SBS price value & sales productivity (edit) 19.5.15

Food-for-thought.For SBS Partners. 19.5.15.

‘Price, value and sales productivity.’

Food for thought

The brain = 2% of bodyweight

But…. uses 20-30% of calories….

OUR DNA

Creating a world where EVERY business can enjoy long term,

sustainable success

OUR SERVICES

Steve J introABP Partner in the sales disciplineFront line and leadership positions in 5 different markets20+ years senior management advisor managing sales and improving sales performance. • N.E.D. & interim management• Consultant with global leader in sales training (selling &

delivering)• Co-founder 1992 prominent b2b sector sales improvement

consultancy (www.quantum-sales.com)

“Help clients make sense of sales.”• Fierce competition• Professional procurement teams• Downward pressure on margins

LAST YEAR’S RESULT

RESULT

PRODUCTCUSTOMER

%SALESPERSON

MANAGER

QUANTITY

QUALITY

DIRECTION

PAST

FUTURE

PRESENT

PERSONAL

SALES

PLAN

RESULT

ACTIVITY

COMPETENCE

£

- - - - - - - - -

NEW

EXISTING

The route to success.

Activity

Price pressure.How much of an issue for you…?

Changing background picture…• 1991: 32mb storage cost = $1.44m• Mob phone subscriptions 6bn ww. UK 83m • 73% of UK population access internet daily• Feb ‘10 all web traffic via mob <10%

• Jan ’14 all web traffic via mob 52%• Aug ‘14 all web traffic via mob 68%

• 4G subscriptions Q1 2013 = 318,000• 4G subscriptions Q1 2014 = over 6m

• 4G coverage 2013 = too low to measure• 4G coverage June 2014 = 73%

• Alibaba already bigger than Amazon & ebay combined90% of world’s data has been generated in the last 2 years

-- Source: The Economist 2012

Changing picture from a sales perspective…

UK sales population excluding retail & cust services = 3m• 40% of FTSE salespeople will fail (1.2m)• ‘No decision’ stats at a record high (52%)

• Source -- Forrester Research 2015

• c60% of decision to purchase made before supplier engagement

• Source – CEB research 2011

At the heart of the challenge....

Top line: lack of sales capability, not trading conditions, is the biggest challenge:

– Sales = most important part of the work: 61%– Sales org’n no better than competition: 50%– Sales organisation worse than competition: 20%

-- Accenture senior executives survey 2004

Conclusion…..?

MASSIVE scope for improvement in productivity……

More from a sales perspective….% contribution to customer loyalty

Co. & brand impact; value/price ratio; product serv delivery: 47%

The sales experience:(“How you sell, rather than what you sell…”)

53%

Source. CEB. ‘The Challenger Sale’. 2011

Key characteristics

• Offers unique and valuable market perspectives• Helps navigate alternatives• Provides on-going advice and consultation• Helps avoid potential land mines• Educates on new issues and outcomes

“Stop wasting my time. Challenge me. Teach me something new…”

Characteristics of mediocre b2b sales organisations

• Disconnect between sales and marketing• ‘Management by results’

– Standards of performance rather than sales activity plans• Management spends too much time behind a desk• Too reliant on sales incentives• ‘Hire the suit’ recruitment approach• Typically sell ‘components’ -- not real benefits• Default to commodity approach too easily• Salespeople sell to narrow DMP (comfort zone)

– Often lack credibility at senior business management level• Salespeople too easily diverted from selling

– “I’m your one point of contact”• Not enough owned by sales per se

– Too easy to implicate others (e.g. “I’m not getting the leads.”)

Sales productivity studySource: Proudfoot 2005.

Productivity factors

Poor s’people Successful s’people

Active selling 10% 35%Prospecting 10% 25%Problem-solving 14% 15%Downtime 17% 10%Travel time 18% 10%Administration 31% 5%

Sony Ericsson research 2007

Transactional selling environment– Core performer effectiveness index of 100– High performer index of 159

Solution selling environment– Core performer effectiveness index of 100– High performer index of 289

“3-5 hours p.m. of the right kind of sales management coaching produces an average 17% improvement in productivity”

If we can’t shift them they will fall further behind…!!

Well managed...?

Adequate coaching from sales mgr in ave week: 22%Sales mgr spends less than 10% of time coaching: 52%Sales mgr spends no time coaching: 33%

-- Sales best practices study 2009 (3500 s’people)

A short exercise

Price and mind-set.• If you think you are too expensive, you

probably will be…• Believe in your own pricing, not the

propaganda• Value is ALL about perception

• People don’t “buy on price” – they make a price-versus-value comparison

Selling business value. What’s at the heart of it…

Sales propositions

Needs(Logic)

Wants(Emotion)

£, Time, Resource, Spec, Refs

PoliticsKudosEgoPridePrestigePersonal chemistryN.I.HSecurity / insecurityPioneer / hero

• 28 major names• Account manager - “we lost it on price”• Senior level interview showed weak or non-

existent business relationship in EVERY case (i.e. categorically NOT ‘price’)

• Top of list re. lost / didn’t win……• “They didn’t understand our business…”

Lost Client Survey

“You’re too expensive….”1. Listen carefully2. With whom or what are you being

compared?3. What’s the difference?4. Emphasise your added value.

The 3 most common mistakes people make when selling.....

• They pitch too early.• They make too many assumptions

– Instead of asking questions and listening carefully to the answers

• They don’t quantify enough

Summary• A clear need to improve sales productivity

• Good news is …There is loads of scope to do it• The most productive are good at selling business value• They understand that value is all about perception

• They know that a core part of their job is selling the value• They get the fact that people don’t ‘buy on price’ – rather they make

a price-versus-value comparison

• They identify where their value is most likely to count and they can find and quantify needs and wants for it

• Fundamental: what happens at the front end is the part of the proposition most valued by the customer.

‘The reasonable man adapts himself to the world. The unreasonable man insists on adapting the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.’

-- George Bernard Shaw

steve.jessop@advantagebusinessltd.com07973 909648

Food-for-thought.For SBS Partners. 19.5.15.

‘Price, value and sales productivity.’

The sales population re-visited