Kudos to the Sales Team

Want to win more business?

Then keep your sales force. And keep them spending more time with your highest potential customers and less time on paperwork and internal reports.

According to a study by sales effectiveness consultants Watson Wyatt, called Driving Profitable Sales Growth, salespeople at top performing companies spend 40% more time each year with their best potential customers (defined as qualified leads and known prospects) than do the sales staff at low performing companies.

Top performing companies were identified in this study as those that had outperformed their industry peers over the previous two years.

Salespeople at top performing firms also spent 264 more hours per year on prospecting, presenting and closing and nearly 25% less time on administrative tasks.

In another study, from HR Chally Group, sales professionals were viewed by B2B customers as “the most important factor in their buying decisions, even more so than the price, quality and availability of the product or service.”

These surveys reinforce that sales teams should be out meeting with clients and prospects, spending more time understanding client needs, wants, desires, likes and dislikes and less time back in the office working on paperwork and sitting in meetings.

Angry Customers

Customer rage is on the increase and, according to an article in The Age here in Melbourne, a team of Sydney academics is now studying the problem.

$100 Billion in online shopping

Online retail shopping surpassed the $100 billion mark in the USA for 2006, according to comScore Networks, a digital research firm. It is the first time this milestone, which does not include online travel expenditures, has been exceed in a calendar year.

Interestingly, consumers spent $24.6 billion online between November 1^st and the end of the year, according for almost one-fourth of total online shopping during these two months.

According to comScore Networks, online retail spending now accounts for 7 percent of all U.S. retail spending, excluding food, autos and gas.

As retailers get smarter about the online environment, including allowing online purchases that can be picked up and/or returned at a physical store, there seems to be little chance that online shopping will not continue to grow unabated.