3 things holding your salespeople back from success

A star salesperson can have a huge impact on their team and company, exceeding quarterly targets and fostering customer relationships that reap dividends. So, why shackle them with admin and inefficient technology that prevents them from doing what they do best?

Below are three common issues holding your salespeople back from success, with tips on how to solve them.

  1. Spending too much time waiting for physical signatures

Waiting for paper documents to be processed, signed and returned is costly. Staff expend effort chasing signatories while the inefficiency of idling resources creates a further burden. While sales staff wait for wet signatures to dry, the risk of sales slipping further into next quarter increases.

The agreement process can easily grind to a halt when physical documents require a signature. Physical agreements can end up getting stuck in the postal system or forgotten about when the signatory is on holiday. They can be sent back half-finished, or simply lost amid a pile of paper in the office. Physical contracts are a hindrance to the sales cycle – and to the sales team.

So, what do successful salespeople do?

They use connecting solutions to automate CRM entry, electronic signature, and they use task management software. Using these solutions saves time and reduces costs, often helping to close deals within just one day. This technology also helps prevent missed sales and maintains valuations.

And it’s proven, too.

BMW Group reduced the time it takes to complete a transaction from 3 months to 1 week, after implementing electronic signature.

  1. Dealing with physical paper documents

Paper takes up space, time and energy in more ways than one. Sales staff dealing with physical documents can find themselves away from the phones and wading through filing cabinets instead. On average, an employee spends about 15 minutes filing a document, amounting to over 250 hours and £3,800 spent annually. What’s more, when it comes to retrieving an agreement, statistics show that 3% of documents are misfiled, then taking at least twice as long to find. 7.5% of documents are lost completely, at a rate of one every twelve seconds at large organisations.

If you need any further persuasion to pull sales staff away from paper, the costs of storing documents are considerable. Having spent £19,000 to fill one filing cabinet, it takes an additional £1,600 a year to maintain it.

Digitising paper processes and storing documents in the cloud makes life easier and more efficient for sales professionals.

  1. Working with outdated technology

Another area salespeople find difficulty in is outdated technology.

We conducted research into the digital expectations across Europe. Nine in ten salespeople want the same ease and efficiency technology is bringing to their home lives to be found in the office too. Yet there are still companies encumbered with paper processes, making work frustrating and slow for salespeople.

Disenchanted sales staff are less productive and more likely to waste time with tasks that are not urgent, valuable or work-related. 92% of employees say that having the technology to do their job efficiently affects their work satisfaction and two out of three employees believe that poor technology is impacting their workplace productivity.

Satisfied, engaged staff who are able to complete their work in a way that feels efficient, are not only happier as a result, but they contribute to the bottom line too.

Research shows that organisations with highly engaged employees achieve double the annual net income of competitors with unengaged staff.

What makes successful salespeople?

Great salespeople are worth their weight in gold, having a positive effect on their team and helping companies achieve their goals. Habits of successful salespeople usually stem from digitised processes and a modern system of agreement.

These results are explored in The Total Economic Impact™ (TEI) of DocuSign report, in partnership with Forrester. The report explores the productivity gain and cost avoidance enabled by DocuSign for its customers, including those in sales. With the challenges of paper, slow turnaround times and legacy systems overcome, the report reveals what sales can go on achieve. Read the full report.

DocuSign Forrester study

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