Avoid the Delta of Disappointment

In a previous post, I recounted the returns companies get when they deploy a sales methodology, and also the reasons why many companies invest in methodologies only to see them languish in the abyss of poor adoption. I’ve written also about the value of a sales process, and the need to integrate both methodology and sales process in  the CRM system. Through the work we have been doing with the Dealmaker Index Global Sales Benchmark study, we can now report the impact of applying all of these best practices together.

Dealmaker Index is a global sales benchmarking service that is free to all, where you can score your sales effectiveness relative to your peers and gain advice on how to improve.  As we have been mining the data, we are coming up with some interesting findings, and I hope that you will find the analysis to be valuable.

In this case we looked in aggregate at the quota attainment impact of four best practices.

1. CRM Usage > 75%

2. Methodology Usage > 75%

3. The Sales Process is Well-Defined, and

4. The methodology is integrated into the CRM.

In this kind of analysis, it is always better to look at middle of the bell curve to understand the trends.  (Data at the edges will frequently distort the findings.)

In this case I want to focus on the difference between the those companies where 25-50% of the sales team are achieving quota (the blue line sloping downwards to the right), and those companies where 50-75% of the sales team are making quota ( the gray line sloping upwards to the right).  Most companies fall in to these two categories, and they are the boundaries of what I call the Delta of Disappointment.  The Delta of Disappointment represents the difference (or delta) between the sales team’s potential and the actual results.  Typically this means that you’ve got the right caliber of professionals on the team, but they are being hamstrung by lack of process, methodology, and tools. Remember the average percentage of sales reps making quota consistently hovers around the 50% mark. Being on the right side of average is the difference between just being able to survive, and have the results and consequent resources to thrive.