Is adequate good enough to survive in this recessionary world?
One should question whether adequate is ever good enough.
The American Bankruptcy Institute reported 560 commercial Chapter 11 filings in April, a 26% increase from last year. World renowned companies, JC Penny, Neiman Marcus and Debenhams have filed for bankruptcy. Virgin Australia’s second-biggest airline announced on April 21 that it is undergoing third party-led restructuring that could potentially lead to a sale. The list is growing daily.
For this reason, CEOs and CROs are adjusting their ‘go-to-market’ models with ever increasing focus on the most critical revenue levers not only to grow, but to survive.
Some examples of focus levers that make up a peak performing sales organisation are:
aligning sales strategy to strategic initiatives,
reinventing the segmentation and sales coverage model,
increasing customer activity and planning,
applying rewards and incentives that drive the right behaviour,
stronger sales management and coaching,
increasing understanding of how customers succeed.
In fact, there are 20 sales effectiveness base levers to consider.
In the work done to date, the key questions organisations ask are:
What are the 20?
Do you need to focus on all?
Which ones need remediation?
What priority needs to be applied?
The Sales Effectiveness Diagnostic both addresses these and generates the blueprint for a sale effectiveness improvement plan.
Consider the heatmap from a company’s Sales Effectiveness Diagnostic Report (shown above) 18 out of 20 components are deemed as adequate yet have high impact on the business. One could question whether adequate is ever good enough.
Cutting costs is natural in a revenue growth constrained economy. Arguably, clear insights regarding how the sales function compares to peak performing sales organisations, enables precision in decisions regarding investment or pruning.
The clarity and direction in determining an effective change initiative to drive peak performing sales, is achievable through completion of a comprehensive Sales Effectiveness Diagnostic. Adequate is reduced to mediocrity, especially when this tool provides a clear road map to enable peak performance.