Boosting Sales Performance & Reducing Sales Force Turnover
Posted: Saturday, November 21, 2009
by Howard Deutsch
Quantisoft, LLC
Using Sales Force Surveys & Sales Force Opinion Surveys to Gather Actionable Information and Insight for Increasing Sales and Reducing Sales Force Attrition
Sales are the lifeblood of your company. Your sales people know what your customers and prospects want and expect from your company and from your sales force. Sales force surveys gather your sales force's collective knowledge and experiences about customers and about the support, information, tools, training and other resources your sales people need to boost sales significantly.
Many companies experience high sales force turnover. Companies spend a huge amount of money on recruiting, hiring, training, equipping and supporting sales people. When sales people fall short of their sales expectations and sales goals, it is a very costly lost opportunity. When sales people leave your company for any reason, it is also very costly. High levels of sales force attrition is an indicator that one or more things that impact sales force satisfaction, sales force engagement and sales volume is in need of immediate attention. Unfortunately, senior company managers and sales managers often guess at the reasons for poor sales and sales force attrition, and then take action based on these guesses, often with little or no results.
A much better way to identify the reasons for poor sales performance and sales force attrition is to conduct sales opinion surveys, learning directly from sales people about what is impeding their performance and causing their dissatisfaction and lack of engagement. Sales force opinion surveys are a version of an employee opinion survey targeted at sales people and their special performance issues. When sales people are given the opportunity to anonymously share their opinions, suggestions and insight based on their first-hand experiences in sales employee opinion surveys, they provide honest comprehensive information that enables sales managers to take action to increase sales employee satisfaction and engagement, sales performance and sales force retention.
Learning why some sales people outsell their peers by a wide margin:
Every company knows that some of their sales people consistently generate higher sales than their peers, while other sales people consistently sell well under the average for their sales force. Conducting a sales force survey / sales force opinion survey is an effective way to identify the reasons why some sales people outperform others by a wide margin while others are consistent underperformers..
Sales force surveys typically include 30-60 questions, depending on your industry, products and services. Here is a sample of the issues included in sales force opinion surveys:
Company image
Marketing effectiveness
Effectiveness of sales managers
Communications and support from sales managers
Sales manager treatment of sales people
Recognition received from sales managers
Availability of customer and industry business information
Availability & effectiveness of administrative support
Sales & product training effectiveness
Sales tracking effectiveness
Effectiveness of sales mentoring and performance feedback
Satisfaction with & perceived fairness of sales compensation and benefits plans
Adequacy/effectiveness of sales tools (smart phones, laptop computers, etc.) and programs
Effectiveness of sales culture
Empowerment of sales staff
Effectiveness of customer problem resolution
Product and service quality and reliability
Fairness and timeliness of sales expense reimbursement
Customer satisfaction with and awareness of products and services
Satisfaction with the service environment and policies
Likelihood of sales people staying with your company
Willingness of sales people to recommend your company for employment
Sales force survey benefits - Sales force satisfaction surveys /sales force opinion surveys generate the following bottom-line benefits and a very strong payback:
Gaining insight for attracting and keeping customers
Making breakthrough improvements in sales force sales performance
Increasing sales and competitiveness
Reducing costly sales force turnover
Increasing sales manager effectiveness
Learning about what customers like & dislike about your products and services & being your customer
Gathering information about your competitors
Eliminating obstacles impacting sales people and customers
Learning about ideas for new products and services
Gaining information for strengthening and creating new sales tools and programs
Improving communications with customers
Identifying and fixing recurring problems impacting customers
Sending an important message to your customers and employees that your company cares about employees' opinions customers
Final Thoughts About Sales Force Surveys / Sales Force Opinion Surveys:
Many companies are falling far short in achieving their sales potential, partially because their sales people are not fully satisfied and engaged in their jobs. This leads to costly turnover of sales people and reduced revenue and profit. Conducting a sales force survey /sales force opinion survey is a highly effective way to learn about what is causing your company's sales force to fall short of their sales potential, and what is causing sales force attrition.
While companies can gather significant actionable information by conducting an employee satisfaction survey, an employee engagement survey or an employee opinion survey, a more comprehensive and focused way to gather information and insight for increasing sales force performance and for decreasing sales force attrition is to conduct a sales force survey or a sales force opinion survey.
Howard Deutsch is CEO of Quantisoft , a full service survey company. Contact Howard Deutsch at (609) 409-9945 or hdeutschatquantisoft.com
Quantisoft survey Info
http://www.Quantisoft.com
Employee Engagement & Employee Satisfaction Survey Info
http://www.quantisoft.com/Industries/HumanResources.htm
Sales Force Survey Info
http://www.quantisoft.com/Industries/SalesForce.htm
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