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Sales
Performance
Transformation
"$66 Billion spent on sales enablement by 200 enterprise companies has not resulted in any major productivity increase."
Hubspot
"What's wrong with our sales engine?"
This is a question asked by over 70% of CEOs. The sales organization has been a challenge and source of frustration for many CEOs and senior executives.
CEOs are often frustrated by their inability to drive predictable, repeatable results within the sales organization. Promises of growth from new sales initiatives fall flat. Investment in sales training does not move the needle for the 'Middle 60' - the 60% of salespeople who average only 50% of their assigned quota. Implementation of sales enablement tools and CRM platforms has not delivered additional revenue from increased efficiencies and expected ROI.
CRM systems provide an array of reporting data that is confusing to interpret, and sales forecasts that are consistently missed. Virtually every other functional area of the business has been streamlined with repeatable processes that result in a consistent set of well-defined, predictable outputs. But the sales organization remains an enigma. Despite all of the investment in technology, tools, and training - more often than not, it produces inconsistent and unpredictable results, which takes a toll on the overall business.
"The average tenure of a VP of Sales has steadily declined from 26 months in 2010 to 19 months in 2019."
CSO Insights & The Alexander Group
"Companies have on average 45% more salespeople than they actually need due to poor sales talent management processes."
TCG Research
"Lack of sales talent is the #1 problem facing companies today. Only 16% of sales leaders believe they have the right talent."
CSO Insights
The Problem
The core problem is not processes or technology - it's people, and fixing it starts at the top.
But isn't this an issue for your VP of Sales? Maybe. However, less than 30% of CEOs have complete confidence in their head of sales. But this isn't entirely the fault of the sales leader, because most CEO's 'long-term' discussions with them don't extend past the end of the next quarter. How can you expect your sales leader to be thinking of a 3-year strategy when their compensation plans and bonuses are on a 12-month cycle, and they are worried if they will be employed in two years?
The missing link is the people. The only cure to these sales challenges is simple - creating a sales organization where the majority of your salespeople are A-Players. Great salespeople perform regardless of the adversity. Whether it be challenges with the economy, competitors, lack of enablement tools, or poor management - great salespeople always find a way to succeed and deliver consistent results.
But who in your organization has total ownership and accountability for sales talent management? If the answer is HR, then you are asking for problems. Most HR organizations don't understand how to attract A-Players, and in fact, turn off many of them in the initial call. Furthermore, HR has no responsibility or accountability when revenue targets are missed because of hiring the wrong salespeople. The blame is normally placed on the sales managers.
The Solution
If your company is committed to finally fixing the core problem within the sales organization - its people - then the CEO must drive that effort and communicate expectations, responsibilities, and desired outcomes to all concerned stakeholders. A significant portion of a company’s value creation rests with its sales force. Transforming the character of your sales organization’s personnel could be the most crucial undertaking of a CEO's career.
Your company has likely invested heavily in sales training and enablement over the last several years. But how much have you invested in developing a better sales talent performance process?
Over 85 percent of companies run their hiring process for sales talent the same way their worst salespeople run their prospect and forecast pipelines. They work with many unqualified prospects and bring them into their sales funnel, moving them them through their sales process and increasing their forecasts. Ultimately the majority of these prospects never buy, because they were they were unqualified from the beginning. However, with the sales hiring process, companies are forced to 'buy' unqualified candidates to meet hiring needs.
The Collier Group partners with our clients to create, execute, and manage a plan to fix the sales talent management problem once and for all. Our proven methodology and process transitions your sales teams, where the majority of salespeople are achieving annual quota targets, while significantly lowering sales costs and turnover. On average, our clients realize an average increase in revenue of 28% and a reduction in turnover of 75%. Learn more about our methodology and process.
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