Be specific!
When you hear: "Our turnover has grown by double digits over the past year", you imagine something between 11% and 15%. But it could be 28% or 54%. We tend to be precise when we want to communicate something out of the ordinary and vague for the rest. This is probably...
My reptilian brain. And yours.
Part of the literature dedicated to sales techniques is aimed at promoting a presentation of the product or service offer geared towards the customer and his or her needs. We have learned to create pitches based on the value provided rather than on the supplier's...
The importance of setting up a Win/Loss Analysis
According to a study by the Aberdeen Group, companies that conduct win-lose analytics have higher customer retention, opportunity conversion and annual revenue growth rates than those that do not. However, less than 20% of companies conduct win-loss analysis of their...
The clarity of the offer
For the past few months, Salesmetry has been conducting weekly interviews with executives of B2B companies. The conversation focuses on the changes recently implemented to improve the performance of sales teams in a new context, or those that should be implemented....
Sales Methodology and Sales Process
In the interviews that Salesmetry now conducts on a daily basis, many companies testify to their need for CRM but at the same time do not always have a sales method or a clear description of their sales cycle in place. This is the first thing to do. According...
A little bit of history
There are dozens of sales methods. As I was about to give a few keys to choose the one that best suits a given activity, I wondered where they came from, how they had evolved. Here is what I found: In the 1920s, a number of sales methods were based on phrenology: the...
The time of the sales representatives is not the time of the buyers.
Sales reps have the power to help buyers achieve their goals, and buyers need the advice of sales reps throughout the buying process. A buyer doesn't sit at his desk one day and spontaneously realise that his business needs a solution that is immediately available....
The function of Customer Success is one that benefits everyone
The difference between Customer Support and Customer Success is crucial. Customer Support aims to help a company that has acquired a production tool, software or service to overcome operating or usage problems. It is reactive and measurable (number of cases, average...
Price’s Law: competence is linear, incompetence is exponential.
Price's statistical law states that 50% of any given result is generated by the square root of the number of those who contribute to it. There are many examples of this universal law. Five composers generate 50% of classical music sales and only a small part of...
The right order of things
Studies by Forrester Research and CMO Council show that 57% of the purchasing process is carried out by researching available resources online, even before talking to suppliers. These same buyers consider that 89% of the first interactions they may have with vendors...
Change can now be measured
The evolution of relations between buyers and sellers towards more digital interactions is here to stay. And the statistics prove it. A recent study by McKinsey on the modus operandi of decision-makers, whatever the industry, shows a significant change in behaviour:...
The distancing of the sales teams
Whether the reason is a new containment or the transition to a new standard, working at a distance takes sales people away from their customers but also from their own teams. The geographical spread of the sales force in the broadest sense does not offer a very...
It is time to train your sales force
Sales people don't have good press. As a reminder, the Uptoo study: 2/3 of managers are dissatisfied with their sales force. According to them, two out of three salespeople are not at the required level with regard to the fundamentals of the profession: prospecting,...
Things are changing
The success of B2B sales in today's environment depends on understanding the nature of change in the buyer. Communicating more is essential, but understanding in depth the implications of the crisis for each client is just as essential, at the very least. Knowing the...
We never knew who took the decision
Losing a new business that seemed to have been taken for granted is always a source of enormous frustration and demotivation for an organisation. However, the main reason is often the same: not being able to identify all the people involved in the decision-making...
The cost of instability
The instability of sales teams represents a significant cost for companies. The replacement cost of a sales representative is between 1.5 and 3 times his/her annual salary and can be broken down as follows: The cost of hiring, The cost of onbaording and training, The...
Don’t build change on sand
Recent studies conducted by McKinsey and the Harvard Business Review on the evolution of B2B sales in this pandemic phase highlight the emergence of 3 trends: While companies are generally reducing their own investments, many are maintaining or even increasing them,...
Evaluate your customers regularly!
One of the paradoxes in most BtoB companies is the short time spent studying what is the main source of their wealth: the activity and performance of their customers. How has the customer performed in relation to the market and its competitors? What are its forecasts...
Working on forecasts has become sales exec’s #1 activity during the COVID period !
Business forecasting is becoming more and more important for companies. Underestimation can lead to penalizing cuts in staff, a reduction or even a halt in investments, etc... Overestimation can lead to results plunging into the red very quickly. As a result, sales...
Forecast meeting is becoming a daily activity
The current exponential growth in the number of forecast meetings is triggered by 2 main objectives: - being able to project revenues as accurately as possible by constantly revalidating the status of the sales opportunities, - identifying changes that may have...
It is time to share your growth objectives with your key customers
The pre-coronavirus period, which seems far away already, has seen an acceleration of mergers and acquisitions. Acquirers' communications mainly mention synergies, purchasing gains, optimisation of cash flow and creation of value for shareholders. It is surprising to...
Why CRMs have it wrong when it comes to forecasting
In the context of selling complex solutions to complex organizations, most CRM systems are not able to successfully determine forecasts and offer an objective assessment of the pipeline. Provided they can adapt to the sales practice of each industry (selling banking...
Key things to keep in mind when implementing a CRM
"Why CRM projects fail and how to make them more successful", by Scott Edinger for HBR is spot on:(https://lnkd.in/eJFBwCY) Before you embark into a CRM project, you must define what are the 3 top objectives and what are the associated priorities You need to ask...
Win Rate, Close Rate, the number is yours
When the Close Rate is too low, there are a fair amount of reasons that are likely to be variations of the following 4 possibilities: There may not be a Target Addressable Market which would allow the effort to be directed There is no strict definition of what is a...
Close rate or win rate, what is the difference?
The Sales Management Association shared the results of a 2018 research. Over several LinkedIn posts so that each idea sinks in, we will have a look at 6 statistics that hopefully show what good looks like: #4: No number here to share but a focus on the ones you should...
Why onboarding should be improved
The Sales Management Association shared the results of a 2018 research. Over several LinkedIn posts so that each idea sinks in, we will have a look at 6 statistics that hopefully show what good looks like: #3: Employee retention can improve by 82% when onboarding is...
Training and its measurable impact on sales effectiveness
The Sales Management Association shared the results of a 2018 research. Over several LinkedIn posts so that each idea sinks in, we will have a look at 6 statistics that hopefully show what good looks like: #2 : 68% of companies that invested in sales learning and...
If you cannot track your activity, you cannot track your success
The Sales Management Association shared the results of a 2018 research. Over several LinkedIn posts so that each idea sinks in, we will have a look at 6 statistics that hopefully show what good looks like: #1 : Firms that have still not implemented any sales...
Value Does Not Come From Having A CRM
64% of companies using a CRM rate the technology as “impactful” or “very impactful” to their ability to produce great results and grow their businesses. (Source: LinkedIn). Funny enough, only 26% say that the adoption, within their company, has been a success (Source:...