Research Identifies 4 Performance Levels

Understanding What Your Sales Manager Is Up Against is a compelling research report by Barry Trailer and Jim Dickie, published by the Harvard Business Review. In this report, the authors provide critical insight into the benefits achieved when Sales Executives manage their sales operation:

• Top-down,
• Using a sales and sales management methodology, and
• With a CRM aligned with the methodology.

Based on input from 1275 executives, the researchers divided companies into four categories depending on their level of process utilization. The four levels are shown in the table below:

Level 4 Significantly Out-Performs Competition

Trailer and Dickey found that Level 1 through Level 3 organizations were the norm and were significantly outperformed by their Level 4 competitors. They reported the following comparative metrics:

Want to Know Your Performance Level?

Would you like to know the level of your sales operation? 

Would you like to identify areas that may need improvement?  

You can easily answer these questions by taking our Sales Operation Assessment Test.  You will be able to rate your operation in more than 100 important factors, including:

• Whether the operation is being driven optimally by sales executives top-down,
• The coaching effectiveness of sales managers,
• Whether sales professionals are doing the right things with your buyers and how effectively they are managing opportunities,
• The breadth and effectiveness of sales enablement activities,
• Whether your opportunity stages are optimized to assess the true status and probability of winning opportunities,
• How your CRM is being utilized and how well it aligns with and supports your business methods and practices,
• Whether your forecast is an accurate predictor of the future,
• Marketing and its alignment with sales, and
• How well your marketing automation efforts support lead generation and sales conversion, and its ROI.   

Preview the Book

You can also take a look at Bob’s best selling book, Create the High-Performance Sales Environment®. Base on his extensive global experience, his book provides the detailed roadmap.

Create the High-Performance Sales Environment®

We specialize in helping our clients Create the High-Performance Sales Environment®, enabling them to achieve the metrics of a Level 4 Sales Operation.  See how in Bob Junke’s Selling Power TV interview with CEO Gerhard Gschwandtner.