Flickr: Jeremy Dent

Back in the day, and really not that long ago, business to business sales reps used to go into the office and start with a call list of 50-100 prospects they needed to reach out to.  The prospects the rep would be calling might have expressed interest in their company’s services at some point in time, or might just fit the customer profile as defined by the organization.   Each day the rep would painstakingly work through the list, leaving messages that usually went unanswered and constantly dealt with rejection.  This was the way of doing business.   Sales Reps usually made their numbers but it required a lot of effort, persistence and thick skin to complete this ‘unnatural act’.

Today, sales reps have the opportunity to spend their time calling on prospects that have expressed interest recently and are those that are more engaged and ready to buy.   Leads are automatically prioritized based on an interest level that is accurate and meaningful.  Lower priority leads are automatically nurtured until they are further along in their buying process.  Sales reps can spend less time on ‘painful’ opening activities and spend more time on the more important closing activities.  They’ll use their time more efficiently and be able to close more business, in a shorter amount of time through the use of  sales and marketing optimization tools.

These sales and marketing optimization tools exist today and fall into a class of solution called marketing automation. Surprisingly, many organizations are still doing things the ‘old fashioned’ way and are not using marketing automation tools to help their sales reps be more efficient, ultimately increasing sales and revenue.  Take some time to consider the value of saving your sales reps time and the impact it could have on the revenue and growth of your organization.

Is your organization living in the past?