The Alexander Group does an annual survey of sales leaders’ growth plans + tactics in conjunction with its Chief Sales Executives Forum. Amongst their findings for 2012:
- Sales leaders expect their firms’ growth to outpace economic growth in 2012
- They also expect growth goals to be harder to achieve than last year
- Hi growth firms are investing to enrich their sales processes
- They expect growth to occur via customer focused value selling.
- They’re not leaving these tactics to chance. They’re investing in sales tools
that deliver more buyer value via better problem solving expertise on the front-lines of sales - Hi growth firms are almost 2x as likely to be investing in sales
- There’s an expectation of sales productivity gains. Budget + headcount growth trails revenue growth goals.
- For hi growth firms, new business acquisition is the key tactic to achieving growth goals (see chart below)
SOURCE: Alexander Group, 2012 Sales Pulse Survey Results
