Today, increasing commissions isn’t the only way to incentivize reps looking to improve their sales performance. Modern sales tools like revenue intelligence (RI) provide organizations with crucial insights into their people, territories and revenues — learnings that make reps more accountable and give them the kind of actionable insights they can use to strategically meet and exceed their sales goals.
Tracking the sales data
Innovations in sales software have made it possible to track a multitude of important data points — from what customers are buying, to what products are trending, to how specific territories or sales areas are performing. This information is then gathered and automatically aggregated into dashboards, maps, reports or platform selling features.
According to a recent report by Forrester, this type of data-driven measurement can be especially useful when it comes to motivating a sales team. Data like year-over-year performance, undersold suppliers, top sellers, performance according to territory, and so on, allow your individual reps to better understand their strengths and weaknesses and then fine tune their efforts accordingly. Whether that’s through prioritizing certain leads, implementing order management efficiencies, customizing communications, or taking advantage of new tools or sales methods, RI ultimately gives reps the edge they need to boost revenues and differentiate themselves in a crowded sales landscape.
Improving the Customer Experience
Changes to the sales landscape brought on by the global pandemic have meant an enormous shift to digital and remote selling methods over the last year. However, with more than three quarters of B2B buyers and sellers preferring this kind of digital selling model over traditional methods (self-service and remote interactions over in-person), don’t expect a return to the in-person sales methods of yore any time soon.
Today’s B2B sales reps need the right tools and B2B e-commerce platform to do their job efficiently and create positive buying experiences for their customers. To that end, RI can help give sellers and organizations the additional data points they need to create improved, streamlined and automated sales opportunities. Insights can run the gamut from targeting data and forecasting information to predictive analytics (i.e. which customer is the most likely to respond, at what time, and on which preferred channel?) Additionally, automated selling features based on data learnings (i.e., suggestive selling, which makes automated product recommendations and upsells based on sales intel) are also key in creating the kinds of experiences the modern B2B customer demands.
Commissions are just one important tool in the sales tool box. As you consider the long-term growth of your organization, be sure to think about all of the ways you might motivate and support your reps to improve their sales game. Revenue intelligence helps boost ROI and keeps your reps motivated and selling.
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