John Monoky is an Adjunct Professor of Executive Education, Ross School of Business, UMich. He recently made a presentation to technology industry executives sponsored by the BC Technology Industry Association, BC Innovation Council + Sauder School of Business (UBC) on Selling in Turbulent Times. His key points:
- in a down economy, if sales growth is flat you’re growing market share
- there’s a heightened need to find creative ways to overcome customers’ increased reluctance to buy
- there’s a mis-match between the hardest sales to land (new products w/new customers) and who on the sales team is given the task of landing them (typically the newest members of the team)
- best practice companies have sources of customer info not coming from sales reps exclusively
- just because your sales team is busy doesn’t mean they’re productive – of the 220 working days available each year, typically only 90-130 of them are selling days
As a result, in his view, there is a pressing need for new methods and information that change what people do – that help them make different choices armed with important, new, information.
There’s also, in his view, a need to change how, how productively, and how often the sales force sells. Too much time is now being committed to not selling. This requires new accountabilities for the base portion of Reps’ compensation that reinforce behaviors + increase activities that seed sales.
