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Sales Effectiveness Briefing
Delivering useful and insightful information |
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Table of Contents
Managing the Sales Process across the Extended Enterprise Reviving the Lost Art of Managing Major Accounts Sales Performance is Up--but at a Price Please Contact Us if you would like to determine the health of your own selling approach. We can facilitate a 1/2 day confidential workshop, using best practices to benchmark your own sales organization. For previous briefings and more articles check the Sales Effectiveness Briefing Archive as well as our White Papers Do you have Questions or Feedback? We welcome your questions and feedback. What articles did you find particularly relevant and useful to your own situation? What topics would you like to read in our future briefings? If you would like advice from our experts on these, or other, sales effectiveness topics, please Contact us with your questions.
Table of Contents Managing the Sales Process across the Extended Enterprise Reviving the Lost Art of Managing Major Accounts Tidal Patterns from Sales Wise Sales Performance is Up--but at a Price
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Managing the Sales Process across the Extended Enterprise Martyn
Lewis |
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Success with a channel partner in today's competitive world is a far cry from simply signing up a distributor, providing some product training and perhaps some leads. There needs to be a close working relationship to support the channel partner in the development of the overall business. There are some challenges, but also many benefits to be gained from designing and implementing a management framework that allows for the effective harmonization and management of an organization's total sales process - across the extended enterprise. In this article we review the benefits, then present a model for understanding the challenges of managing such a unified sales process across channel organizations. We also share five fundamentals for a successful extended enterprise sales process management framework. |
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Reviving the Lost Art of Managing Major Accounts Philip
Lay |
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We are pleased to feature another great
article, authored by Phillip Lay, who discusses the benefits and methods to
create programs for your key customers, whether you are an enterprise
company or a start-up.
Full
Article |
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Tidal Patterns Martyn Lewis |
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Another story from Sales Wise, based on real-life experiences. From Martyn Lewis' upcoming book "Sales Wise - an anthology of selling stories, follies, and fables", each with a relevant and timely sales message. If you wish to be notified of publication date, please e-mail us.
Sales Performance is
Up--But at a Price Overall quota attainment, the simplest and favorite measure of sales effectiveness was up—from 49 percent in 2004 to 58 percent in 2005. Last year was the first time the number sank below the 50 percent mark. But, as CSO Insights have been saying at conferences across the country, there is a dark side to this performance improvement. Several performance metrics have remained the same or declined in the past 12 months. Such indicators as the length of the sales cycle, the outcome of forecasted opportunities and the number of calls it takes to close a sale have stayed more or less the same—or have gotten worse. In short, unless you were one of a very fortunate few who had your quota number reduced, you most likely got there by working harder, not smarter. That is, most reps put in more hours, worked on more opportunities, made more calls and submitted more proposals to get where they needed to go. There’s a limit to how far you can take this, both physically (there are only 168 hours in a week) and emotionally (it’s simply not worth it!). Can CRM technology help turn this tide? Twenty-nine percent of companies that did invest in and implement CRM in the past year reported significant impact on their sales performance. At the same time, 19 percent reported no measurable improvement, and 38 percent reported minimal improvement. If ever there was needed reinforcement of the notion that technology alone is not a "silver bullet," these numbers should support it. Better results were reported for companies that invested in sales methodology for their teams. Thirty-five percent reported significant improvement and 49 percent, noticeable improvement in their sales performance. But the best results were companies that had a process; reinforced and enforced it; used technology to enable/support it; and provided ongoing performance feedback to their reps. We label these Level 4 companies, and they outpaced the general survey population by a wide margin. Level 4 firms had an average quota attainment of 67 percent. This is a significant difference and will take you much further down the road toward making this year’s number. There were several other areas where Level 4 companies outdistanced their sales cousins. Steps in the sales process had higher yields; forecasts were more accurate; and we identified a half-dozen other metrics where Level 4s were at least 15 percent higher in absolute numbers. What does this all mean? Here's the bottom line:
You can find other facts about the sales effectiveness marketplace in CSO Insights 11th annual benchmarking report, Sales Effectiveness Insights—2005 State of the Marketplace Review
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Market-Partners tag
line is “Changing the Way You Sell” for one simple reason; that is what we
do. We start by developing a deep understanding of everything that impacts
upon your overall sales process. We then bring the methods and tools that
enable the transition to an optimal approach to selling. The results our
clients gain are swift, significant, and sustainable. Privacy Policy: This is an opt-in briefing. Market-Partners will not sell, rent or distribute your personal information. If you do not wish to receive future briefings, please unsubscribe and we will ensure you are removed from our list. Copyright ©2004 Market-Partners Inc. - Articles and other content from this briefing and website may not be reproduced, republished, or redistributed without prior written permission from Market-Partners Inc. You are welcome to forward the briefing in its entirety.
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