What do 41 Sales VP’s have to say – quite a lot. We interviewed top sales leaders from 19 industries to learn more about their most pressing priorities and biggest challenges. Read on to learn what we discovered.
1. Alarming Gap in Large Deal Proficiency.
Sales leaders rated the majority, or 46%, of their sales managers as experts in large deal competency, while they rated the majority, or 53%, of their sellers as merely proficient. (Two levels down the scale!) The ramifications of this skill gap are substantial. Essentially, sales leaders can be the single point of failure if large deal development depends on their skills and expertise.
2. You Think you’ve got Problems.
Sales leaders face two times more challenges than priorities. We uncovered 51 unique challenges versus 24 distinct priorities. As a result, the sales leadership team is consistently bogged down with issues leaving precious little time for their biggest priorities such as achieving the revenue goal, recruiting and motivating their people and developing their sellers.
3. Sales Leaders – Top Priorities…
- Revenue
- Recruiting and Motivating Sales Team
- Seller Development
- Seller Productivity
- Employee Satisfaction
- Infrastructure to Scale
- Pipeline Growth
- Maximize Top Accounts
- Market Share
- Celebration of Successes
4. Sales Leaders – Top Challenges…
- Goal Achievement
- Retaining Top Talent
- Sales Culture
- Sales Rep Skills
- Internal Friction
- Reputation of Sales
- Marketing Integration
- Team Engagement/Accountability
- Focused Sellers to Increase Win Rates/Seller Productivity
- Proven Methodology/Repeatable Model
5. Playbooks – not just for Sales Reps.
97% of sales leaders believe that having a sales leader playbook would be extremely valuable and positively impact the success of their leadership teams. However, only 14% of the respondents had a formal sales leader playbook. (as compared with the majority who expect their sellers to follow a sales playbook)
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Comments (1)
Hey Lisa
Great stuff here. No surprise that they are bogged down with things that make them out of touch with growing revenue. I wonder why with all the training sold on account strategy there are so many reps who still don’t get it? Bad training or bad implementation?
Hope you are well,
John