Over the past 12 years, our pre-call planning process has achieved remarkable results:
Software & Publishing Company
- Annual sales: $540 million
- Gross Margin ROI of 450%
- Increased close ratios by 50% over prior periods
National Distributor of Landscape Supplies and Equipment
- Annual sales: $615 million
- Reps employed pre-call planning process for targeting accounts for up-sell opportunities
- Results: reached 6-month up-sell goal after 4 months
- Gross Margin ROI: 1,056%
Biotechnology Laboratory Equipment and Chemical Supplier
- Annual sales: $2.2 billion
- Field sales personnel utilized pre-call planning to increase penetration of research, pharmaceutical, and biotech organizations
- Observed significant increase in appointment, account penetration, and discovery activity
- Management reported 30% reduction in "ramp-up" time of new sales hires
- Gross Margin ROI: 308% after 90 days
Industrial Tool & Equipment Distributor
- Annual sales: $550 million
- Calling on 'C' level prospects, client was seeking to improve the quality of its reps interactions with those prospects
- Removed one month from sales process (10%+ reduction in time to close)
- Tripled success rate in advancing from 1st to 2nd stage in company's sales cycle
- Dramatic increase in quality of these interactions, as reported by both reps and managers
Survey Results Confirm Pre-call Planning As Key to Sales Success
Surveys of senior-level global sales executives conducted in 2008 and of "top performing" sales professionals in 2009 confirmed key conclusions.
- Pre‐call planning is critical to achieving sales success.
- Key benefits of pre‐call planning are greater control of the sales process, more effective use of time, and more effective customer needs discovery.
- If sales executives could improve the effectiveness of their preparation, they could sell even more.
- Current sales call preparation is inconsistent at best among the rank-and-file.
- Sales professionals would prepare more pre-call sales plans if it took less time.
Links to the complete survey results are provided in the left-hand navigation bar and are available at no charge. Executives who participated in the survey represent firms in a wide variety of industries (biotechnology, health care, financial services, industrial distribution, manufacturing, publishing, software, sporting goods, and others) and represented small, mid, and large-sized corporations. Most of the sales organizations who participated have annual revenue of between $100 million and $3 billion (USD). All companies surveyed have a sales process that can be described as "consultative."
Download the complete survey results.