B2B Sales Coaching – The Dire & Immediate Need

In B2B sales coaching, I find that most B2B companies are not adapting fast enough to keep up with the changing landscape of B2B selling. And this is verified by the research below.

I also find it interesting, and unfortunately tragic, that most B2B companies do not train their most important personnel, their sales and marketing teams.

I call the B2B sales and marketing team the most important personnel because without customers you don’t have a business. And the only way to get customers is to sell your products/services to a B2B business.

Amazing But Sad Statistics

According to CSO Insights, a B2B sales research firm, the following happened in B2B companies in last year.
• The win rate of forecast deals was 47.9%.
• The percentage of salespeople achieving quota was 54.6%.

CSO Insights has developed a four level sales process. It goes as follows;
• Level 1—Random Process:
• Level 2—Informal Process
• Level 3—Formal Process:
• Level 4—Dynamic Process:

Without going into detail on each process level, I believe by looking at the names of each process, you can ascertain how sophisticated each level is.

CSO also found the following levels of performance within the first three levels. I am unsure why they didn’t include the forth level, but my gut instinct tells me it is because there aren’t enough companies at the fourth level to give meaningful statistics.

2014 Sales Performance Comparisons

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
However, as you can see, there is a significant difference between the performance of level 1 companies compared with level 3 companies.

Sales organizations that optimize their sales processes, for engaging and working with clients, significantly outsell their less adept competitors, achieving sales performance edges such as:
• 17% improvement in overall revenue plan attainment,
• 21% increase in percentage of sales reps making quota,
• 31% increase in win rates of forecast deals,
• 43% decrease in sales force turnover,

The higher your performance level, the better your company will obviously perform.

So why do so many B2B companies not use and train & coach their reps at a higher process level?

And here are other amazing but sad statistics;

Revenue Performance as Related to Level of Sales Process % of Reps Making Quota

B2B companies that use a Dynamic sales process achieve their quota 55.3% more often than B2B companies that utilize a Random process. And they achieve quota 20.7% more than the companies that use a Formal process.

These are very significant numbers, no matter what your revenue streams are.

So how does your B2B company become a Dynamic Process company?

Well, through more and better training and coaching of your sales and marketing people.

Here is another graphic, from CSO Insights, on training & coaching B2B sales and marketing people. (click on graphic to enlarge)

As you can see here, sales managers are not spending enough time with each rep. training and coaching them. That is a major reason their reps are not making quota.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Selling to Key Accounts

Sales teams’ ability to develop and
implement effective account plans.

And when it comes to your Key Account Managers ability to grow your current clients, CSO Insights found that 73% of B2B companies do not sell and market to their current accounts effectively.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

B2B Sales Coaching Results

Finally let’s look at two graphics adapted from the “heart of coaching by Crane”.

As you can see from the first graphic, training gives a one-time boost in sales behaviour and results, but people quickly slip back into their old familiar behaviour without coaching reinforcement, and increases in sales are negligible.

However, with B2B sales coaching after training, you can see that although there is a slight dip in both graphics right after training, the sales people who received coaching keep getting better and better results.

Through all of my coaching years, I have found that coaching costs very little compared to the increased results that have occurred. In many cases, coaching fees were less than 1% of the overall increase in revenues.

So, if you truly want to grow your business, you need to have your sales people trained and coached by professionals. And in most cases, this means hiring outside professional B2B sales coaches. You will see a very worthwhile ROI.
 
 

Conclusions

Through all of my coaching years, I have found that coaching costs very little compared to the increased results that have occurred. In many cases, coaching fees were less than 1% of the overall increase in revenues.

So, if you truly want to grow your business, you need to have your sales people trained and coached by professionals. And in most cases, this means hiring outside professional B2B sales coaches. You will see a very worthwhile ROI.

It becomes pretty obvious that training with coaching pays off.

Are your B2B sales reps, marketers and executives getting the training and coaching they need to understand B2B sales and marketing better, and to able to reach quotas?

In order to better understand why your company needs coaching for B2B sales people, marketers and executives, you can get a free copy of my new book to help your company grow, click this link – Why Can’t My Sales People Sell: 15 Ways To Grow Your B2B Business.
 
 
Kind regards,
Ian Dainty
Author of the Book – Why Can’t My Sales People Sell: 15 Ways To Grow Your B2B Business
Ian Dainty’s Email
 
 
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