PRESS RELEASES
 



Science meets sales with performance evaluation from Silent Edge

-- Two years in development, unique methodology offers sales directors a reliable and objective way of developing teams and performance -- 

London, UK 08 February 2005 Silent Edge, the sales performance authority, today announced the world’s first objective methodology for evaluating sales performance.  Two years in development and extensively piloted with clients over the past six months, it is proven to make a significant and positive impact on the performance of any sales force, regardless of industry sector.

Critically, Silent Edge’s innovation empowers sales directors with the first scientific means of accurately evaluating individuals and the teams in which they operate.  Silent Edge believes that this is the first time that sales directors have had access to such a comprehensive and objective methodology in this field . 

Silent Edge is already delivering its unique sales offering to blue chip companies across a number of sectors including: finance, publishing, IT and telecommunications. 

Silent Edge CEO Russell Ward says: “Our unique concepts and methodology have been two years in development.  We realised early on that other attempts to evaluate sales performance rely heavily on revenue history as the key indicator.  And we knew that as a result, they miss the point. Looking at past revenue doesn't reveal how you can improve your future sales performance.”

 Ward continues, “Revenue results from selling ability plus favourable circumstances, so it is not a reliable measure of a salesperson’s performance or potential.  For instance, if you give a poor salesman great leads, he may well generate revenue.  Equally, the reverse may apply.  Either way, it doesn’t reveal what sales directors need to know: whether they’ve got the right people doing the right things.” 

The output of Silent Edge’s Salesforce Evaluation is generated by a comprehensive series of real-time observations of salespeople in action.  Sales directors find it revelatory: for the first time they can see at a glance where the real potential lies in their teams – and it also maps out a clear forward path for developing each of their salespeople .

Ward says that response from the market has been quite astonishing.  Blue-chip companies in a number of sectors are already working with Silent Edge and the data collected by Salesforce Evaluation is revealing a number of provocative trends about the UK’s army of sales professionals.   For instance:

Fact 1:            
About a fifth of sales professionals – including some who are highly successful – do not clearly understand or communicate their organisation’s value proposition.
Fact  2:           
Negotiating, rather than closing, appears to be the ‘Achilles heel’ of the UK sales professional, consistently coming out bottom in the performance evaluation scorecard.
Fact  3:           
Many sales professionals do not believe they are adequately motivated by their manager.  Furthermore, many feel that they do not benefit from sufficient training or skills development once in the job.
Fact  4:           
Sales people want to do well!  Given informed criticism and the opportunity to improve their skills, they respond positively.  They are not thin-skinned and welcome opportunities to work more effectively.

Ward concludes: “Salesforce Evaluation delivers actionable, objective data – including some tough home truths about sales performance. The value to sales management is clear from the beginning, but we’ve consistently found that the salespeople themselves quickly become our most loyal advocates.  When they experience our evaluation procedures they realise that they themselves will come out the real winners. They are rapidly motivated by their new understanding of the whole sales process and their vital place in it. That makes an immediate contribution to their sales performance.”