“Just the facts, Maam.” Those immortal words by Joe Friday sum up our thoughts on blog posts. Just give us the facts.
Anneke Seley, who writes a popular blog on Sales 2.0, shared some interesting research that we also wish to share with the readers of the B2B Sales Lounge. You can jump over the the original post by visiting Findings from Phone Works Study.
As you read the statistics below, one thing is clear. The job of contacting prospects is tougher today that it has ever been. Quotas are way up and competition is increasing. It takes up to 8 attempts to reach a prospect on average – and that’s in the BEST performing businesses. And email volume in growing over 10% a year.
Here’s Anneke’s article:
Findings From Phone Works Inside Sales Metrics Surveys: How Do You Compare?
One thing seems clear to us is that companies who want to excel in inside sales will think long and hard about what is really needed, and they will invest in powerful weapons in this war like iSell by OneSource. iSell is a sales insight dashboard with Facelook-like simplicity – giving the inside salesperson the “military intelligence” to contact the right person and say the right words.
Process and metrics are the lifeblood of inside sales organizations. Leaders of phone/Web sales organizations — or their sales operations managers — typically measure conversions at every step of the sales cycle, in addition to average sales cycle length, average deal size and other more common metrics. Sales 2.0 companies are following their lead and putting increased focus on tracking and measuring their key performance indicators (KPIs) in all sales channels in order to predict and improve results at both team and individual levels.
But not every sales manager knows which metrics to track or how their productivity measurements compare against those of other companies. If you want to see what leading B2B companies in the San Francisco Bay Area are measuring, check out the latest inside sales (quota-carrying phone/Web sales) and lead generation (sales development/pipeline-building) metrics reports produced by Phone Works, based on surveys sponsored by the Bay Area Telebusiness Alliance (TBA).
Here are some highlights:
Inside Sales Survey
- The average annual quota for inside sales reps has increased dramatically in the past three years
- During the same time period, the percent of reps achieving quota has declined
- Inside sales reps achieving 75% or more of quota carry an annual average quota of more than $1 million
- Inside sales reps achieving 75% of quota or better close an average of 2 more deals per quarter, compared to all respondents
Sales Development Survey
- Companies that are achieving 100% of quota have a 6–8 attempt contact strategy to reach the prospect
- Average talk time has increased 18% in the past 3 years
- The number of qualified leads generated per week increased an average of 38% in the past 3 years
- Average daily volume of e-mails increased 31% in the past 3 years
Metrics will, of course, vary, depending on factors such as your market, your position in the market, your target audience, and your implementation of technology and process.
This post was created for OneSource by Find New Customers, a lead generation company helping businesses implement demand generation programs to drive sales leads. Find New Customers is also where you find great content on B2B Marketing, including highly acclaimed white papers on lead generation, sales and email marketing.