The Business Problem
According to a recent Accenture study, some 61% of executives agreed that the Sales team plays the most important role in their company’s success. However, CSO Insight cited that nearly 50% of the sales force on average had not met their assigned quota in the prior fiscal year. Pressure on sales organizations to do more with less is at an all time high.
Of all the critical success factors of any business, selling remains the least understood. Two primary factors contribute to the challenge - a lack of tools and automation of processes, and the cultural aspects of the role.
Lack of Tools leads to Cultural Resistance
Given the historical lack of effective tools, sales management has defaulted to "gut-check" styles all too often. "It's all about the number" is a frequent response to how a sales person or sales manager is doing. That's like saying the best team on the field is the one with the most points at the end of the game. Really?
The dynamic world today with universal information access has given the customer more power in the buying process than ever before. Additional challenges arise from rapid product lifecycles, increasing competition, complex products and distribution strategies, and a shortage of sales talent.
While most businesses are well served by an array of highly granular metrics and mature performance management tools for their finance and manufacturing operations, very few measure more than the most basic outputs from their sales and marketing organizations - revenue and margin. Previous market waves (CRM, SFA, BI, Supply chain) created large investment gains through automating inefficient processes, yet none have effectively addressed the sales performance management issues.
Most executives and sales leaders today are pushing this CRM-housed and financial data into Xcel spreadsheets or Powerpoint reports and using that (and that only) to make human capital decisions. The problem is, there is more to the success of a salesperson and sales team than just historical numbers.
These include:
- Visibility into detailed sales performance metrics: Data required to support the sales metrics is stranded within companies in various enterprise applications, creating a lack of visibility.
- A true 360 degree view of the Sales individual or team: Without clear visibility of quantitative and qualitative measurements that are specific to the sales role, there is no way to understand the strengths and weaknesses other than a gut-based management process.
- Sales coaching and tools. Research shows that coaching is the weakest competency of all front line sales managers, yet the same research has shown that companies that consistently coach their sales people can gain a 17% - 25% performance lift (Sales Executive Council). The lack of effective tools compounds the inconsistent execution of coaching.
