How Sales Performance Management Software Increases Performance

In today’s business world, all sales executives are under heightened pressure to continuously increase their sales goals and performance targets. On the one hand, these leaders are invariably searching for methods and approaches that will enhance and expand their sales data to help drive incremental results. On the other hand, they don’t want to introduce anything that increases the burden on their sales force. This is where a strong sales performance management software can help. Sales executives who utilize these tools know that sales performance data is a gold mine of information that can provide them with essential insight for making better decisions and driving sales performance results.

According to a survey conducted by CSO Insights last year, 94 percent of respondents to the global survey indicated that their 2014 revenue targets were increased from the year prior. However, over half of the sales reps stated that they were struggling to meet their current quotas, with more than 40 percent of respondents stating that “scattered information and limited visibility into data” were the key obstacles that were being faced when attempting to increase their sales performance.

Sales Performance Management Software Is Replacing Traditional Systems and Mindset

Consider the following scenario – sales executives need to balance the pressure to meet sales goals while also enhancing their firm’s profitability and growth, but how? Similar to the development of finance and operations departments, today’s business environment sales departments also need to incorporate data, process, and planning. Gone are the days of sales executives and leaders simply relying on basic forecasting and their gut instincts. Now they need sales performance management software.

Understanding Sales Performance Management Best Practices

Sales executives interested in improving their sales performance management can follow these three tactics. These are the key ways I recommend to maximize sales analytics within an organization.

1. One of the biggest obstacles that you will probably encounter when implementing a new way of conducting sales performance management is the resistance to change in your company. To deal with this, start acquainting employees with the idea well before implementation, and frequently remind them of the saying “work smarter, not harder” mentality. Choose a couple of employees who have proven themselves to embrace analytics and have them help you push for a cultural shift in the way that the sales force views a data-driven approach.
2. Use your sales performance management software to continuously monitor actual performance against objectives, and ultimately see the impact on your financial income statement and cash flow. Use it to respond to a change in market conditions or to identify a trend and act quickly to capitalize on the opportunity. Real-time data, plus having everyone on the same page and trusting the data, can result in revenue opportunities that most likely would have been missed in a spreadsheet-dominated world.
3. Cloud-based, real-time sales analytics and planning systems, like Kepion’s Sales Performance Management Software, allow you to establish an effective sales strategy, align your sales team to your overall objectives and optimize sales performance, while also enabling you to work through “what-if” scenario modeling on new market segments instantaneously. With Kepion’s Sales Performance Management Software, you can set quota targets based on historical sales performance, market opportunity & account segmentation, optimize sales territory design and manage unassigned sales quotas based on real-time sales forecasts, manage sales teams FTE, enable sales team collaboration, inclusion & engagement buy-in, and create equitable sales territories. Kepion for Sales provides the intuitive, guided apps your sales team needs to effectively drive real results.

Interested in learning more about what Kepion can do for your sales planning? Try a demo today.