Sales Research Publications

Sales Management Insights Series

• Sales Management 2.0 - Metrics, Not Hunches
  

  Late in 2007 we produced a two-part white paper on the confluence of changes impacting sales today and the emerging response by process-oriented sales reps leveraging web-based collaboration and other tools. This newly defined area is labeled Sales 2.0.
  
  But what of the management of these new reps? Who provides the experienced guidance and what form does this take?
  
  This paper addresses these and other important questions including:

  • What gets measured gets managed, but are you measuring the right things?
  • Which key metrics do you monitor to know you'll deliver this year's quota?
  • How do you know you're maxing out your sales team potential?
  • Which metrics can tell you whether you.re building a sustainable competitive advantage?
  • Why do process implementation and customer relationship levels remain so low?

  
  These are not hypothetical questions but they are questions that cannot be answered by gut feeling. First-line sales managers are the key to recruiting, growing and retaining top sales talent. These individuals provide the Chief Sales Officer and the company the ability to leverage the valuable resources locked up in the people, process, technology and knowledge they manage. And yet they operate largely on intuition and gut feeling.
  
  This paper points out how these managers have often been overwhelmed and/or overlooked and provides a model for today's sales manager to manage today's modern rep. Also provided is a model framework for Sales Management 2.0.

• Optimizing Hiring Effectiveness
  

  CSO Insights did a series of analyses on many strategies and tactics last year, in which we documented the impact that process, technology, and knowledge can have on sales success. In reviewing these white papers with our advisory board, it was pointed out that we were missing an analysis of another aspect of sales effectiveness people.
  
  Focusing on giving your sales team more tools, training, technology, or knowledge access assumes one thing: that you have the right people to give these support services. However, in our 2008 SPO study, when we asked the participants to rate their ability to consistently hire reps that succeed at selling their product offerings, we found that many firms struggle with this aspect of sales management.
  
  A favored approach to optimizing sales hiring has been to go after experienced talent: sales reps who have previous experience selling in your industry. Yet when we drilled deeper into the 2008 survey data, we found this tactic does not guarantee success. In the overall study we found that the average percentage of reps making quota was 60.9%. We then looked only at firms who primarily focused on hiring new reps with previous sales experience in their industry, and found that that segment reports an average of 61.8% of reps making quota. Not a significant difference. We decided to expand our analysis and focus on the 5.9% of the firms surveyed that.exceeds expectations. in their hiring effectiveness, and compared them to the 48.9% of sales organizations that identified themselves as .needs improvement.. In doing so, some major differences surfaced.
  
  This paper discusses these differences and how you can use the findings to your advantage.

• Sales Rep Turnover and Ramp-Up
  

  Our 2005 survey revealed three major trends:

  • Companies are facing an uphill battle to retain and leverage one of their most significant assets: proprietary and company specific knowledge. This is the critical knowledge a company has about: customers, installations, contract expirations, service histories, etc.
  • Sales rep turnover is increasing.
  • Sales rep ramp up times are lengthening. The amount of time it takes to get a rep to full productivity is dramatically increasing.

  
  The combination of these three trends can severely impact sales effectiveness. If you lose a solidly performing rep, and then take a long time to get their replacement fully productive, you will see a noticeable hit to revenue growth in that territory. New information systems need to evolve to limit the impact of these trends on sales force effectiveness.
  
  This white paper explores in more depth the sales rep turnover and new sales rep ramp up trends, overview the issues impacting new rep performance, highlight the cost of not dealing with this issue, and finally lay out the framework for how information systems need to evolve to fill the knowledge gap for new salespeople, as well as for existing reps selling new products. Whether you consider these systems a part of Knowledge Management, an extension of Customer Relationship Management or a new area: Customer Data Integration, you will want to investigate how they can support your new hires getting up to speed faster.

$295.00