How sales managers use Zendesk Sell to boost their team's performance

At the end of the day, sales managers are focused on one goal: Making sure their team hits its numbers. But without the right tools, it’s nearly impossible to guarantee that’ll happen.

Tools like Zendesk Sell provide the pipeline visibility reps need to keep track of their leads. Customizable pipeline stages help managers standardize their sales processes across the business. And with real-time reporting, managers will always know when their reps are struggling and how to step in with coachable tips for improving performance.

Without tools like these, deals can easily slip through the cracks, managers can’t accurately forecast, and performance issues can go unresolved. These challenges are just some of the key reasons managers choose to invest in Zendesk Sell, our sales CRM.

Let’s dive into the specifics of how Zendesk Sell can help managers solve these problems and boost their team’s overall performance.

Standardize your sales process with custom pipeline stages

Without a structured, standardized pipeline, reps may have different definitions of what “about to close” means. This can prove problematic when it comes to forecasting sales.

Let’s say you’re forecasting next month’s numbers. One of your reps, Liz, says six of her deals are about to close. Another rep, Mike, says he has nine deals about to close. All six of Liz’s deals have gone through legal, while only five of Mike’s have.

If you forecast all 15 sales to close next month without knowing this detail, you may come up short.

With Zendesk Sell, managers can set strict custom requirements for moving leads from one pipeline stage to the next. This prohibits reps from moving leads in your CRM until custom fields have been entered, like “legal has approved the contract.”

Clearly defined, custom pipeline stages help standardize the sales process across your organization. They get reps speaking the same language and make it easier for managers to track deals, accurately forecast, and know when to step in to escalate.

Identify coaching opportunities with Performance Dashboard

Sales reps aren’t always vocal about when they’re struggling. And with more teams working remotely, it can be even more difficult to notice when one of your reps is underperforming.

Zendesk Sell makes it easy for managers to track their reps’ activities and performance from anywhere in the world. These insights help identify weaknesses and coaching opportunities.

With our Performance Dashboard, managers track their reps’ activities in real-time. The dashboard has two views: “Activity Feed” and “My Dashboard.”

The Activity Feed view displays activities completed by your team, either as a whole or by individual reps. You can view “all activities” or filter by individual tasks. These include:

• Notes taken

• Calls made

• Completed tasks

• Appointments and visits

• Collaborations

• Leads

• Contacts

• Deals

This feed gives managers complete visibility into what their reps are doing throughout the day. There’s no waiting for reps to manually record their activities or having to chase them down individually for updates.

My Dashboard uses the data from Zendesk Sell’s Activity feed to show at-a-glance performance insights, like pipeline coverage, revenue goal attainment, and forecasted sales. Managers can customize their My Dashboard view to display only the metrics they care about most.

The Stage Duration by Owner report, for example, displays the average amount of time a deal owner (sales rep) spends in a particular pipeline stage.

In the example above, the average time spent in the “closure” stage is 7.5 days across the team. Looking at Ray Powell’s time, managers can quickly identify one of his key weaknesses and offer the coaching necessary to improve his performance.

Maximize deals with greater pipeline visibility

If managers lack pipeline visibility, it’s hard for them to keep track of leads. Managers have to constantly check in with reps to make sure they’re on track to meet their quota, and deals can easily end up falling through the cracks.

Zendesk Sell eliminates these challenges by automatically tracking deals throughout each stage of the pipeline. Every time reps and managers start their workday, they know exactly which leads are in the “Qualified” stage, how much those deals are worth when they last spoke with that lead, and more.

Managers can use the Pipeline Development report to view their entire team’s pipeline and make sure they’re on track to meet their sales goals.

STA Jets, an aviation and management company based in California, says Zendesk Sell helped them uncover dozens of opportunities they were missing due to the lack of pipeline visibility.

Before investing in a sales CRM, the reps at STA Jets didn’t have a clear system for managing their deals. Managers were using spreadsheets to track their reps’ leads, which proved ineffective.

“Before Sell, we were losing 15–20% of our leads,” said Zach Rutledge, Director of Charter Sales. “They were falling through the cracks because we either didn’t know about them or we just didn’t follow up in time. Money was flying out the door.”

After adopting Zendesk Sell, Rutledge’s reps finally had the tracking and visibility tools they needed to see just how many deals were slipping through the cracks. With increased pipeline visibility came increased revenue, which STA Jets’ reps saw reflected in their paychecks.

Rutledge went on to say, “Sell gives you so much visibility, and this motivates your sales reps. It has given my reps drive and has boosted their productivity.”

Boost your bottom line with Zendesk Sell

Every organization’s bottom line relies heavily on the performance of its sales team. As managers, it’s our responsibility to lead our sales team to success and keep the business alive.

Zendesk Sell makes a manager’s job easier. Both you and your reps will be able to do your jobs more efficiently and productively with the visibility, automation, and tools Zendesk Sell provides.

Speak to a sales representative or start a free trial of Zendesk Sell today.

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