It is absolutely essential that every sales manager in your business is a competent decision-maker. In sales, where every decision can directly affect your business’s bottom line, you need to make rational decisions. One misstep can have catastrophic ramifications for your business, such as loss of sales leads or key clients.
Key with a sales manager, in particular, is the ability to also make these decisions quickly. Often decisions are made on the fly in the field. That’s why sales managers also need access to data to make these decisions in a second. Your sales manager (your critical field decision-maker) also needs this data to be readily available in a form that’s easy to interpret.
That’s where field sales CRM tech for sales managers like Skynamo comes in. Equipping your sales team with effective CRM tools empowers them to make decisions by giving them access to the most accurate data available to them. Then, they just need to guide themselves with a few tips and strategies to make a competent decision.
Follow these easy strategies to be an effective decision-maker every time:
1. Correctly identify the sales problem
The first step every good decision-maker takes is to identify what problems are currently affecting performance. For example, a common problem that a lot of salespeople face is the bad habit of focusing on the wrong things. When you don’t really know your prospects’ problems, you end up concentrating on irrelevant issues in presentations. This, in turn, reduces the chances of converting prospects.
Similarly, you might not have an efficient process for following up with leads after meetings. You risk tossing aside your hard work by not strategically following up with prospects at the right time. Investing in a robust sales tracking solution shows you how to move the prospects further down your funnel, and can help managers spot these problems and assess how best to address them.
2. Take time to brainstorm and explore possible solutions
Another key way to improve your decision-making process is to actually take the time to research and brainstorm solutions before you encounter problems. Identify as many problems as possible and determine their solutions before you even venture out in the field so you can nip them in the bud before they ever blossom. Once you then actually encounter the problem, you’re already prepared and can surge past with relative ease. You should collect as much information about potential roadblocks to ensure that you’re able to cover every aspect of the problem and its solutions.
3. Learn how to identify and select the best possible solutions
So you’ve identified problems that can crop up in the field, and at home with your sales team with your new sales tracker. That’s great, but to be the best decision-maker you can be, it’s critical to also find solutions to those problems.
So, how can you do so?
- Start with SWOT: You should conduct a thorough SWOT analysis of all the problems that you might face. SWOT is an acronym for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. Accordingly, a SWOT analysis it meant to help you assess these four qualities of any business or situation. The idea is to understand if the problem that you’ve noted is truly a problem, or perhaps a solution disguised as a problem.
- Leverage design thinking: A collaborative design thinking approach to problem-solving is always the best course of action. By trying to empathize, define, and creatively think around the problem, you can often stumble on a solution that may not have been obvious from the get-go. Involve as many people in the solution identification process as you can – the more perspectives, the stronger the solution.
- Do market research: Obviously, the best way to develop a solution is to first understand it. Contact your customers and conduct market research. Listening to your customers actually talk about what matters to them will help you figure out what needs to be done to achieve their goals.
Even if you’ve done all of this and think you’ve found the perfect solution, it’s still important to have a Plan B. Every team, no matter how efficient, has its blind spots. Your organization needs to be prepared for any eventuality. Ask yourself “What will I do if my main strategy fails?” and then outline ways to mitigate fallout and pivot back to a strong growth track. This way you can curtail any damage from a failed strategy.
4. Ensure success using an R.O.I. decision-making process and mindset
A good decision-maker is a strategic decision-maker. Planning your processes with your eventual ROI (return on investment) at the forefront of your mind helps you engineer the most efficient strategies every time. Employ a systematic approach to making important decisions. This ensures that your decisions are always made thoughtfully and provide the maximum returns possible.
5. Analyze the results and improve your solutions
Decisions made based on hard data are almost always more sound than those made on a whim without any ground to stand on. A solution that is based on evidence has sea legs because it’s undergirded by hard facts and is formed directly in response to those facts.
Analyze all the effects of your potential solution to determine its usefulness in allaying your problems. You can do this by tracking various sales-related KPIs (key performance indicators). Indicators like average deal size, revenue, percentages of quotas met, sales funnel leakage, and conversion rates can help you assess where your brand stands after leveraging a solution. Leveraging an automated KPI management solution can help you easily track these indicators so that you can improve your solutions according to the data gathered.
Use a sales tech solution like Skynamo
Good decision-making depends on accurate, consistent data. Your sales managers can’t be empowered to make competent choices if they don’t have all the info at their fingertips when doing so! Leveraging a field sales tech solution can help simplify these processes and equip your team with the best information at hand if utilized efficiently. A field sales software like Skynamo with its robust analytics can help simplify your data collection process, and then analyze this data so you can make decisions that positively impact your bottom line.
Are you ready to gain clarity and control over your sales processes? Reach out to Skynamo today and let’s get a solution started for you.
