Sales Trends for This Decade

(Based on a CNNfn Interview of Howard Stevens, Chally CEO)

1.  Sales & CRM Will Drive Competition

Competitors, especially B2B, will thrive, survive, or fail based on the quality of their sales effort.

Chally’s World Class Benchmark results prove that salesperson effectiveness accounts for 39% of a customer’s choice of a vendor -- more so than price, quality, or the ability to provide a total solution. Customer loyalty adds more to the bottom-line than new business development. Raising customer retention rates by a mere 5% increases sales by 25-85%.

In this economy, "Good Ain’t Good Enough":

• Customers’ expectation levels have risen dramatically. Today, 80% of customers who leave their previous supplier rate that supplier as "good."*

• Customers who rated their vendors as "very good to excellent" were 42% more likely to remain loyal – however, less than 5% of all sales forces are rated as "very good." *

*Harvard Business Review Nov/Dec ‘95

In business, it is important to recognize that the further the corporate driving force is from direct contact with the customer, the lower the chance for success. Yet, less than 5% of all companies are customer driven!

This helps explain why only 17 of 7,300 sales forces were rated as "World Class" by their customers during the past eight years.

Only a sales force that is Customer Driven will win!

2.  Data Drives Business

"…total quality is the most significant and pervasive business intervention I’ve seen in my 32 years at Procter & Gamble." – John Pepper, Chairman and CEO

Databases have driven both business productivity and profit through the years, and the reliance on such data has followed the "value chain."

Manufacturing – Early 60’s

Engineering – Mid 60’s

Finance & Purchasing – Early 70’s

Distribution – Late 70’s

Service – Mid 80’s

Marketing – Mid 90’s

Sales, unlike all other functions, cannot mine its data from internal sources. Critical data on customer, competitor, and sales force effectiveness must be acquired by objective, external methods.

Sales remains the only field that has not yet developed comprehensive databases. Thus, sales is the last competitive opportunity!

High-speed access to sales data will drive commerce as the Internet makes it easier for customers to gather information about competitors, thus equalizing the playing field. Through TQM databases, competitors can and will quickly match each others’ products, services, and price. This makes the quality of sales and service contact the only differentiation.

Businesses need to track not only their own customers, but also their competitors’ customers, to survive!

3.  Sales Will Professionalize

In order to compete in today’s market, winning companies cannot just stop at perfecting sales basics – they must move toward professionalism

One of today’s sales career dilemmas is that sales is considered an entry-level position in many companies, and if there is a professional pre-requisite at all, it is usually only the need for previous sales experience. If sales candidates do have college degrees, they are typically in other facets of business as few colleges and universities offer degrees in sales.

Consequently, businesses spend more on sales training and education than on all other areas combined. In fact, nearly 45% of corporate training dollars are spent on sales versus updating skills in management, technical applications, or finance.

Sales companies most often train only those sales skills considered entry-level, such as the ability to answer objections, the skill of properly qualifying prospects, or the creation of effective sales presentations. However, the need to perfect those skills most critical to customers is often ignored.

Sales training needs to be focused on those issues that truly make a difference with customers.

The top three skills that actually drive purchase decisions are:*

• Salesperson has personal decision-making authority

• Salesperson understands the customer’s business

• Salesperson acts as an advocate to correct his company’s mistakes

*Chally World Class Sales, Selling Power, January 1999

 Winning companies will prioritize training to meet the needs of their customers!

4.  Personal Sales Relationships Will Increase in Importance
– Because of the Internet

Customers want personal, single contact satisfaction

Contrary to some pundits who believe that the role of salespeople is becoming obsolete with the advent of Internet technology, effective sales professionals and a personal approach to selling is becoming increasing important.

High-speed Internet access allows salespeople to offload functional and transactional activities in order to concentrate on the more personal aspects of selling, including understanding the customer’s business and providing more personalized service.

In fact, Chally’s Physician’s World Class Survey shows that those customers who know their salesperson by name are 90% likely to stay loyal!*

This, of course, makes hiring quality candidates for sales positions even more important. Companies that have a large turnover or salespeople with short tenures are unlikely to adequately maintain the customer familiarity needed to achieve a high level of loyalty. Not only are employee turnovers financially costly, they risk having a negative impact on customers.

Customers are raising the bar for customer-service standards!

5.  Dispelling Key Myths About Sales

Myth: Top Academic Grades Equal Top Sales Results

Fact: Sales talent is inversely related to school grades. It is easier to teach basic engineering concepts to a sales professional than it is to teach an academic "genius" to sell.

Myth: The Best Salespeople Will Make The Best Managers

Fact: When you convert a sales superstar into a manager, three things happen:

1. You lose a great salesperson
2. You gain a mediocre (or worse) manager
3. Customers suffer

Myth: Good Training Will Improve Any Salesperson’s Performance

Fact: The success rate of business positions is based on innate talent, not training or education. For example, all the training in the world won't make an advertising or marketing genius out of someone who doesn't have the natural talent. In sales, the best "hunters" who are great at new business development seldom make good "farmers" who can retain and service existing customers well. Likewise, design engineers suffer in production engineering positions, and tele-marketers don’t do as well in the field.

Myth: Every Salesperson Seeks Career Promotion

Fact: Good salespeople seek two things: independence and financial reward. These primary drivers veer far from the political wrangling and bureaucratic inter-dependence often present in a management position.

Myth: Highly-motivated, Hardworking Individuals Can Sell Anything To Anyone

Fact: Being a "Jack of all Trades" still translates to "Master of None." Only "Masters" produce top-line results.

Myth: Creating A Better Mousetrap Drives Customers To Your Door

Fact: Nearly 85% of all new products patented in the United States Patent Office never succeed in the real world.

Myth: The Internet Will Eventually Eliminate The Need For Salespeople

Fact: E-Commerce companies that don’t offer "real people" to relate to and consult with customers are over seven times more likely to fail.