Sales Webinar | Five Imperatives for Sales Effectiveness in 2013

Five Imperatives for
Sales Effectiveness in 2013

Dave Stein | Founder & CEO Will Wiegler | CMO
ES Research The TAS Group

Introductions

Will Wiegler
Chief Marketing Officer
The TAS Group

Dave Stein
Founder & CEO
ES Research

© The TAS Group 2013

Five Imperatives for Sales
Effectiveness in 2013

Dave Stein
CEO &Founder

January 9, 2013

@davestei
@thetasgroup

This presentation contains copyrighted material.
Quotation is permitted with full attribution.

What We’ll Cover…

All graphics: 4
Fotolia.com
© 2013 – ES Research Group, Inc. ─ ESResearch.com

Poll #1
In my company, the effectiveness of our sales approach is
a competitive advantage:

A: We regularly outsell our competitors

B: It neither helps nor hurts our competitiveness

C: We regularly get outsold by our competitors

5

#1: Hiring and Developing the Right People

• ESR’s research shows that:
– 20 to 33% of sales people aren’t
suited for the job
– After 2 years, 4 out of 5 new hires
either:
• Aren’t with the same company or
• Are not delivering at or above quota
– Use of a hiring process can reduce
wrong hires by 60 – 80%
• The cost of a wrong hire is between
$300k and $1m…

6

#2: Managing Strong Customer Procurement Teams

7

#3: Under-Leveraged Reseller Channels

What’s the trigger?

• The economy and shrinking margins required
alternatives to the direct model
• Less need to conduct business face-to-face
• Easier to train and communicate with channel teams.

#4: Selling Products, Not Business Value

• Your customers seek business
improvement through:
– Increased revenues
– Reduced costs or
– Risk mitigation.
• Unless you tie your products and
services to specific and
measurable business
value, you’re just a commodity.

9

#5: Not Leveraging Social Media & Selling Technology

• 57% to 70% of customer buying
cycles are complete before a supplier
is contacted
• Internet shopping for B2B products
and services is increasing
significantly
• Where are your buyers lurking?
Your competitors?
• Research on your customers, their
markets, your competitors
• Learning, learning reinforcement
• Sales process automation:
– Opportunity and account
management
– Pipeline management
– Forecasting

10

Poll #2
My company:

A: Keeps up with changes in our customers’ buying trends

B: Regularly engages with sales consultants and training firms

C: Invests in sales effectiveness-oriented research

D: All of the above

E: None of the above

11

Why is Research Important?

1. Keeping up with too many
changes too quickly
2. Predicting trends
3. How others are
overcoming obstacles and
leveraging opportunities
4. The answer may be what
you can’t find for free on
the Internet
5. Engage with experts

12

What Doesn’t Work?

• Thinking that selling is more art than
science
• Not running the sales organization
like the business that it is
– Processes (sales, hiring, qualification,
research, etc.)
– (Thinking that hiring/qualification is
more art than science)
• Not staying up with (ahead of)
industry trends:
– Your industry
– Your customers’ industry
• Counting on only Sales 101 to win
13

Imperatives and Recommendations

1. Hire and develop the right people
2. Collaborate with your customers’
procurement teams
3. Leverage reseller channels
4. Sell business value, not products
5. Leverage social media &selling
technologies

14

Imperative #1: Hire and Develop the Right People

• Develop and implement a
structured hiring process:
– Understand how your
customer buys and what role
the salesperson plays
– Profile-based
– Behavioral, structured
interviews
– Integrate assessments
– Income
verification, background
checks
– Sales call and sales
presentation simulations
– Rigorous reference checking
– Individualized onboarding
15

#2: Collaborate with Customer Procurement Teams

• Understand why and how the corporate
procurement function has gained so much
power
• Research how your customer sources from
other providers—buyers and sellers will
become more collaborative
• Know your customer, their business, and
your product
• Reduce complexity wherever possible
• Build appropriate support systems for
negotiators
• Communicate more effectively
ESResearch.com/sales_purchasing
• Procurement is not the enemy

16

Imperative #3: Leverage Reseller Channels

• Understand the requirements of
your market. How do your
customers buy?
• The skills and traits for managing a
reseller are different from direct
selling.
• How will you gain more mindshare
from your reseller’s sales reps and
principals?

17

#4: Sell Business Value, Not Products

What business improvement
metrics does your customer
track?

• Streamlined business processes
• Higher productivity
• Increased market share
• Margin improvement
• Higher quality
• Higher revenues
• Lower expenses
• Quicker time-to-market
• Improved cash flow

18

Poll #3
In my company:

A: We have a documented, strategic approach to leveraging social
media and/or sales enablement technologies

B: We are somewhat effective at leveraging social media and
technology

C: Our social media and technology approach needs a lot of work

D: None of the above

19

#5: Leverage Social Media & Selling Technology

• LinkedIn, Facebook for finding/building
relationships
• Twitter, Chatter, Pulse for intra- and inter-
company micro-blogging
• YouTube, Slideshare, blogs for thought-
leadership publishing, loyalty
• Technology-enabled learning
– Embedded and on-demand learning in
CRM system
• Technology-enabled selling
– Dealmaker, other sales process
automation tools
• Warnings:
– Activity versus productivity
– Not a replacement to a sales process
– Adoption differs by industry
20

Summary

• Objectively assess your current situation
• Determine what the trends are
• Research alternative solutions
• Build a business case
• Build a plan
• Execute

Thanks!

Dave.Stein@ESResearch.com

ESResearch.com/blog
ESResearch.com/sales_purchasing

21

Now It’s Your Turn

We presented 5 imperatives for Sales Effectiveness.
You may have others.
Go to our LinkedIn Group, share your thoughts and
continue the conversation.


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Learn more on our website.


Where You Can Find Us

www.thetasgroup.com
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