Sales Productivity Tops CEO’s ’08 Agenda...Where is it on your agenda?
Part 1 of a 2-part series
I wasn’t surprised by what I read in a recent IDC survey.
The survey reports that for the agenda items that CEO's are focusing on for 2008, Sales Productivity
has jumped to #1—marginally ahead of Customer Care and Product/Service
Innovation. I wasn’t surprised because this is exactly what I’m hearing. Widening economic concerns, as well as the opportunities and pressures of global competition, are keeping CEOs up at night. They’re creatively strategizing about how they’re going to exceed revenue and margin projections given these obstacles. Their problems are my problems, so I've been giving Sales Productivity even more thought than usual.
First, it’s a common mistake to equate Sales Productivity with sales efficiency. In fact, they are very different. Sales Productivity is finding, working, and closing more profitable opportunities more quickly. Sales efficiency, on the other hand, is organizing and managing contacts, tasks, notes, calls, history and lead information about prospects and customers—the activities that CRM/SFA (Customer Relationship Management/Sales Force Automation) software is designed to support.
This difference is the very reason that more than half of CRM/SFA technology fails, according to Gartner Group. CRM/SFA doesn’t support what drives revenue, Sales Productivity.
Instead, CRM/SFA focuses on data, not salespeople. It’s more about what happened instead of helping the salesperson make something happen. It doesn’t guide them as to what they should do next, nor does it help them capture a prospect’s interest. Instead, it
only helps them capture the prospect’s contact data.
The needs of salespeople are greater than having software that helps them compile pre-sale planning and post-sale analysis reports for managers. They need tools that will help them make sales! A tool that respects the unique work style of salespeople and is easy-to-learn and use, so they will actually use them.
Are your salespeople at maximum productivity? If not, what changes need to happen in order to increase productivity? If you’d like to learn about proven ways to boost Sales Productivity, call me at 612-267-3320.
Discipline. Creativity. Results.
Danita
P.S. Stay tuned for Part 2 next month: Sales Workstyle Management Boosts Sales Productivity!
