CRM Buyer
Developing a Smarter Sales Organization
by Andrew Boyd
Andrew Boyd, SVP for the Aberdeen Group, writes about the multiple challenges facing sales management amidst a hostile selling environment. Says Boyd, "Deals stuck in the pipeline, frequently missed sales "commits," sales people not hitting quota, and high sales employee turnover are just a few of the issues that the beleaguered sales managers must tackle day in and day out."
Aberdeen research studies indicate that companies with best-in-class sales performance invest in improving sales knowledge of products and customers, as well as in deploying formal well documented sales processes.
Progressive organizations have or are planning to deploy sales compensation management systems as a key enabler of sales effectiveness. According to Boyd, "forward-looking organizations have or are already planning investments in sales incentive and compensation management systems (74 percent)."
The author concludes by urging readers to follow the example set by best-in-class companies and discontinue the use of spreadsheets and shadow accounting, integrate sales processes into the back office and invest in formal methodologies.
