This past October, Maximizer gathered virtually with a few CRM experts to talk about today’s hybrid workforce. What challenges they face and the solutions they see available. Our own Curtis Barranoik, President of Cencomp in Edmonton, Alberta was invited to this panel—along with Jon Arancio from the United States (Wintec Group) and Simon Pickard from the United Kingdom (Collier Pickard). In this first “Maxflix” episode, Curtis and two other CRM experts discussed, “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly of a Growing Business.” Our overview of Part 1 spoke to these three data points:
- 98% of sales leaders will believe the pandemic will disrupt their businesses for over five quarters.
- High-performing sales teams use three times the number of sales technology than underperforming teams.
- 42% of sales reps take ten months or longer to become productive enough to contribute to company goals. (Selling at a rate that exceeds costs.)
In this issue we review how the team of experts tackle more questions relating to the use of technology. Whether a company has a little, or alot, and the resulting productivity levels. They also give their take on more interesting data points.
The Turnover of Salespeople
An important topic was introduced around the significant amount of money required to improve a person’s productivity—whether that is onboarding a new employee (on average a ten-month process) or simply taking a person from point A to point B.
When looking at the following data points, we see that 49% of businesses do not have a KPI or a metric to track their improvements in productivity. This becomes especially difficult due to the ‘churn’ in an organization where employees are coming and going. If not tracked, the investment will become an unseen line item in your budget and lost in other things.
Often, businesses find themselves on an uneven keel—turnovers rise rapidly, and suddenly it becomes clear that more organization is needed. Or again, turnover might be falling, and half the people are no longer there. Making investments in productivity is important but knowing where you’re starting from and where you want to get to should come first
- 24k is typical of what an organization spends per person on important productivity
- 49% of organizations have zero or limited means to measure productivity.
Investing in Productivity
The irony of this data point says that something needs to be done. When economic times are good, we may not necessarily invest in productivity. We may not invest in new products or services because we may be too busy. But later, when times are bad, we may be too slow and lack the budget to invest in the necessary technology—it is a real dichotomy.
The sweet spot needs to be identified to make the proper investment in productivity, to help level out the financial environment and limit the peaks and valleys. It’s one thing to have the data available—but being able to effectively use the data is also key. As the old story goes about metrics—how you do know how to get there if you don’t know where you’re going.
Crucial to your decision is defining and improving productivity. ‘Hybrid working’ has demonstrated that simply doing the old things better is not enough. The focus should be on effectiveness and doing new and better things as well. Efficiency is fine – but a more valuable question to ask is: Is it effective?
Investing in Technology
Investing in technology can help a company tremendously. Some companies have adequate technology. They may even be decades into using a product, but continue to use it in the very same way as the day they had it rolled out. “Tweaking” the system a little bit as things change can help. Taking into consideration that:
- the goalposts have changed
- perhaps the political climate has changed
- the economic climate has changed
- customer services cases may be decreasing
- and better opportunities may be available
Businesses therefore need to be investing in subtle “tweaks” to their productivity tools in a way that reflects these changes. According to our experts, seeing what’s new, and investing in one or even two changes for an already existing tool, may be sufficient to get good value from it.
Cencomp can help. Contact us today for your free consultation or click here to get your free Maximizer 30-day trial.
