In a recent survey, Aberdeen Group gathered detailed performance metrics on 330 leading sales organizations and ranked them in terms of overall performance — identifying the key differentiating behaviors of the best-in-class sales organizations. What strategies have worked for these high-performing organizations?

1. Use customer engagement data.

Top performers are three times more likely to use analytics to improve the quality of marketing content and overall sales effectiveness. In fact, best-in-class sales organizations are 1.2 times more likely than other organizations to have and use customer engagement data. With data-driven insights, reps can engage prospects with intelligence instead of guesswork and course-correct in real time.

2. Identify what works — and ensure reps repeat it.

Best-in-class organizations ensure reps can quickly find and leverage content proven to be successful in closing deals, with 62 percent maintaining a central library of approved assets for different selling situations. They’re also 15 percent more likely than underperformers to use a formal selling methodology to identify optimal messaging and timing at each stage of the sales cycle – and 1.4 times more likely to align marketing content with sales stage.

3. Provide anytime, anywhere, any-device access to sales content.

Mobile access to sales content makes sales teams more productive and effective. Best-in-class organizations that provide reps mobile access to sales content close deals nearly 3 times faster than those that don’t. Their reps are also twice as likely to hit their quotas.

4. Give your sellers more time to sell.

CSO Insights finds reps spend only 35% of their time interacting with customers. They spend the rest on administrative tasks, data entry, and searching for content and information.

Top-performing sales organizations make accessing and using effective marketing content faster and easier so reps spend less time searching for content and more time selling. Most of these organizations also maintain a central library of approved assets for different selling situations and allow reps to tailor content for specific customers.

5. Know when to walk away.

Best-in-class organizations are better at prioritizing leads — and that includes knowing which deals to walk away from. Top performers are 1.4 times more likely to walk away from deals unlikely to close. By disqualifying dead-end deals, sales reps can devote more time and energy to pursuing promising opportunities.

To learn more about these and other strategies employed by best-in-class sales organizations download the white paper “Transforming the Business of Selling.”