In sales today we all say we are customer-centric. That would imply that we have access to the right quantity and quality of Customer Intelligence, to be in a position to know what challenges our customers are facing, what is causing those problems to exist, how our solution might align with their needs in order to help them achieve gain or remove pain, etc.
Yet CSO Insights’ sales performance study data shows that is often not the case. Of the 1,600+ companies surveyed in our 2008 study, 49.5% of the participating firms reported that they needed improvement at thoroughly researching their customers and prospects.
Is that a real problem though, does being ineffective at this aspect of selling have real cost associated with it? Considering that the ability of reps to convert leads to first conversations (in person or on the phone)and the ability to close forecast deals (not pipeline, deals reps said for sure would close) are both at all time lows this year compared to our past annual surveys, the answer is yes.
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As this month CustomerThink is focusing on Customer Loyalty, I thought I would use my blog to share some of the results of our 2008 Sales Performance Optimization (SPO) study to demonstrate that if you are equating satisfaction with loyalty and advocacy, you may well be making a big mistake.
Let’s explore this premise by looking at an example most of us in sales can relate to. The vast majority of companies we surveyed have a CRM system installed. And of those who do not, others still have reps using applications they have selected on their own. This means that most of you reading this blog are likely customers of a CRM vendor. Well, how do you really feel about them?
As part of our 2008 SPO survey, we asked the study participants the following question: How satisfied are you with your current CRM vendor?. The responses we received were: 19% Very Satisfied, 42% Satisfied, 27% Neutral, 12% Dissatisfied. Based on these numbers alone you could assume that 61% of users are satisfied (or better) and 39% are less than satisfied, and therefore make the leap of faith that 61% of your customers are loyal to you. But you would be wrong.
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This month, CustomerThink is focused on Building a Customer-Centric Culture and Operation. A worthwhile goal, but how do you do that? I had the opportunity to interview Jeff Schaper when he was the Chief Commercial Officer (CCO) at General Electric, and thought for my blog this month I would share some of Jeff’s insights on how to manage this type of transition:
Jeff Schaper:
FOCUSING ON THE ULTIMATE CUSTOMER
We all understand that today customers typically want more than just a product. If all they need to do is complete a transaction, they can go on the web and put it out for bid. Our goal, therefore, becomes to understand what a customer really wants and needs, and in order to accomplish that we have to change our focus from the product out, to the customer back. By that I mean seeing things from the perspective of the customer looking back into the organization.
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As a multibillion-dollar global information services company, Experian is dedicated to helping organizations and consumers make commercial and financial decisions with greater confidence and control. Its stated goal is for Experian's people, data and technology to become a necessary part of every major consumer economy around the world.
That's clearly a client-centric vision. But how do you accomplish that?
Looking at the corporate goal, you can see how the company's credit and marketing reporting services are based on the data the company collects and analyzes. These are delivered over the firm's client-focused technology platform, so it is easy to understand how those elements are key to Experian's success. But it was the people part of the equation that interested me the most when I recently had the opportunity to talk with Kelli Stephenson, Experian's vice president of Sales Effectiveness.
‘Salespeople tend to sell what they are most comfortable with.’
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Beyond Customer Satisfaction: An Interview With Bob Knebel
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Posted on Jun 02, 2008
One of the most Customer-centric executives I know is Bob Knebel, Vice President of Sales for Bombardier Flexjet. Bob is committed to continuous improvement in people and processes and is recognized by his peers as a superior change agent, capable of motivating sales teams and customers alike. The following is an excerpt of an interview I did with Bob when he was the Vice President of Domestic Sales for the Citation division of Cessna Aircraft Company. Since Bob always views the Customer as starting with a capital C, I have done the same. Here are some of the thoughts Bob shared with me on Customer-Centricity:
In our industry we have come to realize that it is not nearly as important that our Customers understand our strategies as it is for us to understand theirs. Our Customers will be the ones that define what ‘competitive advantage’ really means, whether overtly or not, and will somehow indicate that to us. To succeed, we had better be ready to listen and respond.
Let me preface my comments with an admission that my perspective reflects my experience which has been primarily in the business jet industry. While many would consider this a particularly unique marketplace, I would venture to guess that many of the challenges faced by the aviation industry are universal in nature.
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What Really Differentiates You From Your Competitors?
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Posted on Apr 02, 2008
In April, CustomerThink is focusing on How to Build a High-Performance Brand. In today’s crowded marketplaces we need to make it a priority to determine how we can rise above the fray and ensure we get more than our fair share of the business from our customers. How do we do that?
The “how” of selling is something I found fascinating to watch during my early sales career. In the late 70’s, fresh out of grad school, I went to work for IBM. During my first year, they educated me on how to sell IBM mainframes. The net-net of the training was: 1) leverage the brand – we were IBM, everyone knew us; 2) leverage the product – we were usually on the front edge of innovation during that time period; and #3) leverage FUD (fear, uncertainty and doubt) -- the adage in the computer industry then was “No one ever got fired for buying IBM!” Did it work? It was a major shock when we lost a deal, not a surprise when we won one. And I was very successful at selling, or so I thought.
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Employees as Ambassadors: Should We Bother?
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Posted on Feb 06, 2008
When I saw that the topic of this month’s editorial focus was Turning Your Employees into Ambassadors for Your Company, two thoughts came to mind. First, how many executives would conceptually embrace the idea? Second, how many companies really invest the time, energy, and financial resources to make it happen?
Answering the first question seemed relatively easy to me. In hundreds of discussions Barry Trailer and I have had with CEOs. CSOs, CMOs, etc. over the past year nearly everyone mouths these words: customer-focused, vendor/customer partnering, solution-centricity, etc. We all say we want to be more than just a vendor to our customers and we all understand that a major part of that means establishing meaningful relationships between our people and our customer’s people.
But now let’s take a look at what we do. In our 2007 call center study we found that many firms measure their service center reps performance based on how fast they can complete each call. Think about this for a moment: you want your reps to be ambassadors to your clients, yet you reward them for getting off the phone as quickly as possible. A saying we have had for years is; “It is impossible to get someone to do what their wallet tells them not to do.”
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Don't Believe in Metrics? Have You Heard of StorageTek?
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Posted on Aug 16, 2006
CSO Insights is often brought in to CRM initiatives when the evaluation team is preparing the recommendation to management for how team members think should be spent on hardware, software, customization, training and support for their project. Looking at all these expenses, we are asked to give an assessment of what the ROI might be on this investment.
Our response is a question in return: "What metrics regarding how you are currently performing can I review, so we can give you a perspective of what type of improvement you can expect to make?"
In all too many cases, the next few minutes are filled will a very uncomfortable silence. It is as if we have just asked a question in a foreign language. Then finally someone will break the ice and say, "Metrics? What kind of metrics?"
Obviously, education is needed, so I often share what is still one of the most compelling cases studies we have ever collected, regarding how John Williams took StorageTek from $700 million in revenue to $2.2 billion in four years without adding any new salespeople—all via performance improvement.
My partner, Barry Trailer, and I profiled that achievement in our last book, The Sales And Marketing Excellence Challenge, so let me share John's own words on what transpired from an interview we did with him after he retired:
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2006 Is the Year To Close the Gap Between What Sales Needs and What It Gets
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Posted on Jan 17, 2006
There is a disconnect between sales goals and the actual benefits companies are receiving from their CRM systems. That's one of the most important findings that came out of CSO Insights' 12th annual Sales Effectiveness Study. Addressing that disconnect can have dramatic effects on sales organizations and make 2006 a year to remember.
The study, which was compiled from what more than 1,250 companies worldwide told us about how well (or poorly) their sales organizations were performing, looked at more than 120 metrics.
The first of these was identifying what were the top three goals sales executives have for their teams for 2006, and the second was reviewing what benefits organizations were deriving from their investments in CRM technology.
In Figure 1, we see the four goals most commonly cited by managers who took part in the study. Here are the bread and butter of sales: more revenues, improved sales effectiveness, greater market share and increased customer loyalty.
Figure 1
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CRM 2006 Is the Year To Close the Gap Between What Sales Needs and What It Gets
0 comments | 1063 reads
Posted on Jan 17, 2006
There is a disconnect between sales goals and the actual benefits companies are receiving from their CRM systems. That's one of the most important findings that came out of CSO Insights' 12th annual
Sales Effectiveness Study. Addressing that disconnect can have dramatic effects on sales organizations and make 2006 a year to remember.
The study, which was compiled from what more than 1,250 companies worldwide told us about how well (or poorly) their sales organizations were performing, looked at more than 120 metrics.
The first of these was identifying what were the top three goals sales executives have for their teams for 2006, and the second was reviewing what benefits organizations were deriving from their investments in CRM technology.
In Figure 1, we see the four goals most commonly cited by managers who took part in the study. Here are the bread and butter of sales: more revenues, improved sales effectiveness, greater market share and increased customer loyalty.
Read more »
