{"id":26567,"date":"2019-01-02T11:15:54","date_gmt":"2019-01-02T05:45:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/getvymo.com.md-in-75.webhostbox.net\/?p=26567"},"modified":"2025-09-30T13:00:51","modified_gmt":"2025-09-30T07:30:51","slug":"focus-on-this-one-thing-this-new-year-to-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vymo.com\/blog\/focus-on-this-one-thing-this-new-year-to-win\/","title":{"rendered":"Focus On The Right Sales Activities To Win Big"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"bsf_rt_marker\"><\/div><p>[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-top: 40px;\">While you should rightfully bring out the bubbly and celebrate your successes, you\u2019re probably also <b>wondering how you can one-up last year\u2019s success<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. It\u2019s not uncommon. Most successful sales teams have two things in common &#8211; a hunger for more and a forward facing outlook. There is a third, less common attribute of super-successful sales teams, which I want to talk about. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Sales teams that are able to consistently beat their quotas<\/span><b> focus on profitable behaviors<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and not just goals or outcomes. What do I mean by this? Successful sales organizations know that assigning a quota to a salesperson is only the beginning of the journey &#8211; it\u2019s akin to painting a bullseye some distance away. They also know that discussing hits and misses is too late in the game to change anything. They focus on what happens in between. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If you have been selling for a while, and your product-market fit is reasonably mature, then <\/span><b>you already know the input parameters of an ideal sale<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. Like, for instance: <\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Where should you source your leads from? <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What leads should a salesperson prioritize?<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What is the engagement playbook (calls, emails, meetings)?<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What should you do if a lead stagnates?<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When should managers intervene? <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What is the ideal price point? <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When is it the right time for an up\/cross-sell?<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What are the right customer signals to track?<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u2026 and many more. [<\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">S<\/span><\/i><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">ee &#8211; \u2018The Thumbprint of a Sale\u2019<\/span><\/i><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">].<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<div class=\"blog-box\" style=\"border-top: 1px solid #ebebeb; border-bottom: 1px solid #ebebeb; padding-bottom: 30px;\">\n<h3 style=\"text-align: center; text-transform: uppercase;\">Get The PDF: Thumbprint of a Sale<\/h3>\n<p style=\"text-align: center; margin-top: -15px !important;\">Download our one-pager on all the important input parameters of a sale.<\/p>\n<p><script async=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/www.vbt.io\/ext\/vbtforms.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n<style type=\"text\/css\">\n\t\/* Form Embed Code - No Extra Styling *\/<br \/>\t#vboutEmbedFormWrapper-13827 a,#vboutEmbedFormWrapper-13827 div,#vboutEmbedFormWrapper-13827 dl,#vboutEmbedFormWrapper-13827 dt,#vboutEmbedFormWrapper-13827 em,#vboutEmbedFormWrapper-13827 fieldset,<br \/>\t#vboutEmbedFormWrapper-13827 form,#vboutEmbedFormWrapper-13827 h1,#vboutEmbedFormWrapper-13827 h2,#vboutEmbedFormWrapper-13827 h3,#vboutEmbedFormWrapper-13827 h4,#vboutEmbedFormWrapper-13827 h5,#vboutEmbedFormWrapper-13827 h6,<br \/>\t#vboutEmbedFormWrapper-13827 hr,#vboutEmbedFormWrapper-13827 img,#vboutEmbedFormWrapper-13827 label,#vboutEmbedFormWrapper-13827 li,#vboutEmbedFormWrapper-13827 ol,#vboutEmbedFormWrapper-13827 p,#vboutEmbedFormWrapper-13827 pre,<br \/>\t#vboutEmbedFormWrapper-13827 span,#vboutEmbedFormWrapper-13827 strong,#vboutEmbedFormWrapper-13827 table,#vboutEmbedFormWrapper-13827 tbody,#vboutEmbedFormWrapper-13827 td,#vboutEmbedFormWrapper-13827 tfoot,<br \/>\t#vboutEmbedFormWrapper-13827 th,#vboutEmbedFormWrapper-13827 thead,#vboutEmbedFormWrapper-13827 tr,#vboutEmbedFormWrapper-13827 ul {border:0;margin:0;padding:0;font-size:100%}<br \/>\t#vboutEmbedFormWrapper-13827 {height:100%}<br \/>\t#vboutEmbedFormWrapper-13827 b,#vboutEmbedFormWrapper-13827 strong{font-weight:bold}<br \/>\t#vboutEmbedFormWrapper-13827 img{color:transparent;font-size:0;vertical-align:middle;-ms-interpolation-mode:bicubic}<br \/>\t#vboutEmbedFormWrapper-13827 li{display:list-item}<br \/>\t#vboutEmbedFormWrapper-13827 table{border-collapse:collapse;border-spacing:0}<br \/>\t#vboutEmbedFormWrapper-13827 th,#vboutEmbedFormWrapper-13827 td,#vboutEmbedFormWrapper-13827 caption{font-weight:normal;vertical-align:top;text-align:left}<\/p>\n<p>\t#vboutEmbedFormWrapper-13827 form {display:block; 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}<\/p>\n<p>\t#vboutEmbedFormWrapper-13827 form, #vboutEmbedFormWrapper-13827 label { color: #33475b; }<\/p>\n<p>\t\/* To style this form differently, add your own code  in your site stylesheet or in this style block.<br \/>\tWe recommend moving this block and the preceding CSS link to the HEAD of your HTML file. *\/<br \/><\/style>\n<div id=\"vboutEmbedFormWrapper-13827\" style=\"width: 500px; margin: 0 auto; position: relative; top: -35px;\">\n<form id=\"vboutEmbedForm-13827\" class=\"blog-form\" action=\"https:\/\/www.vbt.io\/embedcode\/submit\/13827\/?_format=page\" method=\"post\" name=\"vboutEmbedForm-13827\" target=\"_blank\" data-vboutform=\"13827\">\n<fieldset>\n<div class=\"vboutEmbedFormRow\">\n<p><label class=\"title\" for=\"custom-109438\">Email Address<span class=\"required-asterisk\">*<\/span><\/label><\/p>\n<div class=\"vboutEmbedFormField\"><input id=\"custom-109438\" class=\"vfb-text required validate-email\" style=\"border: 1px solid #ebebeb !important; height: 46px; padding: 6px; font-size: 15px;\" name=\"vbout_EmbedForm[field][109438]\" type=\"email\" value=\"\" placeholder=\"Please enter your email.\" data-error=\"Please enter your email.\" \/><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"vboutEmbedFormRow\"><input style=\"background-color: #eb1c24; width: 100%; height: 42px; color: #fff !important; border-radius: 5px; font-size: 14px !important; cursor: pointer !important;\" type=\"submit\" value=\"DOWNLOAD NOW\" \/><\/div>\n<\/fieldset>\n<div id=\"vboutEmbedFormResponse-13827\" style=\"display: none; margin-top: 25px; text-align: center;\"><\/div>\n<\/form>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The best part is &#8211; you should already have this data. These are your products, your salespeople and your prospects and customers. <\/span><b><i>But, do you really have this data to use?<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The surest way of understanding this is by asking salespeople and their managers, separately, about the number (and types) of activities salespeople engage in on a daily basis. Like with one of our customers, a large insurance provider with over 10,000 captive agents on their rolls. When asked how many prospects and customers their salespeople engaged with per day, managers\u2019 replies ranged from anywhere between 6 to 15. <\/span><b>But, do you know what the real number was? <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">One month into the deployment, we found that the average number of prospects and customers engaged per day was 2.4. Needless to say, managers were shocked by this data!<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We see such reactions across organizations for various data points. There is a significant gap in terms of expectations and reality for the most basic data points. <\/span><b>But, why is this the case? <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A good starting point to understanding why this is the case is to look at what are the primary systems used to capture sales data.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Organizations have been using CRM (Customer Relationship Management) systems for over two decades now, starting in the early ERP era to manage their sales data. For many, CRMs were the start point of their digital journey and they represent <\/span><b>an important shift in the mindset<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to data-driven planning and decision making. CRMs acted as a source of records and enabled sales teams to store and retrieve sales data at will. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But, unfortunately, CRMs haven\u2019t evolved beyond passive databases to proactively enable salespeople to sell more. Instead, they have only increased in complexity to accommodate all varieties of processes and stakeholders beyond Sales, ranging from Marketing and Service to Finance and Operations.<\/span><b> The modern CRM is a beast that needs constant feeding. <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So much so, that salespeople spent 17.9% of their time on CRMs every year. CRM implementations now take anywhere between a couple of quarters to multiple years. It all depends on the size of the sales team. But on average, they take about 2-6 months. It seems like salespeople exist to serve their CRMs and not the other way around. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Worse, salespeople think that <\/span><b>CRMs distract from their top priority &#8211; engaging prospects and customers.<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Typically, salespeople report data onto CRMs when they find time away from their core activities at the end of the day\/week. Likely, they enter this data to keep CRM Admins and Sales Managers from hounding them about it. [In some organizations, there are incentives\/disincentives attached to this.] The data entered is neither accurate nor comprehensive, but there is no way of verifying this other than hearsay. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Sales Managers and Leaders, who are the primary decision-makers in CRM procurement, want to see reports and analytics around leads and activities that can help in planning, forecasting and resourcing. But, given that <\/span><b>adoption metrics of even the World\u2019s top three CRMs is less than 30% <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">(daily active usage based on AppAnnie data), the return on investment is sub-optimal. Especially, when CRMs have become progressively more expensive over the years. CRM ROI equates to $1 for every $5 spent.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So, what can organizations do to collect and analyze clean, contextual data? One thing is certain &#8211; replacing existing CRMs is not the answer. We see this so many times across prospects and customers &#8211; organizations moving from Salesforce to Dynamics or vice versa, often driven by the comfort levels or past experience of people championing the CRM initiative, than any real data that proves one is significantly better suited to solve their existing problems. The result is an endless cycle implementation, training, onboarding, and success (or failure).<\/span><b> Is it any surprise that organizations across the board think CRM is the problem? <\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Perhaps, it\u2019s time we calibrate our expectations. CRMs can continue to act as a source of records and help identify opportunities, but in order for them to proactively drive conversions, organizations must adopt a different breed of applications, which are mobile-first and intelligent, no different from any of the other apps that the modern salesperson uses in his personal life. Think Uber, Amazon, Airbnb, and the likes, that can <\/span><b>collect contextual data seamlessly and provide necessary intelligence<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> that results in highly engaged users. <\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-26571 aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/vymo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/unnamed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"512\" height=\"202\" title=\"\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Sales is possibly one of the hardest vocations. This year, instead of incentivising your salespeople endlessly and relying on miracles to see you through, invest in a process to predictable revenue. And if you\u2019re thinking on those lines, I\u2019d love to have a chat with you and share our experiences of organizations that have made the shift. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Wish you a wonderful year, ahead.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"\/request-a-demo\/\"><button class=\"but-but\" style=\"color: #fff; background-color: #eb1c24; border-radius: 5px !important; font-size: 16px; cursor: pointer; width: 200px !Important; height: 40px !important;\">Talk to me<\/button><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text] While you should rightfully bring out the bubbly and celebrate your successes, you\u2019re probably also wondering how you can one-up last year\u2019s success. It\u2019s not uncommon. Most successful sales teams have two things in common &#8211; a hunger for more and a forward facing outlook. There is a third, less common attribute of super-successful [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":36027,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[124,125,126,127,128],"class_list":["post-26567","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","tag-boost-sales","tag-improve-sales","tag-increase-sales","tag-sales-behaviours","tag-sales-execution"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vymo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26567","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vymo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vymo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vymo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vymo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26567"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/vymo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26567\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37363,"href":"https:\/\/vymo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26567\/revisions\/37363"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vymo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36027"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vymo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26567"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vymo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26567"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vymo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26567"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}