CEOs: Are your sales people systematically outselling the competition?

“It is not the strongest species that survives, nor the most intelligent. It is the one that is most adaptable to change.”

This quote rings true in our competitive market economy. Over the last few decades, we’ve seen impressive improvements in efficiency and quality when it comes to production and other business processes. But how much has your sales process evolved and improved? 

Are you losing ground to your competitors? Are they adapting to the new sales environment faster than you are? Is this affecting your margins?

As the CEO, you have the daunting task of keeping track of global trends, competition, and to align your products, people and processes to exceed shareholder’s expectations. Successful sales execution is the engine to growth but alarming data shows that it’s in a state of decline.

Are you adapting faster than your competition?

With the rise of global competition and information overflow, most offerings look similar to buyers. Combine this with the increased proficiency of procurement departments and it’s no surprise that selling has become more complex. Buyers want to commoditize you and winning business on price alone will slide you down a path to lowered margins and less resources to maneuver.

How you sell has a greater effect than you think!

In sales, there is still much to be improved, from hiring, to on boarding to daily sales execution. Sales research highlights the importance of co-creating and selling value in collaboration with your buyers. Not an easy task when data from Forrester suggests that only 15% of sales people can articulate their offering in terms of solving a business problem... There’s currently a big gap in knowledge, skills and technology to support the kind of operational excellence needed to make how you sell into your competitive advantage.

The upside is stunning!

Trust me, improving how you sell will be worth your efforts! Research from the Sales Benchmark Index (SBI) reports that companies that deploy a formal sales process, when compared to the mean, win 48% more, have sales cycles 37% shorter and generate 2x the revenue per head. The importance of a more structured sales approach is further amplified by a study from the Corporate Executive Board (CEB), which attributes 53% of customer loyalty to your ability to outperform the competition in the sales experience itself! Also, a multi-client study performed by the Prosales Institute showed that companies that organized themselves according to best practices increased average order values with 40%.

Furthermore, focusing on operationalizing the sales process with best practices and technology will improve ramp-up times of new hires. Think about it – it takes most companies between 6-12 months to make a new sales person productive. Would that be acceptable in other roles? Would you be OK waiting 12 months before, let’s say, a programmer produces usable code for your company?

So, how effective are your sales efforts? Really?

Ask any sales leader and they will tell you that their teams execute a best-practice process and use a proven sales methodology. But do they, really? How do you know? Data conducted by the Objective Management Group reports that less than 10% of sales organizations actually follow a sales process in their daily operations. More alarming statistics come from the latest Chief Sales Officer Insights (CSO) study:

• Only 58.1% of sales people met or exceeded their quota in 2014 – down from 63% in 2012
• The highest level of sales team maturity, defined by CSO Insights as “Level 3,” is executed by only 27% of the surveyed companies – down from 37% in 2012
• Sales process and technology adoption is down – an indication of complacency

Combine technology and education for change

The challenge is to change sales behavior. The world is changing and sales people, their managers and leaders need to adapt. When it comes to increasing sales knowledge and skills - more than $5 billion is spent on sales training each year and 87% of the knowledge is forgotten within 90 days if not reinforced on the job.

The American inventor Richard Buckminster Fuller once said: “If you want to teach people a new way of thinking, don’t bother trying to teach them. Instead, give them a tool, the use of which will lead to new ways of thinking.”

The tool your sales people are using may be the problem. CRM systems shine when it comes to creating data repositories and reporting. However, they weren’t designed to help operationalize best practices in complex sales environments, nor to reinforce training efforts, drive successful behaviors or provide a coaching environment.

A new breed of technology is available that focuses on sales process and coaching to drive improved behavior. Changing behavior is difficult without a focus on continual improvement. This can be achieved with software that guides your sales people through your sales process and facilitates skillful sales coaching. In the end, it’s your people that will make the difference!

Change is needed

In a world where differentiation is becoming increasingly difficult, how you sell is the key to success! How you sell is becoming one of your few differentiating factors. It’s time to shine the light on the sales department and how it can be improved to become your competitive edge!

Contact me to discuss how to operationalize successful sales behaviors.