The sales profession is in trouble. The latest CSO Insights report shows that sales effectiveness has declined yet again this past year. Inside many companies, sales teams struggle to meet their quotas, and sales leaders and executives struggle to give their teams the tools, systems, and training they need.
A few weeks ago, when I wrote about the purported “death of solution selling,” reader response was tremendous. In the blog comments and on LinkedIn, readers shared a wealth of insights, discussion, and challenges to the article’s assumptions, all of which got me thinking more deeply about the Challenger vs. solution selling debate.
A while back, I was working with a client that provides brilliant cloud solutions with a compelling business case. When I asked what their biggest challenges were within the sales team they said: "Many of them can't seem to close... they want better closing techniques."
If you’ve been following me for long, you know I talk a lot about the importance of sales process. So, you may be surprised to hear me say that sometimes the sales process is the very thing that kills the sales organization.
Even companies that enjoy the luxury of clearly superior products, realise that those products will not sell themselves. As a minimum, companies need a sales force comprised of skilled professionals who understand the application of the product range, have an in-depth knowledge of their customer base, market sector and of course the competition. But even all these elements together are not sufficient to ensure optimum performance levels and profitable sales.
User adoption is one of the most frequently cited barriers to sales process effectiveness. According to many estimates, CRM adoption rates hover around 25% or lower on average. These are appalling numbers.
From north to south, east to west, Membrain has thousands of happy clients all over the world.