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PRESS RELEASES |
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Silent Edge, the UK sales performance authority, today releases new
research – based on benchmarking 1000 UK salespeople over a two-year
period – which suggest that salespeople are not being trained to use
their sales toolkits sufficiently, leading to a disconnect between
the marketing function and the sales team. Just a quarter of salespeople surveyed by Silent Edge use their company presentation when they go to a meeting with a prospect – yet nearly three quarters of those surveyed (67%) think their presentations are of a high quality. 56% of those think that their customer success stories, or case studies, are also of a high quality, but again, less than a quarter use them in prospect meetings. Crucially, when it comes to the company’s value proposition – i.e. why should I buy from you, why are you different to your competitors and, crucially, what’s in it for me? – 83% of salespeople in the UK cannot articulate that proposition effectively in sales meetings with potential customers. Russell Ward, CEO of Silent Edge, said: “The barriers between sales and marketing are one of the most common problems in business-to-business sales, and our latest set of research demonstrates just how ingrained the problem is. What we’re seeing is that the core elements of any salesman’s toolkit – presentations, case studies, brochures and so on – are either not being created at all or they’re not being used properly. The marketing function creates lots of material but it’s not being used – either because it’s not relevant to the pitch or because it’s doesn’t fit the salesperson’s approach. “A successful salesman has to show the prospect what they’ll be getting out of the deal – this is the value proposition. In layman’s terms, it boils down to – 1. Why should I buy from you? 2. Why are you different from your competitors and; 3. What’s in it for me? “All too often, companies don’t have a value proposition, or if they do, it may be weak or if it is strong, they don’t train the salespeople to use it. This typically leads to a lost sale. “If sales directors and owner managers want to really change a sales person’s behaviour they have to show them what areas of selling they’re good at and what areas need more work. We seem to believe in this country that salespeople are born and not made – this simply isn’t true. If companies don’t train their salespeople how to use the sales toolkit they are given, they will not be able to sell as much product – it’s as simple as that.” |