I was asked recently as to what sales managers / CEO’s are really concerned about with regards to sales. I responded with what I thought was the obvious answer which was that there were not enough. However, I was challenged to think deeper than that as that is possibly too superficial a response.
Having given it some thought, I realised that this was just too broad an answer. If a company is not making sufficient sales, then there is an underlying reason for this. That reason is likely to vary from company to company. However, I wondered if there were any common reasons. So, I asked lots of connections on LinkedIn who were CEO’s or sales manager to see what they thought.
I wanted to make the questions as easy as possible to answer so I drafted 3 questions, which were sent separately via Messages. On reflection, this may not have been the best way, particularly as my first question was “Are you happy overall with the performance of your sales team?”
This was possibly a bit too up front a question and, even though I only asked for yes/no as a response, I suspect it resulted in the low number of responses that I received. However, some people did respond and this is an analysis of the results.
33% of the people that responded were not happy with their sales team. I’m not quite sure what to make of that. It is not an insignificant percentage but neither is it so high as to be alarming. It is possibly what you might expect early in January when last year’s results are still fresh in the mind! It does, however, demonstrate that there is room for improvement.
The second question was “What is your biggest concern regarding sales in your organisation?”
There were three main responses here;
1. Lead generation
2. Margins
3. Lack of management support
I am not at all surprised by 1. Lead generation is definitely the hardest part of the sales process and consistently ranks highly as the part that sales people find most difficult. Margins is probably no surprise either given the current economy. I was surprised and quite alarmed by the third main response, lack of management support.
This was expressed as the team not being sufficiently recognised and being given unrealistic targets. Sales is a difficult role and sales people need to accept constant rejection. To not get the required level of support from management is very disappointing to hear.
The final question was “If you had a magic sales wand, what would you wish for?”
Not surprisingly, given the responses to the second question, management support featured here! However, the majority of responses focussed around value with comments such as:
Customers were all "value focussed" not "cost focussed"
Good data that clearly demonstrates value and ROI from adopting our solutions
I was amused that someone wished for “reduced competition” which would be great but not something that is easily achieved.
However, I do think that the majority of problems and wishes could be achieved with some help. No one ever has all of the answers and it is important to ask for it when you need it.