Sales Planning: Prioritization Matters For Sales Reps

Our last few posts have discussed the science of sales enablement for sales reps, outlining and introducing the main variables involved: sales planning, preparing and engaging. So far, we’ve broken out the first two elements of that planning variable: visibility and analysis. Now, onto the third and final one: sales prioritization.

Sales planning: visibility, analysis and PRIORITIZATION.

Opportunity prioritization is a big-time determinant of a sales team or rep’s success. It means knowing how to most efficiently invest their time: which opportunities to go after, where the best prospects are, how far to keep it up and when to move on.

Experience definitely plays a role, but it’s the excellent informational foundation, plus clear visibility and concentrated analysis, that drives sales prioritization fit for winning sales enablement.

1. Sales reps who struggle to prioritize opportunities and workloads usually suffer from the same issue: lack of informed insight (visibility) into the sales pipeline. 
2. Without visibility, strategic assessment (analysis) is close to impossible.
3. Without analysis, pipeline management is definitely impossible.
4. Without proper pipeline and lead management, sales productivity (both efficiency and effectiveness) plummets.
5. Valuable opportunities slip through the cracks, overlooked and underwhelmed by the sales team.

While sales analysis requires the analytical eye, account prioritization calls on the organized mind – and not every team is given the potential for structured sales strategy.

• “Companies whose account prioritization exceeds expectations have 11% higher win rates than companies whose account prioritization needs improvement.”
  2013_Forum Proper Prioritization - Optimizing Revenue In 2013
  
• “45% of sales reps report needing help figuring out which accounts to prioritize.”
  Sales Performance Optimization Study via CSO Insights
  
• “48% of sales people never follow up with a prospect;
• 25% of sales people make a second contact and stop;
• 12% of sales people only make three contacts and stop;
• only 10% of sales people make more than three contacts.”
• AND YET, “80% of sales are made on the 5th-12th contact.”
  National Sales Executive Association

Prioritization is the key to getting more out of less, and in today’s market, that’s the key to sales success.

When planning the sales strategy, prioritization matters.

Here’s how a Sales Enablement Platform paves the way for account prioritization in the planning stage:

Activities, prioritized with intellect.

• Notifications and opportunity scoring/ranking help sales reps invest their time in the smartest way possible.
• Meaningful follow-up insight with recommended resources and coaching tips is just a click, swipe or tap away.

Opportunities, assessed for urgency.

• See which opportunities are due for follow-up, so important ones never get lost in the shuffle.
• Spend less time reanalyzing opportunities to decide which need follow-up actions to be taken.

Opportunities, scored for strength.

• Calculate opportunity strength using specialized algorithms and variables for deal size, urgency and fit.
• Prioritize follow-up activities according to this data.

Top opportunities, kept on track.

• Easily track red-hot and important opportunities, evaluated according to a handful of critical analytics.
• Keep those VIP opportunities top of mind and in front of eyes with immediate awareness of all related buyer behavior and engagement analytics.

Critical moments, seized with ease.

• Capitalize on real-time tracking and respond quickly with meaningful follow-up when buyers perform key actions, e.g., downloading a whitepaper or asking a question in the buyer/sales portal.
• Get easy access to buying rooms, recommendations and opportunity health to know which steps to take next.

This marks the end of our sales planning articles.
Visibility, check.
Analysis, check.
Prioritization, check.

Next up in the sales enablement formula is the preparation variable.
Stay tuned for a breakdown of the first element in sales preparation: RESOURCES.

Fill out the form below to see how a Sales Enablement Platform gives your reps the organized mind for prioritizing success.