The main focus of SageCRM 2024 R1, is to continue to modernise the user experience and improve user satisfaction, while also enhancing security, increasing productivity, and laying the groundwork for future advancements. 

What are soft skills? Soft skills are invaluable to the sales workplace and are often also know as the 'core' skills. These skills include communication and empathy and are relevant to most professions. Below are the seven top soft skills that will help sales representatives looking to hit quota and generate revenue. 1. Empathy Empathy is crucial to build trust among your customers, you must prioritise your clients goals and emotions over your own to ensure their needs are met as according to LinkedIn’s State of Sales Report only 40% of buyers believe that salespeople are trustworthy. Additionally, empathy helps sales representatives to root deeper into leads' problem to find the core issue and create an effective solution. This ultimately will enhance the customers experience through providing relevant product or service recommendations to fit the clients needs resulting in greater customer satisfaction. By providing a personalised experience you can avoid rejections and overcome sales objections. To develop empathy: - Focus on how you pay attention to ensure you are actively listening. - Be curious by asking questions and listening intently. 2. Persuasion Persuasion is a valuable soft skill in sales as it can provide gentle reassurance to nurture prospects towards a confident purchase decision. For example, directing the lead to a relevant source (case study) so they can see the tangible benefits of a product in a real life scenario. Persuasion skills are useful at all stages of the sales cycle. This skill will help you to overcome early objections and help you to reassure customers that you understand their needs and can solve their problems. To develop persuasion: - Put yourself in your prospects scenario by considering what could be stopping them from progressing. - Ask questions. 3. Adaptability It is important to remember that circumstances change therefore you must always be ready to adapt your sales approach. To be an adaptable salesperson you must have the knowledge on your industry, business and target audience to reassure leads when something does not go to plan. To develop adaptability: - Get out of your comfort zone. - Shadow a sales engineer or product manager as they have unique technical knowledge making them good to shadow. 4. Organisation The increase in people working from home has led to further independence therefore making organisation in the workplace crucial. Sales reps often have multiple responsibilities from managing leads and hosting meetings to reporting, travelling and training. An organised salesperson knows which prospects need attention and take the time to check in and follow up where necessary. Implementing a CRM system makes staying organised easier by helping you know when exactly to follow up with a contact. To develop organisation: - Record and time your regular activities as you will begin to understand where your time goes and learn how to use it more effectively. - Allow technology such as CRM softwares to help you by automating workflows and repetitive tasks. 5. Resilience In sales, it is important to stay resilient as you can be doing everything right and find that you still can’t close a deal due to forces outside of your control. Resilient sales reps and managers take steps to mitigate poor performance. It is crucial to have support from your management to create supportive environments to address sales related struggles and rebuild confidence with each small success. Managers can also get a clearer view of their sales team’s processes using a visual CRM pipeline and may spot patterns that are easy to correct. To develop resilience: - Recognise the positives of failure so they become learning opportunities. - Take notice of other reps' struggles to help you to accept that sales can be difficult and not everything is in your control. - Stay optimistic as this is one of the must-have qualities top sales representatives possess. 6. Communication As a sales rep you are responsible for turning prospects into customers. Effective communication is critical to sales success as it allows you to build the product and customer knowledge you need to reassure leads and sell confidently. Therefore, it is important to understand customers pain points and solve them by recommending suitable products. Listening skills, clarity and tone are three areas of communication to focus on as a salesperson. To develop communication skills: - Vary your communication channels. - Shadow top-performing reps and learn from their interactions with prospects how to use tone and language to make buyers feel comfortable and confident. 7. Storytelling Great storytelling works in sales as it does in marketing: by appealing to buyers’ emotional decision-making process. Salespeople can use great stories to trigger emotional responses that make prospects believe more in products and, therefore, more likely to buy. For example, a B2B sales pitch story could use the following structure: - Status quo . “This is how your business is operating right now.” - Conflict. “All of those manual admin tasks are pulling your team away from your customers and hindering their experience of your business.” - Resolution . “Our automation software will take care of those menial tasks, so your team can focus their attention on personalised customer service.” - Outcome . “With more attention from your team, customer sentiment improves and repeat business increases.” To develop storytelling skills: - Read and look for the narrative structure in the media you consume, from news articles to fiction, to understand how your audience feels at certain stages of your presentation and effectively tap into their emotions. - Take inspiration from marketers by looking for the stories they tell in their content.

Introducing Spotler Spotler is the number one email connecter to Sage Spotler is an AI powered marketing automation and lead generation software provider offering an all in one inbound & outbound platform, allowing marketing & sales teams get more leads, convert more traffic and run complete marketing campaigns. Spotler has one of the best integration with Sage CRM allowing sales and marketing teams to work form one platform and increase their marketing and output and lead generation activities. Spotler is one of the only UK providers that will allow you to email non-opted-in data, even your purchased lists. Spotler mail+ is a email marketing software suitable for all organisations looking for a software to professionally communicate in a personal matter with employees, customers, shareholders, members, prospects and many other segments! This includes B2B, e-commerce, retail, government, non profit, education, health care and many more. Spotler Mail+ holds multiple features from email newsletters, audience management and segmentations, forms and surveys, SMS mailings, A/B testing, mailing reports, tagging and scoring, dynamic content, images editor to document management. Features Email editor: Drag and drop to create emails from a library of pre-defined blocks or your on custom blocks that can be reused across emails and campaigns. Once the template has been created you can edit the design by adjusting the colours, paddings and alignment to your brand guidelines. The email editor also does all the HTML work for you, including optimising for all devices! Gator leads: Track companies and contacts who visit your website and increase and track the ROI from your paid ads. Help your sales team get new leads by integrating Sage CRM with our lead generation software enabling you to manage your website leads from within your CRM. From tracking their website behaviour to who the lead is assigned to in CRM. You can link records, see their lead score and link CRM records. Send forensics: Predict the deliverability of your campaigns before sending and monitor the reputation of your IP and sending domain. Gator AI: Increase the click rate of your campaigns and understand which contact will unsubscribe by removing them from the campaign. Spotler offers core marketing services from template design, automation builds, content production and SEO to create engagement across channels and touchpoints. Data secured and GDPR compliant: With Spotler mail+ all customer data is secured and the privacy of recipients is guaranteed. Additionally, Spotler is GDPR compliant saving you the time through guaranteed GDPR compliant email marketing. Spotler also guarantees that your data will be stored securely in Europe. Spotler uses a Dutch partner for hosting and storage. Integrate Spotler Mail+ with CRM: You can integrate Spotler with CRM systems, webshop software and customer data platforms. Through the synchronisation of data, segmentations and personalisation become even more targeted and communication becomes more relevant.

What is AI and how is it revolutionising Customer Relationship Management? The sales world is rapidly evolving and how a company manages its customer relationships is crucial to its success. Therefore, Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems are being adopted by organisations to stay organised and increase efficiency levels. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is revolutionising the way in which companies engage with their customers. This includes enhancing work quality, redefining machine interfacing, providing businesses with powerful tools to analyse data, automate processes, and deliver personalised experiences. AI functionalities will be integrated within various CRM systems for sales people, marketers and human resources departments to interact with the AI technology to enhance their productivity and deliver job responsibilities more efficiently. In this blog, we'll explore how AI is ultimately enhancing and impacting CRM. With AI algorithms, manual data entry becomes simpler whilst reducing user effort. These AI-driven tools can populate notes and follow-ups automatically, eliminating manual data input. AI algorithms analyse data from a range of sources including customer interactions, emails, and social media. The relevant information is extracted to populate CRM fields. This automated entry saves time, maintains data accuracy, and minimises human errors due to the automation of data entries. AI augments data quality. Learning from patterns and historical data, it offers intelligent predictions and suggestions. For example, AI can recommend tags or categories based on note or email content, streamlining tasks and enhancing data consistency. AI unlocks more effective data utilisation. It analyses vast datasets, uncovering patterns, trends, and overlooked insights. This information empowers decision-making, personalises customer interactions, and elevates overall CRM performance. AI in Sales Predictive analytics: In sales departments AI will compliment lead generation, lead scoring and predictive analytics. AI can analyse vast amounts of data to identify patterns and trends, helping sales teams predict customer behaviour, preferences, and potential buying signals. This enables more targeted and personalised sales strategies, improving conversion rates and customer satisfaction. Lead scoring and qualification: AI powered CRM systems can automatically score and qualify leads based on various criteria, such as demographic information, engagement history, and purchase intent. This helps prioritise leads for sales outreach, ensuring that representatives focus their efforts on the most promising opportunities, analyse vast amounts of customer data in real-time to uncover valuable insights and trends. Sales forecasting: By leveraging machine learning algorithms, businesses can gain a deeper understanding of customer behaviour, preferences, and needs by replacing dead-end, web-to-lead forms with live conversations to qualify and pass leads to your team directly from your website. These insights enable sales teams to make data-driven decisions, identify opportunities for growth, and predict future customer actions more accurately. Process automation: AI is also beneficial in sales in providing automated personalised communications at any location including Microsoft Outlook, Gmail and LinkedIn. With this function you will never draft emails from scratch again! AI will auto-generate personalised emails grounded in CRM and external data, helping sellers to make introductions or send follow-ups in seconds. Overall, AI enhances CRM for sales by providing actionable insights, automating manual tasks, personalising interactions, and optimising sales performance to drive efficiency, productivity, and revenue growth for organisations. AI in Marketing Personalised marketing campaigns: One of the key benefits of AI in CRM is its ability to deliver personalised experiences to customers at scale. AI algorithms can segment customers into distinct groups based on their demographics, purchase history, and behaviour and tailor marketing messages, product recommendations, and communication channels to individual preferences. This helps marketers anticipate customer needs, optimise marketing spend, and make proactive decisions to stay ahead of the competition to deliver highly targeted and personalised marketing campaigns. Predictive analytics: Additionally, AI can forecast future marketing trends and outcomes by analysing historical interactions and preferences. This helps marketers anticipate customer needs, optimise marketing spend, and make proactive decisions to stay ahead of the competition. Marketing automation: By automating repetitive tasks like email marketing, social media scheduling and lead nurturing campaigns, marketers can focus on creating compelling content and strategies that drive engagement and conversions. This saves time and resources, improves efficiency, and allows marketers to focus on more strategic initiatives. Customer service enhancement: AI-powered chatbots and virtual assistants integrated with CRM systems can provide immediate assistance to customers, answer frequently asked questions, and resolve issues in real-time. This level of personalisation enhances customer engagement, loyalty, and satisfaction to ultimately driving business growth, whilst improving customer satisfaction, reducing response times, and frees up human agents to focus on more complex inquiries. Overall, AI enhances marketing teams' capabilities within CRM systems by providing data analysis, personalised marketing, lead scoring, content recommendations, automation, predictive analytics, and customer service enhancement. By leveraging AI-driven insights and tools, marketing teams can optimise their efforts, drive better results, and deliver a superior customer experience. AI in Service Chatbots for Self-Service: AI automates routine tasks and processes within CRM systems, freeing up valuable time for sales and customer service teams to focus on more strategic activities. For example, AI-powered chatbots can handle routine customer inquiries and support requests, providing immediate assistance 24/7 AI-powered chatbots and virtual assistants integrated with CRM systems can provide immediate assistance to customers, answer frequently asked questions, and resolve issues in real-time. This enables customers to find answers to their questions quickly and conveniently, reducing the workload and costs on service agents whilst improving customer satisfaction, reducing response times, and freeing up human agents to focus on more complex inquiries. Sentiment analysis: Additionally, AI can automate lead scoring, sales forecasting and customer sentiment and emotion from various sources, such as social media, emails, and customer service interactions enabling teams to work more efficiently and effectively. AI can analyse customer interactions, such as emails, chats, and social media conversations, to determine sentiment and gauge customer satisfaction levels. This allows service teams to identify unhappy customers or potential issues early on and take proactive measures to address them by understanding how customers feel about their brand and products. Businesses can identify opportunities and address issues before they escalate. AI-powered sentiment analysis also enables businesses to engage with customers in a more empathetic and personalised manner to analyse customer sentiment, service teams can proactively address customer concerns and provide personalised solutions, leading to higher customer satisfaction and loyalty. Automated Case Resolution: AI can automate repetitive service tasks, such as case triaging, data entry, and follow-up communication. This streamlines service processes, reduces manual effort, and allows service agents to focus on more complex or high-value interactions. AI enhances service teams' capabilities within CRM systems by automating tasks, providing predictive insights, enabling self-service options, analysing sentiment, offering personalised recommendations, streamlining case resolution, facilitating knowledge management, and leveraging customer feedback. By harnessing the power of AI, service teams can deliver faster, more efficient, and more personalised support experiences, ultimately driving higher levels of customer satisfaction and loyalty. Ready to get started? AI is revolutionising CRM by providing businesses with powerful tools to analyse data, automate processes, and deliver personalised experiences at scale. By harnessing the power of AI, organisations can gain deeper insights into customer behaviour, enhance engagement and loyalty, and drive business growth in today's competitive marketplace. As AI continues to evolve, its impact on CRM is only expected to grow, empowering businesses to build stronger and more meaningful relationships with their customers. Not sure where to start? Lets chat!

What is Qnect integration for Sage 50 & 200? Qnect for SageCRM is a real-time integration that links SageCRM to various Sage account solutions (including Sage50 & 200). It helps to increase efficiency and accuracy in the management of customers, suppliers, products, quotes and orders at an affordable cost. View your customer or supplier financials, orders, quotes and invoices from your Sage Accounts system directly within SageCRM . Create customers and post orders from SageCRM directly into your accounts solution without retyping! By combining SageCRM with Sage Accounts you can enjoy better business insight, greater efficiencies, increased productivity and have a single customer-centric view across your entire business. What can we Do?

How a CRM will help your commercial cleaning business A customer relationship management system (CRM) can be a game changer within the cleaning industry. A CRM system will provide your business with tools to help with effective communication and high-quality customer service, enabling your business to track customer interactions ensuring no cases are left unresolved. Building a strong relationship between your cleaning company and its existing and potential customers is a necessity, the solutions offered by a CRM can help your cleaning company connect with customers at any stage of the sales cycle. An effective CRM system will increase customer satisfaction due to improved business efficiency by eliminating confusion and the overlapping of work tasks to ensure all operations run smoothly. Enhancing your communication strategies with your customers will increase sales opportunities and potential leads. Implementing a CRM system will help with this as all your company data will be stored in one place. This works well for businesses that are dealing with ever-increasing amounts of data coming in from multiple sources, especially in the cleaning industry where it is likely you will have staff positioned in multiple locations. As a result, a CRM system will provide real-time data to ensure staff are up to date and streamlined communication is strong. Sales analysis and consistency in the process are essential to making better-informed decisions and will lead to better business outcomes and improved conditions. Your cleaning company and customer base will determine how quickly you need a CRM system. Below are some benefits of adopting a CRM system within a cleaning company: Ability to centralise customer data Improved task tracking Increasing their customer retention rates Automating most repetitive tasks Increased sales opportunities More free time to do less boring work What key features should a CRM for a cleaning company include?  Scheduling A schedule management feature will allow your business to effectively coordinate, ensuring accurate staff levels due to precise staff availability. This will ensure staff are organised through appointment reminders and daily schedules, ultimately enhancing efficiency and customer satisfaction. Dispatching Streamlining dispatching tasks will increase precision by eliminating confusion and the overlapping of tasks. Creating a smooth staff work environment with good communication levels will be projected onto the customer, providing them with a seamless service experience through increased staff productivity levels. Inventory management Inventory management is crucial for all commercial cleaning organisations. A cleaning CRM system will enable stock levels to be constantly monitored always ensuring high stock levels, allowing items to be ordered promptly. Invoicing Invoicing is another key element for cleaning companies. CRM systems include invoicing capabilities which ensure billing and payments are made smoothly and on time to both staff and customers. If this is not optimised your business may face reputational risk, therefore all transactions must be made accurately and on time. Customer feedback Customer feedback is crucial to all businesses. By implementing a CRM system, you can monitor and analyse customer reviews. This will help to enhance your service quality ensuring a seamless experience is provided and customer retention levels remain high. The commercial cleaning industry is rising with many organisations demanding a more flexible and personalised solution; therefore, it is important to maintain a competitive edge by utilising CRM for your business. A CRM system can help to keep your business going due to the multiple automation functions that will save time whilst ensuring your business runs smoothly to maintain competitiveness. Key takeaways: A CRM is meant to help you operate your cleaning business in an effective, time-saving, and professional manner by providing estimating programs, bid management software, automatic invoicing, scheduling services, and more. You'll be able to keep track of client information and satisfy their requirements more easily than ever before, allowing your business to reach new heights. At ERBS we can provide you with the best CRM for your cleaning business. CRM systems tailored for the cleaning industry are more effective for managing industry-specific tasks like scheduling, dispatching, inventory management, invoicing, and customer feedback. Try Pipedrive free

Sales KPIs are the most important metrics for your team. Done right, they can provide valuable insights to optimise your sales process. You can’t improve what you don’t measure, but choosing the right metrics for your goals can be challenging. In this article, we cover 20 valuable KPIs for sales teams to track so you can determine which ones are right for you. What are KPIs for sales? Sales KPIs (key performance indicators) are measures that sales teams use to track progress toward objectives and broader business goals. They help you assess the effectiveness of your sales strategy so you can determine whether your sales activities are working or if you need to rethink your approach. Choosing the right sales KPIs For the most accurate tracking, set specific goals and sales objectives and align your KPIs with them. A company with a goal like “sell as much as you can” will struggle to measure whether the team – and each rep – is achieving it. Likewise, a sales manager only tracking “deals closed” will miss where the team is struggling if not also tracking activities, such as “proposals sent” and “demos held”. Each company will have its own unique goals. Two companies may offer the same product, but one may focus on expanding its territories while the other aims to acquire more local customers. Sales goals often fall into two categories: Activity goals. Goals based on your team’s actions, like increasing initial calls for a specific buyer persona. Performance-based goals . Goals based on results, like increasing annual sales revenue by 25%. Once you’ve chosen your sales goals, make them even more effective and eliminate guesswork by creating a SMART goal (one that’s specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound). The sales objective is the planned action to achieve that goal and KPIs are what you’ll measure to track progress. As mentioned above, the right objectives for your team will depend on your sales and broader business goals. They’ll also depend on your team’s performance. For example, setting ambitious revenue goals doesn’t make sense if your team can’t achieve them. Figure out which short-term changes will impact your long-term success. It’s also important to note that your sales objectives will vary depending on factors like industry, location and company size. 20 sales KPIs for sales teams While goals and objectives will be unique to each company, several effective KPIs can measure team performance toward objectives. Here are 20 KPIs for sales managers to consider: Monthly sales growth Monthly sales growth helps sales leaders uncover problems quickly and remedy them. Setting monthly sales growth targets also motivates sales team members to perform well, giving them goals to work toward in four-week sprints. Monthly sales growth = ((Sales for the current month − sales for the previous month) ÷ sales for the prior month) × 100 2. Average profit margin Average profit margin focuses only on profits from sales revenue. It tells you whether sales efforts are contributing to company revenue and whether those efforts are sustainable. Average profit margin = (Net income ÷ net sales) × 100 3. Average purchase value Average purchase value is the average dollar amount customers spend on your products or services. It’s an ideal metric for companies focused on boosting revenue from current customers. Average purchase value = Total sales ÷ number of customers or transactions 4. Customer acquisition cost (CAC) Customer acquisition cost is how much it costs to gain a new customer, including all sales and marketing expenses, salaries and overhead costs. It helps companies set budgets to make sure acquiring new customers remains sustainable. CAC = Total sales and marketing costs ÷ net new customers 5. Average customer lifetime value (CLV or CLTV) Average customer lifetime value estimates how much revenue a company gains per account across the customer lifespan (how long they’re typically with the company). Average CLV = Average customer value × average customer lifespan 6. Customer retention rate and churn rate Customer retention rate is the percentage of customers who continue buying your product or service. It measures your sales team’s ability to nurture loyal customers and support recurring sales. Churn rates reflect the percentage of customers who don’t renew or buy again. This metric can signal problems with your product or offer; it can also indicate competition. Churn rate = (Number of customers lost ÷ starting number of customers) × 100 Retention rate = 1 ÷ churn rate 7. Monthly sales bookings The sales bookings KPI calculates the value of a won sale minus costs over a specific timeframe. Monthly sales bookings = Total value of new bookings for the month − (average cost per transaction × total number of bookings) 8. Calls or emails per sales rep If you’re measuring the performance of individual salespeople, cold calls or emails per day or month can help you track productivity. 9. Sales per rep This performance-based KPI for sales reps helps managers set sales targets by telling you how many sales reps sell on average over a given period, so you know whether you are setting realistic targets. It’s important to note that reps and situations vary, so be sure to account for this when tracking this metric, this is an important metric for measuring growth and comparing sales across periods Sales per rep = Total sales over the period ÷ number of reps 10. Monthly demo calls Keeping track of monthly sales demo calls helps companies predict how many customers will buy. Customers in the demo stage are more likely to convert than customers in the early stages of a sales cycle. Knowing how many are meeting to learn about your product and then converting tells you how well this is happening in future periods. Track monthly demo calls inside a customer relationship management (CRM) system. It supports sales funnel assessment and helps reps convert leads into customers! 11. Lead conversion rate Focusing on sales-qualified leads helps determine your sales team’s win rate. You can also calculate it broadly to measure sales effectiveness and ensure marketing teams work together to convert leads. Lead conversion rate = (Total number of sales ÷ total number of leads) × 100 12. Sales opportunities Sales opportunities estimate the value of a lead based on the odds of closing the sale. Sales opportunity = Value of sale × opportunity status 13. Sales target attainment Sales target attainment allows you to track sales team performance compared to previous periods or against prior targets. Sales target attainment = (Sales for the current period ÷ sales target) × 100 14. Quote-to-close ratio The quote-to-close ratio compares the number of closed deals to quotes sent out. You can use it to assess the effectiveness of your sales reps by comparing it to historical trends or current targets. Quote-to-close ratio = (Number of closed and won deals ÷ number of quotes) × 100 15. Monthly recurring revenue (MRR) and annual recurring revenue (ARR) MRR tells companies what they can expect to make per month from recurring revenue (i.e., subscriptions). ARR calculates the recurring income generated from longer-term subscriptions or contract accounts, such as companies with two-year deals. MRR = Total number of paying customers in the month × average revenue per customer that month ARR = (Total revenue from annual subscriptions) + (Any additional ongoing revenue) − (Cancellations) 16. Average revenue per account Average revenue per account is important when creating marketing campaigns that speak to high-value audiences and use an account-based approach to selling. Average revenue per account = MRR ÷ total number of accounts 17. Sales volume by location Tracking sales volume by location reveals where the most significant demand for your products is and sets the stage for changing your sales strategy. Sales volume by location = (Number of sales in target location ÷ total number of sales) × 100 18. Upsell and cross-sell rates Effective upselling and cross-selling tactics are key to increasing revenue, as it is often easier to convince customers who already trust your business to buy. Upsell rate % = Upsell revenue ÷ total revenue Cross-sell rate % = Cross-selling revenue ÷ total revenue 19. Average sales cycle length Understanding the average length of your team’s sales cycle can help you optimise sales processes online and offline. You can use it to compare how long each rep takes to close deals and how that impacts close rates and customer retention. Average sales cycle = Length of all deals by the day ÷ total number of deals 20. Average response time Average response time is a measurement of the average amount of time it takes your sales reps to respond to new leads who filled out a form or perform outreach to qualified leads. Average response time = Total amount of time to respond to tickets ÷ total number of tickets KPI benchmarks for sales teams Your team’s benchmarks will depend on your industry and current performance. Many sales teams, however, will start by measuring current performance against previous benchmarks. Tracking sales KPIs using Pipedrive’s CRM sales dashboard Pipedrive is a CRM that helps you manage your sales pipeline , monitor leads and automate your sales process. Pipedrive’s dashboards provide real-time insights into which sales activities drive the most sales. They can also help you identify which sales reps are meeting their targets so you can reward them for their hard work. You can set goals and create sales reports in the Pipedrive KPI dashboard to track benchmarks like win rate, number of deals in the pipeline and sales activities. Creating Pipedrive KPI reports Pipedrive reports provide insights into the performance of your pipeline, deals, leads and sales reps. You can also use the Insights feature to forecast projected revenue based on the deals in your pipeline. Tracking KPIs by setting goals in Pipedrive To track your KPIs within Pipedrive, start by setting goals so you can monitor your progress and forecast projected revenue. Alternatively, you can set individual reps with goals to keep them on track, as shown in the image below. Try Pipedrive free

 Even top sales professionals sometimes struggle to connect with prospects. Despite having the perfect product or service for the prospect, sales can stall for no apparent reason, leaving you wondering what’s missing in your approach. Recognising your sales emotional intelligence (sales EQ) means you can understand yourself and your customers on a deeper level and transform your sales strategy to form deeper relations. What is sales EQ? Sales EQ refers to emotional intelligence – the ability to recognise, understand and manage emotions in yourself and others, which can be applied to the sales process. People use intelligence quotient (IQ) scores to measure a person’s intelligence. However, it soon became clear that this view of intelligence was incomplete because it didn’t account for a person’s creativity or ability to cope with emotions. Emotional intelligence is measured using emotional quotient (EQ), which has proven to be a valuable quality. Daniel Goleman, author of Emotional Intelligence found that over 85% of senior leaders owe their success to emotional intelligence rather than traditional intelligence, employees with a higher EQ are also more likely to perform better at work and less likely to burnout. A high EQ is also important in sales. In one study, trainers put front-line sales managers and reps through a program designed to improve their emotional intelligence and enhance their sales performance. As a result, total sales revenue increased by an average of 12% . Unlike sales methodologies that focus on a product’s features and benefits, sales professionals with a high EQ concentrate on the buyer. Sales reps can tailor their approach to the buyer’s emotional needs and decision-making process. The four levels of sales intelligence Sales intelligence typically refers to customer data used in the sales process, but Jeb Blout refers to it as different types of knowledge a salesperson can use. Jeb Blount, author of Sales EQ explains that ultra-high sales performance comes down to four distinct intelligences: Innate Intelligence Acquired Intelligence Technological Intelligence Emotional Intelligence According to Blount, ultra-high-performing (UHP) sales professionals use each type of intelligence in their process, combining them to engage with prospects. Innate intelligence Innate intelligence refers to a person’s natural ability to recognise patterns and solve problems. Different factors can affect a person’s baseline intelligence such as genetics to upbringing (nature and nurture). Acquired intelligence People can still learn new skills and increase their knowledge, despite their level of innate intelligence. You advance your acquired intelligence over time by learning new sales frameworks, studying different markets and navigating unique selling environments. Sales professionals with high acquired intelligence typically have a growth mindset, shown by a deep desire to continue learning and a willingness to challenge the status quo. These reps are adept at using sales training and coaching to enhance their techniques. They constantly evolve and look for ways to improve their sales process based on experience and feedback. Technological intelligence Technological intelligence refers to the ability to effectively use and integrate those tools in your sales and involves using CRM systems, social media, workflow automation and data analysis tools. Sales professionals with high technological intelligence can leverage these tools to manage customer interactions and gain insights that drive their sales strategies. Technological intelligence is evident in the way sales professionals feel comfortable adopting new sales technology , adapting it to their unique situation and using it to optimise their sales process. Emotional intelligence Emotional intelligence brings the human element to sales. EQ is a pivotal part of building and maintaining strong customer relations. Sales reps with high emotional intelligence can understand the emotional needs and drivers behind a customer’s buying decision and adjust their sales approaches accordingly. Sales-specific emotional intelligence is key to nurturing potential conflicts into opportunities and ensuring long-term customer satisfaction and loyalty. Integrating the four intelligences in sales Sales professionals can apply these levels of intelligence to their sales by first recognising their innate strengths and where they could improve. Take the initiative and look for opportunities to enhance the different types of intelligence through ongoing sales training and other resources. Integrating these four types of intelligence helps sales professionals create a more dynamic, adaptable and successful sales strategy that resonates with clients on multiple levels, leading to increased sales performance and customer loyalty. Analyse your sales interactions. Listen to recordings of your sales calls and try to spot any changes. What emotions were at play? How did your mood and attitude affect the outcome? It can be difficult to analyse our behaviour, so we actively seek feedback from colleagues, managers and even customers. Getting an external perspective can provide unexpected insights into your approach that you may never have considered. Here are three ways you can increase your self-awareness today: Listen to recordings of your sales calls Look for any patterns of how you respond to specific scenarios Enlist a sales coach or mentor to analyse your calls and offer advice Empathy Empathy is the ability to recognise and share the feelings of another. In sales, empathy means casting aside preconceptions and putting yourself in your buyer’s shoes. What are their needs, challenges and emotions? To cultivate empathy, focus on actively listening during your interactions with customers. Pay attention, not just to the words they use, but also to what they don’t say. What can you learn from their tone of voice and body language? True empathy also means going beneath the surface to uncover deeper motivations. What would purchasing your product or service mean for the customer? What challenges would it help them overcome? How would it help them become a better version of themselves? When you can answer those questions, you’ll better understand the customer and how to adjust your pitch to align with their needs. Here are three tips for improving your empathy: Practice active listening to understand your customer’s perspective Use role-playing exercises to put yourself in the place of your customer Ask open-ended questions that encourage your customer to open up Social skills Improving social skills means learning how to interact meaningfully with others so that you can persuade without being pushy and build genuine rapport, this can include effective communication, active listening and the ability to adapt your approach to different types of clients. For example, how do you adjust your communication style when speaking to a detail-oriented client versus a more big-picture client? Are you able to read cues that suggest a client is losing interest? If so, do you know how to re-engage them? Improving your interpersonal skills starts with observing and learning from each interaction. Pay attention to which approaches work best with different types of clients. Practice mirroring their communication style – if they’re formal, observe the same formalities. If they’re casual, take a more relaxed approach. Here are three ways to improve your social skills: Pay attention to your non-verbal communication and body language Join public speaking groups or workshops Attend events with a wide variety of attendees and start a conversation Self-control Sales can be a high-pressure environment, making self-control a crucial skill. Ultra-high performers must manage potentially disruptive emotions and remain calm, even in the most challenging situations. Consider: How do you react when a client is indecisive or continuously raises objections you’ve already covered? Are you able to maintain your composure? Can you patiently address each concern? Developing self-control involves recognising your emotional triggers and creating strategies to manage them. A simple technique like pausing to take a deep breath before responding can reduce the tension and maintain control. If you’ve struggled before with specific situations, reflect on how you could have handled things differently. Learning from these experiences is essential to improve your self-control in future sales interactions. Here are three ways you can improve your self-control: Identify your emotional triggers and plan how you’ll respond to those triggers Practice pausing for a few seconds before responding to challenging situations There’s plenty of evidence that a healthy diet, exercise and good sleep can help you relax, so maintain your physical health as much as possible Understanding your buyers’ emotions As you work on the above skills and improve your sales EQ, it’ll become easier to understand the customer journey and why they make decisions. For example, emotion initially motivates many customers to purchase justifying their purchasing decision with logic. According to Harvard professor Gerald Zaltman, 95% of purchasing decisions are subconscious. Logic then comes into play when customers need to rationalise their decisions, either to themselves or other stakeholders, factors like cost, functionality, return on investment and practicality matter most. For sales professionals, recognising when to focus on emotional appeal and when to bring in logical reasoning can be the difference between closing the sale and losing it. Ask questions about the prospect’s wants and listen carefully to their answers, paying attention to any cues that suggest a more emotional or logical mindset. After connecting with a customer on an emotional level about how a product feels or the status it brings, you can provide factual data or cost-benefit analyses for a more logical appeal. Ensure your sales collateral caters to both emotional and logical aspects. Use storytelling and visual elements to evoke emotions and back them up with data, testimonials and case studies for logical support. Understanding and balancing the roles of logic and emotion in buying decisions enables the best sales professionals to connect more effectively with their customers, providing a satisfying and comprehensive buying experience that addresses both their emotional desires and logical needs. Using sales EQ to convert more customers Applying your emotional intelligence to your sales can significantly enhance your ability to move customers through different sales pipeline stages and overcome any roadblocks, use your sales EQ to create a positive and memorable first impression. Show genuine interest and use active listening to better understand the prospect’s needs, desires, and pain points. When the customer objects, emotional intelligence can help you remain calm and composed. Use empathy to decipher the deeper reasons behind that objection. Show that you understand and care about their challenges and present your solutions to genuinely support them. After you’ve made a sale, your sales EQ will be instrumental in maintaining those customer relationships. Keep in touch with customers post-sale to establish a long-term connection and show that you’re still committed to providing the best possible outcome. Responsiveness to any after-sales questions (even if a deal was not successfully closed) or concerns builds a customer’s loyalty and increases customer retention . Final thoughts Integrating emotional intelligence into the sales process means salespeople can go beyond traditional strategies and create a deeper, more empathetic connection with their clients. A heightened sales EQ means sales teams can engage more effectively with prospects, discerning their expressed needs and the underlying emotional drivers behind their decisions. In turn, a deeper understanding of prospects leads to more productive conversations, more accurate client needs assessments and ultimately more successful deals. A better understanding of the art of emotional intelligence helps sales organisations increase their immediate sales outcomes while building long-term customer relationships. Try Pipedrive free

Sage CRM 2023 R2 has introduced a new option called "Show stages with zero records." This option allows users and system administrators to hide the stages of a rectangular pipeline that do not include any records. This option controls the cases pipeline, leads pipeline, and opportunities pipeline. By default, show stages with zero records are set to yes. Previously, a rectangular pipeline always showed pipeline stages with zero records. This new option allows users to declutter their pipeline view and makes it easier to focus on the most important stages. It can help to identify areas of the pipeline where there is no activity. For example, if the user is a sales manager, they can use the "Show stages with zero records" option to hide the stages of the sales pipeline that do not have any opportunities in them. This will make it easier to see the most active pipeline stages and where the sales team is focusing their efforts. For example, if there is a stage in the sales pipeline for "Sale Agreed" but there have not been any sales agreed in the past month, the user can use the Show stages with zero records option to hide this stage from the pipeline view. This can help a business to identify areas of the sales process that need improvement