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.