Hey Sales VPs, Think You Know Everything About Your Sales Team’s Performance? Think Again!

New research from Salesforce.com in conjunction with The TAS Group has recently uncovered some surprising data about the sales process. Having conducted a survey from a wide variety of industries, the company has created a report and infographic called 10 Things Every Sales Manager Should Know About Sales Performance. Suffice it to say that they have discovered some surprising truths about sales in today’s economy.

Think you know everything about your sales team performance? Think again…

The research by the TAS Group has uncovered some stunning performance results from sales representatives…some of which suggests managers may be out of touch with what is going on in the field. Also, the research points to some issues may that be systemic – requiring new processes by the company and its managers to achieve greater success.

For example, 67% of sales professionals fail to hit their quotas. Yep! Two-thirds of your team, on average, will miss their quota.This shocking statistic raises some real questions about how quotas are determined…and by whom.

Do you know how your salespeople are doing?…

But as shocking as that quota achievement rating may be…how about this? Almost one-fourth (23%) of all companies surveyed admitted that they don’t even know if their sales team achieved quota or not!

When it comes to closing ratios…well, the news here is also sobering. Fully 37% of sales reps close less than half of all of their qualified opportunities. Another 17% close less than a quarter of their opportunities.

One key attribute of your sales reps…

One attribute of effective sales identified by the study shows that it is critical for salespeople to be able to accurately assess and qualify their opportunities. High Performers are 2.5 times more likely to be good at qualifying opportunities accurately as compared to average performers.

Several of the data points suggest that companies need to rethink their sales processes. For example: one shocking result of the survey is that almost 50% of sales reps say their company does not have a playbook or well defined sales strategy or process. But 67% of companies that do have a well-defined sales playbook have a closing ratio over 50%.

See more results in the infographic here (be sure to click on it to expand it to full size)…