The survey was completed by more than 300 global respondents with an emphasis on small and medium-sized organizations defined by annual revenue of less than $50 million.

The results were quite optimistic given that the global economy was quite uncertain at the time. The results are interesting and intended to be a snapshot of sales conditions at the time.

A few key insights of the research show that:

• 55% of respondents report their sales team at 50% of quote or above– up from 48% when SRC asked this question in 2019.
• 63% of respondents believe they have the right people in the right roles. That results was significantly more (23 point) than when SRC asked in 2019.
• 2023 results were almost 10% higher than 2019 for the question how effective was the training a sales manager received before taking on the role.
• About a third or respondents said the ongoing training a manager gets is LESS THAN effective.
• A similar response (about a third) for those who say their managers are less than effective at coaching.
• About 36% responded their sales and marketing teams were less than effective in working together to drive business.

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The 2022 Sales Performance Scorecard provides data and insights to guide you to begin to determine how you sell will need to improve and how to best utilize limited available resources to drive sales success tomorrow.

Sponsored by Sandler and Conducted by Sales Mastery, LLC.

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Close alignment between sales and marketing is potentially the greatest opportunity for improving business performance today. Yet at most organizations, sales and marketing are still working in separate silos, and are often working at cross purposes. Only 10% of organizations surveyed reported satisfactory alignment and optimally effective communication between these two teams.

The Benefit of Alignment

When sales and marketing teams fully embrace a partnership to find, nurture, and develop marketing leads, this research demonstrates a greater likelihood for overall success. It is clear that both teams need to frequently communicate and optimize their efforts. Both need to agree on common definitions of the process and revisit them as needed for ongoing modifications.

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Buyer’s Process and ways to Adapt the Changes

This survey provides a view into the changes in the buyer’s journey and process as well as insights into the best way vendor’s can adapt their strategies and techniques to best match the process. The survey covers:

• Exploration and Awareness
• Interest and Considerations
• Vendor Selection Survey

Takeaway

More than anything, today’s buyers want to be understood and not sold to: They need to feel respected, and trust that the vendor is continually working to earn the right to their business.

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Critical Element for Sales Leaders #1: Start Off on the Right Foot

Our findings showed that overachieving sales professionals were 1.5x more likely than underachieving sales professionals to have a manager skilled in sales training. Sales leaders who are able to create a positive experience for a newly hired salesperson displayed strengths in three specific activities: recruiting team members, onboarding new members of the sales team, and coaching their sales team one-on-one. Developing these skills in sales management is effective in creating a sales team that feels motivated to generate a higher income.

Critical Element for Sales Leaders #2: Create a Formal Sales Process

Data from our survey reinforces the need for successful sales teams to have and follow a clear sales process. Higher-performing sales teams were 1.4x more likely to have a formal sales process that utilized performance metrics. These teams were also 2.8x more likely than the lower performing sales teams to consistently follow that sales process.

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Avoiding Poor Customer Service: How to save a sales relationship?

Our research suggests that it is far simpler to turn an existing customer into a repeat customer. The probability of converting a new lead is only 5-20% at best, while creating a repeat customer has a 60-70% likelihood of occurring. This survey highlights how the behaviors behind strengthening a sales relationship will help you to create a business that is sustained by client growth. Avoid the chance of your customers changing suppliers because they no longer feel valued by your organization.

Creating Efficient Account Management: Where to invest time and money?

Although most companies traditionally spend more money on new client acquisition, client retention often costs up to fifteen times less than finding, qualifying, and selling to a new client. Setting the stage for open communication and strategic interaction can positively affect your major accounts for years to come. Learn where to set objectives to ensur

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Evaluate Your Lead Generation Strategy

Our data results helped us uncover three strategic topics to consider when evaluating different lead generation initiatives:

1. Effectiveness – which lead generation activities produced the most quality leads?
2. Cost – what were the tangible costs for each lead generation initiative?
3. Time – how much time did it take to create and follow up on each initiative?

Utilizing Referrals to Create New Clients

Our survey highlights what the most successful sales leaders have known all along: referrals are one of the most effective tools for lead generation.

When it comes to investing where exactly to create these referrals, our survey also uncovered that the most successful platforms for hunting for new clients are:

• LinkedIn
• Event Participation (Networking Events)
• Digital Marketing Campaigns

Developing a consistent prospecting routine can help you find the types of clients you want to attract. This report will help you determine the best lead generation methods for your business by defining your strategy and creating more relevant opportunities.

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Proactive Methods of Client Success

Our data shows that companies who create proactive methods of retaining clients have the ability to gain a deeper understanding of both the buyer’s long-term goals and the overall business climate.

This perspective has assisted us in creating five key principles for our research into the client experience:

1. The Client Journey
2. Identifying “Critical Moments”
3. Benchmarking for Client Satisfaction
4. Engaging the Team
5. Sustaining Symbiotic Value

Building Mutual Profitability   

The data we collected shows that top-performing organizations know how to strike a balance between achieving immediate results and fully developing their client relationships. They understand the value behind a positive client experience. This mutual effort offers the chance to:

• Increase spend and loyalty while reducing cost.
• Promote your company through positive word-of-mouth.
• Differentiate you from your competition.
• Justify premium prices for your products and services.

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Embracing the Virtual Selling Environment

The pandemic accelerated the use of digital strategy to increase sales opportunities. Our research found that 68.2% of survey participants reported an investment in new sales technology to better assist sellers. An almost equivalent amount said that this technology, when used efficiently, led their team to be more productive. However, the data collected also shows that this was not the case for teams who did not feel comfortable using this newly invested technology.

Big or Small, Change Affects Us All

However, it was also quite clear that management strategy was dependent on the size of the respondent’s organization.

To understand the differences better, organizations were broken into four sizes based on the annual revenue reported by the survey participants. This included those with an annual revenue of:

• Less than 1 million dollars.
• Between 1 and 10 million dollars.
• Between 10 and 500 million dollars.
• Greater than 500 million dollars.

Despite working remotely, leaders in organizations must continue to ensure that their team is fully capable of working at their top capacity and that their skills can offer continued success.

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