{"id":7909,"date":"2012-07-24T14:14:15","date_gmt":"2012-07-24T14:14:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.matthew-j-smith.com\/?p=7909"},"modified":"2014-10-06T01:22:53","modified_gmt":"2014-10-06T01:22:53","slug":"the-first-thing-to-fix-for-ceos-unhappy-with-sales-results","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.matthew-j-smith.com\/?p=7909","title":{"rendered":"The First Thing to Fix for CEOs Unhappy With Sales Results"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In 2011 <strong>Forrester<\/strong> CEO George Colony wrote a blog post titled, <a title=\"Forrester Blog\" href=\"http:\/\/blogs.forrester.com\/george_colony\/11-03-01-ceos_want_better_sales_forces\" target=\"_blank\">CEOs Want Better Sales Forces<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0 He said the chief executives he talked to gave their sales teams a \u2018<strong>C-\u2019,<\/strong> citing the following reasons for their low grade.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Four Problems CEOs Have With Their Sales Teams<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>1) \u201cSpeed.\u201d The sales force is always 12 to 18 months behind strategy.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>2) \u201cCalling too low.\u201d Sales reps aren\u2019t getting to power.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>3) \u201cThe sales force can\u2019t tell the story.\u201d The focus is on price and not on the full value and quality of products.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>4) \u201cWe have the wrong people.\u201d Not smart enough, not tuned in to the market.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>At <a href=\"http:\/\/3forward.com\/\">3FORWARD<\/a> we also talk to a lot of CEOs about sales and hear similar complaints from many of them.\u00a0 So what should <em>they<\/em> do about it?\u00a0\u00a0 Colony\u2019s post outlines the steps company leaders told him they were planning to take, <em>including in some cases \u201ccompletely overhauling\u201d their sales forces.\u00a0\u00a0 <\/em>Maybe a complete sales transformation makes sense in some situations, but we generally recommend a more controlled redesign.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Three Reasons CEOs Need to Improve Lead Generation First<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Where to start when sales results aren\u2019t making the grade? \u00a0We often suggest optimizing lead generation as the first step in a B2B sales transformation project. \u00a0Here\u2019s why.<\/p>\n<p><strong>1. Fixing Lead Generation Grows the Sales Pipeline<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>When CEOs complain about sales results they are really expressing frustration with revenue growth.\u00a0 Expanding the sales pipeline with more qualified opportunities will increase the number of wins (assuming offerings and pricing are competitive).<\/p>\n<p><strong>2.\u00a0 Effective Lead Generation Aligns Sales with Today\u2019s Buying Process<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Buyers no longer need (or want) sales to inform, educate or persuade them.\u00a0 Getting serious about your lead generation model will steer you towards B2B best-practices such as content marketing, lead nurturing and scoring, and marketing automation.<\/p>\n<p><strong>3. Formalizing Lead Gen Process Increases Win Rates and Deal Sizes<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Study after study demonstrates that establishing a formal, dynamic sales process for B2B sales teams\u00a0<em>increases both win rates and deal size<\/em>.\u00a0 Defining sales process also forces sales and marketing alignment on the <em>\u2018top of the funnel\u2019<\/em> lead generation \u2013 yet another a proven best-practice.<\/p>\n<p>If you\u2019re a CEO who is highly displeased with sales results, keep in mind that there is only so much \u2018change\u2019 most companies can handle at one time.\u00a0\u00a0 Starting your sales transformation process with lead generation will pay dividends regardless of other changes that must be made downstream.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In 2011 Forrester CEO George Colony wrote a blog post titled, CEOs Want Better Sales Forces.\u00a0\u00a0 He said the chief [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.matthew-j-smith.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7909"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.matthew-j-smith.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.matthew-j-smith.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.matthew-j-smith.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.matthew-j-smith.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7909"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.matthew-j-smith.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7909\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8163,"href":"https:\/\/www.matthew-j-smith.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7909\/revisions\/8163"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.matthew-j-smith.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7909"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.matthew-j-smith.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7909"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.matthew-j-smith.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7909"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}