Salesforce research has unveiled the top trends shaping the future of sales, confirming that an average turnover rate for B2B sales teams is almost up by 34%
The survey further confirmed that 57% of salespeople missing out on their target every year result in business underperformance.
Optimizing the Martech Stack needs Smart Management by Stakeholders
But the actual problem is that it can take about months to appropriately onboard a new sales rep. Firms get stuck in a vicious hiring circle since they focus on sales representatives to meet their quotas. And the real issue starts with retention.
In the below cases, equipping sales reps leveraging intent data can help improve the retention rates.
The Money Problem
This challenge isn’t very unique to the sales department in particular, but the main issues include are associated with commission rates and the overall compensation plans.
There are plenty CMOs can do to adjust the compensation plan to be more attractive and beneficial to sales reps. However, a much easier approach is to empower the sales reps to improve performance in the existing plan. Giving those representatives access to the third-party intent data can assure they’re only reaching out mostly to the in-market prospects who are showing purchase intent signals, cutting the inefficiencies associated with improper targeting out. As sales outreach gets more efficient, the reps will be more likely to achieve bonuses, larger commissions, and hit their quotas, so that they think twice about leaving for any new opportunity.
Wasted Time on Non-Sales Activities
When marketing and sales exist in silos, information gets lost in the transition from a group to the other. Data used by the marketing to qualify a lead suddenly isn’t available as the sales rep starts to engage. This is because the salespeople end up wasting their time searching for the missing data and trying to fill in the CRM gaps. Or, worse, they wasted time pursuing a lead that isn’t truly in-market or prepared to have a conversation leading to a purchase.
Salespeople wish to spend their time selling, and intent data helps them do just that by helping create common ground between marketing and sales. Because intent data supports marketers dig deeper on in-market target accounts, sales reps trust that they have real opportunities to contribute to their targets. Without that high level of trust with the marketing team, the reps will be tempted to move to companies that support additional effective collaboration.
Unrealistic Expectations
There’s another angle to resolve the sales quota problem—what if the target is simply unrealistic? It’s easy to blame the sales reps when they fall short of their expectations. However, just a few miscalculations can end up setting the bar so high that the top performers can’t match it.
To set realistic expectations, CMOs need to focus on the total active demand. The data should guide in setting realistic quotas based on the ideal accounts which are actually in the market for the solutions. Sales reps don’t want to get punished for insufficient demand. Rather, intent data assist CMOs to set quotas that can judge representatives only on their abilities to close sales deals.
CMOs Leverage AI-Powered Data Analytics to Drive Better Strategies
CMOs need to set the sales representatives up for success with intent data.
Like employees from other departments, the sales reps want to feel that they have the complete support of the organization. That means providing the resources and tools necessary to help them to match and exceed targets.
Giving sales reps more behavioral insights contained in the purchase intent data that will lead to greater efficiency, enhanced job satisfaction, and ultimately improved retention rates.
