This document discusses improving sales productivity. It finds that most sales organizations are not as productive as they could be, with mediocre performers spending too much time on non-selling activities. High performers spend more time actively selling and problem-solving. The document emphasizes that customers compare price versus perceived value, not just price alone. It concludes that fundamentally improving the front-end sales experience is valued most by customers and there is significant scope to boost sales productivity.

1. Food-for-thought.
For SBS Partners. 19.5.15.
‘Price, value and sales productivity.’

2. Food for thought
The brain = 2% of bodyweight
But…. uses 20-30% of calories….

3. OUR DNA
Creating a world where EVERY
business can enjoy long term,
sustainable success

4. OUR SERVICES

5. Steve J intro
ABP Partner in the sales discipline
Front line and leadership positions in 5 different markets
20+ years senior management advisor managing sales and
improving sales performance.
• N.E.D. & interim management
• Consultant with global leader in sales training (selling &
delivering)
• Co-founder 1992 prominent b2b sector sales improvement
consultancy (www.quantum-sales.com)
“Help clients make sense of sales.”
• Fierce competition
• Professional procurement teams
• Downward pressure on margins

6. LAST
YEAR’S
RESULT
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QUANTITY
QUALITY
DIRECTION
PAST
FUTURE
PRESENT
PERSONAL
SALES
PLAN
RESULT
ACTIVITY
COMPETENCE
£
- - - - - - - - -
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The route to success.
Activity

7. Price pressure.
How much of an issue for you…?

8. Changing background picture…
• 1991: 32mb storage cost = $1.44m
• Mob phone subscriptions 6bn ww. UK 83m
• 73% of UK population access internet daily
• Feb ‘10 all web traffic via mob <10%
• Jan ’14 all web traffic via mob 52%
• Aug ‘14 all web traffic via mob 68%
• 4G subscriptions Q1 2013 = 318,000
• 4G subscriptions Q1 2014 = over 6m
• 4G coverage 2013 = too low to measure
• 4G coverage June 2014 = 73%
• Alibaba already bigger than Amazon & ebay combined
90% of world’s data has been generated in the last 2 years
-- Source: The Economist 2012

9. Changing picture from a sales perspective…
UK sales population excluding retail & cust services = 3m
• 40% of FTSE salespeople will fail (1.2m)
• ‘No decision’ stats at a record high (52%)
• Source -- Forrester Research 2015
• c60% of decision to purchase made before supplier
engagement
• Source – CEB research 2011

10. At the heart of the challenge....
Top line: lack of sales capability, not trading conditions, is the
biggest challenge:
– Sales = most important part of the work: 61%
– Sales org’n no better than competition: 50%
– Sales organisation worse than competition: 20%
-- Accenture senior executives survey 2004

11. Conclusion…..?
MASSIVE scope for improvement in productivity……

12. More from a sales perspective….
% contribution to customer loyalty
Co. & brand impact; value/price ratio; product serv delivery:
47%
The sales experience:
(“How you sell, rather than what you sell…”)
53%
Source. CEB. ‘The Challenger Sale’. 2011

13. Key characteristics
• Offers unique and valuable market perspectives
• Helps navigate alternatives
• Provides on-going advice and consultation
• Helps avoid potential land mines
• Educates on new issues and outcomes
“Stop wasting my time. Challenge me. Teach me
something new…”

14. Characteristics of mediocre b2b sales organisations
• Disconnect between sales and marketing
• ‘Management by results’
– Standards of performance rather than sales activity plans
• Management spends too much time behind a desk
• Too reliant on sales incentives
• ‘Hire the suit’ recruitment approach
• Typically sell ‘components’ -- not real benefits
• Default to commodity approach too easily
• Salespeople sell to narrow DMP (comfort zone)
– Often lack credibility at senior business management level
• Salespeople too easily diverted from selling
– “I’m your one point of contact”
• Not enough owned by sales per se
– Too easy to implicate others (e.g. “I’m not getting the leads.”)

15. Sales productivity study
Source: Proudfoot 2005.
Productivity factors Poor s’people Successful s’people
Active selling 10% 35%
Prospecting 10% 25%
Problem-solving 14% 15%
Downtime 17% 10%
Travel time 18% 10%
Administration 31% 5%

16. Sony Ericsson research 2007
Transactional selling environment
– Core performer effectiveness index of 100
– High performer index of 159
Solution selling environment
– Core performer effectiveness index of 100
– High performer index of 289
“3-5 hours p.m. of the right kind of sales
management coaching produces an average 17%
improvement in productivity”

17. If we can’t shift them they will fall further behind…!!

18. Well managed...?
Adequate coaching from sales mgr in ave week: 22%
Sales mgr spends less than 10% of time coaching: 52%
Sales mgr spends no time coaching: 33%
-- Sales best practices study 2009 (3500 s’people)

19. A short exercise

20. Price and mind-set.
• If you think you are too expensive, you
probably will be…
• Believe in your own pricing, not the
propaganda
• Value is ALL about perception
• People don’t “buy on price” – they make a
price-versus-value comparison

21. Selling business value. What’s at the heart of it…

22. Sales
propositions
Needs
(Logic)
Wants
(Emotion)
£, Time, Resource,
Spec, Refs
Politics
Kudos
Ego
Pride
Prestige
Personal chemistry
N.I.H
Security / insecurity
Pioneer / hero

23. • 28 major names
• Account manager - “we lost it on price”
• Senior level interview showed weak or non-
existent business relationship in EVERY case (i.e.
categorically NOT ‘price’)
• Top of list re. lost / didn’t win……
• “They didn’t understand our business…”
Lost Client Survey

24. “You’re too expensive….”
1. Listen carefully
2. With whom or what are you being
compared?
3. What’s the difference?
4. Emphasise your added value.

25. The 3 most common mistakes people make when
selling.....
• They pitch too early.
• They make too many assumptions
– Instead of asking questions and listening carefully to the
answers
• They don’t quantify enough

26. Summary
• A clear need to improve sales productivity
• Good news is …There is loads of scope to do it
• The most productive are good at selling business value
• They understand that value is all about perception
• They know that a core part of their job is selling the value
• They get the fact that people don’t ‘buy on price’ – rather they make
a price-versus-value comparison
• They identify where their value is most likely to count and
they can find and quantify needs and wants for it
• Fundamental: what happens at the front end is the part of
the proposition most valued by the customer.

27. ‘The reasonable man adapts himself to the
world. The unreasonable man insists on
adapting the world to himself. Therefore all
progress depends on the unreasonable man.’
-- George Bernard Shaw
steve.jessop@advantagebusinessltd.com
07973 909648

28. Food-for-thought.
For SBS Partners. 19.5.15.
‘Price, value and sales productivity.’

29. The sales population re-visited