Frost & Sullivan conducted a survey, 2011 Sales Leadership Priorities, to 119 executives and found out some interesting things. In essence, it is a wake-up call for those still in the dark about what’s been happening during the down economy. They identified that one of the main external challenges is that consumer (customer) buying behaviors are changing (if we didn’t know this, well, shame on us!). The survey, however, also pointed out that the key internal challenge is identifying and qualifying high-potential prospects, and that the root cause of this was staff limitations. Yet here again, this only backs up what we already know: the single most important “driver” of business is to find qualified leads (thank you Alex Baldwin http://intrln.com/1).
The presentation concludes with these findings:
- no changes in budgets or staffing in 2011 to change those challenges
- the company’s CRM and sales automation software has to deal with the challenges, and
- they (companies) use social media to identify and qualify leads.
What’s the real message here? For example, the survey reported that 14% said changes in customer buying behavior drive sales strategies. But the survey also said that 13% was driven by product commoditization pressure, and another 14% on the need for product and service innovation. Is this “new” information? Thanks Frost & Sullivan for verifying these factors; however, many companies already know of the unbelievable pressure to bring down a price, or the drive to innovate. The question is really what do you DO about them? If customer behavior in purchasing is changing, HOW is it changing? And, what can a company do to accommodate that change?
Which leads to another question: are these questions verbatims that were standardized, or choices provided to respondents and then selected? For example, one of the presentation slides (by the way, these slides are terrific stimulators http://goo.gl/jO68Y) said that the sales challenges are predominantly caused by ineffective processes and staffing issues. The challenges like identifying and qualifying prospects or enhancing a rep’s productivity are blamed on processes and skills. But, what the heck is a “process?” And skills? Isn’t that salesmanship 101?
F&S’s concept to solve this challenge is what they call a “Growth Team Membership”, or GTM, which supports people who report to the CEO and provides best practices, events and services to address such internal challenges. The “value” is fairly straightforward: 1)speed design and implementation of initiatives by not re-inventing the wheel; 2)save money and reduce risk by avoiding mistakes made by other companies; 3)accelerate problem solving with a cross-industry perspective; and 4)improve the performance of the company, and productivity. These are all admirable objectives and statements of a value proposition. Are they really that “out of the box?” Any strategy worth its salt tries not to re-invent the wheel, yet how often in your company have you and your team members found yourselves doing just that?
Interline believes this Frost and Sullivan presentation is worth the look because it challenges you and reinforces what you already know or suspect you know. We all have to understand not only a company’s value proposition, but how everything we do affects the eventual outcome of a transaction – whether that transaction is handling a phone call from a client, or doing a transition on the e-commerce channel. True, process is everything, but when you spend your time thinking about the process for process sake, you sacrifice work, and without work, there will be no time to think about the process because you’ll be out of business. As John Caslione, our consultant friend, said once, “When the bullets are flying, you don’t have time to call a meeting.” (http://intrln.com/caslione)
For more thought leadership on this topic, contact Jim Nowakowski, President, Interline Creative Group, Inc. at 847 358 4848, or http://intrln.com/contact.