The Sales Management Challenge - Who's Coaching the Coach?
BOULDER, CO - April 19, 2011 -- CSO Insights announces the release of their Sales Management Optimization (SMO) study. More than 850 firms worldwide participated in this year's sales management research effort. Participants' responses spanned more than 50 metrics on sales management development, sourcing and assessment.
"The role of sales managers is to be coaches to their sales teams; they are there to help their sales people achieve extraordinary things," said Jim Dickie, CSO Insights managing partner. "But we see large variances between firms in their investment in and support of their sales managers. It causes us to ask 'Who's coaching the Coach?"
Managers are also being spread thinner across more reps and more geography. With less direct access to sales reps, firms need to provide their sales managers with the tools and resources that will enable them to proactively coach their teams to higher performance.
Win rates are flat from a year ago and down markedly from five years ago. Investment in sales manager training was also down year over year, clearly an area of false economy when you look at the leverage gained with proactive manager coaching (see chart).
"Attracting and retaining top sales talent is always key to sales success," "added Barry Trailer, co-author of the report. "This year companies are looking to expand the size of their sales organizations and we expect to see a spike in rep turnover. Sales managers are key to recruiting and retaining talented reps. It is not enough for companies to simply raise revenue expectations; they also need to provide the training, tools and resources to their sales managers to help their teams attain these higher targets."
Sales managers are the fulcrums by which sales performance improvement levers are applied. To attain the improvements and competitive advantage needed in today's marketplace, firms should look to increase the effectiveness of their sales management to optimize sales performance.
Details on the study can be found on the 2011 Sales Management Optimization webpage or can be obtained by contacting Laura Andrus at Laura.Andrus@csoinsights.com.
About CSO Insights
CSO Insights (http://www.csoinsights.com) is a sales and marketing effectiveness research firm that specializes in measuring how companies are leveraging people, process, technology, and knowledge to improve the way they market and sell to customers. For 17 years, CSO Insights' surveys of over 12,000 sales effectiveness initiatives have been the standard for tracking the evolution of how the role of sales is changing, revealing the challenges that are impacting sales performance, and showing how companies are addressing these challenges.
Media• To interview Jim Dickie, please email Jim.Dickie@csoinsights.com or call 303-521-4410
• To interview Barry Trailer, please email Barry.Trailer@csoinsights.com or call 415-924-3500.
• To obtain a PDF copy of the full report, please email Kim Cameron at kim.camerson@csoinsights.com or call 775-831-9013
• Tag: sales performance, sales effectiveness, sales optimization
http://www.csoinsights.com
###
"The role of sales managers is to be coaches to their sales teams; they are there to help their sales people achieve extraordinary things," said Jim Dickie, CSO Insights managing partner. "But we see large variances between firms in their investment in and support of their sales managers. It causes us to ask 'Who's coaching the Coach?"
Managers are also being spread thinner across more reps and more geography. With less direct access to sales reps, firms need to provide their sales managers with the tools and resources that will enable them to proactively coach their teams to higher performance.
Win rates are flat from a year ago and down markedly from five years ago. Investment in sales manager training was also down year over year, clearly an area of false economy when you look at the leverage gained with proactive manager coaching (see chart).
"Attracting and retaining top sales talent is always key to sales success," "added Barry Trailer, co-author of the report. "This year companies are looking to expand the size of their sales organizations and we expect to see a spike in rep turnover. Sales managers are key to recruiting and retaining talented reps. It is not enough for companies to simply raise revenue expectations; they also need to provide the training, tools and resources to their sales managers to help their teams attain these higher targets."
Sales managers are the fulcrums by which sales performance improvement levers are applied. To attain the improvements and competitive advantage needed in today's marketplace, firms should look to increase the effectiveness of their sales management to optimize sales performance.
Details on the study can be found on the 2011 Sales Management Optimization webpage or can be obtained by contacting Laura Andrus at Laura.Andrus@csoinsights.com.
About CSO Insights
CSO Insights (http://www.csoinsights.com) is a sales and marketing effectiveness research firm that specializes in measuring how companies are leveraging people, process, technology, and knowledge to improve the way they market and sell to customers. For 17 years, CSO Insights' surveys of over 12,000 sales effectiveness initiatives have been the standard for tracking the evolution of how the role of sales is changing, revealing the challenges that are impacting sales performance, and showing how companies are addressing these challenges.
Media• To interview Jim Dickie, please email Jim.Dickie@csoinsights.com or call 303-521-4410
• To interview Barry Trailer, please email Barry.Trailer@csoinsights.com or call 415-924-3500.
• To obtain a PDF copy of the full report, please email Kim Cameron at kim.camerson@csoinsights.com or call 775-831-9013
• Tag: sales performance, sales effectiveness, sales optimization
http://www.csoinsights.com
###
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