The folks over at IKO Systems were nice enough to send me a collection of infographics which they call 66 Crazy Sales Figures. I finally had a chance to read through it and found 5 sales figures which, after I combined them, are quite interesting:
- Only 63% of salespeople made quota last year.
- Only 6% of new reps exceeded expectations and 48% failed.
- 75% of salespeople believe that their approach differentiates them, but only 3% of their customers agree.
- Top-performing companies invest 63% more on sales training.
- The top 2 sales initiatives for companies were access to more information (42%) and CRM (40%).
Do you see what I see?
Is it any wonder that only 63% of reps made quota (#1) when companies are focused on better access to information (think customer research) and CRM instead of hiring the best salespeople (see insight #2), aren't investing in sales training (see insight #4) and don't provide their salespeople with the required skills to differentiate and sell consultatively (see insight #3)?
Objective Management Group (OMG), has evaluated sales forces and salespeople and sales managers. Its data shows that the average score is only 34 out of 100 on the Sales Posturing Index (a collection of attributes which suggests how effective salespeople are in differentiating themselves). One of those attributes is the ability to Sell Consultatively (the primary skill required for differentiating, building and selling value). The average salesperson possesses only 21% of the Consultative Seller skills. Is it a surprise that only 3% of salespeople are able to differentiate?
When companies use OMG's legendary, accurate, predictive, customizable sales candidate assessment, they realize the following results:
- 75% of sales candidates not recommended by OMG's assessments, yet hired by the client anyway, failed within 6 months.
- 92% of sales candidates recommended by our assessments and hired by the client rose to the top half of their sales force within 12 months.
- OMG's clients achieve this hiring consistency in just 25% of the time that it takes using traditional methods.
You can request a sample here. You can register for my live webinar on March 12 here. And you can get a 72-hour free trial here.
All of this leads us to this problem: Salespeople aren't making quota partly because they aren't differentiating, should not have been hired and aren't getting the required sales training. So, why are companies focused on CRM and research information instead?
The fact is that most CEO's, Presidents, Owners, Sales VP's and Directors don't know the real, contributing factors as to why their salespeople fail to perform and meet quotas. They guess, attempt trial and error, and hope that CRM initiatives will solve the problem. But, it's always something else. Don't get me wrong. CRM is very important. But it's not a stand alone solution as much as it's a tool which must be tightly integrated with sales process, sales pipeline, sales strategies, sales methodology, sales training and sales coaching.
It's not really that hard to get to the root of most sales performance problems. OMG's Sales Force Evaluation can get you there very quickly. You can learn more about that here.
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