For the long-term stability of an enterprise, effective sales management plays a pivotal role. To drive business growth, a company needs to develop an efficient sales force, optimize sales operations and streamline sales techniques. But companies would need access to real-time data to optimize the sales strategy based on market conditions. Otherwise, companies will likely miss out on achieving the defined sales goals. After all, 65% of customers are lost not because of mistakes from salespersons but due to indifference towards prospects.
This is where the importance of sales tracking comes to the fore for optimising sales management processes. With the help of sales tracking systems, management can access real-time data about the efficiency of the sales processes. This analysis further assists with identifying the scope for improvement in the existing sales practices.
What is Sales Tracking?
Sales tracking is collecting, analyzing, and drawing insights from vital sales metrics from multiple data sources. These insights are then used by company management to optimize sales processes. Sales tracking offers useful insights about every aspect of the sales process and helps us understand its relation to the salespersons’ target achievement.
Sales tracking is not the easiest to do manually when the organization is growing rapidly. This is where the functionality of sales tracking tools offers a strong alternative. With 81% of sales teams not taking time to optimize their sales processes, companies are losing out on prospective customers.
Sales tracking systems help decision-makers access real-time data about the efficacy of sales processes. These systems help remove any element of doubt from the sales process. The salespersons might believe what they are doing is yielding the results, but without hard data to analyze, it is impossible to ascertain the accuracy of their claims. With sales tracking software, businesses can make data-driven decisions that are likely to impact the bottom line.
Why is Sales Tracking Important?
For creating stronger customer relationships, sales technology has emerged as a preferred investment avenue for 54% of sellers. As a result, many companies are opting to invest in sales tracking systems to drive their sales management processes. Here are some important reasons that necessitate the integration of sales activity tracking with the operations:
- Define a clear path: Sales tracking offers useful insights into the impact of various decisions on the bottom line. This information can help the company leadership optimise the sales process structure, thereby increasing the chances of salespersons achieving the specified goals. This development assumes greater importance because 85% of sellers lost out on deals in 2020 due to a lack of access to the latest sales technology.
- Accurate insights: Many companies make the mistake of using guesswork while defining sales processes. With sales tracking, the element of guesswork is removed from the entire process. Managers can track the data in real-time and then make decisions based on the reliable information. In hyper-competitive markets, this could be the differentiator between success and failure.
- Customized offerings: Companies who closely track important metrics related to customer behaviour are well-informed on customer preferences. This data enables the managers to determine behavioural triggers for specific customers. Hence, salespersons are better positioned to time their approach to prospective
- Sales Activity Tracking: Sales tracking systems enable managers to monitor the functioning of individual salespersons. This functionality lets managers discern successful team members who can close deals quickly. When sales managers have access to details on the strengths and shortcomings of different salespersons, they can develop an even better training program for the reps, as 79% of leads never translate into sales.
- Optimize Sales Methods: Sales tracking enables managers to quickly identify problems in the sales processes. This allows managers enough time to make changes to the sales process before the problem becomes severe. Additionally, sales tracking tools enable leadership to try multiple sales methods and then shortlist the ones that deliver the best results.
What are the challenges in tracking time spent on sales?
Sales managers need to know how much time their reps spend on sales processes. But it is easier said than done - there are many challenges that beckon the managers while tracking time spent on sales. Some of them:
- Not analyzing customer data: One of the biggest challenges faced while tracking time spent on sales is the lack of data analysis. Reps actively collect customer data that can help the company determine sales prospects in the coming months. Analyzing this data can help the manager understand the time the salespersons spend on the entire sales process.
- Not using the right tools: Companies can use various sales tracking systems to monitor the work of salespersons. But not all tools are optimized for all domains. If a company is not using the right sales tracking platform, tracking the time spent on sales will be challenging. 49% of sales professionals plan on using sales tools more in future, so companies must invest in getting the right tech stack.
- Manual work: Many companies have still not integrated suitable tracking tools with their existing systems. As a result, many tasks in the sales process must be completed manually. If multiple hours are spent on manually maintaining the records, tracking the time spent on sales will be fraught with errors.
Sales Tracking Steps That Make a Difference
To make the most of the available sales tracking tools, managers must follow certain steps that could make a difference in the tracking process. Here are the sales tracking steps that can make a difference:
- Identify the Crucial Metrics and KPIs: Different sales tracking processes require monitoring specific metrics. Moreover, companies must also have unique KPIs that can offer useful insights into the status of the sales pipeline. So, managers must identify the KPIs and metrics that are related to specified goals and can empower the team.
- Define sales process and pipeline: It is vital to have a defined sales process and pipeline to implement sales tracking insight. Companies need to analyze existing customers and the path they took to transform into a customer from a lead. After multiple discussions with decision-makers, determine the suitable sales process and pipeline.
- Create a Single Source of Truth: Sales managers must create a single data source for the concerned departments. Businesses get data from multiple sources, and with a single source of truth, decision-makers can draw accurate insights that align with KPIs identified earlier.
- Draw Actionable Insights: After the data has been collected, it is time to draw actionable insights. For this, managers must regularly analyze data based on the defined metrics. Then periodically, managers must use results from these analyses to adapt to the sales process.
- Share with other teams: Companies must ensure that all departments are in sync with the defined sales processes to achieve the desired results. Hence, the sales teams must share their insights with other departments to ensure better cross-departmental collaboration.
What kind of sales tracking software should you use?
Several types of sales tracking software are available in the market, but which one should you choose? Here are some essential features that sales tracking systems must possess:
- Security and Ease of Use: It is vital for sales tracking software to possess an easy-to-use interface for seamless working. It is also essential that the system has essential security features that ensure the safety of customer data.
- Higher Productivity: Companies must focus on driving sales productivity in competitive sectors. The sales tracking tools you select should allow the salespersons to complete tasks quickly. Features like calendars, to-do checklists, filters, and sorting can ensure better performance from the reps.
- Activity Tracking: Your tracking system must track client responses and salesperson performance in real-time. This feature will help plan production and client servicing accurately during high-growth stages of the business. The tool you choose must efficiently track all crucial sales metrics.
- Seamless integration: The sales activity tracking software you select should integrate seamlessly with your existing tech stack systems. This will allow you to manage all sales operations from a single application without shuffling across apps. The software must also support seamless data sharing across all popular apps.
Conclusion
Sales activity tracking has assumed considerable importance across industries. Companies must invest in suitable sales tracking tools to exercise better control over the sales processes and efficiently achieve the desired goals. With the rapid pace at which this sector is evolving, it is expected that several interesting developments will take place in the coming years. After all, 54% of sales reps believe that digital tools will help them win over more prospects.
FAQs
Q1. What is the importance of tracking sales?
A1. Tracking sales is a crucial function that helps close more deals in a quicker time and also assists with accurately forecasting future trends based on present patterns.
Q2. How can I improve sales tracking?
A2. Companies can improve their sales tracking by integrating comprehensive software with existing systems.
Q3. Will the tracking feature help in generating more sales?
A3. Yes, tracking sales will surely help generate more sales. Sales tracking offers managers actionable insights to optimize the sales processes and help the salespersons close the deals in quick time.
Q4. How do you keep track of daily sales?
A4. Companies must invest in suitable sales tracking tools to keep track of daily sales accurately. It will automate the process of sales tracking and make it more efficient.
