There are many ways that technology tools can help increase your sales success by automating processes and storing information.
Technology also makes it possible to monitor your sales team more efficiently and accurately than you can do in person.
This creates a more open environment and can connect remote sales professionals in a virtual way. Monitoring can also provide motivation for employees, making them more engaged in their work as they actively pursue personal and company goals.
The accurate monitoring data provided by technology gives you a clear picture of any areas that are holding your business back and processes or policies that may need revising.
There are a range of technology tools that allow you to monitor your sales staff at work in order to ensure sales success.
Each type of software or website offers insights into different aspects of the work process and how to improve productivity and the salesperson experience.
Depending on what you are looking to learn about your employees, you may want to use one or more of these technologies to monitor work habits and performance.
Used by nearly two thirds of businesses, software that tracks internet usage is one of the most popular ways to monitor sales staff. This technology provides you with a report of the URLs that each team member is looking at throughout the workday.
By reviewing these websites, you can identify workers who may be using company time for unapproved activities, such as shopping online or visiting social media sites.
Email is another aspect of the sales work experience that many businesses monitor using software.
This not only keeps employees from misusing work email servers for personal communication, but it can also be helpful when issues arise between employees or between an employee and a customer.
A review of email can help management identify email communication practices that are harming sales.
As most sales interactions occur over the phone, recording and reviewing sales calls is likely one of the most obvious ways to use technology to monitor employees.
This can be as simple as tracking the numbers employees call and the amount of time spent on those calls – generally to ensure phone service is not abused – to recording complete calls for the purpose of quality control.
Pairing sales statistics with observations of actual calls can help management quickly identify practices that successfully close sales and eliminate those that are ineffective.
With the average sales rep making 52 calls each day, phone monitoring can provide corporations a huge amount of sales data.
Voicemail monitoring is another way businesses can use technology to monitor members of their sales team.
Recording and reviewing voicemail messages that your staff leaves for customers or potential leads can also provide insights into successful sales strategies – and the productivity of employees – particularly when compared to statistics on returned calls resulting from those voicemails.
The most focused method that you can use to monitor your sales reps is employing software specifically designed for sales tracking and improved productivity.
While features vary by the software application that you choose, most solutions organize customer information and interactions, providing your employees with the resources they need to respond quickly and effectively to customers and leads.
Most sales and customer-focused software also offers advanced options for monitoring employee work, and many can be integrated with your CRM software.
Options may include tracking a range of metrics, such as the number of calls completed, calls that result in sales and the average time spent on each call.
Monitoring software can also provide employees with clear, specific goals and the ability to track their progress toward completing them – even turning these goals into engaging and motivating contests between employees and teams within your organization.
While the benefits of monitoring the productivity and accomplishments of your salespeople are clear, there are a few drawbacks you’ll need to consider before adopting any of these methods.
Extreme levels of tracking can cause your team members to feel stressed and can even result in a higher level of employee turnover.
Fortunately, your sales team’s concerns can be resolved by taking a proactive approach to using new tracking technology.
Letting employees know what you will be monitoring and why you are doing it can help them understand how the process works – the focus of monitoring tools should be on improvement rather than punishment, except in extreme situations.
Monitoring your team can bring many benefits to your sales department, leading to effective practices and productive employees working toward defined goals.
By identifying your reasons for tracking and the right technology tools for your business, you can employ a monitoring system that significantly helps your company and your sales reps.
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