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Powering Profitable Sales GrowthFive Imperatives from the 2014 Sales Performance Optimization Study
Changing customer expectations and continuous sales cycles are creating a stark reality: The sales practices of many businesses are nearing the breaking point. A shift toward “agile selling” can help companies build the capabilities they need to achieve growth and profitability. Recent Accenture-sponsored research lends support to the argument that focusing on five agile selling imperatives could make all the difference.
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The game has changedChief sales officers (CSOs) have always faced an uphill battle when it comes to growing their revenues and, more importantly, profitable growth. That’s because shareholder demands, competitive threats and customer expectations never decline. They only rise. Complicating matters even more are three trends that are now redefining the art and science of sales:
Nonstop customers The deal is never done. Customers now have access to more knowledge and opinions, through more channels, than ever before. This information—much of which is beyond a company’s control—plays a significant role in shaping customer preferences and expectations for personalized experiences. In this “always-on” environment, the traditional linear buying process, which begins with awareness and ends with purchase and loyalty, has lost its relevance and is simply too slow, too static and too generic to address the needs of today’s buyers. With the advance of digital technologies, buyers are always in a dynamic and multi-directional channel, where they can constantly evaluate (and re-evaluate) whether a promise made by a supplier is a promise delivered. (Learn more about Accenture’s Nonstop Customer model).
The digital revolutionIT no longer encompasses a set of tools that enable sales processes. Digital disruptions and cloud-based technologies have become important catalysts for business transformation. For example, digital selling—which applies digital tools, online and social media to enable digital relationships and drive sales across multiple channels—is fast emerging as a primary driver of market differentiation, business growth and profitability. When selecting technologies to support or improve their organizations’ sales performance, CSOs need to realize that the true value of those investments will lie in their ability to drive broader transformation programs.
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The evolving role of the CSONot long ago, CSOs had a singular focus: optimizing sales performance. Executing against that goal is still a fundamental component of their jobs. However, success today is increasingly measured in terms of profitability. This means that CSOs must identify and act upon a host of opportunities to streamline sales processes, target and engage with high-value customers, and boost the performance of every sales agent. In other words, the CSO role has become more multi-dimensional and CSOs are expected to wear many hats—among them, chief profitability officer, chief transformation officer, chief coaching officer and even chief customer officer.
Each of these trends has strategic implications, not just for the sales organization and the CSO, but also for marketing, customer service and any other functional area that touches the customer. For all of them, agility, hyper-relevance, personalized interactions, and the ability to move from insight to action are new hallmarks of high performance.
2014 Sales Performance Optimization Study
Accenture, in collaboration with CSO Insights, a leading research and benchmarking organization, conducted in 2014, the 20th annual study on sales performance optimization. We surveyed 1,200+ sales executives from different industry groups around the world to assess current sales performance, challenges facing sales teams, and what organizations are doing to address those challenges. In this year’s study, 95 respondents represented organizations with more than $1 billion in sales.
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The old playbook no longer applies
As world economies began rebounding from the latest global recession in 2009, businesses understandably believed that they would see a concomitant improvement in their sales performance. That sentiment was reflected in CSO Insights’ most recent Sales Performance Optimization Study, conducted in conjunction with Accenture. By 2012, chief sales officers (CSOs) had become apparently optimistic about their organizations’ sales potential; 74 percent were targeting a greater than 5 percent jump in revenue for 2013. And why wouldn’t they be hopeful? Deal sizes and revenue targets were growing, as were the percentages of sales reps achieving their sales quotas.
One year later, the positive outlook of CSOs appeared to remain strong. 99 percent of CSOs indicated their intention to raise their revenue targets for 2014, with 72 percent setting those targets at more than 5 percent higher than the previous year. However, a look at the confidence with which CSOs feel they can achieve their revenue goals tells a very different story. Only about one-quarter of CSOs most recently surveyed expressed no doubts (or minimal doubts) about achieving their new goals (see Figure 1). That’s about half as many as had expressed that level of confidence the year prior.
Figure 1. While 99 percent of CSOs have higher revenue targets this year, only 14 percent are very confident they can achieve it.
Source: 2014 CSO Insights Sales Performance Optimization Study
Don’t see how 2%
Minimal doubts 12%
No doubts 14%
16-25% More11-15% More6-10% More1-5% More0%
4%6%
8%
11%12%
39%
42%
22%
27%
18%
10%
1%5%
10%
45%
40%
35%
30%
25%
20%
15%
Less than/ same as
Revenue Target Revenue Achievement Confidence
>25% More
2013
2014
Some concerns 53%
Clear concerns 19%
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CSOs’ skepticism of achieving their targets is reflected in sales quota achievement. For five consecutive years, the percentage of sales representatives achieving their annual quotas climbed—culminating in 2013 at a level of 67.2 percent. In 2014, nearly 10 percent fewer sales reps are expected to achieve their quotas (see Figure 2). What makes this drop particularly noteworthy is the fact that both revenue targets and sales quotas have also been set lower in 2014 (see Figures 3 and 4). Specifically, quotas have been re-allocated from the $2.5-$4 million to the $.5-$1 million range. Even at these lower target levels, CSOs do not expect their reps to reach their goals.
Source: 2014 CSO Insights Sales Performance Optimization Study Source: 2014 CSO Insights Sales Performance Optimization Study
Figure 2. Sales quota achievement has declined for the first time in years.
Figure 3. Revenue target achievement has also declined for the first time in years.
0%
67%
59%64% 64%
20%
100%
80%
60%
40%
2011 2012 2013 201480%
92%
87%
89% 90%
100%
90%
2011 2012 2013 2014
Figure 4. Average annual sales quotas have been decreased.
0%
5%
10%
40%
35%
30%
25%
20%
15%
< $500,000
$500,001 - $1,000,000
$1,000,001 - $1,500,000
$1,500,001 - $2,500,000
$2,500,001 - $4,000,000
> $4,000,000
2011 2012 2013 2014
6%
14%
16%17%
18%
29%
13%
8%
12%
14%
16%
38%
32%
6%
11%12%
17%
22%
32%
24%
16%
12%
7%
9%
Together, these statistics present a grim reality: sales performance is dropping. This calls into question the value of companies’ past efforts to improve their sales effectiveness. Prior to 2014, several initiatives had gained considerable traction, year over year. These included aligning sales tools to customer behaviors, revising channel strategies, and improving sales representatives’ access to information. Yet, the lackluster outcomes of those (and many other initiatives) suggest that CSOs have not been building the right process, talent, technology and customer capabilities to
drive high performance. Rather, they have been investing in programs that yield little value. And, because they have done so over a period of years, sales systems and processes have grown more complex and less effective. Today, these processes and systems are at their breaking point.
It is time for CSOs to rethink their investments and, more broadly, the effectiveness of old sales models in a dynamic, always-on and always-connected environment. The message is clear: CSOs can no longer rely on their old playbooks. An entirely new approach to sales is required.
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Source: 2014 CSO Insights Sales Performance Optimization Study
Sales processes and systems are at their breaking point.
Companies today need to be smarter about enhancing their returns on sales investments. They need to capitalize on emerging trends to create a more dynamic sales capability that will grow revenue and build loyalty. And they need to transform their traditional sales approach to meet the needs of an always-connected customer who expects to be served and sold to in a completely different way. In short, they need to adopt an agile selling approach. At its core, agile selling is about:
• Architecting the sales experience to serve the Nonstop Customer—interacting with customers on their terms
• Streamlining the buying process by using data to gain insights and prioritizing digital and cloud investments
• Strategically aligning working sales spend with an intense focus on ROI to power profitable growth
• Investing in price strategy adoption and deal level governance
• Crushing the silos that slow down the sales process, as well as embracing the evolving role of retail and channel partners.
The case for agile selling
Accenture’s research and experience has shown that an agile selling approach can be a primary source of competitive differentiation and sustainable growth. It can also produce significant improvements in sales force performance, which translates into bottom-line savings.
The case for agile selling has never been stronger. Yet, most companies have not adopted the agile selling principles that are now required. In some cases, the lack of action is due to CSOs’ refusal to let go of the traditional selling approaches they have developed over the years. In others, the value of agile selling has not been achieved because CSOs simply don’t know where to invest. Accenture’s research and experience suggests that tremendous opportunities exist for those companies willing to throw out their old playbooks in favor of five new sales imperatives. We believe each imperative has the potential to be transformative in terms of its potential impact on sales performance and profitable growth.
A new “agile selling” playbook comprises five imperatives for achieving sales transformation and growth at S-P-E-E-D.
Spend optimization
Price and profit optimization
Execution and operations excellence
Enablement of sales talent
Digital selling and dynamic channels
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Imperative #1: Put your money where your profitability is Spend optimization
Companies spend a huge portion of their sales and marketing budgets on efforts aimed at generating qualified customer leads and driving profitable sales. Expenditures fall into four general categories: advertising, channel incentives (such as partner promotions and rebates), sales incentives (such as sales representative commissions and bonuses), and price discounts. For large companies, the cost of channel and sales incentives can total hundreds of millions—if not billions—of dollars every year.
As CSOs are increasingly charged with boosting an organization’s profitability, it is critical that they understand the impact of their spending. Surprisingly, only two-thirds of billion-dollar companies analyze the returns of their investments. Nearly one-quarter of sales executives do not track returns at all. And nearly 10 percent do not know if their sales compensation, incentive or promotional spending is analyzed.1 Without those insights, it is very difficult to know what’s working, what’s not, and where to prioritize future investments.
Among sales executives that do track ROI, approximately 60 percent believe their compensation and incentive programs are motivating their agents to retain existing business, sell new products, or pursue cross- and up-sell opportunities. This is encouraging, since each of these activities is important for sales growth. However, far fewer executives are looking at how well their sales spending drives profitability. For example, only 41 percent feel that their incentive programs are adequately encouraging the sales of higher-margin products. And less than a third use incentive programs to encourage their reps to avoid excessive discounting.2
It’s time for CSOs to optimize their sales spending. This imperative calls for CSOs to align the costs that they control and influence—namely, sales and channel incentives, rebates and discounts—to the activities that are most likely to power profitable growth. In other words, they must simultaneously optimize their spending and enhance their returns.
Agile sellers strategically align their working sales spend to power profitable growth and bolster returns on investments.
Pricing prowess
A global oilfield services provider lagged its peers in terms of profitability. Its subpar margin performance was due to several factors, including the company’s “gut-feel” approach to pricing and the limited visibility it had into the true costs of serving each customer. By segmenting its products and customers (and then aligning new pricing strategies to each), the company achieved a $1.2 billion boost in margins. It also eliminated many of its price-execution errors and gained a much better understanding of how to serve its most profitable customers.
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Price and profit optimizationImperative #2: Master the art of the deal
Pricing is a key driver for customer decision-making and one of three key levers (along with asset productivity and cost containment) that impacts shareholder value and stock price. Often described as a process, pricing really encompasses a set of capabilities that enable companies to optimize yield, maintain (or gain) market share, retain (or attract) customers, and minimize (or eliminate) unmanaged discounting. Achieving these benefits requires most organizations to transition from basic cost-based pricing models to dynamic, data-driven approaches that employ customer-centered and contextual pricing approaches.
Agile sellers use analytics to develop a customer-centered and contextual pricing approach to increase profits. They also provide sales teams the insights and tools to know when and how to negotiate.
Two areas of pricing, in particular, hold promise for CSOs, since both are under the direct control of the sales organization. The first is deal pricing, which focuses on bundling offers and aligning those bundles to customer segments, thereby optimizing deal profitability via better margins and higher win rates. The second is negotiation/execution. By mastering this pricing capability, companies can more effectively manage risks and capture contract leakage, and also carry out complex negotiations with greater confidence. The results include better responsiveness to volatile market conditions and a reduction in discounting, as well as administrative expenses.
CSOs can directly drive profitability by addressing the following: First, they need to create awareness and consistently reinforce the importance of profitable sales, not just topline revenue (i.e., every deal cannot be a “must win” deal). Secondly, CSOs should monitor and measure the expected value of respective sales (i.e., CSOs should use analytics to evaluate what’s in the pipeline and the potential profitability of each deal). Thirdly, they should work with Talent executives to incorporate sales training modules on data-driven and contextual pricing as well as consider changing rep and third-party compensation structures to incent on deal profitability, not just revenues.
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Imperative #3: Focus on experience and insights
CSOs have long recognized that sales playbooks, sales processes and supporting technologies all play critical roles in optimizing the customer buying process and bolstering sales productivity. Yet most have found it difficult to implement on-the-ground solutions that do more than make their existing capabilities more efficient. By “changing the rules,” companies can develop entirely new capabilities, redefine their sales approaches, and create “insight engines” that drive sustainable growth and profitability. Accenture advocates that companies pursue execution excellence in three areas.
Write a new process playbook— one based on customer expectations and experiences In 2014, the number of companies achieving their revenue targets and individual sales quotas dropped significantly as compared to prior years. One of the reasons for this drop may be the fact that sales representatives are spending less time selling and more time focused on administrative tasks. In 2014, sales reps are spending only 34 percent of their time selling.
0% 10%
Increase sales e�ectiveness
Increase existing account penetration
Other
Increase reoder/renewal rates
Reduce new rep ramp-up time
Improve team selling
Reduce sell cycle time
Increase win rates
Optimize lead generation
Improve margins/Reduce discounting
Optimize deal size
Improve customer loyalty
Capture new accounts
20% 60%50%40%30%
38%
39%
36%
32%
26%
19%
18%
14%
13%
12%
8%
3%
57%
In response to this trend, CSOs have two options. They can make organizational changes that free their reps to spend more time with customers. Or they can implement changes to ensure that their sales teams have the capabilities and insights they need to make the most of their limited selling time. In the latter case, our research has shown that organizations that have achieved their sales goals more consistently than their peers prioritize their sales objectives differently. Specifically, they focus more on improving margins and retaining existing customers. Their counterparts, in contrast, place more emphasis on increasing customer share and new customer acquisitions (see Figure 5).
Figure 5. Executives’ top three objectives for the next 12 months includes increasing sales effectiveness.
Execution and operations excellence
Source: 2014 CSO Insights Sales Performance Optimization Study
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CSOs are taking notice of what can happen when sales investments are reprioritized. They are following the example of their leading-edge peers by rethinking how they can create a more dynamic sales operation. For the first time in years, they are planning to pay more attention to realigning team structures and sales processes than to implementing new CRM technologies (see Figure 6). There’s more good news. Sales executives we surveyed are finally
Figure 6. Sales effectiveness initiatives reflect structural and process issues.
recognizing the need to implement systemic changes to sales processes and behaviors. For example, 58 percent want to improve their ability to take advantage of cross- and up-sell opportunities. And 65 percent want to improve their ability to penetrate other business units. Perhaps most tellingly, leaders generally agree on the growing need to improve their sales planning and sales management capabilities (see Figure 7).
Revising sales team structure
Improving rep access to information
Revising sales rep hiring strategy
Revising compensation
Revising channel strategy
Analyzing buying process
Revising sales tools
Aligning sales and marketing
Enhancing lead generation
New CRM tools
Revising sales process
Enhancing sales team communications
0% 10% 20% 50%40%30%
2013
2014
38%438%
50%42%
39%42%
27%33%
37%32%
35%30%
34%29%
25%27%
18%26%
29%26%
28%24%
13%14%
Source: 2014 CSO Insights Sales Performance Optimization Study
E�ectively incubating promising leads for the future
What Needs Improving in the Area of Sales Planning? What Needs Improving in the Area of Sales Management?
Properly qualifying and prioritizing opportunities
Developing sales strategy plans for major opportunities
Prioritizing accounts to focus selling e�orts
0% 20% 40% 80%60% 0% 20% 40% 80%60%
2013 2014
63%65%
51%64%
44%53%
50%40%
Accurately forecasting business
Continually adapting business process for market changes
Giving sales managers timely, accurate sales metrics *
E�ectively sharing best practices *
46%54%
40%53%
49%
44%
*New metrics
Figure 7. Sales leaders recognize that sales management and sales planning capabilities are lacking in discipline and effectiveness.
These changing attitudes reflect a willingness among sales leaders to view their sales capabilities (and the relevance of those capabilities in a nonstop customer environment) through a new lens. This is a critical first step toward creating an agile sales approach. Moving forward, sales leaders should build on this new thinking and develop a new playbook that:
• Focuses on value-based and outcome-based selling. “Fixing” existing sales processes will produce only mediocre results. What’s needed is a new focus on different processes that will produce different outcomes.
• Designs processes in a way that addresses customer expectations and delivers satisfying customer experiences at every turn. To create a customer-centric process design engine, companies need to first apply analytics to really know their customers. They need to identify and assess their customer touch points, and then ensure that interactions are seamless among them.
• Prioritizes capabilities that directly affect the performance of sales representatives and channel partners. One such capability involves lead identification. Currently, 63 percent of businesses do not have a formal definition of a qualified lead. More than half (58 percent) believe their ability
to identify decision makers and their ability to cross-sell or up-sell needs improvement. And only 15 percent indicate that three-quarters or more of their qualified leads result in a customer discussion. Another set of capabilities that warrant attention include forecasting and account planning. Account planning is mandatory for only 39 percent of companies (a 17 percent decline from 2013). Fewer than half of forecast opportunities result in “wins.” And only 7 percent of companies have 75 percent or more of their deals close as per their initial forecast. In fact, the ability to accurately forecast business has been declining for years (see Figure 8).
Agile sellers make their new process playbooks so valuable that sales teams eagerly adopt them.
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Source: 2014 CSO Insights Sales Performance Optimization Study
Figure 8. The ability to accurately forecast the business has deteriorated.
Figure 9. Companies with formal or dynamic sales processes outperform their peers.
Make sales process adoption your number one priority For several years, Accenture’s research has shown that sales teams are ambivalent about adopting a prescribed sales methodology. In 2014, only 51 percent of sales organizations are using a formal or dynamic sales process. The number of companies with a greater-than-90-percent
0%
10%
20%
60%
50%
40%
30%
Needs improvement
Meets expectations
Exceeds expectations
Don’t know or N/A
Linear (needs improvement)
2011 2012 2013 2014
2% 3%4%
39%
54%
9%
44%45%
41%
50%
6%3%
1%
8%
45%46%
Levels of Sales Process Implementation
Reps exceed expectations to understand the buyer’s process
Reps exceed expectations to understand accounts to focus upon
Total sales rep turnover
Outcome of forecast deals: won/lost/no decision
Percent of sales reps meeting/beating quota
Percent annual sales revenue attained
Level 1 Random Sales Process
Level 2 Informal Sales Process
Level 3 Formal Sales Process
Level 4 Dynamic Sales Process
2% 7% 8% 26%
5% 5% 10% 15%
20% 18% 19% 16%
41%/35%/24% 45%/33%/22% 48%/28%/24% 52%/27%/21%
53% 58% 58% 66%
75% 81% 84% 87%
sales methodology adoption rate is just 8 percent—the lowest in three years.
Since many sales processes, as noted above, currently focus on encouraging behaviors that do little to advance agile selling, the failure of companies to adopt a consistent methodology may not be a cause of concern. But we think it
should be. Our research has shown that companies with formal or dynamic sales processes outperform their peers on a number of measures (see Figure 9). One can assume that as sales processes are more appropriately prioritized and aligned to drive sustainable growth, the adoption of formal methods will become even more important.
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Source: 2014 CSO Insights Sales Performance Optimization Study
Source: 2014 CSO Insights Sales Performance Optimization Study—Sales Management Analysis
There are several things CSOs should do (or not do) to encourage the adoption of a consistent sales process. Perhaps most important, they should not attempt to mandate compliance to a strict methodology. This may seem counter-intuitive. But we’ve found that the primary reason processes are not adopted is because sales teams simply do not value them. When companies establish processes that are designed to make sales teams more successful, those teams will naturally want to incorporate them into their day-to-day sales activities.
When it comes to designing processes that sales teams will actively embrace, leaders
should start with a customer-centric view. Understanding what today’s non-stop customers want and how they want to interact with the business can guide leaders to create processes that place sales reps at the center of the customer experience. Aligning sales processes to the customers’ needs improves the likelihood that those processes will be adopted, since those processes will directly support the activities that will help reps achieve their goals.
While the relevance of sales processes largely influences the rate of process adoption, CSOs should make sure that sales representatives have the right tools
at their disposal to use those processes to their maximum advantage. One of the most important tools is training and, more specifically, formal coaching. Studies have shown that sales coaching can greatly accelerate the rate at which sales reps learn. Whereas training alone can improve behaviors and outcomes, training combined with coaching can yield even stronger outcomes, especially in complex, dynamic environments. Our recent research confirms that formal coaching methods can play a key role in increasing sales effectiveness (see Figure 10).
Figure 10. Training and formal coaching, on average, impact sales performance.
Training Investment per Rep per Year as Related to:
Training Dollars: <$2500
Training Dollars: >$2500
Overall revenue attainment
% of reps meeting/beating quota
Average deal size
76% 86%
55% 61%
$80K $150K
Deal Size >$100K and Training Investment per Rep per Year as Related to:
Overall revenue attainment
% of reps meeting/beating quota
Outcome of forecast deals: won/lost/no decision
Reps consistently use sales methodology >75%
Formal coaching methodology
78% 85% 88%
54% 56% 60%
27% 38% 54%
42%/34%/24% 46%/31%/23% 48%/30%/22%
19% 17% 44%
Training Dollars: <$500
Training Dollars: $500-$2500
Training Dollars: >$2500
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Source: 2014 CSO Insights Sales Performance Optimization Study—Sales Process Analysis
Use technology as a catalyst for business transformation A third way to drive excellence in execution is to rethink how technology can improve sales effectiveness. To date, many investments in common IT solutions such as customer relationship management (CRM) and configure-price-quote (CPQ) systems have not been utilized to their maximum advantage and are, therefore, not producing the results many CSOs expected. For example, fewer than 50 percent of companies report that 75 percent or more of their sales teams have adopted their CRM technology. That reflects a 15 percent drop in CRM adoption over the past year alone. Regarding sales content management software and CPQ, 54 percent of organizations that have implemented either solution have not seen a noticeable impact of sales performance.
Figure 11. Sales “masters” understand the potential of digital technologies and outperform other companies.
Blind trust that these types of technologies can solve sales problems has commanded investments that may have been more wisely directed elsewhere.
Today, sales leaders’ fascination with technology continues. What is changing, however, is the appreciation of the role that technology plays in sales transformation. The emergence of social, mobile and cloud solutions has made it clear that digital technologies and analytics are disruptors of the status quo and can be considered key elements of a differentiated sales strategy. Whereas yesterday’s IT solutions were intended to enable sales effectiveness, digital solutions are now poised to be catalysts and accelerators of business transformation.
Accenture’s 2014 B2B Customer Experience Survey revealed that sales “masters”—those companies that
consistently outperform their peers—are particularly keen on the digital potential (see Figure 11). But even poor sales performers have taken notice, with roughly two-thirds acknowledging the value of digital solutions. The use of mobile capabilities to improve sales productivity is particularly appealing. However, today’s mobile solutions, much like the technologies that preceded them, are not being used to their optimal advantage. For example, sales force usage of tablet devices increased by 400 percent in the last year. But these tablets are often used for simply viewing e-mails or updating calendars and are, therefore, not creating the desired outcomes or improving sales rep productivity. Similarly, only 30 percent of companies are using analytics. Of those, more than half are not leveraging their analytics to understand the needs of the customer, identify cross-sell opportunities or reduce customer churn.
29%
34%
Importance vs Performance by profileTechnology seen as “Game Changer” by profile
DIGITAL (web, social)88%
86%
84%
79%
68%
58%
83%
80%
67%
63%
82%
79%
68%
66%
MOBILE...will significantly improve engagement with customers, employees and partners.
...will provide significant sources of new revenue for our company.
91%
86%
CLOUD...will significantly improve collaboration with customers, employees and partners.
...will help to become more agile and flexible like never before.
90%
89%
Masters Strivers:Confident Seekers
Great Planners Execution Heroes
Trying hard/
Laggards
(Q24-28, top 2 scores) Importance of selected capabilities Performance of selected capabilities
Masters Strivers:Confident Seekers
Great Planners Execution Heros
Trying hard/
Laggards
50%34%
51%
47%
72%61%
74%66%
74%67%
89% 87%
87% 87%
89% 85%
...will significantly improve engagement with customers, employees and partners.
...will provide significant sources of new revenue for our company.
15Source: “B2B Customer Experience: Start Playing to Win and Stop Playing Not to Lose”, Accenture, 2014
Agile sellers use technology as a catalyst for business transformation, while using a strategy-led methodology for technology delivery.
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To make wiser technology investments, sales leaders need to first embrace digital technologies as more than enablers of traditional sales approaches. Technologies today no longer focus on automating sales processes; they can be used for a variety of purposes—from pushing intelligence to reps to delivering personalized sales coaching. Because of their broad applicability, digital, mobile, cloud and analytics solutions are key elements of agile selling, drivers of digital selling, and catalysts for digital relationships.
Secondly, sales executives need to realize that when they invest in IT, they are committing to a business transformation. This is made clear by new cloud-based solutions that promise to provide plug-and-play functionality and fast results. These outcomes are certainly possible—but only if companies have taken other steps to advance their transformation agenda.
Third, they need to invest in IT strategically. This means they should stay focused on tools that will deliver a distinctive and connected experience for sales reps to help meet the evolving expectations of the nonstop customer. While the fast pace of the digital revolution requires leaders to act quickly in selecting the tools that will enable their agile edge, they should be rigorous in selecting those technologies that best meet their needs. Implementing too many tools—which is tempting because tools can often be acquired without the involvement of the IT organization—can dilute performance and detract from sales productivity.
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10
Imperative #4: Apply science to help move the “frozen middle”
Our latest research confirms what many CSOs have long known: The talent situation in sales organizations is in a dismal state. The trouble spans the entire talent cycle—from the performance of sales teams to the lack of skills and analytical capabilities to issues related to training. Consider the areas of hiring, onboarding and retention. Nearly 60 percent of companies are planning to increase the size of their sales
forces. However, since it takes 80 percent of companies more than six months to complete the onboarding process, new hires will have minimal impact on 2014 revenues or sales quotas. Also, managers’ track records of hiring successful reps has grown much worse in the past year. So has the ability of companies to retain top talent (see Figure 12). Together, these factors contribute to a sales force turnover rate (voluntary
and involuntary) of 19 percent. Many companies think they can reverse these trends by providing additional training. With the poor quality of the training provided today—evident in multiple areas, including the declining impact of training on win rates, lead conversion, average deal size and forecast accuracy—they simply can’t.
Figure 12. Sales managers’ performance has worsened in two key areas:
Needs improvement
Consistently Hiring Reps Who Succeed
Meets expectations
Do not know
Exceeds expectations
0% 10% 20% 60%50%40%30%
2013 2014
34%44%
57%43%
6%8%
3%4%
Needs improvement
Retaining Top Talent
Meets expectations
Do not know
Exceeds expectations
0% 10% 20% 60%50%40%30%
2013 2014
18%29%
54%52%
27%17%
2%2%
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Source: 2014 CSO Insights Sales Performance Optimization Study
Enablement of sales talent
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What, then, can companies do to create and sustain a talent management capability that enables agile selling? For one thing, they can apply analytics. For example, companies can eschew across-the-board annual quota setting in favor of an analytics-based approach that accurately (and more realistically) aligns territories and quotas. Another example involves using analytics to gain insights that will improve outcomes across the sales talent lifecycle. This approach involves:
• Identifying the traits that distinguish high performing sales reps from those that may not be as likely to succeed
• Classifying the skills and behaviors that predict success in agile selling for each sales role
• Identifying the gaps between current and desired performance for each role by segment, geography, business unit, or variable of interest
• Accurately modeling success and prioritizing training, management and onboarding investments accordingly
• Developing insights into what each sales rep and manager needs for ongoing training, development and support
• Translating what makes high performers successful to the hiring process.
Moving the “frozen middle”
The “frozen middle” refers to the large number of sales reps and managers—typically 65 to 70 percent of the sales force—who consistently exhibit average performance. With insights into the capabilities and traits of high performers, companies can begin to create programs that effectively nudge average performers toward higher levels of performance. Even shifting their abilities just a few percentage points along the performance curve can yield significant benefits. For example, Accenture estimates that a $20 billion company with 1500 sales reps can generate an addition $420 million by shifting the “frozen middle’s” performance by just 2 percent. A 5 percent shift could feasibly translate into an additional $1 billion in revenue.
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Agile sellers apply science to help current sales reps deliver better performance, as well as to make better hiring decisions.
The insights gleaned from this scientific approach to talent would enable companies to not only improve the likelihood of hiring candidates who will succeed, but also develop training and development opportunities that encourage top sales representatives and managers to stay. Perhaps most importantly, an analytics-based profile of desired competencies, personality traits and behaviors will make it easier for companies to understand what it takes to move more sales reps out of the “frozen middle” and in the direction of high performance (see sidebar, “Moving the ‘frozen middle.’”)
Imperative #5: Build a front-office “engine” for agile selling
An agile selling organization is, by definition, highly dynamic. It rapidly responds to fluctuating market demands and engages with customers and teaming partners in real time and in differentiating ways. It is able to get the right opportunity to the right sellers (including indirect sales agents and online and offline retail outlets) at the right time. And it seeks out innovative relationships to deliver greater value, and is willing to embrace “coopetition” with rivals as part of a broader dynamic sales strategy.
The success of agile selling is based largely on two factors. The first is the use of analytics—not just to understand the characteristics, preferences and behaviors of its customers (and even its sales reps), but also to create a dynamic network of external and internal channels committed
to delivering consistently satisfying experiences, regardless of the mode of interaction. The second is the willingness to break down the barriers that traditionally separate organizations’ sales, marketing and service functions. Dynamic, customer-centric approaches to sales will not succeed among silos. What they need is an open, highly integrated, collaborative environment that enables all parties to work in concert to strengthen customer relationships and drive profitable growth. The importance of this is reflected in the fact that customers today are often more than 50 percent through the buying process when they meet sales representatives for the first time.
There is some evidence that agile selling via a more dynamic channel ecosystem is now on CSOs’ agenda. The Accenture 2014
B2B Customer Experience Survey found that 90 percent of sales “masters” view collaboration across internal functions, and with teaming partners, vendors and customers as important. In our most recent research, 85 percent of companies indicated that their sales and customer service functions are now working together, with 16 percent working in a combined organization. Also, 47 percent of companies indicated that sales and customer services have a joint responsibility for minimizing customer churn. These percentages may increase, since there is a growing appreciation that an integrated sales, service and marketing capability can provide a holistic—and ultimately more valuable—view of the customer. This is particularly apparent when it comes to capturing additional sales opportunities (see Figure 13).
Figure 13. Sales executives understand the value of integrating sales, marketing and service capabilities. They further recognize that such integration will help them in two key areas:
Needs improvement
Ability to Farm Additional Opportunities
Meets expectations
Do not know or n/a
Exceeds expectations
0% 10% 20% 60%50%40%30%
2013 2014
42%48% +6%
38%35%
16%15%
4%2%
Needs improvement
Ability to Penetrate Other Business Units
Meets expectations
Do not know or n/a
Exceeds expectations
0% 10% 20% 60% 70%50%40%30%
65%
27%
5%
2%
20
Source: 2014 CSO Insights Sales Performance Optimization Study
Digital selling
There are, however, other indications that a move toward dynamic channels and agile selling may be stalled (or even sliding backwards). For example, when asked about their most important initiatives to improve sales effectiveness in 2014, only 29 percent of sales executives indicated they were planning to align sales and marketing—a nearly 5 percent drop from the prior year. Also, 12 percent of leads come from the customer service area; however, only 15 percent of firms have a formal lead-generation process in place for service-generated leads. Twenty-one percent of leads come from marketing, but 63 percent of firms do not have a formal definition of qualified leads across the organization. This is perhaps one reason why the need to improve the quality and quantity of leads from marketing doubled from 2013 to 2014, from 36 percent to 64 percent.
All of these findings suggest that companies are in a quandary. They see the potential value of an integrated, agile selling capability, but lack the strategy and tools to accelerate the shift. To create a front-office engine that powers profitable growth, companies should do whatever they can to break down the decades-old barriers between sales, service and marketing. They should include sales operations in the mix, since they no longer enable sales but rather provide fuel to the front-office transformation.
For many companies, completely changing the sales operating model to bring a dynamic channel strategy to life is a daunting proposition. It is. But there are some guiding principles that can facilitate the change and create a common vision around agile selling. For example, initiatives aimed at driving an agile selling transformation should be assessed against
whether they help achieve one of five objectives: standardization, consistency, collaboration, ease-of-use or process adoption. If they don’t address these criteria, they should not be pursued. Once a course of action is determined, companies should drive the change in multiple ways, via:
Crush the silos: Cross-functional Communications. Inform and listen to marketing, service and sales reps and managers to build understanding and commitment. Be clear, responsive and engaging, and take advantage of social collaboration and networking tools.
Design for digital and analog interactions: Design roles and responsibilities to enhance the potential of new processes and tools. Focusing on roles within processes is a good place to start.
Connect and collaborate: Empower stakeholders and put them in control of the new way they work. Deliver insights and tools to connect them with the customer and each other, including indirect channel partners. Social collaboration forums and digital technologies can give them a voice.
Finally, companies should rethink their approach to leadership in a dynamic sales environment.
Agile selling success is measured by so much more than closing a deal. It is about seamlessly managing a complex ecosystem of dynamic channels, processes, digital technologies and customer insights. In the end, it’s all about the customer. Leading companies are able to orchestrate the many moving parts across digital and analog, dynamic channels. Winners deliver distinctive seller experiences to help drive profitable growth in the new playing field of nonstop customers.
Some of these agile sales executives will likely already occupy traditional sales roles. But others will emerge from roles and functions in areas not traditionally considered to be in the sales domain. In this hybrid leadership model, leaders may have distinct roles and levels of authority, but they must share a common vision for agile selling and a commitment to creating an ecosystem that delivers a superior customer experience as well as profit contribution for the seller. In short, the leadership team will need to be as dynamic as the channels, insights, technologies and sales processes they oversee.
Agile sellers use technology and analytics to get the right opportunity to the right sellers at the right time. They rebuild the front office to truly collaborate around a customer-centric approach.
Agile selling facilitates creating an ecosystem that delivers a superior customer experience as well as profit contribution for the seller.
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Conclusion
Amid the myriad challenges associated with achieving growth and profitability, traditional approaches to sales are simply no longer adequate. In many cases, they actually present a formidable barrier for companies looking to embrace the responsive, dynamic and agile selling paradigm that customers now expect and demand.
What’s needed is an entirely new approach to sales—an approach that optimizes sales spending at every turn, satisfies the expectations of the nonstop customer, uses technical advances to accelerate change, and crushes the silo mentality that slows down sales. Achieving such a transformation can be a complex undertaking. High performers take a holistic but iterative approach, delivering value quickly and capturing substantial long-term benefits in sales performance, customer engagement and profitability.
Contact usTo learn more about how Accenture is helping companies become agile sellers, visit accenture.com/customer or contact one of the authors:
Jason Angelos Managing director—Accenture Strategy, Sales Transformation global lead [email protected]
Yusuf Tayob Managing director—Communications Media & High Tech, Management Consulting North America lead [email protected]
Bryan Berumen Managing director—Communications Media & High Tech, Sales Transformation [email protected]
Join the conversation; Follow us on Twitter:
@E2ECustExp
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References1. CSO Insights. 2013 Sales Compensation and Performance Management Benchmark study.
2. Ibid.
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About Accenture Accenture is a global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company, with more than 293,000 people serving clients in more than 120 countries. Combining unparalleled experience, comprehensive capabilities across all industries and business functions, and extensive research on the world’s most successful companies, Accenture collaborates with clients to help them become high-performance businesses and governments. The company generated net revenues of US$28.6 billion for the fiscal year ended Aug. 31, 2013. Its home page is www.accenture.com.
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