Mercuri International’s global survey uncovers secrets of sales excellence
The world’s largest sales performance consultancy, Mercuri International, has published its latest global survey – Sales Excellence 2017. The Survey highlights sales practices in which top performing companies excel offering pointers to what drives sales excellence regardless of sector, size or economic conditions, in ways that could help model and replicate their success.
Introducing the survey, Frank Herbertz, CEO at Mercuri International, says “I am sure the survey will enable you to arrive at some valuable secrets of sales excellence to work towards”.
The survey has been in the making for over 6 months, covering 926 respondents from 20 Countries, capturing voices from more than 500 enterprises worldwide, across 13 industry categories. This is the fourth survey of its kind undertaken by Mercuri International. The previous one was published in 2012. Here is a sneak peek into what the current survey reveals:
Strategic focus on sales
Top performers leverage the strategic value of sales. They ensure that their corporate strategies include explicit sales elements. With clearly defined sales strategies documented in writing for consistency of communication, these companies favour a cross functional approach between sales and other teams, to address customer requirements holistically.
Smart use of technology
Top performing companies have a well equipped and updated Customer Relationship Management tool and come up with Customer centric approaches. They also blend class room training with virtual learning to develop their sales teams.
Process orientation
Best performing companies ensure that a meticulously laid out account management plan is in place for all and each customer. They place a premium on flawless sales execution towards which they document sales processes supported by appropriate training modules, checklists and instruments.
Strong sales culture
The survey shows that the sales function enjoys an excellent image in top performer companies. The intrinsic pride of belonging to such an environment in itself could be a powerful driver of performance for sales people.
3 lenses: Taking a closer look at sales excellence
Besides offering the big picture through the global lens, the survey uses three other lenses to take a closer look at drivers of sales excellence: Position of respondent in the Organization, Size of Sales Organization and Nature of industry.
Mercuri International CEO Frank Herbertz adds “Am gratified to see the participation from CEO/Directors double in this survey compared to the last round in 2012. So has participation from large companies with sales organizations counting 100+ members. These two elements bring in a balanced and in depth perspective that can be of great value to business leaders, as they plan their sales strategies, processes and practices for the year ahead”.
Download the complete report of the Sales Excellence Survey 2017.
