Posted by Paul Hesselschwerdt on Tue, Sep 01, 2009 @ 10:45 AM
We recently elicited feedback from selected global companies in a customized study, Selling in the New Global Economy, in which we asked about trends that were causing companies to fundamentally reshape their sales force capabilities, processes, and organizations.
The goals of the study were to identify relevant insights on these trends and to provide a forum whereby study participants can discuss these issues in a way that will stimulate new ideas for transforming their sales organizations, capabilities and processes.
From our research, 5 major trends emerged which were explored in-depth to identify implications for the individual companies and for global businesses generally.
- Customer Buying Process
- Roles and Relationships
- Value/Solution Selling
- New Skills, Processes, and Capabilities
- Managing the Transition
The initial research involved in-depth interviews with our core research group of sales executives from 11 global companies. Each trend was explored in depth to identify implications for the individual companies and for global businesses generally.
You can read more about this research study by clicking the link.
You can participate in the discussion with these industry leaders by answering the following question:
What are the most urgent issues confronting your sales organization that will cause you to change your sales capabilties, processes and organization?
Posted by Paul Hesselschwerdt on Thu, Aug 13, 2009 @ 11:09 AM
How do you set goals for salespeople when customer's business is so uncertain? Should sales people continue calling on customers when a) customers don't have any business to offer and b) companies have slashed travel budgets? So what should sales people do with their and your most valuable asset - selling time?
Some companies and sales people are recognizing the current environment as the perfect moment to build relationships with clients, both in terms of deepening relationships with existing clients as well as building new relationships. A useful tool to help organize your time and activities is the prioritization matrix below. To use the Prioritization Matrix, assign the customers, deals (including deal amount if available) to the appropriate Quadrant. Then plan and execute your actions for each Quadrant. You can use the actions suggested in the matrix below to get started.
Question:
How have you changed the way you spend your selling time in the past 12-18 months?
How well are the changes working?