SALES EXECUTION
TRENDS 2014
Dec 2013
Top Objectives & Challenges Facing Sales Leaders
As organizations shift from maintenance mode to growth mode, and from
enablement to execution, sales leaders must have laser focus on making their
teams successful by looking beyond sales enablement and empowering sales
teams with the latest advancements in sales execution solutions.
Qvidian 2014
Sales Execution Trends 2014
Sales Execution Trends 2014
T O P O B J E C T I V E S & C H A L L E N G E S FAC I N G S A L E S L E A D E R S
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The top objective in the coming year, representing over 59%1 of organizations, is to capture new
business, in addition to optimizing revenues more profitably. This is a slight shift from previous years, with
many organizations transitioning from maintenance mode to aggressive growth mode as global
economies further recover.
With economic conditions continuing to change and expand, so too has the buyer environment. Today’s
buyers are much more informed, and most are considerably further in their buying decision before ever
speaking with a sales person. Salespeople need to provide the most relevant information and present
greater value to differentiate and win new business. However, over 58%2 of buyers disengage with sales
teams and stay with the status quo. The number one reason why buyers disengage is because salespeople
did not present value effectively or were not aligned to buyer’s specific business challenges.
To further complicate sales execution, deals are more complex, more people are involved in the buying
process, and sales teams are burdened with doing more with less. Other challenges facing sales
organizations:
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60%2 of the buyer’s journey happens before sales teams interact with a
prospect
58%2 of sales pipeline ends up in “no decision” or stalled deals because
sales has not presented value effectively. Lack of alignment to buyer stages is
a main reason for the inability to communicate value
90%3 of selling content is never used in selling, making sales teams not agile
enough to meet the complexity of the selling process.
59%4 of a sales person’s time is not spent selling as they are burdened with
other activities including hunting for the right selling content and resources.
88%1 of missed opportunities were because sales couldn’t find or leverage
internal resources
Only 63%4 of salespeople make their quota
This report looks closer at the key objectives for sales organizations, and the
challenges they face to meet those objectives, as well as the current conditions,
obstacles, and investment areas needed to improve sales execution.
60%
of buyer journey
complete before
ever interacting
with sales
58%
of pipeline stalls
because value not
presented
90%
of selling content
and resources
never used
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Sales Execution Trends 2014
MOST IMPORTANT TO EXECUTIVE MANAGEMENT
It is no surprise that executive management seeks to win more business, but in a financially prudent fashion.
94% of executive management view increasing win rates as the single most important focus area for their
sales leaders. Profitable revenue growth, increased margins, and reducing costs are the norm for most
company objectives and remains the top desired business outcomes for CXOs. With that, executive
management rank the following as most important for sales execution:
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94% - Increasing win rates
87% - Improving overall quota attainment
83% - Increasing deal sizes
82% - Greater visibility into what’s working and what’s not working
75% - Shortening sales cycles
68% - Closing more business, but at a lower cost
Another key objective is the growth of sales organizations. Some 29% of companies expect to expand
their sales organizations between 10%-30% in the coming year, with over 6% expecting to grow over
thirty percent.
With this anticipated growth in sales organizations, the burden of onboarding and ramping new sales
staff as quickly as possible becomes paramount to sales leaders. Every day a sales rep is not at full
productivity equates to considerable losses in quota targets. On average, it takes 40% of organizations
between 7-12 months to effectively onboard and get new sales reps to productivity. For over 18%, it
takes more than twelve months. This forces sales leaders to seek alternatives to better link training,
coaching, reinforcement, and best practices, for ramping new sales teams.
KEY SALES OBJECTIVES FOR 2014
The key objectives for sales organizations have typically been the same year over year, but with varying
degrees of priorities based on an assortment of both internal and external influences. Economic conditions
and overall company strategies and goals also play a key part. Based on the results of this recent study,
it is clear that many organizations are still in a growth mode stage and advancing
sales strategies to grow their businesses. Below are the top ten objectives (out of
fifteen):
1. Capture new accounts (58%)
2. Increase penetration into existing accounts (46%)
3. Increase sales effectiveness & performance (25%)
4. Improve customer loyalty & satisfaction (20%)
5. Optimize deal size via up-selling & cross-selling (20%)
6. Improve team selling (17%)
7. Reduce sell cycle time (14%)
8. Reduce ramp-up time for new sales people (7%)
9. Increase reorder & renewal rates (6%)
10. Retain top sales talent (4%)
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#1
Capture New
Accounts
#2
Increase
Penetration into
Existing Accounts
Sales Execution Trends 2014
CHALLENGES TO OVERCOME
Top Challenges
There are a myriad of sales challenges that are, or can, prevent sales leaders from achieving their goals.
The top two challenges facing sales organizations include sales cycles too long (33%), and difficulty
presenting competitive differentiation (33%). Close behind these are the lack of common sales process
across entire sales organization (24%), and difficulty establishing return on investment (20%). Other
challenges include poor sales and marketing alignment (16%), and overall ineffective and unadaptable
sales process (13%). These challenges are all too common and are present in varying degrees across
different organizations.
33%
Sales Cycles
Too Long
33%
24%
20%
16%
Difficulty
Presenting
Differentiation
Common Sales
Process Across
Organization
Difficulty
Establishing
ROI
Poor Sales &
Marketing
Alignment
13%
Unadaptable
Sales Process
Quota Attainment
Improving quota attainment was the second most important focus area to executive management (87%).
To compound this, 36% said they were only somewhat, or not confident, in their sales organization’s
ability to achieve quota attainment. The top reasons for not achieving quota attainment:
Why Sales is Not Achieving Quota
Opportunities end up as no decisions
Sales unable to effectively communicate value
Sales burdened with tasks & spend less time selling
Selling content and resources not aligned to buyer stages
Selling content not tailored to specific selling situation
Inability to find selling content or resources
0
Most Likely
10
20
30
40
50
60
Likely
SOURCE: QVIDIAN SALES EXECUTION SURVEY 2013
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Sales Execution Trends 2014
CURRENT CONDITIONS
These challenges are common for most organizations but as solutions are applied to solve them, a gap
remains between strategy and sales execution.
Areas for Improvement
When assessing overall sales organization performance, the following sales execution areas were rated
highest as needing the most improvement:
Top Areas That Need Improvement
Conducting Thorough Needs Analysis
Identify and Gain Access to All Decision Makers
Clearly Understand Customer's Buying Process
Generating Winning Proposals and Personalized Selling Documents
Differentiate From Competition
Providing Content Specific to Selling Situation & Buyer Stage
Effectively Present Value
0
10
20
30
40
50
Needs Improvement
SOURCE: QVIDIAN SALES EXECUTION SURVEY 2013
While all of these are essential, there is a common theme that continues to surface - Sales teams are
burdened with complexity in the selling process, and struggle to present greater value to the customer,
leading to the buyer not making a decision. Reasons why value is often not presented effectively include:
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Sales not leveraging selling content and resources specific to buyer needs in order to convey value
Content and resources often not aligned to buyer stages
Sales spending too much time searching for content and resources, leading to less time selling
Selling content goes unused creating wasted resource time creating more and more content
Opportunities are missed because of wasted resources and less time selling
60
Sales Execution Trends 2014
Wasteful Activities
This study also uncovered that the majority of organizations haven’t identified the wasteful activities in the
sales cycle, let alone the wasted energy from resources generating quality content and tools that never
get utilized. Only 7% believed their organization was able to identity wasteful activities while over 31%
said they were not able to identify at all. When it comes to leveraging the mass arsenal of content and
selling tools, a staggering 90% of selling content is never used in the selling process.
Agility
The ability for most sales organizations to be agile and adopt to change also impacts overall sales
execution. 47% report that their sales process is only somewhat or not at all adaptable to change in the
buying process, and over 57% state their sales organization is only somewhat or not at all agile.
Finding needed resources or creating personalized selling documents remains an ongoing challenge for
salespeople. Over 39% say they have a challenge with locating and tailoring personalized selling
documents and 16% say it is overly difficult.
Aligning to Buyers
Alignment of sales processes, as well as selling content and sales resources, specifically to buyer needs is
also critical in this age of savvy buyers. However, over 53% say their selling processes and content are
only somewhat or not aligned to the buyer stages.
SOLUTION OPPORTUNITIES
The reality is buyers have changed, selling processes are more complex, and sales teams have not
transformed, making it more of a challenge to achieve the organization’s desired business outcomes. With
all of these challenges, increasing complexity in the selling process, and critical business objectives and
defined strategies, companies have invested in a variety of areas to help support their sales teams.
Typical actions taken to resolve these challenges:
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More Training – However 87%5 of training content is forgotten within weeks
More Content – 70%6 of buyers are halfway in their buying decision before
content is presented
More Sales Reps – With an average 94 month ramp up time, and 58%2 of the
time is not spent selling
Each of these investment areas are important and worthwhile, even with the weight of
inefficiencies. However, with all these activities a gap still remains between strategy and
overall sales execution. This gap is rooted in that these activities are often disconnected
from each other, misaligned with buyers, not specific to each selling situation, and unable
to keep up with the pace of change.
87%
of training
content is
forgotten within
weeks
70%
of buyers are
halfway to
decision before
speaking to sales
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Sales Execution Trends 2014
CONCLUSIONS
The key themes from this study show that regardless if a company is in growth or maintenance mode,
there are key areas to improve before all others. Better communicating value, establishing processes that
are agile and adaptable, a continued focus on optimizing sales performance to shorten sales cycles, and
ramping up new sales teams more effectively, are some of the focus areas for organizations to win more
business profitably.
New sales rep ramp up time is a critical component for any size company. Every
day new sales reps are not at full productivity equates to considerable losses in
quota targets. Companies need to get new sales reps on-boarded as fast as
possible to advance profitable revenue growth. To do this, organizations need to
better link training, coaching, reinforcement, and other resources directly into the
selling process, not separately.
To present greater value, sales and marketing teams need to align themselves,
while also aligning processes, content, and resources specifically to a buyer’s
business challenges. Without this alignment, and without contextual guidance to
point salespeople in the right direction, sales teams will continue to struggle and
will be unable to transform.
The solution criteria is clear – what’s needed is to leverage existing investments,
better align and bridge each of their capabilities, while simplifying for sales
teams. It is critical to intelligently guide successful sales behavior through each
specific selling situation ensuring sales teams are aligned to the buyer’s process.
New technology advancements that are focused specifically on sales execution
are solving these complex business problems. With these latest software
solutions, organizations can instantly take advantage of deep analytical insights,
in real-time, to quickly confirm sales alignment and agility, with added visibility
into what’s not working so it can be fixed and what is working in order to
replicate across an entire organization.
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Link
training, coaching,
reinforcement, and
other resources
directly into selling
process
Align
teams, processes,
content, and
resources
specifically to
buyer’s process
Leverage
existing
investments by
bridging them in
selling processes
to drive sales
behavior
Sales Execution Trends 2014
RESEARCH DEMOGRAPHICS
Over 220 respondents, from varying industries, market, company sizes, and sales leader and enablement
roles completed comprehensive surveys which is the basis of this report. Company sizes of respondents
ranged from hundreds of employees to tens of thousands, with 30% between 1,000-10,000 employees,
and 20% over 10,000 employees, covering every major industry sector. Organizations from around the
globe responded with over 22% from outside of the United States. Respondent roles included:
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CXO or Sales Leaders (35%)
Sales Enablement Leaders (25%)
Marketing Leaders (10%)
Sales Contributors (30%)
ABOUT QVIDIAN
Qvidian provides cloud-based sales execution solutions that enable companies to accelerate sales ramp
up time, capture new business in cross sell and upsell opportunities and optimize sales performance by
closing the gap between strategy and sales execution. The company's innovative software and advisory
services offer real-time insight to ensure sales teams do what's needed to win, by driving repeatable
methodologies and making the sales organization more agile. With over 1,200 global customers
including Dell, Citi, ADP, CA, and Splunk, Qvidian is helping organizations significantly increase their
profitable revenues while eliminating waste and reducing costs.
Qvidian’s Sales Playbooks offers a dynamic framework that delivers intelligent guidance, sales best
practices, and selling content aligned to buyer stages and tailored to each unique selling situation—all
right where salespeople are familiar, within your CRM. Qvidian streamlines sales complexity into a
repeatable process making it easier for salespeople to get up to speed and close more deals faster.
Sales Playbooks is deeply dynamic to adapt instantly to changing selling situations, is content, process,
and tool agnostic to leverage your current investments, and is intelligently guided to direct new sales
teams with opportunity specific instructions.
For more information, visit www.qvidian.com or call 1-800-272-0047 or +44 (0) 870-734-7778.
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All data points referenced in this report are from Qvidian’s annual sales execution survey results unless otherwise noted.
Qvidian Sales Execution Survey
Sales Benchmark Index
3 IDC
4 CSO Insights
5 CEB
6 Introhive
1
2
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