We know that sales performance apps help sales reps achieve their targets and increase overall performance, but how else can this tool boost sales results?

In this quick article we’ll discuss a sales performance app’s additional benefits to help you decide if it’s the right investment for your team.

A sales performance app’s hidden benefits:

Helps managers coach their team, improving sales performance quicker

The quarter is nearing completion, and ¾ of the team is set to make their target. Unfortunately, you have no idea why the other ¼ is struggling. Without intervening and guiding reps towards more successful behavior, growth will stagnate: how can you boost sales results before it’s too late?

Good sales coaching is about recognising the core issue behind a rep’s poor sales results and then personally working with them to improve. According to a 2021 Harvard Business Review article, a big step for successful sales coaching is understanding the root cause of a problem and making expected behaviors clear. 

Fortunately, a sales performance app can act as a problem diagnosis and behavior guidance tool through tracking performance and activities of reps, and assisting managers in encouraging specific actions that lead to best results with KPIs. Once a rep begins struggling, their manager can intervene and specify the correct behavior. Managers and reps can then measure performance against these behaviors on a KPI leaderboard. 

Frees up more time for selling

Reps are blocking out whole afternoons to update the CRM and they’re getting increasingly frustrated that they’re having to set aside this time at all when they could be selling. How can you drive sales results if your team is being forced to do admin? 

Cluttered and unintuitive CRMs and slow to update BI tools aren’t made to quickly give reps insights they need, like customer revenue vs last year, gross profit vs LY, a six month sales forecast, or their customer notes. Furthermore, if reps are waiting until later in the day, or week, to log customer notes, it’s almost guaranteed they’ll have forgotten key information which could help them make future sales.

A sales performance app cuts that time by making rep-specific information a priority, meaning reps can quickly spot opportunities, spend more time selling, and enjoy taking customer notes without the admin. 

Motivates reps to go the extra mile and close more deals

This month’s sales campaign isn’t off to a profitable start and rep motivation and competitiveness has dried up. If the problem isn’t solved, you’ll have missed another target and be left with overstocked warehouses.

A recently developed field in management and still growing, gamification involves applying gaming attributes to non-game situations to increase engagement and motivation. Articles from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School in 2015 and 2016 explained that among existing research, gamification can succeed in a sales context, particularly using leaderboards.

Built to communicate information in leaderboard format, a sales performance app is a great fit for a sales manager looking to incorporate gamification as part of a wider motivation program. With rep leaderboards and a live feed, this tool can help managers and reps quickly check progress and share performance with the team.

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Identifies better sales opportunities for upselling and cross selling

Your reps are struggling to find success pitching additional products to clients, and it’s affecting customer relationships. Clients are feeling as if their reps don’t understand them, and missed sales opportunities are beginning to impact sales results. 

Upselling and cross-selling can help reps quickly boost revenue and give customers more personalized deals providing they understand customer intentions, needs and purchase history. According to Forbes and Business Matters in 2021 and 2020, upselling and cross selling can build better customer relationships and loyalty. Business Matters particularly highlights how access to customer data can influence an upselling/cross-selling strategy.

A sales performance app is designed for reps to quickly access and record customer notes and data to help them identify a current or future sales opportunity. The customer data insights they provide, including revenue vs LY, average unit price vs LY, and quantity purchased vs LY can help reps make informed upselling/cross selling choices. 

To kickstart the sales coaching process, spice up sales campaigns with gamification, free up selling time, and make better upselling/cross-selling decisions, you’ll need a sales performance app. If you’d like to see how this tool can deliver a strong ROI for you and your team, book a demo here. 

Sources we used in this article:

Harvard Business Review, Avoid a One-Size-Fits-All Approach to Sales Coaching, December 16, 2021

Knowledge at Wharton, Gamification: Still a Gamble, but One with Real Payoffs, December 7, 2015

Knowledge at Wharton, People Love Games — but Does Gamification Work?, February 3, 2016

Forbes Advisor, What Is Upselling? Everything You Need To Know, December 15, 2021

Business Matters Magazine, Upselling and Cross-Selling:  Maximising your business’s revenue and profits, September 7, 2020