New Report Uncovers Lack of Preparedness Among Sales Teams and Key Sources of Tension During the Buying Cycle
LARKSPUR, Calif. – July 15, 2014 – Corporate Visions, Inc., the leading marketing and sales messaging, tools and training company, today announced survey results reflecting the responses of more than 700 business-to-business (B2B) marketers and salespeople from around the world regarding their level of confidence when it comes to having key customer conversations. The findings showed a disconnect between where salespeople feel pressure and how well their companies prepare them for these critical conversations.
In one example, nearly 40 percent of respondents identified “opportunity creation” conversations as having the highest impact on helping salespeople achieve quota, but only half feel adequately prepared to create new sales opportunities with the content and training provided to them by their organizations.
Ironically, salespeople say they feel most adequately prepared for the conversations they value least:
• Showcasing compelling product presentations – 63 percent feel prepared/13 percent value most
• Achieving successful competitive differentiation – 54 percent feel prepared/14 percent value most
After the opportunity creation conversation, salespeople ranked having effective executive conversations as the next most integral factor to helping them achieve quota. The entire list of conversations rankings looked like this:
• Creating opportunities from status quo – 38 percent
• Having effective executive conversations – 16 percent
• Achieving successful competitive differentiation – 14 percent
• Showcasing compelling product presentations – 13 percent
• Demonstrating financial justification – 10 percent
• Mastering purchasing negotiations – 9 percent
When asked what causes the greatest amount of pressure for sales reps, respondents indicated that they experienced the most tension during the following conversations:
• Demonstrating financial justification – 26 percent
• Mastering purchasing negotiations – 25 percent
• Having effective executive conversations – 24 percent
“It’s no surprise that salespeople feel most confident in their product presentation skills, since that’s where the majority of companies focus their training initiatives. What is surprising, however, is how grossly unprepared reps are when it comes to having the three most critical conversations in the customer buying cycle,” said Tim Riesterer, chief strategy and marketing officer for Corporate Visions. “In order to be truly successful, companies need to provide their reps with the right messaging, tools and training skills so they can move prospects off the status quo, have effective executive-level conversations, provide financial justification for what they’re selling and negotiate a price that ensures maximum investment.”
About Corporate Visions, Inc.
Corporate Visions is a leading marketing and sales messaging, tools, and skills company that helps global B2B companies create more sales opportunities, win more deals and increase sales profitability by improving the conversations salespeople have with customers. Companies engage Corporate Visions to help in three key areas:
• Developing compelling messages to break the status quo, differentiating their solution, justifying a purchase decision and protecting margins;
• Deploying that message through tools and visual stories to enable salespeople to engage multiple decision-makers across the buying cycle; and
• Delivering sales skills training that helps salespeople confidently use these messages and tools to create, elevate and capture more value in their customer conversations.
Corporate Visions helps clients such as ADP, Motorola, Philips, UPS, Cisco and others align marketing and sales with a repeatable approach for developing and delivering winning customer conversations. For more information about Corporate Visions, visit http://corporatevisions.com/ or call 415-464-4400 or 800-360-SELL.
