What sets high-performing sales organizations apart from their lower-performing counterparts? To answer that question, Steve Martin, author and professor at the University of Southern California’s Marshall School of Business, conducted a survey of sales professionals.
The results reveal “that the best sales teams regularly set more aggressive goals, employ more structured sales processes and share more optimistic opinions about their team members and sales organizations.”
Regarding structured sales process specifically, Martin came to these conclusions:
- High-performing sales organizations were almost twice as likely as underperforming organizations to describe their sales processes as “closely monitored” or “strictly enforced or automated”.
- High-performing sales organizations ranked “disciplined sales process and systems usage” as the second most important factor separating great from good sales organizations. They were also more likely to closely monitor lead follow-up than lower-performing organizations.
Leslie Ye at HubSpot observes that “it gets even more interesting when survey participants ranked the most important factors that separate good from great sales organizations.”
Here are the top two components, according to each respondent cohort:
- Underperforming organizations: “team morale and collaboration” and “talent of salespeople”
- Average performers: “lead generation” and “quality of sales leadership”
- High-performing organizations: “lead generation and pipeline activity” and “disciplined sales process and systems usage
Martin concludes that “High-performing sales teams think in terms of strategic sales process management, while underperforming sales teams are more focused on personal sales prowess.”