Posted by Todd Kasper on Thu, Jul 16, 2009 @ 10:32 AM
Earlier this spring, we conducted a global survey of top-performing sales professionals (defined as being in the top 20% relative to their peers) in order to examine the pre-call planning habits of these high performers. By conducting the study, we reached the following five conclusions about top-performing sales professionals, some of which are not likely to be a surprise (and some may be):
- Pre-call planning is critical to achieving success
- The key benefits of pre-call planning to top-producers are: greater control of the sales process, more effective use of time, and better customer-specific need discovery
- Top-performers prepare better than their peers
- Top-performers say that if they could improve how they prepare, they could sell even more
- They'd do pre-call planning more often if it took less time
Show Me the Money!
What was very striking, however, was the difference in responses between top reps who listed "increased income" as a benefit of pre-call planning (we'll call these people collectively the "Income Crowd") versus those who did not list income as a benefit (the "Non-Income Crowd"):
- The Income Crowd placed a higher level of importance on pre-call planning (9.00 versus 7.68 - on a scale of 1 to 10)
- The Income Crowd tends to spend more time preparing for customer interactions than the Non-Income Crowd
- 78% of the Income Crowd peforms internet research (website, financials, etc.) on customers before meetings, versus only 41% for the Non-Income Crowd
- 91% of the Income Crowd respondents identify the desired outcome of the call/meeting beforehand (versus 73% for the Non-Incomers). The same numbers applied to creating a written list of questions to ask during the meeting.
- Additionally, 88% of the Income Crowd respondents say that they use pre-call planning better than their lower-performing peers. Only 58% of the Non-Income Crowd shares this sentiment.
Clearly, there is a link between (1) recognizing increased personal income as a benefit of being better-prepared for customer meetings and (2) the quality of the preparation by sales professionals for those meetings. Even among top-quintile performers, we see striking differences in the way these professionals approach pre-call planning.
What's in it for Me?
So what does this mean for you? You should examine the views that your sales professionals have regarding pre-call planning and the benefits they perceive that they get out of being prepared for a key customer call or meeting. Ask your reps what they see as "in it for them" and see how many say that pre-call planning will help their personal income. If a large portion of your sales team sees extra cash for them as a benefit, congratulations! If not, you may want to consider addressing pre-call planning at your next sales meeting.
We're all busy, especially sales professionals trying to make a living in a tough economy. But why not spend a few extra minutes preparing to help making that living a little easier?
Photo credit: AMagill
Top Sales Professional Survey
Learn more about what top-performing sales professionals had to say about their preparation habits.
Download a summary of the top sales professionals survey.