18 Eye-Opening Sales Effectiveness Statistics

I took the time to review some of the more stunning industry data from the past year. For instance, even as sales effectiveness continues to decline, 92.5% of firms raised their revenue targets for 2016. It remains to be seen how many of them achieved those targets, but if the trend of nine years holds, it’s unlikely to be an encouraging number.

Several interesting sets of data came out of research by CSO Insights, including some very interesting insights regarding the importance of the customer journey. For instance, while aligning with the customer journey can increase win rates by 15% and exceptional customer journey training increases quota attainment by up to 32%, only 44.6% of sales organizations align their sales process with the customer journey.

As with all statistics, take these with a grain of salt. While they come from trusted sources, there’s always room for error and bias, but I think they’re worth reviewing. Here are 19 more 2016 statistics to ponder.

Target Attainment

• Only 30% of firms have 75% or more of their salespeople hit their quotas.¹
• Over the previous two years, less than a third of companies achieved all or a majority of their sales effectiveness objectives.¹
• Nevertheless, 92.5% of firms raised their revenue targets for 2016.¹
• On average, about 57% of salespeople make quota.¹

Customer Journey Alignment

• Customer journey alignment improves win rates by as much as 15%.²
• Exceptional customer journey training increases quota attainment by up to 32%.²
• Aligning sales strategy with customer journey can increase the lifetime value of each customer by 26%.³
• Yet 44.6% of sales organizations do not purposefully align their sales process with the customer journey.²

Sales Management

• Sales manager training can improve win rates by 9% and revenue plan attainment by more than 18%.²
• Yet twice as many organizations fail to train managers as salespeople.²
• A dynamic coaching process improves win rates by 28% and quota attainment by 10%.²
• Yet 47% of organizations do not have a formal coaching process.²

Other Eye-Opening Stats

• Quality content improves win rates by up to 6%.²
• Content with quality gaps decreases win rates by up to 9%.²
• Good social selling training increases win rates by 38% and quota attainment by 51%.²
• More than $1 trillion is spent on sales forces annually.⁴
• 55% of salespeople making their living in sales don’t have the right skills to be successful.⁵
• Executives in the top 22% of sales organizations work on strategy and tactics together in unison.³

How did performance in your company compare to industry statistics?
What stood out for you? Post your favorite stats in the comments.

¹ [Source: CSO Insights]
² [Source: CSO Insights]
³ [Source: SBI]
⁴ [Source: Salesforce Training]
⁵ [Source: Caliper Corp]