Just like every one of us, each sales organization is different. An organization carries 
with it an ongoing load of positive attributes as well as sets of not-so-favorable qualities that hinder success. And as organizations struggle to improve top and bottom lines, today’s shift in buyer behavior has made it difficult to rise to the levels of productivity and effectiveness needed to meet revenue goals. We’re constantly looking to ease these struggles, but instead it seems as if we’re bogged down by seemingly endless inconsistencies caused by ad hoc efforts and poorly defined sales processes.
If you’re an avid reader of this blog, I’m sure the fact that over 58% of the buying process is completed before a buyer ever engages with a vendor isn’t quite news. However, what this tidbit does is hone in on the need for reps to be better equipped to engage with the buyer at the precise point in the process and align with their needs and expectations. Additionally, with quota attainment being 50% on average, it’s clear this alignment is not happening and buyers are not seeing value in their interactions with sellers. Thus, the inability to communicate value remains a top reason why sales reps can’t move the needle.
Layering on to that, sales reps spend 30% of their time completing administrative and non-sales tasks – a rise from about 15-20% in years past. With a more complicated sales process, more administrative requirements, and a buyer who expects more from a sales rep, it’s no wonder average turnover of sales professionals is 34%.
Many solutions, such as CRM systems, are available in the market to help mitigate these risks. While CRM systems are critical back-end infrastructure to ensure data capture and knowledge share, it remains an unfulfilled promise where improved customer engagement and better sales performance are not realized. CRM systems carry low user adoption, and simply stores prospect and customer data, not delivering the results that organizations need for successful sales execution.
The result is that organizations have turned to sales enablement activities to try and fill the gap left by CRM. These tools are point solutions for smaller problems, supporting points in time across the sales funnel, and are not focused on end-to-end sales execution. They also tend to be ad hoc in practice, neglecting to support any structure to a sales process or strategy.
These efforts do not provide the scalability modern sales teams need to be competitive in today’s changed environment. Sales leaders continue to work overtime on enabling their salesforce with repetitive maintenance strategies, while not spending nearly enough time on executing effectively to grow and scale their sales initiatives.
So what’s the solution? Or, more accurately –
is there a solution? The answer depends on how you’re willing to work to climb up the Sales Execution Maturity ladder.
Let us explain…
The Sales Execution Maturity Model identifies five levels of your organization’s sales execution maturity as relative to business impact. Each level includes specific elements that contribute to the success or failure of your organization’s ability to scale and succeed in growing its selling competency.
Once an organization is aware of its level of maturity, an action plan can then be put in place to progress up the model to a more desired state; resulting in improved top and bottom lines, and achievement of business goals.
Armed with this info, you’re ready to determine your organization’s level. Take the Sales Execution Index Assessment to mature up the ladder today.
