As companies focus on growth, sales leaders need new approaches and field-tested strategies to increase efficiency, boost effectiveness and close more deals. Today’s high-performing companies consistently strike that critical balance by addressing the needs of their sales teams, their customers, and the technology that helps connect there. Here are five proven ways sales leaders can use technology to improve their sales productivity strategy and enable their sales teams to sell smarter and faster.

Prioritize the Customer

Hyper-connected buyers are searching, posting, tweeting, reviewing and texting their way through the sales cycle, working with their peers to identify the best possible solution for their challenges. In fact, it’s estimated that 84 percent of senior B2B buyers use online technology like social media to help them make their purchasing decisions.

Accenture calls this the Nonstop Customer Model, which is more dynamic, accessible and continuous than the sales cycles of old. To compete and win today, sales organizations must anticipate buyers’ needs by investing in sales technology that surfaces information and insights to deliver personalized interactions at exactly the right time – whether that’s an email, call, proposal or contract.

Establish Clear CRM Objectives

CRM is the center of a sales team’s universe, and it works best when salespeople make it a “one-stop shop” to access the systems and information they need to create, nurture and close a deal.

However, salespeople only have incentive to incorporate CRM into their daily lives when it helps them be more efficient and effective. Sales teams work best when they can focus on customers, not tools – so sales leaders must set clear CRM objectives that make it easy for sales teams to adopt and deliver consistency and accuracy throughout the sales process.

Identify Influencers and Champions Faster

It’s easy to fall into the trap of making sales more about dashboards. But ultimately, people want to buy from people, not lines or entries in a CRM. With the right technology, sales teams can access relevant data to identify the decision-makers, measure engagement and build relationships that close deals.

Sales leaders must choose technology that makes it easy to determine who’s engaging most with the sales materials they send. By leveraging data from CRM and other technology, sales teams can derive valuable insights into prospect engagement they never had before: who opens, views and forwards sales materials. With that information, salespeople can build stronger relationships, close more deals and crush their numbers.

Combat App Creep

Choosing the right technology also means using it wisely. With enterprise companies using an average of 397 cloud apps, the weight of too much tech can become a drag on sales productivity. The adoption of a dizzying array of apps leads to “app creep,” the sales-slowing reality achieved when disconnected solutions fail to deliver any discernible gains in efficiency or effectiveness.

Eliminating app creep requires determining which tools sales teams use most, mapping those tools to the sales process, and ensuring the tools will scale as the organization grows. It also requires sales leaders commit to regularly evaluating the sales technology their teams use, and retiring outdated or underused apps.

Adopt Electronic Signature Now

When it comes to increasing sales productivity, numbers don’t lie. A recent Aberdeen Group report found integrating electronic signature into the B2B sales cycle can more than double a sales organization’s productivity. Companies surveyed that use electronic signature sent an average of 22.6 sales documents per rep per month, while sales teams that didn’t sent just 10.4 documents per rep per month.

Implementing electronic signature makes it easier for prospects to “say yes” from any device, anywhere. Educating both sales teams on the convenience and legal validity of electronic signature can put them at ease and accelerate the sales cycle. Each of these tips offers practical advice sales leaders can implement today to deliver results for their sales teams.