8 Ways to Improve Your Sales Productivity

Sales productivity measures how efficiently a sales team turns time and resources into revenue-generating activities and results. Productivity involves maximizing your output, such as meeting sales quotas or achieving high win rates while minimizing administrative tasks, especially manually inputting data. Tools and technology that automate sales systems and processes can be used to accelerate sales productivity.

Low quota attainment poses a significant challenge for sales teams. In fact, 67% of sellers say they don't expect to meet their annual quotas. These missed opportunities directly impact the organization's revenue goals.

By focusing on increasing productivity, you can become much more efficient at converting prospects into revenue-generating customers. This can lead to:

• Lower operational costs due to streamlined sales processes and reduced reliance on manual processes.
• Closing deals more quickly because you'll have the time to advance opportunities throughout the sales cycle and take on extra sales meetings or calls.
• More reliable sales forecasting powered by accurate sales data from automation tools and seller bandwidth to maintain sales processes.
• Stronger sales team morale as you work smarter, not harder, resulting in less burnout and an improved work-life balance.

Sales productivity is typically measured using various metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs) that reflect the efficiency and effectiveness of the sales team. Important sales KPIs to track include:

• Activity engagement: metrics like the number of calls made, emails sent, and meetings held
• Average deal amount: the average value of closed deals
• Conversion rate: the percentage of leads that convert into actual sales
• Customer retention rate: the percentage of customers who continue to do business with the company
• Opportunities in the pipeline: the number of potential a sales team is actively pursuing
• Quota attainment percentage: the percentage of sellers meeting or exceeding their sales targets
• Sales cycle length: the average time it takes to close a deal
• Total revenue generated: the total sales revenue generated by the sales team

Agentforce can be used as a performance management tool to autonomously collect and analyze sales productivity metrics from multiple sources, including CRM systems, emails, and call logs. Real-time dashboards provide a comprehensive view to support sales performance management and to adjust sales productivity strategies as necessary.

According to the Salesforce Trends in Generative AI for Sales report, 58% of salespeople agree that generative AI already helps or will help them increase productivity. AI is estimated to save salespeople more than four hours of work per week.

Here are eight tips to optimize sales productivity and improve your sales operations by using AI and other methods.

Sales teams use an average of 10 sales productivity tools, ranging from reporting and contact management to forecasting. However, it's hard to maintain productivity when you're constantly switching between point solutions to complete tasks, and the time spent on tools means less time spent with customers.

Sometimes quality is better than quantity, which is why 53% of sales ops professionals plan to consolidate their tools and tech stack. By focusing on a select set of the right tools, you can boost sales team productivity and lower costs.

It's essential to look for tools with AI or automation that can save you from manual tasks. More than half (55%) of sales ops professionals are updating their tools and tech stacks to prepare teams for AI adoption. Technology like Agentforce for Sales helps integrate various sales tools into one platform. For example, it enhances sales collaboration by integrating Slack to suggest and take action right in the flow of work.

Follow these steps to strategically consolidate your tools:

• Inventory your tools: You may find some tools overlap in functionality while others aren't being fully used.
• Prioritize multifunctional tools: Make the most of tools that handle more than one part of your sales process so you don't have to switch as often.
• Remove seldom-used tools: Eliminate multiple platforms to reduce time-wasting tasks like redundant data entry.

A sales pipeline needs clearly defined stages. Otherwise, it's difficult for you to determine the next steps and maintain visibility into the status of opportunities. By adding structure and guidance to the sales pipeline, you'll always be in ‌productive action mode because you'll know the expected next step.

Salesforce offers several AI sales tools to keep your sales pipeline on track. Salesforce Sales Cloud combines predictive, generative, and autonomous AI within a CRM platform to support sales reps at every stage of the sales process. Sales AI monitors pipeline health and flags at-risk deals, helping teams prioritize efforts and focus on improving win rates. It uses CRM data to generate tailored recommendations for the best next action to close the deal.

Here are more ways to add structure:

• Name and define your sales stages: Break down the sales journey into the basic activities that advance deals to close (think calls made or meetings booked).
• Define the exit criteria for each stage: List what needs to happen before the prospect can move to the next stage. For example, the prospect says you're short-listed.
• Make it easy for sellers to update pipeline data: Ease redundant data updates by bringing in tools like Agentforce with product.data to unify disconnected data within Salesforce.

According to the State of Sales, a top benefit for sales organizations using AI is the quality and accuracy of data. This is good news for sellers who may not know where or when to act, especially with the data for their assigned sales territories. A productivity problem arises when you are unsure which opportunities to prioritize or how to uncover new leads.

Sales Cloud's AI functions analyze vast amounts of territory data to identify high-potential prospects through:

• Lead scoring: AI evaluates customer behavior, engagement levels, and historical data to assign accurate lead scores, so you can focus on the most promising leads.
• Predictive analytics: AI uses historical data and engagement metrics to predict which leads are most likely to convert, allowing you to prioritize their efforts effectively.
• Generative AI: Artificial intelligence summarizes lead opportunities and CRM records to identify the likelihood of closing a deal, instantly qualifying and passing hot leads to you.

The Trailhead Sales Territories and Forecasting module provides a helpful guide for developing territory plans defined by growth strategies and metrics with the Sales Cloud platform. The module explains how to increase sales productivity with sales mapping software. It renders territories as maps instead of spreadsheets, allowing you to visualize them rather than view data in columns and rows.

Numerous non-selling tasks need to be completed during an average work week. Generating quotes and proposals takes up salespeople's time, as does gaining approvals. Deals slow down because the approval process often involves multiple sales leaders and groups. However, the more productive the process is, the quicker you can close more deals.

Use sales quote automation to amplify productivity throughout the process and instantly generate, adjust, and approve quotes. Agentforce automates quoting with an agent configured via the Agentbuilder platform. The actions are driven by your own predefined pricing rules and product catalog. You can make real-time adjustments, such as applying discounts, and the agent will alert you to any necessary approvals. This ensures quotes are accurate and adhere to company policies.

Other ways that AI can streamline your quote approval process include:

• Parallel approvals: AI can run different reviews in parallel, reducing the overall time required for approvals.
• Automatic approvals: AI can identify terms that get approved 100% of the time and replace them with auto-approvals, eliminating the need for human intervention.

In our research, 81% of sales reps say team selling helps them close. But roughly the same amount (82%) say that aligning with other sellers is at least somewhat challenging. It's likely due to the traditional competitive nature of sales and the fact that reps are often spread across in-office and remote locations.

Sales leaders also say that cross-functional alignment is the #1 tactic for growth. Here are some ways to break down silos across the organization and make teams more productive:

• Add an expert consulting step to your sales process: The best resource to keep deals moving is the expertise within your organization. For example, ask a subject matter expert to review a sales presentation.
• Bring all your communication into one place: Shift from emails to a collaboration tool like Slack, which provides every team member — whether remote or in-office — visibility into deal progression. With Slack and Salesforce integration, you can create new channels for each account and opportunity. Channels are forums where teams can track progress for prospects and customers and help each other close deals.
• Join forces to share knowledge with others: The Salesblazer Community is a dedicated space for sales professionals to connect, share best practices, and learn from each other's experiences.

According to the State of Sales report, 77% of employees are satisfied with the one-on-one coaching they receive from their managers. But managers can't always be available, especially at critical times like a live sales call. This is why organizations are enhancing their training programs with AI and conducting activities such as real-time selling guidance (70%), enablement customized for individual reps (67%), and call coaching (47%).

• Agentforce helps with sales coaching in several ways:
• Personalized roleplays tailored to each deal and deal stage. Agentforce generates real-time, contextual responses that simulate authentic sales conversations. This lets sales reps refine their message in a controlled environment (rather than in real time with a client).
• Reps can practice pitches and receive feedback to help them improve. Agentforce works with account and opportunity data, along with company best practices, ensuring pitch quality and consistency across the team.
• Because Agentforce is AI-powered, it’s available 24/7. Always-on coaching lets your team practice and get coaching whenever they need it.

By measuring the value and business impact of enablement programs, you can determine whether education and training are enhancing your productivity. Start with the outcomes you want to achieve, build training and milestones to get there, and track behavior changes. For example, if your sales enablement strategy is to increase win rates, identify prospects with purchasing power, and use Agentforce to track the scheduling of calls with contacts in the right roles.

Make tracking and measurement easier by using Agentforce's methods, including:

• Compare sales metrics before and after implementing enablement tools, including time to first deal won, average win rate, and sales pipeline value.
• Track the use of sales enablement content to make sure the right materials are being used.
• Monitor the completion of sales training programs and gauge the success of training programs.
• Collect feedback to continually improve and adapt the productivity of enablement programs.

Sellers face constant pressure to meet quotas, schedule more sales meetings, and work long hours. This pressure can add up, affecting your mental wellbeing and job performance.

The Slack Workforce Index, a global survey conducted to understand how work affects employee productivity, wellbeing, and satisfaction, revealed that employees who feel pressured to work after hours report 20% lower productivity throughout the day. It also found that 50% of desk workers say they rarely or never take breaks during the workday. These workers are 1.7 times more likely than their peers to experience burnout.

The Slack State of Work report found that sellers feel a constant need to be available, with 53% of desk workers feeling pressured to respond to messages quickly, even outside working hours. Additionally, 63% of desk workers try to keep their online statuses active, even when they're not working.

On Trailhead, the Enhance Employee Wellbeing with Camp B-Well Trail covers Salesforce-tested strategies for improving team wellbeing. It offers modules on nurturing mental health and tips for mindfulness, healthy eating, and better sleep.

One leading ed tech company experienced a 300% surge in business growth but struggled to scale its sales operations processes.

Although the company implemented Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, and Salesforce CPQ, its sales workflows and processes weren't fully optimized. Productivity lagged as reps spent up to an hour manually researching accounts for prospect meetings and additional time on record-keeping, drafting emails, and creating quotes. New hires struggled to sift through scattered notes and call recordings to understand their territories.

Agentforce helped transform ‌sales operations by automating manual tasks and streamlining workflows. Reps decreased account research time from an hour to just 5 or 10 minutes — a decrease of up to 92%. Improving sales efficiency is leading to increased win rates and faster deal cycles.

The company's use of Agentforce demonstrates how AI sales tools can drive productivity and growth by automating various tasks. Features like AI-enabled sales development representatives (SDRs) can engage with customers 24/7, answer product questions, handle objections, and book meetings.