on corporate profits. This is due in part to the fact that distributing the workload makes it easier for all sales staff to do their duties. However, the ramifications of that triumph are much broader.
For years, the market has been shifting toward an emphasis on customer experience. Nonetheless, a Walker study concluded towards the end of 2020 that in the future years, customer experience will supersede price and product quality as the major brand differentiator.
Many customer experience enhancements are purely aimed at increasing client retention and happiness. You can’t improve the customer experience, though, if your agents don’t have time to build a tailored relationship with their prospects. This is true regardless of how excellent your customer service is. If customers get one experience from customer service and another from sales, they will begin to doubt the honesty of customer service—it’s just what people do.
As a result, having the correct sales support in place is becoming increasingly important so that your salespeople can compete in this new, customer-centric market.
Of course, not every sales support will function as intended. Finding the proper balance takes trial and error. Let’s look at some of the repercussions of good and terrible sales support.
The Dangers of Poor Sales Support
Poor sales support is caused by one of two errors:
- You don’t put enough effort into it to produce long-term, useful tools.
- You overinvest in it and reach a point of diminishing returns, costing the company more than the tools are worth.
Both of these issues stem from a fundamental misconception about the type of support your sales team requires.
For example, suppose you decide to invest some time and money in generating sales scripts to assist your reps, but you produce scripts with little option for customization or adaptability to different projects. Poor outcome despite good intentions. In this instance, you must invest time and money to create scripts that your sales representatives can truly use.
Similarly, you may be inspired by sales support and make a large investment in sales software to provide your salespeople with the most up-to-date capabilities. However, using too many software tools might actually slow down sales, making many salespeople less efficient. In this scenario, a lack of study and too much excitement cost your firm money and your sales representatives time.
Benefits of Good Sales Support
The advantages of strong, balanced sales support, on the other hand, are unparalleled.
The importance of sales support in unifying sales and marketing through shared techniques cannot be overstated. Alignment can help a company earn 209 percent more income.
Furthermore, between 35 and 50 percent of all sales are made by the first sales representative who responds. Sales support enables your team to qualify leads more quickly, allowing your reps to be the first in line to meet with potential buyers.
Remember that your team is most likely working as hard as they possibly can. Sales support is not there to automate their activities; rather, it is there to ensure that their emphasis remains on the tasks with the best ROI.
Troubleshooting Sales Support Issues
Looking for warning flags in your sales support system is the greatest way to uncover difficulties. Your sales support should ideally be:
- Giving sales representatives more time with their customers
- Accelerating the lead generation and validation process
- Bringing sales and marketing together to provide a focused and consistent customer experience
With these considerations in mind, your initial inquiries should be:
- Are you experiencing any delays or problems with any of these activities?
- If so, where are the bottlenecks or problems?
Some of the most prevalent signs of insufficient sales support are:
- Customers who believe they are not being heard
- Slow marketing and follow-up processes as a result of the slow distribution of support materials
- Tension and blame between the departments of sales and marketing
Currently, around 77 percent of buyers want their sales representatives to incorporate tailored data or insights into their pitches. This is a difficult task, but it is not impossible with the correct support. Most salespeople are obliged to repeat the same general pitch for every client since they do not have quick access to data. Prospects are turned off by this, even if they are really interested in the goods.
Simply having a support team to run data analytics and attribute relevant data to customer profiles assists the sales team in crafting the proper phrases for each client.
Best Tips for Resolving Sales Support Problems
Now that we’ve seen the problems, how do we prevent them?
Sales support best practices are simple to implement and will save your firm both time and money. Here are a few techniques to verify that your sales support is on track:
- To keep everyone on the same page, implement regular training, development opportunities, and well-run sales meetings: Sales support should be updated on what they should be focusing on a regular basis, and marketing should adjust to meet the sales team’s strategy.
- Create a detailed list of requirements for qualified leads: It’s pointless to have a team qualifying leads for your salespeople if they’re not doing it to a set standard. Setting expectations informs your sales reps about what they’re getting themselves into when they receive a list of leads.
- Make use of your sales support team: Too often, firms create sales support teams and then expect sales representatives to handle administrative duties. That is what sales support specialists are for. Allow them to do their jobs.
- Use a sales-specific CRM to provide clear communication and data.
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