The way firms sell to other firms is changing. Sales leaders will see the disengagement of their people soar unless they change too
Although business confidence may still be bouyant, an unsettled global economy (a growing US, a shaky Asia, and a moribund eurozone), and changes in the way customers make purchase decisions, does not make it easy for sales teams at the moment.
Whether in B2C or B2B sales, buyers are far better informed than they used to be, so often already have a good idea of what they want by the time they engage a particular supplier.
As covered elsewhere in these pages, the problem is especially acute in B2B sales, where research shows that not only are clients often 57% of the way through the purchasing process before they contact suppliers, but the sales cycle and the skills required to sell successfully have also become much more complex.
Sales teams are disengaged…
All of this means that sales people, who must get on phones or planes everyday to drum up business, are not happy. The skills they’ve been given and the processes they must follow are not set up for this new selling environment.
Sales teams lag behind most other corporate functions in terms of the discretionary effort (defined as an employee’s willingness to go “above and beyond” what they are asked to do, such as helping others with heavy workloads, volunteering for additional duties, and looking for ways to perform the job more effectively) and intent to stay with the organization (see chart 1).
Chart 1: Percentage of employees with high discretionary effort and high intent to stay by function (Source: CEB, Global Labor Market Survey, 2013)
This data is important because highly engaged employees perform up to 20 percentile points better than their less engaged counterparts. Senior sales managers and the HR teams that support them can use employee engagement as a strong predictor of sales performance.
the cost of recruiting as a result of new-hire turnover is more than $1.5 million per 1,000 hires.
…and this brings in less money
The problem for sales managers is that they can’t banish this disengagement with better incentive campaigns or (even) larger incentives. The route to a successful sale has changed, and if they keep trying to make their people work harder with the current system, disengagement will remain.
And this disengagement is damaging. CEB data show that the average 9% drop in discretionary effort that disengagement brings will result in a 3% drop in sales productivity. On top of that, the increasing employee turnover that comes hand-in-hand with disengagement can add to the bottom line at the same time as lower productivity harms the top line. The same data show the cost of recruiting as a result of new-hire turnover is more than $1.5 million per 1,000 hires.
4 steps for the sales team
Those in charge of sales employees and their performance – be they heads of sales or their supporting HR teams – must change their go-to-market sales model, if they haven’t already. Once they understand how they will sell differently, they must then work out what skills their sales people need, and what processes will best support them. Once leaders understand this, it becomes much easier to give their teams tasks relevant to the selling environment and to set them attainable goals that will also bring in revenue.
Once people start selling in the right way – and hitting their targets – engagement will rise. For example, SHL Talent Measurement data show that when a sales manager ensures a good alignment between a sales person’s skills and the job they are asked to do, they are 60% more likely to be highly effective in their job, and 107% more likely to convert a sales call.
In particular, sales managers and their HR teams should do four things:
Revisit the sales model: Instead of exhorting teams to work ever harder on techniques that have worked in the past, re-evaluate your go-to-market model and make sure the right people are working on the most relevant opportunities.
Understand sales success: Instead of assuming you understand what behaviors are most likely to result in sales success, use an objective sales competency model to predict sales performance.
Motivate and engage staff properly: Instead of relying on manager intuition or simple financial incentives to motivate sales people, use employee surveys to discover what motivates individuals.
Benchmark performance: Instead of assuming you know what will work, and how good your people are, use objective benchmarking data to understand your best talent, and whether it’s likely to leave.
This article originally appeared on the CEB Blog for Sales & Service.
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