SURVEYS
GLOBAL HEROES Who is still benchmarking the world’s sales organisations, asks MARC BEISHON
F
or more than 20 years, CSO Insights, a specialist sales research firm based in the US, has conducted the biggest global survey of the metrics of sales organisations. Each year it has added new metrics, creating a year by year trend comparison of everything from sales quotas met, to forecasts successfully predicted, to CRM systems implemented. The results combine to show what the best performing companies do well. Not to be outdone, sales training and methodology company, Miller Heiman, started its own world class sales practices report, which while based on fewer metrics, also identified clear and often large differences between what the best performers do and those that often come second (and which demonstrated all too obviously the 80:20 rule of the Pareto Principle). Now, CSO Insights has become the research arm of Miller Heiman, and the group is probably the only one carrying out this type of global benchmarking and best practice exercise, at least on this scale, and regularly Another firm that is competing is McKinsey, in analysing similar best practices, although it is not carrying out an annual survey; Mercuri has also carried out global surveys. More on McKinsey and Mercuri later in this
WOR LD C LASS PR ACT ICES n Our salespeople consistently and effectively articulate a solution that is aligned to the customer’s needs. R n We deliver a consistent customer experience that lives up to and aligns with our brand promise. R n We continually assess why our top performers are successful. P n When we lose a salesperson (voluntarily/involuntarily), we consistently determine the reasons why. P n We effectively collect and share best practices across our sales and service organisations. P n Our sales managers are held accountable for the effective use of sales tools and resources by the salesforce. P n Our salespeople consistently and effectively communicate appropriate value messages that are aligned to our customers’/prospects’ needs. R
12 WINNING EDGE
12-13 review.indd 2
n Our culture supports continuous development of salespeople and sales leaders. P n As part of our performance review process, our organisation consistently develops and ensures implementation of personalised performance improvement plans. P n Customers have consistently positive interactions with us regardless of which channel(s) they use to work with us. R n Our sales teams are effective at “surfacing” the specific reasons why certain customers stop doing business with us. R n Our salespeople are effective at selling value to avoid discounting or gaining comparative value in return for price concessions. R Listed in order of significance R=relationship practice P=process practice
article. But first how is the combined CSO Insights/Miller Heiman set-up taking this work forward? The numbers are impressive – apart from the track record, CSO says it has about 40,000 sales and service leaders participating from around the world in collecting more than 350 metrics. By comparing organisational practices against the metrics you can set a priority list of actions, it says. Now, the title of the latest 2017 World-Class Sales Practices report is rather alarming: “Running up the down escalator”. The implication is that selling is currently in a “two steps forward, one backwards” situation, but it’s actually worse than that – it’s hard enough to just stay still, let alone get to the top. The reason is a topline finding, namely on salespeople making quota, which shows a decline from 2011, when 63% made quota, to just 53% today, which is a huge drop in 6 years. So currently, only just over half of reps are making their plans. Given that things improved for a while after the Great Recession that started in 2008, you might not expect this. CSO says this isn’t for want of trying, as many sales organisations they know are engaged in transformation programmes, with training and sales tools, and change initiatives. But we seem to be in a new period of uncertainty in global economies, and the spectre of new, disruptive technologies is upon us, such as with artificial intelligence and connected cars. Not least: “Buyers are getting better at buying faster than sellers are getting better at selling.” But some companies are doing well, and not just the tech giants, Google, Facebook and Amazon. ISMPROFESSIONAL.COM
26/10/2017 10:49
