As companies become more focused on the bottom line, they strive for new ways to utilize assets. For example, leaders constantly strive to optimize their investments from under-utilized airplane passenger loads to improved hotel occupancy. Airbnb and Uber are just two companies that revolutionized their respective industries by utilizing the excess capacity that everyday consumers had in their personal investments.
Today’s sales organizations invest in talent, training, support and enablement tools to make their sellers successful. Therefore, it is essential for companies to consistently analyze their return on these investments so they can achieve business goals, serve customers and stay competitive.
Metrics Reveal Utilization Trends
In the sales organization, the under-utilization of investments is apparent in the average cost of sales, sales cost per rep and total compensation costs. In addition, productivity losses are apparent in sales rep turnover, new hire ramp-up times, non-selling time, long sales cycles and deployed sales resources.
Typical scenarios that sales leader face and action they need to take include:
MARKET LEADER
“We’re doing well, but how do we ensure that we stay on top?”
WHAT'S NEEDED: Continuous improvement - Benchmark and emulate internal best practices
POOR PERFORMING SALES ORGANIZATION
“Something’s not working – what can we do to get back on track?”
WHAT'S NEEDED: Diagnose issues and go-to-market benchmark
WHAT'S NEEDED: Define your future - Benchmark to your destination
The Sales Organization Assessment Framework
Assessing your organization is more efficient when you have a roadmap. An assessment framework will provide a holistic understanding of where you are today and where you want to be.
CURRENT STATE ASSESSMENT
Where are you today, and what do your metrics reveal? What data and analytics are required to evaluate your current state, set future goals and monitor your progress?
APPROACH
Using advanced analytics, gather comparative industry sales organization data, ensuring accuracy, relevancy and consistent comparisons.
FUTURE STATE DESTINATION
Where do you want to be in the near- or long-term future? What corporate strategy, culture, and goals are needed to be successful?
APPROACH
Select executive and management interviews that provide perspective about company-specific strategy and objectives, while including appropriate changes for the future.
ENGAGE EXPERTS
Do you have the talent and expertise to guide your path forward and interpret the changing metrics that reflect progress toward your goals?
APPROACH
Review the results, providing observations and recommendations based on company-specific strategies and objectives, using quantitative and qualitative benchmarks.
Asking the Right Questions
Assessing your sales organization depends upon asking the right questions. Utilization analysis, which incorporates advanced analytics, reveals important trends that require objective review. Corporate strategy and business objectives should also be a guiding factor and include key stakeholder considerations.
During the assessment phase, leaders must address insightful questions that include:
These powerful questions will help determine how to improve, transform and keep your organization competitive. Asking these questions and developing sales strategies are essential to optimizing your sales investments.
Companies often need more resources or perspectives to assess their sales organization objectively. That is why it is vital to partner with firms that have industry expertise in guiding under-utilized companies through the assessment process.
Industry-leading Benchmarks
About Alexander Group
Alexander Group understands your revenue growth challenges. Since 1985, we’ve served more than 3,000 companies across the globe. This experience gives us not only a highly sophisticated set of best practices to grow revenue—we also have a rich repository of unique industry data that informs all our recommendations. Aligning product, marketing, operations and finance efforts behind a successful sales organization takes insight and hard work. We help the world’s leading organizations build the right revenue vision, transform their organizations and deliver results.