The following statistics might shock you …

Companies with a formal sales process generate more revenue!

Such a simple and obvious statement.  In fact, companies with a defined and formal sales process enjoy 18% more revenue than companies that don’t (Harvard Business Review).

So, how come the majority of companies fail to have a formal sales process, let alone an optimised sales process?

A key area to optimise is how you close the sale.  Best in class sales companies close around 30% of qualified leads, while the average is generally held to be 20% … yet a staggering 48% of all sales calls end without an attempt to close the sale at all (Spotio).

How can this be?

Well, one of the reasons is obvious … sales people are often fearful of heading into the price discussion.  One particular set of data suggests that three areas of greatest challenge for sales people are competing against low-cost providers (31%), creating competitive differentiation (26%) and adding value to the sales conversation (22%).   Interestingly, creating trust was down at 14%.

The closing challenge is not one of trust and relationship – it is a challenge of ROI positioning!  Sales people find it difficult to step into the commercial dialogue.