4 Ways Technology Can Help 'Clone' Your Best Salespeople Because few reps automatically have the characteristics of unstoppable sellers, software can do the heavy lifting.
By Leslie Stretch Edited by Dan Bova
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
In a growing business, high-performing sales representatives can have a tremendous impact on an organization. The lucky company might have one or a couple of these super performers.
Unfortunately, many companies focus only on this small group of sales leaders, instead of developing the whole team. But what if were possible to identify the traits of the best salespeople, replicate them and spread them across an entire team.
Luckily, some software offerings are now available to do the trick. Some of these technologies will help an organization "clone" the best reps -- by offering mobile learning, marketing automation, sales coaching, gamification and configure-price-quote (or CPQ) software.
Take a look at some of the characteristics of formidible sellers -- and the tech-forward solution to replicate their success.
Related: How to Recruit Salespeople Who Will Deliver Dramatic Returns
1. The quick study. A sales rep who's ambitious and easily onboarded onto a team is an asset to any company. And with the right learning routine, other new hires can be brought up to speed quickly. Some sales reps just need that extra motivation to reach and then exceed their goals.
Mobile learning solutions grant employees access to training courses and data from anywhere at any time. This technology also helps improve the course-completion rate, notifying supervisors when learners complete their courses or don't hit their training deadlines.
Sales-coaching technology can help coach your team by using the successful selling behaviors of the top performers the company wants to clone. By turning B-team players into A-team players, the organization can lift overall quota goals throughout.
2. The intuitive seller. From the get-go, representatives need to be able to identify and target a quality sales lead. A sales rep possessing good intuition is able to anticipate customer needs and manage those expectations through all interactions. This rep understands the vital relationship between sales and marketing and how the efforts must be aligned.
Marketing-automation technology captures information that can provide answers to questions such as "What should I be telling my customers?" and "What are the issues that they want to discuss during that first meeting?"
This tool collects customers' "digital breadcrumbs" and then places that information in the hands of salespeople to give them a deeper understanding of potential buyers' needs. Marketing automation helps align sales and marketing efforts to improve the size of deals and winning rates and speed up the sales cycle.
Related: Big Data is Your Sixth Sense for Prospecting Sales
3. The competitor. Love them or hate them, some reps turn everything into a competition.
Deploying the right gamification tool encourages a healthy competitive spirit within an organization. Gamification grants a quick win. By focusing salespeople on the granular activities that improve their abilities, there's an opportunity to highlight what works. It's all part of the process and gamification puts a spotlight on the reasons to strive for higher numbers.
4. The deal closer. When it comes to closing a deal, some reps are appropriately detailed oriented, generate quotes quickly and have a knack forupselling. Such representatives understand how to enlarge potential deals and close them.
Configure-price-quote (CPQ) software can help other members of a sales team break down the process with a step-by-step outline on what to propose, specifics on quotes, and which product matches what promotion. This type of guided selling helps salespeople enlargen their deals and make the terms more accurate and speed up the entire process as reps can now send out a proposal on their mobile device in front of a customer.
Because it's rare one person can have all the characteristics of unstoppable sales leaders, let technology do the heavy lifting. Not only will the technology help fine-tune the process, but the company can keep a digital pulse on what's working for the sales team.
Related: Shark Tank's Robert Herjavec on Great Business Pitches and Why Sales Reps Need to Be Chameleons
