www.mercuri.netFor more information contact: Mogens DanielsenTel: +45 40858914 Email: mogens.danielsen@mercuri.dk

GLOBAL SALESMANAGEMENTSTUDY 2014WHY SALES MANAGERS MUSTTRANSFORM SALES

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About the study

Mercuri International’s Sales Management studywas conducted in March/April 2014 in 16countries, covering five big industries.It is based on 1.559 phone interviews with SalesManagers (64%), CEO/Managers (24%) andother people responsible for sales (12%).Of the companies surveyed, 55% have 1-9 salespeople, 22% 10-19, 16% 20-50 and 7% 50+ salespeople.

Low Performers vs Top Performers

In this study we have divided companies into LowPerformers (bottom 20%) and Top Performers (top20%) and compared them with the average results.By doing this, we can see what Top PerformingCompanies do differently than less performingcompanies.

Low Performers have more customersand convert more proposals intoorders. So why are they not moresuccessful?

Low performers convert 35% of proposals into orders,compared to Top Performers who convert 30%. LowPerformers have on average 43 buying customers persales person, compared to Top Performers who have onaverage 24 customers per sales person.

This might sound strange. If a company has morecustomers per sales person and converts more proposalsinto orders, is it not a successful company?

Converting orders is not a goal in itself. Low Performersmight focus too much on closing a deal and gettingvolume, and not enough on margin and profit. They maygive away too much discount or services for free. A highconversion ratio does not mean a successful business.Most companies don’t go bankrupt because of too lowconversion ratios but because of too low margins.

And is it good or bad to have many buying customers? Forstability and risk diversion it might be good, but not forefficiency and profit. Successful companies often do nothave many buying customers, but they have the rightcustomers.

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www.mercuri.co.ukFor more information contact: Mat EverittTel: +44 7572 343 341 Email: matthew-everitt@mercuri.co.uk

Top Performers meet morecustomers and prospect F2F

Sales people in Top Performing companies have onaverage 6,8 sales visits per week, compared to LowPerformers who have only 4,8 visits per week. LowPerformers do not use social media or other ways ofkeeping in contact with customers and prospects toa larger extent than Top Performers. So despite theincreasing difficulty to get time with customers andprospects, Top Performers manage to do this.

Customers are increasinglyknowledgeable and demanding

It’s a fact customers are becoming increasinglyknowledgeable and demanding. 72% of respondentsagree or strongly agree with the statement “In ourindustry, customers increasingly use newstechnologies to search information and evaluatealternatives, and 82% agree or strongly agree withthe statement “In our industry, customers arebecoming increasingly demanding”.

Sales must adapt

This means Sales Managers and sales people mustwork in a different way to be relevant to customersand prospects. 80% of respondents say they havealready adapted their sales process to the purchaseprocess of their customers, but the question is towhat extent they really have analyzed the buyingjourney of their customers and prospects, andadjusted to it? Having a website, working with socialmedia, using Google Adwords and banneradvertising is not enough to meet increasinglydemanding and knowledgeable customers. Salesmust instead work in a totally different way to beready to meet these “new” customers.

Real Sales Transformation isneeded

Sales Managers today must in depth analyze andunderstand the buying behavior and buying journeyof the company’s customers. Knowing the momentsof truth in the buying journey means that thecompany can standardize and harmonize the waythey deal with these situations, be it in an earlyphase of the buying journey or later. Your salespeople must know what tools to use whenencountering a customer in a specific phase of his orher buying process.

Towards Assertive Selling© andConsultative Selling©

With more knowledgeable and demanding customers,sales people must be skilled in more assertive andconsultative ways of selling. They must know how tohandle objections, how to overcome the information gapbetween the customer and the seller and how tochallenge the customer’s perception of his or her needs.At Mercuri International we call this Assertive Selling©

and Consultative Selling©, which is part of our programDifferentiated Selling©.

The need for tailored training

According to the CSO Insights’ report Sell Cycle ReviewAnalysis in 2013 companies still have problems withunderstanding their customer’s buying cycle. Only asmall percentage of companies have this as a corecompetence and more than four out of ten businessessay that this is an area that needs improvement. Sothere is a clear need to train sales people to meet allchallenges they meet today.

For more information about the Sales Managementstudy, please contact Matthew Everitt at MercuriInternational.

To enjoy a review of the study, please call Mat Everitton 07572 343 341. You can read more about theworld’s leading sales performance consultancy atwww.mercuri.net.

82% of respondents agree that

customers have become more demanding