An Exploration of the “Sales Stack;” Engineers Have Them So Why Shouldn’t We All

Lets ask ourselves a simple question: if we could allow our one or two person sales team to accomplish the work of ten or twenty, would we? The obvious answer is yes, however, many sales teams are stuck in the past, and have not seized on the potential for technology to provide greatly increased efficiency. How, you might ask, do we get there? Recently NUMA brought in the experienced sales leader Simmone Taitt (who built highly successful sales teams at Gilt Groupe, SpaFinder, Handwriting.io and Kidpass) to share the tools (applicable to anyone) that can help unlock the potential of teams.

Essential Tools to Increase Productivity

Here are the tools essential to increase productivity of your sales teams and allow your salesforce to compete with the best:

• The CRM — Commonly Salesforce (less used but still useful tools include Zoho, Oracle, Hubspot, Marketo)
• The Cadence Tool — Salesloft, Outreach, others
• The SDR — Intelligence Platforms, DIY Scraping, Offshore Support
• Sales Collateral Suite — One-Pager, Case Study, Partnership Deck
• Legal Tools (TRATO, Docusign)

Together these tools allow sales professionals to better keep track of their sales process, send more outreach and focus on what really matters, closing the sale.

A CRM Not Updated is a “Dead CRM.”

The CRM is the most important of the sales tools, however, the CRM is only as powerful as the information you add to it. Having your team on board with CRM processes and consistently ensuring it has all the current data entered will make or break any investment into a CRM. If adequately and uniformly maintained, the CRM becomes the “brains” behind the sales process, allowing sales teams to track their sales cycle, oversee their pipeline, and identify areas of strength and difficulty.

Eliminate “Oh Sh*! Did I Send this out??” Moments

Think about the last time you felt anxious about whether you actually sent that email or worried about whether that follow up call was scheduled. Now imagine you could remove that anxiety because you have the cadence tracked and visualized in an online platform. Not only are cadence tools like Salesloft or Outreach stress reducing, they also ensure follow-up happens, sending automated emails or reminding the sales professionals when it becomes time to pick up the phone and connect with a particular account. With the sales cycle monitored this way, your reps will be able to handle even more clients, worrying less about the minutiae of follow up.

Lead me to Profit, SDR

It becomes hard to sell when you have only a few qualified leads, however, hiring a dedicated SDR is costly. Intelligence platforms like Hoovers and Zoom Info cost less than the minimum $40k salary of a Sales Development Rep (SDR) in New York City and make things simple, but are still costly. Once you have a sense of your Ideal Customer Profile, consider asking an outsourced engineer to write code that scrapes relevant websites and delivers leads to you on a regular basis.

The Art of Persuasion

Having persuasive materials ready to assist your reps in their sale is absolutely crucial. If you can build interest with a one pager or case study that highlights the value of your product you can expect the entire sales process to be easier. Similarly, a clear partnership deck will make all the difference and even free up the sales professional from some of the questions that would otherwise require serious thought and time to answer.

We love NUMA Alumni

Finally, have you ever played contract tag? This game of back and forth wastes everyone’s time and is NOT a good look. A good legal tool saves time, hassle and helps ensure your compliance. We recommend checking out NUMA portfolio company TRATO, a blockchain-based contract management tool that makes the legal management process simple.

Questions or comments on the sales stack? Please share! Don’t forget to apply for our October cohort.

If interested in learning more about sales team optimization from Simmone and her sales consultancy HeartSpace NYC, don’t hesitate to reach out!